CO Trip Wrap up - 6/28

Well the last two days of riding back to SoCal where a little warm!

 

On Saturday AM we rode through some rain storms over the Red Rocks and Navajo Country near the 4-corners areas.  The rain and clouds provided some additional needed coolness and provided for dramatic photos of Monument National Park and we also got to have a look at Bob’s former residence and clinic from the time he spent working with the Navajo back in a previous life.  It was great to have such a good guide to show us this AWSOME area.

 

The further West we got, the more the clouds dissipated and the hotter it got.  We rode the old Route 66 from Seligman to Kingman and then Bob went to visit relatives in the Parker area for a few hours and then motored the rest of the way home that evening (for a nice 600+ mile day in intense heat).

 

Rick and I were a little more sensible in that we decided to call it quits after about 350 miles and we rode into Laughlin at about 3PM with my bike’s thermometer showing 118 degrees and Rick’s showing 116 degrees.  Not sure which was right – but let’s just say it was HOT!!!!

 

After cooling down and showering, Rick and I headed to the poker room for a little R&R.  We decided to get into the $100 tournament at 7:00 PM at the local Casino and we agreed to a 70/30 split should either of us end up in the money (which is the top 10 players out of about 60).  I went out mid way in the tourney – so I decided I needed to cheer Rick on to the WINNERS CIRCLE.  Well her certainly did not need my help as he was playing GREAT – and he TOOK DOWN FIRST PLACE for roughly $1,500.  It was great to watch and to of course take my cut to add to my future poker fund.  Thanks for sharing Rick and CONGRATULATIONS.

 

Anyhow, Rick and I got up Sunday at 5:00 AM to get on the road and try to beat some of the heat.  The sun was just rising and it was already 86 in Laughlin.  By the time we got to Desert Center at about 8:30, it was already 108 degrees.  We rode in 100+ temps for the next hour and a half until we got to Hemet where it started cooling a little bit.  By the time we got back home – the local temps were a cool 95 degrees.

 

Anyhow – it was a great trip with a great group and I sure hope to do South Western CO and a lot of other future trips with these guys + one Amigo that was missing on this trip due to prior family commitments – Mark Jones – our comrade that was injured on our Arctic Circle trip last summer – but who is doing fine and now has a new bike we need to abuse.

 

Thanks for reading along.

 

Steve

 

 

Gunnison Coloradoo to Monument Valley Utah

Another great ride, with a small disappointment because of heavy rain over all the passes in the San Juan mountains. By the time we got to  Pagosa Springs we were soaked to the skin. We sent to a laundramat and dried out our clothes, and continued. Durango has grown a lot since I was last there. From there on it was beautiful. We visited Monument Valley which brought back some great memories from the time I spent there as a dental student about 35 years ago.

Tomorrow we should get to the river or maybe on home depending on how I feel …until then..

Another great Monument Valley shot

 

Monument Valley with Sun hitting just one monument!

 

Friday June 26th

Well the day started off in nice – but cool weather and we took highway 149 South since none of us had been on it.  It was AWESOME for the first hour or so until it started raining!  It did not rain quite as hard as it did on us yesterday, but this rain was very steady and we rode in it for probably 2-3 hours.  For the most part it was OK, but going over some of the passes, the temps would drop to the 45 degree range and when you were pretty much already soaked, it got just a bit chilly.  This is an area we absolutely have to come back to so we can see it in better weather conditions.

 

After about 4 hours of riding (most of it in rain), we rolled in to Pagosa Springs and the next thing I know, Rick is pulling into a strip mall area.  I could not figure out what he was doing until he pulled up in front of Laundry mat and said he had to dry his clothes as he was soaked to skin and freezing.  It seemed like a good plan so we all went in and shed most of the clothes into the large industrial driers (see photo).  

 

About ½ way through Rick’s dry cycle we look into his dryer and money ($5’s, $10’s, $20’s and $100’s) are flying everywhere.  It looked like one of those games where you get in a booth and try to grab as much as you can.  Apparently his wallet was in there and was now emptied in the drier.

 

After drying off,  the skies were breaking up and we hit a local subway and hopped back on the bikes.  The scenery was great again and we rode to Kayenta (gateway to Monument valley) hitting yet some more rain on the way - and picked up a room at the Holiday Inn and then Bob rode us out to Monument valley as the sun was setting.  It was beautiful as well.  He showed us where he worked during his 3 month stay here.

