Swift - Starting the New Year training with Swift 1/7/13 - A long read...

I think I might just have to make El Paso my home terminal just so I can spend more time there. Maybe get an office position.

 

I have been keeping my eye out for a Honda XR600 or XR600L. I love both. I would prefer a street legalized XR 600 as it is a little more off road worthy. Not that the XL isn't but the XR wasn't originally designed as street legal so it therefore had more off-road geared suspension and other bits. I've seen street legal kits put on the XR600. I like that I can get a 6.0 gallon upgraded desert tank for the XR also.

Yeah, the KLR Im not sure of.

If I could find something with a kickstart as a backup that would be perfect. I know kickstarting a 600cc bike would be tough but to know that it is there should my starter fail somewhere out in the desert would be reassuring.

Another option I have considered is a Yamaha XT. Up until a couple of years ago I had a '93 Yamaha XT600. I loved that thing and it got me into trouble a few times. IT didn't take much more than a dare from friends for the stupid to come out in me on that thing.

Hey, see those steps in front of the University of Washington (Tacoma)? I bet you couldn't ride down them without getting caught.

And so it went. I got pulled over more times on that bike then my sportbike because it was just too much fun. Most of the time the cops were understanding as I was pretty upfront about everything. The saying is that you have more fun going fast on a slow bike then slow on a fast bike. Nothing could be more true. I had to sell that bike when times got tight and I miss it all the time.

Baja 500 or 1000 would be a dream. For starters I would love to run the Odessa 100/Desert 100 out here in Washington. It's pretty crazy. If you do a search and see how the race starts it's complete madness. I would like to just do it for the experience, even if I finished last. Link...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukG4NFmb5Vg

I will keep an eye out for your Abilene 1408. Be safe!

 

I like the KLR. The only issue is that it is water cooled, which is what I'm trying to avoid. I'm trying to eliminate any of those things which may break on a ride. I"m trying to keep with the air cooled bikes.

Ideally it would be awesome to find a bike that has both an electric start and a kick start. I can see something going wrong with the starter out in some soft sand in the middle of nowhere and not being able to push start it. A kickstart would come in handy then.

I was looking at a '98 Suzuki DR350 at a bike shop over my hometime. It was priced a little bit high at about $2800 but it was at a dealership so it was expected to be priced higher. But I think the engine size might be a little too small for me and what I want. I really need at least a 600cc.

Yes, XTs are awesome bikes. That was my last dualsport, a '93 XT600. I loved that crazy thing and I used to have Dunlop 606's on it which are basically a street-legal knobby. It rode a little sketchy on the pavement with the aggressive knobby treads but offroad it was excellent.

You should pick up another KLR. Fun bike and great commuter. LIke you said, indestructible too.

I saw a nice '96 BMW 1150GS, I think it was. It was all farkled out with heated grips, hardbags, engine and hand protection, etc. Guy wanted something like $5000 or $6000 for it but since the engine is one of those opposed twins whereby the cylinders, in typical BMW motorcycle fashion, stick way out the sides.
Gets me a little nervous going down and hitting the cylinder that way. Also, that size bike would be heavy and parts would be tougher to locate and more expensive down in the no man's lands south of the U.S.

I'm going to keep my eye out for that right bike. Hope I find something soon

 

Just got back from my hometime.

I did a total of something like 3.2 miles today.

I got back to the terminal this afternoon. Got a t-call pick up that was dropping/t-calling out at the Spokane drop yard. It was heavy, almost 45,000 and my fuel was at 7/8. I was a little worried about scaling it.

I didn't realize that there is a CAT scale so close to the Sumner terminal. It's 1.6 miles away right before you hit Hwy 167 at that mom and pop truckstop with the monstrous potholes. Previous driver left his lock on the trailer. Getting that taken off = 1.25 hours. Getting my stuff back in truck/administrative related to preplan = 1.0 hour. Scaling load/moving tandems = 1.25 hours. Calling Phoenix about grafitti on trailer I"m picking up = 1 hour. Back to terminal to t-call load again because it wouldn't scale legally = .75 hour

That was my day and now I'm here doing some laundry and playing on the wifi back at the terminal. No preplan or anything set up again.

I looked up the axle weights by state in my Rand McNally and I couldn't find anything that would support me running that load that wouldn't scale out. The planner in Troutdale was saying I should be ok to run it but I had my reservations and didn't want to risk it. Hope I did the right thing.

My tandems were all the way forward. These were my weights:

Steers = 12,400
Drives = 34,220
Trailer = 32,400

Gross = 79,020

Trailer was already sealed when I picked it up at the terminal. I don't know where it came from.

Again, fuel was at 7/8 - just about full
The planner in Troutdale was saying that I should be able to burn off enough fuel before hitting the scales. According to my map the first scale I'll hit will be somewhere near the junction of Hwy 18 and I-90. That's not that far away. I didn't think I would burn off enough fuel before then and it seemed too risky.

