Home all safe and sound!

Well, Jenn and I left early to make it back to Atlanta in order to surprise our daughter Erin at summer camp. But the "monkey" on Jenn's back tire continued to challenge us. While loading up ther bikes after a quick continental breakfast at the hotel, we noticed that the rear tire we had replaced the tube in a couple of days ago on the trail, was nearly flat. We were fresh out of spare tubes, so we decided to air it back up when gassing up and see how far we could get. About 40 miles down the road it again went flat! We pulled off the interstate at the next exit and Jenn sat while I went around to the gas stations looking for some fix-a-flat.  I know, I know.... you aren't supposed to use them in tubed tires, but I have used it in the past in a pinch and although it usually won't fix the flat, it will generally slow down the air loss. You see, we were committed to getting back to Erin today, and momma won't be denied. I did find a couple of cans and brought them back to Jenn only to find that it won't reach the air valve due to the spokes..... DAMN! But then the Martin ingenuity took hold. I took the 2 45 degree valve extentions off our front tires and added them to Jenn's rear tire.... IT WORKED. We put a can of fix-a-flat into the tire and stashed the other for future needs and we were off again. We stopped every 50 miles or so and I said a prayer to my mom to keep Jenn safe! The first stop found the tire down about 15 lbs, but by the next stop it was holding, and we scooted back to Atlanta without a hitch!  We surprised Erin, and we were all so happy to see each other again. Jenn got a text message from Daniel at 4:30 that the Martin Bros. were all home safe and sound, so all is well. That is it for now, but I will post some thoughts in a couple of days as soon as we gather our thoughts. All in all, a great trip with some great folks, the bumps, bruises, and cracked ribs will become great stories for another day!

The Last day of the TAT

John and Jen split from the group and decided to take asphalt to a meet up point in Decatur AL. Today was uneventful for the married duo. But the Martin Bros had a very different experience.

The Martin Bros enjoyed the best day yet… wow what a day. Although it was hot, the roads were outstanding, the bikes ran well, and our spirits were up. We could immediately tell that the roads had retained a little moisture from the recent rains which kept the dust to a minimum... today was going to be the perfect riding day!

We road a levy road which was raised approx. 30 feet plus at times, we stopped at some wildlife management areas, we ran some very nice woods roads with over growth that created shaded tunnels, we crossed some closed bridges, and finally we hit the slab of back highways and on to Decatur, AL where we ended our TAT run.

Daniel, the expert hunter in the group, almost hit a wild turkey and a buzzard. Russ’ speedo cable disconnected and needed to be screwed back in, Jeff’s throttle cable fell off and needed to be put back on. We even saw an old “Martin Bros” sign which we were able to snap some pictures in front of…

Wow, what a trip, we even ended in Decatur, AL… finally, a place that’s not a dry county where we can finally have a beer at the local bar.

Well...........nobody fell down today!

Well after the last two days of some pretty tough riding, testing the limits of rider and machine, we spent the morning doing some much needed maintenance. I had broken both of my mirrors over the last 2 days, and went down to the local truck stop and bought some convex truckers stick on mirrors and a tube of silicon. I concocted a a couple of mirrors that will get me home. The entire Martin Gang, tore into their bikes right at the front door. Everyone lubed chains and cleaned/oiled our very dirty air filters. I also, reduced the preload on Jenn and my front forks. Jeff, spent the morning re-attaching and securing some of the parts that were abused during his Warloop ride. Although we started around 7 AM,  it was after 9 before we rolled our for the TAT. The riding wasn't nearly as technical as the prior 2 days, but we drove miles of 6 inch deep fresh gravel. It was really a lot like riding in deep sand, as the front wheel really had to plow a path, which required us to really plant the front wheel, and get used to the back wheel skittering around for miles at a time.  Although there were a number of close calls, nobody fell! We spent the morning driving a section of the Ozarks, and then settled into a some long, boring, extremely dusty roads. Again, I spent most of the day only  only being able to see about 10-15 yards around me, which didn't make for a very enjoyable ride, but then some excitement. Jenn's rear tire quickly went completely flat! We pulled off into someone's driveway and went to work. Daniel could see that I was struggling with what I believe to be cracked ribs from my first fall yesterday down that 2 foot rock drop, and he jumped in and swapped out Jenn's tube. It wasn't repairable as it had a 6 inch tear in it, but that is why we cary a spare. Man, Daniel can change a tube faster than anyone I have ever seen! I know that after we had the wheel off, he had the new tube installed in less than 5 minutes. We aired her tire up with a Slime Pump, and we were again off into the 95 degree heat! After a section of particularly deep gravel of about 2 miles, we stopped again to get a drink, and to see if everyone was as struggling, and we all were. We were saying we were starting to see mirages of pavement, and Russ said he was having visions of bikini clad women holding cold beer! We talked about how much more deep fresh gravel we would have to endure before we reached pavement again. Jeff said it would be cool to record us all bouncing around up to the next turn, so he stayed back and ran the camera. Guess what, the next turn was the hardtop. We had a good laugh, and saddled up and started down the road again. We had gone about 5 miles, and Jeff's bike suddenly lost power. We pulled off the road, and he went to cleaning his carb, thinking that he might have a clogged jet. He tried again, and the problem wasn't corrected. At this point, Daniel and Jenn decided to go ahead and get some rooms booked for the night, while Russ and I stayed back to make sure Jeff was OK. After another couple of attempts, we decided to limb over the 15 miles to the hotel at around 30 miles an hour with our blinkers running. Wouldn't you know it, a thunderstorm came up on the way, but we welcomed the rain, but not the lightening. However, we made it safely to the hotel even though we had to run a 9 mile streatch on the expressway on the shoulder. We slowly rolled into the parking lot, and after a thorough cleaning of the carb by Jeff and Russ, a chunk of junk was found in the main jet. So Daniel and Jenn ran to the next county to get some beer (ours was dry!), and Jenn ordering us a couple of pizzas, we called it a night. Another long, hot, humid, dusty day, but no new bruises or broken bikes to fix.......... but a challenging day none the less!

