{"id":77,"date":"2017-04-16T12:23:07","date_gmt":"2017-04-16T12:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2017\/?p=77"},"modified":"2017-04-16T12:23:07","modified_gmt":"2017-04-16T12:23:07","slug":"day-four-amarillo-tx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2017\/day-four-amarillo-tx\/","title":{"rendered":"Day Four – Amarillo, TX"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy Easter<\/h2>\n

The day started with 25 miles on the slab and ended with a little more slab time; sometimes it can’t be avoided.\u00a0 Most of the roads today were pretty straight.\u00a0 There was some altitude change but it was not a challenging ride by any stretch of the imagination.\u00a0 Don’t get me wrong – that’s not a complaint, just an observation.\u00a0 These roads are a good way to cover a lot of miles – and I really do enjoy all of it.\u00a0 Part of the time today I was putting along at 55 mph on a road just like this – total relaxation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I was on hwy 60 almost all day.\u00a0 One of the main tracks for BNSF runs very close to hwy 60 all the way through New Mexico, and today I saw A LOT of freight trains.\u00a0 A wave at the conductor is almost always greeted with a long blast on the horn.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A little train history:\u00a0 The BNSF <\/b>(Burlington Northern Santa Fe) Railway<\/b> is one of the largest freight railroad networks in North America, second to the Union Pacific Railroad.\u00a0 It has 44,000 employees, 32,500 miles of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives!<\/strong>! It has three transcontinental routes that provide rail links between the western and eastern United States.\u00a0 BNSF is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.\u00a0 The track from Fort Worth through New Mexico was certainly a busy one today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>One of the great things about being on the road is the people you meet.\u00a0 The high point of my day was meeting this guy.\u00a0 Cam is riding his 1996 Electra Glide across New Mexico to spend Easter with his mom.\u00a0 Then he is going to Arkansas, and after that, on to Indiana.\u00a0 He says he’ll try to get out of Indiana before the snow flies and come on back to New Mexico.\u00a0 He has a first place team roping buckle from a local rodeo back in 1994 and was very close to making some serious team roping money in Las Vegas.\u00a0 He even carries one of his favorite ropes with him on his bike.\u00a0 He rides his bike wearing that cowboy hat, which would be tough at 80 mph, but he seldom goes over 65.\u00a0 We met at a gas station and swapped stories over $1.50 burritos and a Coke (breakfast).\u00a0 We rode together for a while, then it was time to go our separate ways.\u00a0 That long tube you see is a fishing pole – my kinda guy…..<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I had to get to Amarillo in time to pick up a part at the Harley dealer here.\u00a0 The kill switch on my bike is giving me problems.\u00a0 Sadly, replacing the switch isn’t going to be a parking lot kinda deal.\u00a0 But, at least I have the switch in hand and won’t have to wait for the part if I need to get it replaced.\u00a0 After looking at the new switch, I think I can take the faulty switch apart if I have to, and hot wire it so it’s on all the time and turn the bike on and off with the key.\u00a0 Seems like it’s always sumthin……..<\/p>\n

It also looks like it’s time to start watching the weather.\u00a0 I’ve got the rain gear handy but would rather stay dry if I can.\u00a0 And uh, not getting caught up in a tornado would be nice as well.\u00a0 I think I should be okay on tomorrow’s ride to Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Easter The day started with 25 miles on the slab and ended with a little more slab time; sometimes it can’t be avoided.\u00a0 Most of the roads today were pretty straight.\u00a0 There was some altitude change but it was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8BM7q-1f","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82,"href":"http:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions\/82"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}