Where my 5th wheel was set I could move it back and away from the steers to make them lighter but then that would just put more weight back on my drives (which were already overweight). Correct?

Couldn't move the tandems any more forward.


Am I missing something? Let me know what you think because if I encounter the same situation again I can act appropriately. As it was, and according to what I've always been told, I can have 12,000 steers, 34,000 drives and 34,000 tandems.

What do you guys think?

 

I agree about the fuel Scottied. I try to remember to keep it just above or below 1/2 tank. Not sure how I ended up with so much fuel but it was before my hometime. I was probably at a Pilot or Flying J and wanted the points as I "collect" points there mostly, plus I was probably thinking that since it was almost hometime that I would fill it up and ignore the "shower rule" since my showers would be expired by the time I got off hometime anyway.

Usually when I'm out on the road I try to fuel up between 50-75 gallons so I can keep accumulating showers. Not sure what I did wrong there but it came back to bite me. I would be sitting somewhere in Spokane right now if I hadn't screwed the pooch on overfilling my tanks.

I've heard a few different things about the axle weights.

I heard one guy tell me to check inside the door at the permitted weights per axle as it pertains to my truck.

Someone else told me to go by amount specified by the tire manufacturer (if I remember this right).

I guess either way I usually try to keep it below the 12/34/34 scheme. Oddly it seemed that there were about 3 more holes left in the trailer to move forward but no matter what I did to move the pins forward more, they wouldn't go. The pins were fully depressed, I slid the tandems all the way back and then rammed them all the way forward and still it wouldn't go any further forward.

 

I got a decent run the other day. Actually it was an excellent route, the type that makes this job more than worthwhile...

The Route:
I had a load going from El Paso up to Lebanon, OR. Great miles. I reviewed the route and it had me taking 2 fuel stops along the way. The first in Albuquerque and the second in Winnemucca, NV. Looking at my map I saw that the route was somewhat different. It wasn't a straight shot west on the interstate and then a straight shot north on I-5 up to Oregon. It was cutting across and through New Mexico, Arizona (to a very small degree), Utah, Nevada then northwest across Oregon. I was pretty excited since I wouldn't be plugging along on boring interstate the whole way. Actually the interstate driving was probably less than 20% of the route.

New Mexico through Monticello, Utah:
I weaved my way up through the crowded Albuquerque corridor and slightly west on I-40 before I started to take Hwy 491 just before the Arizona state border. I went north. I crossed over into Colorado, just for a little while, passing through Cortez before continuing west on 491 across the border into Utah. At this time it was dark and my time was starting to tick down. I started to look for somewhere to park but remembered a nice rest area south of Moab. I figured I would try to make it up there. I passed by Monticello, Utah at the intersection of 491 and Hwy 191. The only truck stop in the area, at that intersection, looked small and it was packed with trucks. Good excuse to continue going north. As I drove I began to think that most likely that rest area south of Moab would be filled up at this time as it was late. Plus, according to my trucker app, there were only 10 parking spots. I continued north in the dark, mentally noting various pull-outs alongside 191 should I not find a place to park as I continued north. Worse case scenario, I would double back a few miles and park at one of these pull-outs I was passing. I noted my mileage.


Miller's Arch - night:
I came upon a sign for a "scenic area" that lied one half mile ahead. I was curious. As I came upon it it had a nice area off to the right and east of the road to pull out onto. It looked safe and far enough off the road to not cause a problem.

Extremely dark with not even a sliver of moonlight to help light things up a bit, I pulled in off to the right close to the dirt that shouldered the pavement. I was alone.

I was pretty excited to find a safe, legitimate place to park and I was alone! This was rare. I had food already that I could cook. I didn't need the bathroom. I was showered. Everything was perfect.

I jumped out of the truck for a preliminary scouting with my flashlight. Why was this a scenic area? I could barely make out that I was next to some mountain of some type, a hill that inclined fairly steep off to my east and to my right.

The first thing my flashlight illuminated was an older wood sign stating what the "scenic area" was about. It was titled "Miller's Arch". Interesting. I sort of perused what it said, not paying attention to much detail as I was kind of excited to actually see what this was all about. I read something about erosion, winds and water, something something something Arch. That's what I got out of it at the time.

I shone my flashlight, from the bottom of the hill going up, inspecting the area as I could see what this hill was about, piece by illuminated piece. As my flashlight reached the top I saw Miller's Arch. I shut off my flashlight as I didn't need it as I found it. Framed within a semi circled hole, flat on the bottom with a rough arch stretching over I saw stars framed within the arch, broken by the rock that had formed over the hole and then stars again over it.

With my flashlight off my eyes started to adjust to what I was seeing before me and all around me. Everywhere. Stars covering every square inch of sky like I have never seen. I remember that night over a year ago, traveling down I-90 with my first mentor when I saw that star filled sky outside my windshield up in Minnesota and I had to stop. I had never forgotten that but what I had before me this night in Utah had that beat. That night over a year ago in Minnesota was pretty incredible but this was unreal. I've never seen anything like this.