Ca’TAT’strophe strikes at Warloop !!! (a perspective from Jeff)

What a fantastic calamity of events that ensured today…

It was amazing, unreal, exhausting, and a blast all at once.

We started out with the knowledge that Warloop Rd. was going to be the most technical of our entire trip. We knew that in the past it had laid claim to broken parts from the best and worst of riders.

Call it crazy, call it suicidal, call it a love for the sport (dual sport, that is)… we rode atop our trusty steeds with the realization that in this sport, the worst of times will become the best of times. Our bikes were running great, our spirits were up, and we even joked about the sign that read “Impassible Road Ahead” as we trudged on with gritty sand in our teeth and care free smiles.

The simple truth was, that I, and the rest of the team, was ever so very excited to see what was in store for us at Warloop. The plan was to make this the shortest riding day of the entire trip, and to just do Warloop and some additional miles following a stop in a Fayettville tatoo parlor for a permanent ink reminder of the time spent “riding the world.”

Since we’re attacking the TAT eastward, our route took us down Warloop, which I would argue is a much easier path than westward, which was uphill. By traveling down the hill, gravity maintains the bike’s momentum and that’s one less thing that the rider has to be concerned with… traveling westward, the rider must maintain the bike’s momentum by maintaining high RPM’s and feathering the clutch. It’s just that much more difficult.

Warloop started easy enough, hard packed dirt, and few switchbacks, and some mud puddles… then it quickly gave us a run for our money. Jenn, although quite a trooper, was still partially fatigued from the prior day’s fall, and was relying heavily on her one good remaining knee…, she was having extreme difficulty standing because of the pain in her left knee and ankle.

The “unpassable” sections of Warloop consist of large, loose, rocks scattered throughout very slippery mud. There is even a section of an old concrete street that once existed, but is now a small “cliff like” section of broken concrete and about a two feet drop off.

When we entered, we thought that we had to go down, then come back up to maintain the route that we had originally scheduled. Although we’d be doing it twice, we didn’t want to miss this stretch of the TAT.

Jenn went down at the start of the rough stuff. A relatively mild get-off, but after a short jaunt through some mud, she was down again, a bit harder this time. This time, hurting her right knee and leg and was pretty much done with Warloop. Since there was much more additional rough stuff ahead, and we knew we had to come back up, she decided to just have a break and wait for us to return up the road.

So Jenn parked, Russ and Dan rode ahead, and then John and I rode on. Dan and Russ, successfully navigated the path to the bottom. John fell twice, and he and I were quickly getting exhausted lifting the bike and trudging on.

Eventually, John and I reached the bottom and met up with Russ and Dan. That’s when we realized that we didn’t have to go back up this section, Warloop was call Warloop for a reason, it looped back around to the main road. We could actually loop around back down the easier start to get to Jenn and head out.

