TATtered old men

I've been told "The TAT ride report MUST be written" I, the illiterate one, was elected by default. Since I am the youngest of the old TATtered men, I succumbed to the mounting pressure although my memory has aged beyond the youthful status that appointed me. In light of this fact ALL riders MUST interject and keep my facts straight!!!! I met Burt last March on a ride in Baja - Click if interested- http://www.twtex.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26600&referrerid=3049
He mentioned in passing about doing the TAT in July - I just said "call me" Now I'm thinking -- the desert in Aug.? Is he crazy?? Well the call came and I Guess, well, we all must be a little crazy to even be on this board!
Anyway, The players are ----

Burt


General Lee


Chuck


Rick - rode the Oregon section



Burt rode all the way from Washington state on a DR650 to start the ride at the General's house on the border of AR. and OK. on July 22nd AM. I met up with them at Keith's shop in Tulsa OK. on the 22nd PM
Keith was great!! Put us up for the night and handled any needs we may have had -- Well bike needs anyway --- Can't find a picture Keith, must have been to freaked out to take one -- A big THANK YOU for everything you have done for us and others. Your hospitality is rare and appreciated!!!

Left that morning on the flat open spaces of OK.
Had a pretty good clip going, then it turned into two track with deep dry sand in the ruts. I kept the speed up to stay on top and eyes peeled to the slot or rut because it was narrow. Knowing that the consequences of a mistake would be immediate, I neglected to look in my rear view mirror very often. When I did - NOBODY was back there!! :eek1 I hate turning around in rutted sand, but managed to stay upright. A little farther back I saw Burt picking up his bike and checking everything.:eek1 Windshield was broken and the engine wasn't running very good but he wanted to go find the General. On the way back, we crossed paths with a guy in a truck, said he helped pick up a bike a little way back. Came up on General Lee - Guess the truck guy made him rethink going forward, so we back tracked and went around. No big deal - it was OK. Pun intended.
Really, there were no pictures so it must not have happened.

Shade was hard to come by


I waited under a cattle loader - only shade for miles. Did I mention, It was 104 in the shade and about 85% humidity


Burt didn't need no stinkin shade


Lunch at a patriotic restaurant


Spent the night at a no name motel where Burt fixed his windshield, a vacuum leak in the intake manifold, loosened the triple trees to straighten the bar and broke his PVC tool carrier in the process. After a few beers we hit the sack.

More later - your turn to add some Burt and Lee
Later, Chuck
It is now to late to turn back - the thread has been started!!

Yeah. that sand was no fun.
I have a feeling you cowboys had a hell of a ride.
Can't wait to hear about it

Good to see the old guys out and about. Good start.

I'm one also and was scheduled to start the trail yesterday,until Ike showed up. Rescheduled next Thursday,maybe it will dry up by then.

Eagerly awaiting the outcome of this one.

I guess I'll have to chime in soon! Can't let Chuck get all the story told from his point of view-- plus my memory is better than his-- but Burt is the walking data book!!

Backing up a little - Day 1 was from Tulsa, OK. to Medford, OK. - 222 miles - and I don't remember it. Don't even remember where we slept! Couldn't have been too exciting!
Day Two Medford to Guymon, OK. - 285 miles - I remember HOT and my buddies crashing in the sand!

------------------- Day Three--------------
Hit the road again - on the long, lonely, wide open roads of OK.




Still finding shade when you can


And making do when you can't


Made it to NM


At this point, The general was hanging back about a mile pretending he was Big Dog or Gasspipe. I was following Burt when he stopped in some shade to wait and regroup. No General Lee???? :eek1 Turned around to find him and we realized we missed a turn. Back on track, we figured (read hope here) he was in front of us now. Rode up to a fork in the road, with a little debate, followed a sign that said bikers with an arrow, instead of the GPS. Wish I had a pic of the sign. And yes, the GPS had screwed us before and will again!
What's up ahead -- a nice hill climb in the middle of all this flat land!! We're lovin' this and then it's over. Just a little teaser I guess. Look who was on top - The general, not lost at all.

Burt on top


New Mexico didn't last long so we must be in the flat lands of Colorado



Now that's a coustom fit - Look at all the stuff that is on that bike - May I have a cappuccino please?




Opened a gate to take a break in the shade and watch Burt eat a can of sardines and crackers - man that looked good, may have to buy some later. Another thing I learned from Burt during that break was that a Granny Smith apple will survive a fall from a 747 at 33,000 feet and still be edible one week later.


Made it to Walsenburg Co. and Burt pulled into a RV camp ground under ominous skies. Parked near a covered picnic table, peeked in the door to check out the shower facility's and decided to walk across the street to a pizza hut. Some teen extreme church group had the place jumpin' and the General was about to enforce martial law. Finished eating, told the General to put his riot gear away and walked back to the bikes in a thunder storm. At least it waited until we were through riding. Burt claimed the picnic table and General Lee was scouting out a wind break to pitch a tent by. I looked around and told them to just pick me up at the motel on the way out.
I've been accused of being an airborne ranger candy ass, but hey, when comforts are within walking distance, why not!! Lee's eyes lit up and told Burt to pick us both up. I just smiled - The General is a candy ass too!
Lee and I cranked up the bikes, (well he cranked and I kicked) put them in gear and headed for a motel when this toothless redneck came running over yelling "What the f*** do you think this is, a rest area?" Tried to talk to him but he was buzzed and not listening so I just let out the clutch and blew him off. The General on the other hand would not let it go so easy. After awhile he realized the guy was brain dead and finally released the friggen clutch. Later, called Burt from the comfort of our room and warned him about toothless.