 

We dined at  Burger King and them came back to the room to hang out.

 

Steve

Denver to Gunnison, Colorado

Terrific day!!! Irv picked  me up at the airport and gave me a lift back to their house and I got on the road. Hooked up with Steve and Rick in Fairplay, CO and almost right away we were in a spectacular lightning storm, with rain and hail that came with such volume the water/hail was inches deep on the highway I could hardly ride or see. The views over the passes and through the country were spectacular.

Hopefully, we will have reasonable weather tomorrow. Our goal is to get to Flagstaff. It was great to ride with  the guys again.

 

 

 

 

June 25, 2009 - Bob Bringsthe rain!

Rick and I left Leadville this AM about 7:00 and wanted to do Mosquito pass at over 12,000 feet, but it was still closed with snow, so we went a little south and did Weston pass at about 11,000 feet.  All in all Rick and did 3 off road passes prior to heading to Fairview to meet up with Bob.

 

About the time Bob showed up, it started raining, but not too bad.  We started South to Gunnison, but about 30 minutes into our ride we hit REALLY BAD rain and HAIL.  We got totally soaked and pelted with bean sized hail for about 15 – 20 minutes.  It really HURT not to mention the temps were in the 50 degree range, so a little cool too.

 

We got into the Holiday Inn in Gunnison and hit the hot tub to warm up.  While in the hot tub we learned that Michael Jackson died today (along with Farah Fawcett) – I guess we are getting old.  We went about 5 miles down the road for a steak dinner and when we came out it was raining again, so we rode back in the rain and soaked even more gear.

 

No real pictures from today, but a great ride.

 

They are calling for rain here tomorrow as well – but we likely won’t be riding in it too long as it will heat up and dry out as we head south.

 

Steve

Talk about the long and winding road!

 

June 23, 2009 recap

WOW – WOW – WOW.

 

I now have new ride that is in my top 3 I have done so far.  New Zealand’s Mount Cook and surrounding areas is one, The Glacier Highway near Jasper in British Columbia is one and NOW – the ride from Hurricane, UT to Blanding, UT via Zion, Bryce and Lake Powell Ferry at BullFrog.  Of this 400 miles, the ride to Bullfrog was a highlight for sure with about 25 miles of gravel and some real canyons and switchbacks forever.  Lots and lots of redrock (some photos attached) and even some cliff dwellings along the way.

 

We had a great lunch at a little café in the middle of nowhere and then took off on the road to Bullfrog so that we could make the ferry in time as it only runs every other hour.  We wanted to catch the 3:00 and we rolled in at what we thought was about 2:15 – well, we forgot to change our watches from CA time so we actually rolled in at 3:15 and just missed it.  So we went and found a shady spot overlooking the lake.  I stripped down and went for a swim and then went back to our little picnic area and took a nap on the picnic table.

 

We caught the 5:00 Ferry and arrived across the lake about 5:35 and then motored about 90 miles to where we found an older hotel to spend the night.  We are setting in one of two restaurants in town (a suedo steak house with one waitress for 30 people – and NO BEER as it is a dry town).  I don’t often want a beer but after the warm dry ride today – a beer would sure taste GREAT!

 

Overall, the temps were a little cooler today running mainly in the mid 90’s and only touching 100 a couple of times.  Still warm, but since we were at about 7000 feet most of the day – it was much nicer than yesterday.

 

I have attached some photos and hope they show up OK.

 

Steve

 

Nap time while waiting for the 5:00 Ferry

 

This Ferry was a little warmer than our last one (in the Arctic Circle)

 

June 24,2009

Today’s ride took us from Blanding, UT to Leadville, CO by way of some great paved and unpaved roads through the Colorado mountains.  Temps ranged today from about 92 in Eastern UT to a low of 49 degrees at Cottonwood pass at an elevation of just over 19,200 feet and raining.

 

We ate lunch in Crested Butte at Café Ginger (Thai food) which was pretty good – but I am hungry again.  At least Leadville should have decent food and a BEER!

 

While I was showering and typing this up, Rick was playing online poker and peat the same guy 5 games in a row!  At 2$/game- Rick has almost paid for his trip.

 

About 200 miles of our ride today was dirt (but pretty easy dirt) and the last 20 miles was in a cold rain, so it was good to get to hotel.

 

That’s it for now.

