Panda trail rider (ct70) learning experience..(ride report)

[superduder]

So I decided on 8/16 to try to ride the panda from my home in Tucson AZ,
To a friends place in Scottsdale...
I had planned to ride a fairly straight forward route mostly I-10 service rd, and a little 2lane (state rt 87)...
Well The Arizona DPS had different plans,
and had a section of the service rd blocked off,
so I re-routed to State rt 79 through Oracle, Florence and on to PHX...
Or so I thought.
Due to the side track through "Casas Adobes" from the service rd,
I had put on a few more miles before leaving town than I thought,
And had to switch to reserve, no problem.
I figured,
"It's a State Highway, there must be a gas station every 10 miles or so"
WRONG!
The bike was running great until it flipped 56 miles from the start...
Then the bike was out of fuel, Just 2.5 miles short of the
"Tom Mix Monument"
Where I met a sweet elderly couple who were car camping,
and asked if they might know how far it was to the next gas station.
"Florence, 22 miles that way (pointed the way I was headed)."
I figured,
"Heck, I've walked WAY more than 20 miles in a day before, NO problem."
And set off toward Florence pushing the bike, With my 35lb backpack on.
About 9 miles down the road I reached the "Florence 13mi" sign and,
decided I'd had enough of that crap.
I was NOT pushing the 160lb bike, while wearing another 35lb,
ANOTHER 13 miles.
So I chained the bike to the sign post,
and set off with only my bottle of water, and flashlight, wallet, keys.
It was still sunny when I ran out of gas,
It was 10:30PM and only 4 miles from town when a DPS officer stopped and picked me up.
Gave me a ride to the gas station/McDonalds (Refused the happy meal I offered) And set back off about his duties.
I called, and waited another 2 and a half hours for the fore mentioned friend
to bring me a gas can ($20 is too much for a 1Gallon can)
and give me a ride back to the bike.
I didn't mind the wait, because Florence had a raging thunderstorm hit,
Which I hoped was localized, due to my laptop being in the
"Water Resistant" backpack chained to my bike/the sign post.
Luckily the storm didn't hit within a mile of the bike, so I topped up and decided I had had enough adventure for the day and headed home.
Around a mile past "Tom Mix" I hit the storm...
Pouring buckets of rain, 45mph gusts, and OMFG hail LOTS of HAIL.
It was like being lined up against a wall in front of,
And being fired upon by,
a medium school sized firing squad of middle school kids armed with
b.b. rifles, slingshots, and paintball guns...While receiving a county jail "shower" (fire hose treatment)
So, Yeah, around 56 miles of that...at night...Heckuva first roadtrip.
I just (today) noticed the last bruise was gone.
I rode that route back up to make sure I got pictures last weekend.
And stopped by the monument on purpose this time.
Anyway, ride report issued.
I'm out,
Jason