I was about 20-25 miles south of Moab, south of that rest area and south of "Hole in the Rock". I didn't want to take too much in at once as I wanted to do this right. I ran back to the truck, grabbed my better camera, my tripod and my sleeping bag. With my headlight flashlight affixed I started up the hill towards the arch. Stopping along the way at intervals, I looked back down at my truck as I gained elevation. I looked at the road down below, the hill across the street and then I looked south to the sky. With all the other stars distracting it was almost a little harder to find the only celestial events that I can identify - the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper. I found them with the Little Dip to my west and lower in the sky. The Big Dip was off to my right and higher to the north. Just above the Little Dipper to the west I could make out the Milky Way which traveled across the sky in a broad, cloudy mist of stars. It was amazing! I came to find out after this night that the Milky Way is visible in areas such as this, with very low light pollution and it is best viewed in the months of February through April. So I was catching it at an ideal time.

I continued to work my way up. I found an area of rock about 100' or so from the arch and set up my tripod and camera for some long shutter pictures. Since I don't have a remote trigger with me I set the camera up on it's self-timer, 10 seconds to get itself perfectly still for when the shutter would open and remain open. I set the shutter to stay open for 30 long seconds followed by 30 more seconds of processing. When I heard the shutter click open I flashed my flashlight on the rock arch and the surrounding shrubs and scrub brush to give them some illumination. The stars were so perfectly framed in this arch that I had to capture it should my memory get cloudy as the Milky Way years down the road.

I rolled out my sleeping bag on the rock, pushing some of the sand away with my boots. I pulled off my boots, almost bare feet to the air and lied down on the sleeping bag pulling it over part of me. The hardness of the rock felt good on my back and as I watched space rocks crash through our atmosphere in bursting, sudden light trailing through the sky so fast then suddenly disappearing almost as fast as they appeared. As I dozed off I felt insignificant and happy. My load and plans for Oregon now irrelevant and inconsequential as life became reduced down to those things that meet the bare requirements of existing. I waxed philosophical and unaware I fell into the most peaceful sleep in the most magnificent and exquisite setting.

I woke up to the squeaky brakes of another truck pulling in behind my truck. I cursed to myself. I was pissed off. I had absolutely no right to be but I was. This was my spot. Finally I was alone, perfect setting on a perfectly star filled night and I wanted this for myself. I was selfish and it was burning me up like a child. I rolled over, now a little more uncomfortable then when I had lied down and I stood up. In the darkness up above, where this mystery driver unaware of my anger and the offense I took to his presence sat in his truck. I paced, alternately staring down at this offender and running an imaginary dialogue in my head of the conversation we would have. "Get the #### out", I would say. "Go. Let me have this place to myself just tonight. There are so many places you can go park, so many pull-outs. Find somewhere else." Then the reasonable and rationale side of me fought back this selfish side leading the dialogue. I knew I had no right to ask anyone to leave. I didn't own this property. I didn't own the experience. Not only did he have a "right" to be there but if I was him I would probably have pulled up here myself, regardless of another truck's presence. I was wrong and I knew it but I still felt the tinge of selfishness and self-righteousness coming out of me because I wanted this place alone. Just for this night. But it wasn't going to happen. I threw my camera over my shoulder, folded up my tripod and rolled up my sleeping bag tucking it under my arm. I slowly headed back down the hill feeling a little bit defeated but happy knowing that I had this place to myself at least for a little while. I couldn't complain about that.

Miller's Arch - Daytime:
I woke up in the truck to bright daylight. It was past dawn. I had originally planned to get up at sunrise and see if I could get some cool pics of the sun rising from the east through the arch. Some time around sunrise I peeked out of my curtains, saw that it was overcast and I went back to bed feeling lazy. I woke up later with the sun out fully. I got ready, grabbed my camera again and went outside to see this structure that had been somewhat concealed by the dark the night before. It was amazing. Like a goofy fat kid I worked my way back up the hill, now able to see what was in front of me and where I was going. I passed a couple coming back down and we greeted each other. I thought of a Centrum Silver commercial I had seen and continued on my way. This time I made it all the way up to the arch and under it. I hadn't realized the night before that you could actually go all the way up to the arch and stand under it. I spent time up there trying to make the best of pictures in the worst outdoor lighting conditions - high noon. A mother and her four smaller children laughed and played under the arch as I took pictures, the youngest boy doing his 'Rocky Balboa on top of the steps' impression. I laughed and took pictures alternating between a point and shoot, a GoPro and my better camera. A hippy looking chick whom I found pretty attractive, saw me taking pics, and laughing she did cartwheels under the arch framed perfectly. I made a motion for her to do it again so I could shoot her again. She obliged. Then I saw her boyfriend nearby. I stopped taking pictures and she stopped cartwheeling. I wasted so much time up there but I didn't want to leave. I was already behind schedule but I realized it might be a while before I make my way back through here. I stayed a little longer and reluctantly went back down the hill to my truck.