Getting Paid To Ride

[Bob_Roller]

Well I got myself a sweet deal at work today, my employer ( Southwest Airlines) got into a predicament today with having to ship hazardous material parts ( can't be shipped on commercial aircraft ) to an out of service aircraft in San Diego, Ca., the usual shipper can't pick up the parts until about noon tomorrow for delivery in San Diego at about 7- 8 pm Sunday, so the potential loss of about $300,000 of revenue has allowed them to bend the rules a little bit. As luck would have it, a co-worker on evening shift has an '02 R1150R, same color as mine, with the large BMW bags, and a small clear fairing, we transferred the bags and fairing to my bike, and I'm off to San Diego. I'm at home now to pick up my 'cold weather' gear ( I live in Phoenix, so how much cold weather gear could I possibly have !!), as I have to go over a few passes of about 45-4600 feet in elevation about 70-80 miles east of San Diego on Interstate 8, and the forecast temps are in the low 40's F. for this area tonight / tomorrow morning. I'll post again when I get back.

[thrang]

Good score of a job Bob What sort of milage is it?

[Bob_Roller]

Just got back from my ride, 827 miles, 11 hours and 20 minutes actual riding time. Best fuel mileage was 64 mpg, worst was 56 mpg. Just in case you were wondering what could be considered 'hazardous materials' on a commercial airliner. The fire protection system on the Boeing 737 has two fire extinguisher bottles, about 10-12 inches in diameter, and filled with halon extinguishing agent. There are two ports on each bottle, one goes to the left engine, and one goes to the right engine. To discharge the bottle, there is what is called a 'squibb',  it has a powder charge, and a projectile like a bullet. When an electrical current is applied to the squibb the powder charge ignites sends the projectile through a metal disc on the bottle, and then the fire extinguishing agent is routed to the selected engine. The squibbs are about the size of a 12 gauge shotgun shell. The aircraft had an indication that one of the squibbs was bad and would not pass a self test procedure in the cockpit. Took all of 5 minutes to replace the part, and 30 seconds to test it. I need to go home and get some sleep, I've been up since 4:30 am Saturday morning.

[tagordon]

Well done Bob. Hope You were able to enjoy the ride. Reminiscent of Pony Express. GiddyUp R65!

[suecanada]

See? There are some perks to being employed and not retired!!

[Bob_Roller]

Troy, I wasn't riding my R65, I took my '02 R1150R. I left my home at 6:40 pm, sunset was at 6:30 pm, I got back to work in Phoenix at 8:25 am, sunrise was about 6:30 am, so I rode in the dark for most of the trip. I was thankful for the PIAA 510 driving lights, took some of the scariness out of riding in the southwest US version of the 'outback'. You can ride for an hour on Interstate 8 in Arizona and California and not see another vehicle in either direction at that time of day. Add illegal drug and alien smuggling to the equation, as for a majority of the route, you're within 50 miles from the US-Mexico border, and things can get more interesting than you could ever want. I know one thing for certain, the stock seat is not a long distance seat !! I know for certain now, that I'm not a serious long distance rider, that was the most miles I've ridden in a single day.
Sue, it was the first time anyone has been authorized to ride a motorcycle while on company business, their biggest fear was, if I got into a collision, that it would be a tough sell for me to claim it as an 'on the job' injury. I don't think I would want to do it on a regular basis, at least at night. I was paid quite well, I got 14 hours of double time pay, and $.55 per mile traveled, and realistically only performed at best, 10 minutes of work.

[Semper Gumby]

HI Bob,

I remember Interstate 8.  It was hot a year ago September 2006 and the desert west of Yuma was about 95'F at about 11 pm at night.  Then you climb the ridge infront of SanDieggo and the temp dropped to 50'F.  It was quite a shock after two days of driving.  My Body didn't enjoy this.  The desert near the boarder was erie.  Absolutly pitch black dark in which you could see the flood light but not the helcopter.  Didn't see any illeagals crossing the highway.  I remember 2 boader crossings  in the hills.  They just passed me through but it was a suprise never the less.  

But what a nice ride in the hills.  I really enjoyed the long high speed sweepers on I-8 in the hills even if I was shivering.  I will never forget the tail end of the 50cc ride on my R65.

TTFN,