Burt setting up under the Hilton






Next morning - Day 4, Burt picked us up and IIRC he also had a continental breakfast

The obligatory shot of the old church








That afternoon we rolled in to Salida Co. and looked up Hayduke and Bonnie Appzug


Changed the 15 tooth counter sprocket for the 14 - now running 14/47


Went out to eat and had a good time with our hosts - Great people and a nice town. Would like to go back and frustrate Duke - trying to teaching me how to fly fish. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

Hurricane Ike is coming, Later- Chuck

Keep the pics coming

Good start guys. Will be waiting for the rest.

Looks like you guys had fun, Chuck I hope everything worked OK with IKE.

Looks like 150 years of motorcycling excellence!!

Looks like CeeBee(AKA "Two Buck Chuck") has been "Iked" and doesn't have power in Texas.
Guess I'll try to fill in a little info on the trip
Burt Gunn rode his DR650 from Rockford, WA to Rogers,AR-- following two lane roads and camping along the way.
We did our last minute , getting ready chores and departed for Cass,AR to pick up the TAT. After 50 long miles of slab, we turned off at White Rock Mountain Road and started the adventure heading for Oregon (we thought-- plans did change).
White Mountain Road is a climb of about 1500 feet in a mile or so-- the "loose marbles" that require attention until we got comfortable with the "dancing front end".
Me being a noob on uploading pics, bear with me for a while until my "guru" resurfaces.

Notice the new 606-- it would prove to be the tire of choice-- had a 908 on the front. Both worked super, did not wear out in 4500 miles from departure to return home.
The picture of Burt at the top of White Mountain is the location of almost all TAT riders "must have".
We were on a mission to ride as much as the TAT as we could before busting off route to Keith's in Tulsa to meet Chuck- our other inmate.
He was waiting on us when we arrived at Keith's shop. Of course he had his wife carry his bike from Texas to Tulsas-- said his XR650 killed his butt on pavement!! Great get together with Keith-- he is the MAN on supporting ADV riders doing the TAT.
Should mention it was about 100 degrees with 60%+ humidity-- real nice riding with all the gear!!
More coming!!

End of day #1= 250 miles
The Arkansas portion of the TAT from the western portions till about Bartlesville,OK are very much Ozark Mountains and rolling hills, just enough water crossing to keep you interested.
We stayed with Keith and headed out on the slab to Bartlesville after breakfast. Again-- hot & humid!! The camelback was emptied at least twice daily. Highly recommend carrying water-- lots of it. This was my first time using a Camelback-- I had one for months before trying it- now it will be used every trip in the future.
Rode through the normal Oklahoma farm country, mostly flat, the trees became more scarce each mile and shade more a luxury.
We stopped in beautiful Medford, OK-- motel for air conditioning to cool our tired bodies. I like "make snow" temperature after a hot day in the sun.

Day #2=222 miles
Departed downtown Medford and crossed more of Oklahoma-- more farmland, more heat, more sun-- less shade!! We hit some sandy portions of road, not too deep until about 8 miles west of Tyrone. The road narrowed and then narrowed some more-- now with two tracks in deep "doo-doo" sand, no shoulder, just deep track-- after about 1 mile of this wonderful stuff-- as Gaspipe says: a gravity storm occurred.
A get off at about 10-15MPH, no damage-- but my KLR was loaded "heavy- way too heavy". Luckily a rancher on his way home drives up-- asked "What the hell are you doing on this road?" I asked him the same question-- he says: "I'm taking a short cut home". He helps me pick up the bike and says the roads gets "Lots worse- for the next 1-2 miles".
I wait about 2 minutes and Burt & Chuck backtrack to see what fun I'm having. We decide to backtrack around this section. Burt had broken his windshield doing a sand get off just up the road from me. Big bad Chuck on his XR650-- lighter than both Burt & I had no problems.
We stop in Guymon, OK at another motel with a "freeze your ass off" air conditioner.
Day 3= 285 miles

Hit the road again knowing we were getting out of Oklahoma and climbing to higher altitudes and lower temps/humidity. Of course had the last couple of miles in the sand before New Mexico.
This day Burt & Chuck are ridding hard, miss the turn off to Long Canyon Road. I'm bringing up the rear- get caught behind State Road Repair dudes who hold me up for 15 minutes, then want to talk TAT stuff.
Me having the best GPSS track file & way point info- make the right turn to Long Canyon Road, about 5 miles later hit the sign at a rancher's drive way
that has a arrow pointing up a steep narrow road-- says:"Bikes". This was the first challenging hill climb of the trip. Went up and switchbacked a couple of times-- probably 2 miles of rocks and pay attention ruts!
I stopped and noticed no bike tracks ahead of me. I waited for Burt & Chuck to make their way up. Shortly, we entered Colorado.
Also the temp dropped, it was a jacket day- dodging small showers.
Made it to Walsenburg,CO.
Chuck gave a report on "Red Neck" man getting a little pissed about us not deciding to stay in his run down, dirty, dying RV park. Especially after a thunder storm left no dry places out of the mud to pitch a tent. Chuck and I got another motel-- didn't need the "snow machine" that night.

Day 4= 275 miles

More pics.

Again--