>Leaving the shelter of mountain canyons and arriving
> onto the expansive, Denver plain, I realized that a
> major cold front was coming in. Temperatures had
> dropped into the 30's F, a very light rain had begun
> to fall, and the winds from the north blew steadily at
> about 40mph with gusts up to about 75 or 80mph.
O.K. I'll admit beforehand that I'm stupid. I live in Wichita, KS.
I decided to go to Waynoka, OK. to meet up with a couple buddies at the
dunes. Bad weather moving in that will stretch from NE. down to southern OK.
Being a storm chaser and a cocky bastard to boot, I feel I can beat the bad
weather, which is progressing south, even though I would be leaving about
SEVEN hours late. Needless to say we found hell about 12 miles in from
Waynoka.
Right as we got to Alva, OK. The HEAVY rain started. As this would be my
first trip to the dunes, I kept thinking "OK it'll be right around the
corner" it wasn't. Almost as if we had run over a switch, at the
'WAYNOKA 12' sign, it hit. I was informed later that we had driven (my GTS
of all vehicles) through 50 MPH winds gusting to 75 with a steady downpour
as if we were in a waterfall. We were waiting for a tornado to cross the
road right in front of us!
Got to Waynoka, Crashed at the first (and only) inconvenience store IN town
for 30 min. or so. As the storm started to die down we proceeded the 3 Mi.
trek to Little Sahara State Park (the dunes) and immediately found our
friends holed up in the van. After rolling two sides and getting a
concussion in the back of my friends now destroyed sand rail, we took
pleasure in an 80-100 MPH perfect weather ride home the next day.
My whole gist to this... I have ridden in terrible weather like this before
on my other bikes and have been stranded on the turnpike in a hailstorm at
worst. The GTS didn't miss a tick, it's like a golden retriever and won't
stop till you're safe and sound. I guess the fuel injection and downdraft
setup probably had a lot to do with not being drown, but that doesn't
matter. I LOVE THIS BIKE!!!
BTW Just before the trip I bought the Tour Master Cortech series saddle bags
and tail bag that work as a system. I guess I put them to the extreme test.
The bags are the best I've in the way of soft type, but the rain jackets
didn't protect the contents in the conditions we met. Our clothes in the
main compartment of the saddlebags were soaked and one of the outside
pockets actually had standing water in it. Other than the water resistance,
I am very happy with them. Anyone not stupid enough to drive into a
hurricane and not dead set on hard bags should check these out.
Later all - BRAIN