John had no interest in going back up the road, so he and Dan both got ready to go out to the main road; however, Russ looked at me and asked if I was interested in going back up. Feeling quite fatigued from my trip down with John, my brain asked my mouth to say “NO,” but somehow, the remaining amount of testosterone in my body, wouldn’t allow me to say no, and out came a great big "OK, let’s go back up." My brain even thought for a second, “Hang on, that’s not the message that I sent to the mouth.” Testosterone had won out on this one.

So back up we went. I went first and tacked the mud, then on to the hard stuff. As I crested the first big turn and slope of rocks, I saw the most beautiful log I had ever seen, and I simply had to ride it. I gunned the throttle, popped a wheelie, washed out the front, and crashed hard sliding on the log,…

I’ve ridden bikes all my life, but for that instant, I rode that log. And what a trusty steed it was. True and firm to its position. What a ride it took me for…

Riding up a bit further, I crashed out again, on another cluster of rocks. After both crashes, I was grateful for help from Russ to pick up my trusty steed. Russ however, made it up without issue. What a fantastic credit to his riding skills.

Once we made it to Jenn, we helped her get going and met up with Dan coming down the road as planned; however, John wasn’t with him. Apparently exhausted, John went down again as he came back around with Dan. This time John just waited for the group to return.

Once the group was all back together, it was on to get the TAT’s at the local tattoo parlor, then on to the Pig Trail.

Fun, Fun, Fun…

TATtered and Torn!

Well today started off good enough. The morning was a little cooler than it had been, so we didn't start any serious  sweating until around 10 AM! We rode south to pick up the trail and where we had started in Pryor OK. Everyone said what a bummer it was to leave the prairie and go back up into the western edge of the Ozarks, but it was time to start heading back east. After gassing up in Pryor and grabbing a quick lunch at Sonics, we started our first long offroad day. We started off in gravel winding our way thru some cuts and swales thru the country side as the tree line gradually enclosed us completely on both sides. It kept it cooler and the ride was much more interesting with all of the twists and turns, but there was a longing for the openess and expanse of the country we had left in our rear view mirrors. The day wore on and we slowly started gaining altitude until we were in some pretty difficult switch back turns with baseball sized rocks and gravel. That is when the day took a dramatic turn. On a particularly difficult section just as we had made a hard climb up the side of a pretty good size hill, the road suddenly turned almost a 90 degree hard left turn with a lot of loose rocks, gravel, a severe washout on the left, and at least a 25 degree tilt toward it and off the side of the mountain. I was riding at the back of the pack and as I rounded the turn up on my pegs, I downshifted to 2nd gear just as I saw a bike wash out the rear wheel and drive straight into the ditch on the left before it fell hard to the ground trapping the rider's left leg under its weight. As I pulled in the clutch and hit the front brakes I realized it was my wife Jenn who was on the ground holding her leg and yelling.  Daniel and Russ were in front of her and missed the fall, but continued to the top of the ridge to wait for the group. Jeff, who was immediately behind Jenn swerved to the right and went a little above her before he could stop. I tried to find a place to put my kickstand down and after finding nothing that would work, I just dropped by bike on the side of the hill and ran to Jenn. By that time Jeff, realized he had no other options as well and simply let his bike fall and also ran to Jenn's side. By that time she had pulled her leg out from under the bike, but the blood was beginning to soak thru her riding pants. Jeff and I helped her over to the side of the road and surveyed her damage. It looked like her knees were cut up and she was complaining about her ankle hurting, but we decided to leave her riding boot on until we could get down off the mountain. Now understanding that she wasn't in any immediate danger, Jeff and I went back to get the three bikes upright to keep the gas from pouring over everything. My bike had rolled down the hill some and was almost completey upside down, but Jeff and I got it upright along with his and Jenn's. By this time, Daniel and Russ had walked the 1/4 mile down from the top of the ridge as Jeff had told them that Jenn was down. As Daniel attending to Jenn's wounds, Jeff and Russ steaded first my bike and then Jenn's bike, and I rode them to the top while the bros. helped Jenn up to the top. After taking a bunch of deep breaths and assessing our options, Jenn decided she wanted to go on. She was still bleeding and her ankle was quickly swelling, but she said she wanted to push on. We spent the rest of the day, climbing and descending more steep inclines and Jenn like a trooper pushed on. At our last major stop I again asked her if she wanted to get off the trail and find some hard road to get to the hotel and call it a day, but she said no let's keep moving. Finally at about 7:00 PM we again got back on the hard road and drove the 14 miles to the hotel. We enjoyed a quick dinner at the Cracker Barrel next door, and relived the days events in greater detail from everyone's perspective. It will make great video for our travel log, but as the say, any landing you can walk away from is a good one, but I am sure Jenn will pay the price tomorrow when we attack what is reported to be the most technical part of the eastern TAT, Warloop drive. But, she is a tough chick, and if I were a betting man, I would put my money on her slating it. Man I love that girl!!!

