Tour de Clarence 2005 ... Part I ...

Here's the follow up as promised.

The full roadtrip report straight from Bonedaddy and Trainwreck. Sounds like Clarence was deeply touched by this gift from his friends here and abroad. This is a truely great thing...

Well, Trainwreck came over to my place Friday afternoon after I got home from work and we loaded Clarence's and the Bonebike into the back of his 4 cylinder Ford Ranger pickup truck. This is the same truck we used to get the bikes within striking distance of the Rocky Mountains this summer, so it has seen it's share of mileage and states this summer and fall.

We departed the St. Louis area at about 3:20pm central. We made it to Clare more, Oklahoma by about 8:50pm and got off the turnpike long enough to meet up with Chuck Miles, who got to sign the tank of Clarence's bike himself. It was good meeting you Chuck, and I'm glad that car didn't cream you when you stopped suddenly to make the turn to the parking area where we were waiting.

We got back on the road and by 1:40am we had made it to Elk City, Oklahoma and we stopped at the Bedford Inn to get some sleep before forging onward. We left Elk City at about 9:15am the next morning. We tried to get hold of Brian as we neared Amarillo, TX. He was the one who originally penned the Clarence saga and it was his story about the grizzled Korean War veteran that got this whole thing started, so it would have been great to get his actual signature on the bike. Alas, it was not to be. I couldn't get hold of Brian though I tried about 5 or 6 times. Sorry we missed you Brian. I hope everything is well with you.
Trainwreck wanted to stop and see the "Cadillac Ranch", just West of Amarillo, so we walked out into this desolate, windswept field to see the world famous Cadillacs planted in the ground. We added our signatures to those of travelers from all over the world. Trainwreck signed his "Tour De Clarence - 2005".

We offloaded the Bonebike at this point so that I could do some riding. One thing I can say about Northern Texas and Eastern New Mexico, it shor gits windy, ya'll! I was fighting some nasty crosswinds on the bike and when an 18 wheeler would pass, the air turbulence was nothing short of astonishing! Trainwreck pulled alongside and got some cool "underway" photos of me on the Bonebike................(pics in the next installment) This concludes Part I of the Tour de Clarence post...

More to follow....

-Scott