@Adie P, I can certainly see how this song would become an earworm riding from LA to Phoenix on I-10. That road through the Mojave Desert has to be one of the longest, straightest, bleakest, and most windswept freeways in the western U.S. But I think having this song playing on your radio--or in your head--and being on a brand new motorcycle would definitely help. Good on you for enjoying the ride!
There are some great routes and locations all around that area @Sandi T. as you well know, the Mojave is brilliant and the name Gila rang a bell, there is a diversion airfield there aircraft from Davis Monthan could land if they had a hangup [un-dropped bomb] Is the snake bridge still near Tucson?
Oh ..... for sure - though I'm not sure about "bleakest". Heck, even Desert Centre - sorry, Center - has a bizarre attractiveness to it! I have a particular soft spot for the "TEN" as I'd ridden it virtually end to end (I rode LA to ORLANDO, FL.) in the September before. And the GL1200 wasn't new - it was an '84 - but was entirely new to me. I'd bought a GL 500 (Silver Wing) in September and headed out on the road (agin), returning to LA in December with a very sore butt and about 8,000 more miles on the bike! The GL1200 was a Godsend to my backside!
1700 Friendly People and 5 Old Crabs! That's an awesome sign, Don. If this is the rattlesnake bridge you're talking about, yes, it's still there! It's just east of downtown over Congress Avenue. A very cool foot and bicycle bridge.
You are right, Adie. Even the "bleakest" parts of the desert have a certain beauty and a sort of peacefulness and timelessness to them. I've also been across I-10 from LA to Florida but not all at once and not on a bike. The longest stint I did was when I moved to Gainesville Florida from Tucson back in 2001--then back again to Tucson a year later. I've been on the stretch from Phoenix to LA a couple of times but typically make the trip to California from Tucson on I-8 to San Diego. There are some very striking parts of the drive on that route. I had to look up both the GL1200 and the GL500 as they were before my time as a motorcyclist plus I don't know much about Hondas. I can see just from photos why the 1200 was a Godsend. I'll be you have some good stories from many miles of travel!
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Steppenwolf, born to be wild. Remember riding home back in 1970 when Easy Rider had been shown at the local flicks.