TATtered but not battered!

Well we finally said goodbye to Rocklahoma and made our way to the place we would hook up with the TAT. Another hot morning, but not so bad if we kept moving. The morning started off in the treed area on the fringes of the Ozarks, but but midday we had made our way to the grasslands of the prairie. Wide open and beautiful and such a change from what we see back east. However the roads were extremely DUSTY. Not too bad if you are riding at the front of the pack, but I elected to run near the back with Jeff. Most of the time, we were in a clod of dust that prevented you from seeing the ground or anything greater than about 20 yards in front of you.  After trying several different gaps, I sat back about 150 yards, but as there was little wind, it didn't make much difference. I settled into a line behind Jenn and trusted that she would pick a path that would keep me upright. At one stop Jenn was laughing so hard she couldn't speak. Seems unknown to us in the "Fog", Russ had gone over a bump in the Dust Bank" and met a big hole on the other side. According to  Jenn Russ went airborne and left the seat but kept on keeping on, although he seemed a little tentative for a while. I on the other hand was not so lucky, after the 3rd of 5 water crossings, I was running a little hot when I hit the mud, and my Green Girl decided we both needed a mudbath!. Nothing hurt except my ego, but like the guy at the BMW offroad school told me, "If you don't fall down every now and again, you ain't trying hard enough". Russ came back and helped me get the bike upright and we pressed on. Aside from the fall down, we got to see some pretty cool stuff today. Horses in a pature next to Russ and Jenn decided they were challenging them and raced them to a draw for about 1/4 mile before the ran into a fence stopping their run. The trail often runs right thru 100's of acres of pasture and you find yourself shooing cows off the road. On topping a small hill we saw a couple of content buzzards sitting on top a recently deceased cow having a late afternoon lunch. Also local turtles seemed to be in some kind of migration as we passed dozens of them making their way somewhere. Then there was THE SNAKE. I didn't see it mind you, but according to Daniel it was huge and we were lucky to get past it without one of us being swallowed whole, bike and all!  Anyway, this is the kind of day that makes you want to climb back on these KLR's and find a trail, beautiful scenery, plenty of challenges to test your riding skills, and good friends to help pick you up when you fall down. I can't wait for the next chance to do it again.

Rocked Out! I'm getting too old for this sh!t!

WOW, two days of music, two days of camping in the 90's and two nights of  NO SLEEP. I guess this festival is everything a rock weekend should be. Big crowds, kick a$$ bands, and plenty of quality people watching.  Jeff and Russ left early for Arkansas to get their tires replaced, so Jenn, Daniel, and I went in search of some local artwork around Pryor. We didn't find anything that suited us, so we went back for the afternoon bands and sweat out last night's Captain Morgan. Our dear friend from Atlanta, Jerry and his son Brett showed up on their return trip on the TAT (see related links), and spent the night rockin to some great old "Z" music with us. Check out Jenn flashing our Martin Gang Sign during the ZZ Top Concert. It was a great touch for our last night, and seeing his Ural up close was a real treat.. There was also two great "warm up bands", Fuel and Cinderella. The Martin Bros. got back just in time for Cinderella, which was one of the bands that Jeff really wanted to see, so everything worked out just right, except for the ungodly heat! Man it was freakin hot, but as the sun went down, things cooled off to a perfect temperature for a night concert.  The guys took some great video and pictures that will be in the trip video, but here are some shots to give you a flavor. After the last song we said goodbye to Jerry who was heading back in the morning and settled into for a good night's sleep....... or so we thought. Turns out the toy hauler RV on the corner near us had set up a "Stripper Pole" in their RV and there were plenty of local talent willing to take a shot at the stagelights. I don't have any visual evidence of this fact, but the sreaming and cat-calling that lasted until well past 4 AM, told me it was so. In fact this morning the guy in the camper next to us said he took dozens of pictures that validated my assumption. Although it could have been the constant cheers of T!Ts, T!Ts, T!TS, that was the real give away. Anyway we all agreed it was a great time and we were glad we did it, but we probably will never come back. I am just too old for this sh!t!