Day 12 - Home

Last night Reagan received an email on her "crackberry" saying her presence on a conference call at 9am was requested. So we set the alarm again for 5am. The plan was different though, this time we'd take advantage of the free continental breakfast and a little coffee. Then get on the road by 6:30 and that's what we did.

So we headed south from Waco on 77. In Cameron we met up with Hwy 36 and continued south. This early in the morning traffic was light and drivers were friendly and courteous. We stopped on the outside of Cameron for fuel and then quickly got back on the road. The goal was get to Newmans Bakery in Belleville so we could have coffee while Reagan took her conference call.

We only saw 1 state trooper and no deer so speeds were, ummmmm, elevated. We arrived in Belleville at 8:35 with time to spare. The sky had been getting darker as a result of the hurricane down south so when we parked we went ahead and secured the bike in preparation for rain. Then got our coffee and sat out on the front porch of Newmans and watched the world go by.

Around 10 o'clock Reagan completed her call and said it was time to go. I had passed the time working on trip log data, making notes about today to this point and searching Ebay for some H3 LEB bulbs. Found them! All of this with the help of my trusty Sprint wireless card.

So we got back on the bike and headed south on 36 to Sealy. The sky started to spit on us on the way out of town, so when we got to Sealy we opted to jump on I-10 and cut over to 99. The sky kept getting darker but we made it home without any rain and even had time to stop by my favorite Exxon to fuel up and get a final receipt.

Now that the bike is unloaded, we've taken our showers and are generally getting into the swing of being home. It's sunny outside, you'd never guess there was a hurricane in the Gulf. From a rain stand point we got lucky on this trip, there were only 2 times that we road in sprinkles and it was never even enough to get things damp.

So how about some statistics.

• 3,448 miles travelled in 12 days
• spent $380.99 on gas at an average cost of $4.227 per gallon and averaged 38.24 miles per gallon
• Best mileage was 52.01mpg when going through the Rockies
• Worst mileage was 33.13 mpg coming home on Monday, luckily it was only for 176 miles.
• factoring maintenance expenses our cost per mile was $0.145 per mile or $0.11 without maintenance.

I've posted our cookie crumb trail to the web for review and posterity, be patient as it takes a little time to download. Unfortunately it munged all the days together but it it does show everywhere we went.

Equipment used on the trip:

• Not much new on this trip but I did pick up a $15 wine bottle cooler from World Market that makes a great insulator for my Camelback bladder sitting in the tank pannier.
  
  
• Bought a bike cover while at the Rally. This helps to keeps out of sight and dry.
  
  
• Also bought a new tire repair kit. This one uses some rubber mushrooms and seemed to offer a better seal so we'll try it. I may just keep both kits on the bike for double the "insurance".
  
  
• Oh!!!! I almost forgot about the LD Comfort underwear I bought. At first you might just dismiss them as an over priced pair of Under Armour shorts. But they aren't, they are to UA as UA is to plain old tighty whities. I mean these things are great. Well worth the $50 a pair. I'm definitely going to get a few more pairs before my trip in October.
  
  
• We got lucky with the bike tip over. We have signed up for MedJet. Had Reagan or myself really gotten hurt or if the bike had been damaged we could have been stuck. And they cover "situations" in Alaska so just in case....
  

Our hotel costs were higher than they could have been. We weren't going to stay in "Fred" motels but it took a little to break Reagan of her affinity for Mariotts. By the end of the trip we were staying in Super 8 motels. For the money they offer a pretty good deal. You don't need to use any special discount codes (hence no falling off bikes in parking lots), their rates are pretty cheap usually $45~$65 per night, free breakfast, usually have wi-fi but not always and the employees seem genuinely interested in offering you the cheapest rate. Last night, we saved $10 by sleeping in a queen size bed. Cool an excuse to snuggle :)

BONUS: While looking up something on the BMWMOA site, I discovered members get an extra 10% off on Super 8 motels and you don't have to call in to get it, just walk up and give them the code. How cool!

Since I have a few hours of my vacation left I think I'll take a nap.