A ride to remember

“I would have liked to stop more often, but I was on a tight schedule,” said Schuschke, a pipe fitter at Boise Inc.

Schuschke said he’s been around bikes for most of his life. When not riding himself he likes to work as pit crew for his brother Kurt, who races bikes at Brainerd. He also has dual road and off-road dirt bikes, a four wheeler and a scooter that he rides to work.

“I don’t have any snowmobiles,” he added. “I am all done with that.”

This was the first long trip in many years for Schuschke. He said he’s excited about the trip, and noted a motorcycle trip is a great way to travel alone. He takes part in the Koochiching County Cruise motorcycle rally for the UnitedWay and other events. Next summer he may go to South Dakota or the East Coast.

This trip was spent on the seat of a Yamaha TSR 1300 Schuschke purchased this summer. Though it is not a touring style bike, he said it is very comfortable to ride and gets 42 miles per gallon. He installed a global positioning system and used a Bluetooth cell phone with a helmet connection to talk hands free.

Schuschke started out for Miles City, Mont. on Oct. 1. It would be his longest daily ride, covering 717 miles in around 12 hours. He recalls stopping for a breather at Teddy Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. He napped briefly on a picnic table, while looking over the horizon for the roaming bison near the red mountains of Painted Canyon.

Early morning temperatures dipped to 28 degrees while riding through the hills and valleys of Montana. He wore thick leather gloves and chaps and used his adjustable wind visor to shield himself from the icy wind. When he reached Helena, Schuschke stayed the weekend to visit with his sister and her family.

The next leg of the journey turned south through Idaho and Utah. He stopped at Kanab to visit Bryce Canyon National Park, one of many canyons on the Paunsaugunt Plateau of southern Utah. He admired the scenic overlooks of unique geological formations of colorful spires, he said. The rest of the ride through Utah gave him a view of distant Rocky Mountains on the way to Salt Lake City.

The next stopover destination was Arizona. Schuschke recalls heading south of Flagstaff, taking the windy roads to see the beautiful red rock cliffs and monoliths, and crossing the tall arched Midgely Bridge of Oak Creek Canyon and the Sonoma Valley.

A friend of his brother from the Air Force who lives in Tucson rode his own motorcycle to meet him in Flagstaff. The two rode back to Tucson on Oct. 8. The Arizona sun was still hot in the fall, and Schuschke said the 102 degree temperatures made their bike motors plenty hot.

The next day they went on to Nogales, Mexico, where he bought blankets and pottery and shipped them back to the Falls.

Schuschke left Arizona on Oct. 11, traveling through New Mexico until just past Albuquerque at Moriarty. He recalls riding through 75 mph winds, which in combination with rain, made it impossible to stay on the road.

“I could ride forever in the rain but had to stop when I was riding sideways in the wind,” he said.

The wind stopped, but the rain kept falling all the way through the Oklahoma Panhandle. He stopped over night in Perry, Okla., where he said he was soaking wet down to his socks.

It was still raining the next day, but he rode on through Kansas to Lincoln, Neb., and stopped for the night in Onawa, Iowa. The next day he rode on to Jackson, Minn., where he visited an old friend he went to plumbing school with years ago. He said it was great to watch the local high school football team, Huskies, beat Worthington that night.

The final leg turned out to be the longest nonstop jaunt, 473 miles, from Jackson to the Falls and began early morning Oct. 16. It was also the coldest morning of the trip at 27 degrees. He arrived home a couple of hours ahead of the packages that he sent home from his trip to Mexico.

“I will look back on my trip using Google Earth,” he added.