Ride until I'm Tired | 12 Days Behind Bars (Day 1 of 12)

Okay, so here's the setup for you. It's going to be 12 days behind bars. I'm going to take you with me. Hopefully show you as much behind the scenes stuff as I possibly can. It's going to be a little bit more raw, but we're about ready to hit the road. Today's going to be interesting because we're just going to go until we're tired. Let's go. I told you it's going to be raw. This is what I'm using for a tripod. All right, let's go. So now that we're going to go through some of the things that I'm thinking about, I mean, I kind of have a specific destination each day. I'm just pretty much going to go until I'm tired and then find a place to stay, and that's what's going to happen. On this trip, if you guys have been following along on the channel, you know that I've swapped out the ape hangers and I went with the t-bar setup, which gave you a lot more road feel. And I'm curious to see how it's going to be on a long distance trip. This will be the longest trip on these bars. I'm expecting total round trip around 6,000 miles, so I should have a pretty good idea. But right now, our first stop is going to be in Barstow. We're probably going to grab some lunch and then we'll continue pushing, you know, north northeast. So when I came up with my direction of travel and obviously coming up with Sioux Falls being the destination where I'm going to actually chase down the convoy, the Great American Convoy, I knew that there was one thing for sure. No offense to the Blacktops, Mr. and Mrs. Blacktop, I'm sorry, but I did not want to go through Nebraska. I'm going to avoid Nebraska at all costs. So with that being said, we're just, we went from the four lane down to the three lane, and I can't wait to get to those two lane highways. Once you get out of California, the ride just becomes amazing. So I will catch up with you guys in just a second. Okay, so made it to Barstow. I went 176.8 miles in one go, non-stop. I got to give all credit to the saddleman's seat. All the stuff that I use, all my equipment is down linked in the descriptions down below. But feeling really good. The one thing that I always try to do is knock out as many miles as I can on that first stint when your legs are fresh, your butt is fresh. But I'm going to try to grab some food while I'm here. I just topped off fuel, and then I'm going to get back on the road. Next stop will be either Baker, where the world's tallest thermometer's at, or I might bypass that and go straight to State Line. So let's grab some food real quick. Okay, so we are going to Milwaukee, which means I'm going to want some cheese curd. So while I'm out on the road, I'm trying to be cognizant of what I eat. So we're going to do a little subway right now, and then we're going to jam right back on the road. Okay, I had a cookie too. Don't judge me. So of course we're going to be going through Vegas in like the hottest part of the day. It's 95 degrees, and we're still heading into the desert going towards Vegas and State Line. So let's hurry up and jam on it. All right y'all, I just thought I would give you a little bit of an update. It is pretty warm. I am not going to lie. It makes me think I almost thought about getting a oil cooler system for the bike before we took off for this trip, but I didn't do it. I kind of have a little bit of regret because I know my bike's running pretty warm. But we're about an hour from State Line right now, maybe less depending on this traffic that we got going on. But it's not too bad besides it being extremely hot. I've just been jamming out to tunes, and one of the things that I like to do is edit in my head. So I kind of have an idea of what the footage is that I've got thus far. Of course I won't know exactly how it turns out until I dump it right before the edit and go through them all. But if it's all how I imagine it will be, then I can start developing that edit flow in my head and the tempo and things like that. But if you guys are new to the channel, I just want to give you an update what we're doing. We're actually traveling across country to join the Great American Convoy that is going into Milwaukee for the 120th. So the plan here is just going to be taking you with me for at least 12 days on the road, behind bars, just having fun, guiding you through my process. So hopefully you guys all enjoy it. You guys can let me know in the comments down below. This is obviously day one. We have no idea what the future holds, but I'm excited to push on. Seriously, my ass is on fire. That was a very hot ride. We're gonna let cool down and, okay, we're gonna put $20 into a machine. That's it. Let's see what happens. So I was trying to think inside how awesome it would be if I won some kind of progressive jackpot. How much cooler this story would be. I did not. So I don't know how much $20 gets them, but I paid for a light bulb for about three minutes. So all right, we're gonna fuel up right now. We're gonna continue on and push towards St. George. Chances are I'm just gonna wave at Las Vegas. I'm not gonna stop. So very few times in my life, this might actually be the first, I am not going to stop in Las Vegas. You guys have no idea how hard this is for me to just keep powering through Las Vegas. I mean, it's changed through the years, but yeah, this is