 

Steve

Here was todays route which covered a couple hundred miles of great dirt

This Hotel in Hurricane as Motorcycle Garages

 

A TRUE Shoe Tree

I always wanted a picture of this tree outside of Amboy on the old route 66.

Valley of Fire State Park

 

A Hot Day Today

We rolled out of Murrieta at 6:00 AM in the fog and 55 degrees pretty much all through the valley and into Hemet.  We hit the I 10 and motored out to the 29 Palms cut off and as usually it was a true wind tunnel tossing you left and right for a few miles.

 

We stopped for breakfast in 29 Palms and then started working our way north through Amboy, Kelso, Searchlight and then on into Henderson, NV.  Traffic was backed up for miles waiting to cross the Boulder Dam – fortunately we were not going that route.  We headed North on Lake Shore Drive along Lake Mead and then cut into the Valley of Fire.  A beautiful area and I got some great photos that I will try to post tomorrow, but the camera is out on the bike tonight and I am too lazy to go get it.

 

Temps were pretty hot in the 103 degree range and after we had in about 400 miles (10 hours), we stopped in Mesquite for a little poker and played for about 3 hours waiting for the temps to cool off.  We played $1-$8 anytime hold-em and we each lost about $25 dollars in a pretty goofy game.

 

At about 7PM we decided to put in another 90 miles and rode up to Hurricane, UT.  It had really cooled off and was only 99 degrees now.  In Hurricane we found a great Holiday Inn Express that actually has locking motorcycle garages as part of the hotel – what a great concept.

 

Anyhow – we soaked out butts in the hot-tub for a bit and are heading to bed soon.

 

Again, I hope to have some photos tomorrow if we have a connection – so stay tuned!

 

Steve

 

 

Lusk, Wyoming to Larkspur, Colorado

This was the final leg of this segment of the trip. I didn’t know what to expect when I got up this morning because for days the weather reports have indicated ugly weather, but it looked beautiful only a few clouds in the sky, and nice temp. This leg was short so I stopped at many of the historical interest points in route. The first was Fort Laramie which operated from 1849 until 1890 to protect the people traveling west on the Oregon Trail. The next stop was what is called the Register Cliff State historic site just above the banks of the North Platte River. This is where people traveling on the Oregon Trail carved their names and dates on this vertical wall of soft sandstone. Could have happened today, people through historic time never seem to change.

Traveling south on route 25 through Cheyenne, and Fort Collins to Denver was fast and easy. There were some very wild looking thunderhead clouds just to the west of the freeway around Longmont or Boulder that were dropping significant rain, it almost looked tornado like  but no funnel. Anyway, got to Irv & Karen Crump’s house and Karen drove me up to the airport. Thanks so much for your help and letting me park the bike at your house until the next segment.

I will return to Denver to complete the final segment and get the bike back home June 25……stay tuned for the final episode.

Sioux City Iowa to Lusk Wyoming via South Dakota

Another huge day with lots of cool stuff. It was raining lightly this morning when I left Sioux City and by the time I got to Sioux Falls SD the weather was quite nice. Basically I went from the east to the west of South Dakota on route 90 again very green and flat, not so many trees as in Iowa. Stopped for a buffalo steak in Kadoka which was really good. The Badlands did not strike me as very special, coming from the south west there are many places that look like that. Wall and Wall Drug in particular is quite the tourist trap, a kind of Knott’s Berry Farm without the rides.

Mt Rushmore was indeed a fantastic national monument. It is quite breathtaking to see for real, I will say it is fairly remote, but I think worth the effort to go see it.

The ride through the Black Hills and down into Wyoming was fantastic, not only for the scenery, but there were thunderstorms, and the light contrasts and lightning made for a spectacular ride. I will say I was a little concerned in the lightning and an absolute downpour, but it did not last for more than a few miles. This day was about 625 miles.

Tomorrow is to Cheyenne, and Denver then home….which I will be happy for.

Sioux City Iowa to Lusk Wyoming via South Dakota

Another huge day with lots of cool stuff. It was raining lightly this morning when I left Sioux City and by the time I got to Sioux Falls SD the weather was quite nice. Basically I went from the east to the west of South Dakota on route 90 again very green and flat, not so many trees as in Iowa. Stopped for a buffalo steak in Kadoka which was really good. The Badlands did not strike me as very special, coming from the south west there are many places that look like that. Wall and Wall Drug in particular is quite the tourist trap, a kind of Knott’s Berry Farm without the rides.

