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After nearly 3700 miles on this trip, I’m back home. It was nice finally getting out of the desert. While the desert has a beauty of it’s own, once I entered into the Texas Hillcountry, I could tell it was fall. There were hints of color changes in the leaves. It was also nice finally getting off I-10 since all my riding from Deming, NM to Junction, TX was on that highway. Of course there are added benefits of taking I-10, one of them being a posted 80 MPH, which means traffic tends to flow at about 85 MPH most of the way. With the exception the “metro” sections (Fort Stockton, Van Horn, and Ozona), there were no signs of police enforcement anywhere. Then again, when it’s hundreds of miles between metro areas, it makes sense. For somebody who has never been on I-10 in West Texas, it’s hard to really explain how vast the area is. When I ride that area, I have to think, not in miles, but in tanks of gas.

One other thing about West Texas is the wind. Going to California, I went in the morning and we had a cold front move in, this seemed to settle the cross winds down a bit. However, coming back, the winds were an issue. Because of these winds, combined with much faster speed limits, I noticed a marked reduction in fuel economy. Going from around 46 MPG to 40 MPG. Similar to the drop I saw in the Bay Area when I was stuck in traffic.

It was nice finally rolling into Austin, although the time change hurts since it was already dark at 6 PM when I got to the outskirts of Austin. It was nice enjoying dinner with the family and catching up on what happened during the week.

Final Numbers....

Miles: 3887
Gallons of fuel: 89
Avg. Cost: $2.97
High: $4.09 (Needles, CA)
Low: $2.20 (Ozona, TX)
Avg MPG: 44.5
High MPG: 49.9
Low MPG: 35.8


Photos from the bike: photos