just my happy place. Fun place to be, at least for a couple days, and then you just can't wait to get back home. All right, so, you know, as we're about three quarters of the way done with the day, I just wanted to kind of visit on the aspect of taking a motorcycle ride across the country. And you might be sitting on your couch right now or watching this on your phone and thinking that maybe you should do it. And the answer is absolutely, you should do it. I mean, we all got something going on in our lives, and this is probably the best way that I've found to decompress and to really sort through some of my own personal, you know, struggles, things that are happening in my life, whether it be everything from finance to fatherhood to, you know, being a husband. All of it, I get sorted out on the road. You know, you just kind of get lost in this, in the realm of being out here. And when it's only you, you know, you get a chance to take it at your own pace. You can go faster, you can go slower. You know, there's so many advantages of just being out here that I just highly encourage, you know, I mean, obviously you don't have to take a cross-country trip, but try to plan like a 400-mile trip where it's just you, you know, choose 400 miles. Like today, we're just going until we're tired. Wherever we end up is where we end up. And I just think that it's, you know, it's important. You know, I mentioned before it's good for your soul, but you get a chance to sort everything else out that you got going on in your life. And I promise you that if you were to take a long solo trip, whatever you're struggling with, by the time you get back, you're going to have that figured out and then some. So yeah, taking time away from your family, you know, that is probably, you know, if I had to put of it, but you come back. So take that for what it's worth. But just some things that I've been, it never gets, don't absolutely love it out here on the road. And I just, I don't know, I mean, look at, look at these mountain ranges right here. It's just unbelievable. I just want to touch base on that. So I figured I'd take a minute here to tell you about my setup. You know, I, I switched over to the Rick Rack system in the beginning of 2023. That's my travel system setup. Now, because of how much weight I have in the bag with, with my gear and my laptop, having that stress on top of a tour pack can cause problems. So I, the one good thing about the Rick Rack system is that you can actually just get a different bracket and, you know, it doesn't take too long. You just, you know, put on the other bracket, which then connects to the Harley-Davidson luggage rack. Now the one, I guess, downside to this is that you have to get the Harley-Davidson luggage rack. It doesn't work with any of the aftermarket brands because they're a little bit shorter. So just know that going in. As I mentioned, everything is down in the description down below. If you guys want to take a look at it or do some more research. And this trip is the Rick Rack system. I put everything that's inside of this one Rick Rack bag, which is pretty doggone impressive if you ask me. So that, that's holding up pretty good. Pretty impressed. All right. So let's see if we can go ahead and crush another a hundred miles and then we'll call it a night because I'm going to have some editing to do. Okay. So one of my absolute favorite parts of Taking the 15 is coming up right now. And I featured some of it in the Every Mile a Memory documentary. And this is basically going through the small section of Arizona into Utah from Nevada, if that makes sense. But this, we're heading right through the, these rocks right here, this canyon area of these mountains. And we're actually going to cut up through the mountains. And it's absolutely awesome. I'm stoked on the time of day right now. It's 7 p.m. And it should really be good lighting. Almost to the point where I should stop and take some photography. I don't know. We'll see what it looks like. But check this out. Holy smokes. Look at this. Tell me that's not a postcard. Let's go. Wow. Super awesome. So honestly, I think we're probably going to try to call it here at St. George. I'm going to try to look for a hotel room and start working on this edit. I think that, you know, that should be like a 500 some mile day. Not bad for day one. Tomorrow should be a longer day if we get up early. My favorite time to ride is right when the sun is about to crest and you're already on the road. It's just perfect. So. All right. So I think I found a hotel. Always try to look for one with free breakfast so that when I wake up in the morning, I just grab something to eat and go. I'm just booking it right now. It's like a mile away and it's got free Wi-Fi. Let's get over there. And we're here. I think. I will say this. That's a 500 mile day and that's probably the cleanest I've ever seen this front end on a 500 mile day. That's crazy. It's just hot and dry. OK, I'm in the hotel. I got to get some food in my system and I got to get back here and I got to start editing so you guys can see this. But I hope you guys enjoyed day one of 12 days behind bars. Go ahead and leave me a comment down below. Subscribe if you haven't already. And until next time, you guys, you ride safe, you be safe, and I'll catch you on the next one.