Mt Rushmore was indeed a fantastic national monument. It is quite breathtaking to see for real, I will say it is fairly remote, but I think worth the effort to go see it.

The ride through the Black Hills and down into Wyoming was fantastic, not only for the scenery, but there were thunderstorms, and the light contrasts and lightning made for a spectacular ride. I will say I was a little concerned in the lightning and an absolute downpour, but it did not last for more than a few miles. This day was about 625 miles.

Tomorrow is to Cheyenne, and Denver then home….which I will be happy for.

Indianapolis to Sioux City

Another great ride with perfect temperatures and quite nice scenery, but fairly straight and uninteresting road. There were several times when it got very dark and there were some rain drops, the temp went noticeably lower but nothing came of it.

It was just a long day of about 700 miles. Quite a large number of bikes on the road, most from adjacent states.

Tomorrow is to Rapid City and Mt. Rushmore.

Pittsburgh to Indianapolis

I started my fourth leg of this trip today. It was great to see my brother and his family in Pittsburgh but I didn’t feel real good about leaving this morning because the weather people indicated there might be rain/thunderstorms on my route today. As it turns out I had overcast skies but no rain and the temps were nice.

First stop just before Columbus Ohio was the AMA motorcycle hall of fame. A nice exhibit worth stopping for if you are there, but I probably wouldn’t go to far out of the way to see it. The single best bike there was Neil Pert’s BMW motorcycle that he rode 55,000 miles all over North America and was the basis of the book “Ghost Riders”.

Continuing on to Dayton, I stopped for several hours to see the Wright-Patterson USAF Museum. This was worth going way out of the way to see. There was to much to describe but the historic planes and all the air force stuff was incredible.

Indianapolis was just 100 miles more and now I’m ready to make a big ride tomorrow all the way to South Dakota. More then….

Charlottville Virginia, to Pittsburgh PA

This morning was again another beautiful day. I went over to the University of Virginia, what a very attractive school, and one of the top public universities in the country. I headed west on route 250 for about 150 miles over back roads of Virginia and West Virginia I really saw a lot. When I got to Pennsylvania it started raining a bit and when I got to my brother’s house it was nice, but then rained quite a bit, no problem, Pittsburgh is a very rainy place.

Tomorrow I will do some maintainance, probably change the rear tire, and the oil in preparation for the turn toward home next segment. I will return June 11 and back on the road June 12. Stay tuned …..

Fantastic history day

I got up this morning, and it was another beautiful day, got on the road and went about one hundred miles due east to Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills, and Kitty Hawk. Having known the story of the Wright bros. and powered flight fairly well, when I saw the place, the notes they wrote, some of the tools they used, their systematic approach to problem solving, and final success, it brought tears to my eyes this morning. It may not be for everyone, but for me it was fantastic.

I then got back on the bike and headed north. Traveling up route 158, then 168 into Virginia, over and under the Chesapeake Bay on route 64 through Newport News, Richmond and on up to Charlottesville. Terrific ride, no stopping, traffic moving pretty well I really enjoyed it. Checked into the hotel by 4:00 and made it to Monticello in time for the 4:15 tour. This was another great life experience, I have always admired the image I have of Thomas Jefferson, what a guy!  The tour gives additional insight and Monticello is about as beautiful a house, on a beautiful hill top, as there is in the world.

This is a day I will never forget. Tomorrow I’ll check out the University of Virginia which Jefferson designed, (Neo-Classic) then over the Allegheny Mts and north to Pittsburgh, PA.

Charleston, South Carolina, to Williamston, North Carolina

The ride today was good but somewhat difficult. I followed route 17 all the way but found it to be disjointed. I did stop at an historic plantation, 50 miles from Charleston and far enough away that most tourists don’t go there. The Hampton plantation which was established in the early part of the 19^th century, failed after the civil war economically, because of the very labor intensive process to grow rice. This was particularly interesting to me because the plantation house has not been restored beyond the very basic. It is far from anything even now, and it is easy to see how self sufficient the people must have been.

Myrtle Beach really surprised me but it should not have. Huge hoards of tourists looking for something to do creates what is there. The shark theme, and the pirate theme, are used frequently, many, many restaurants and hotels. There were many nice looking golf resorts, as well, Orlando FL is very similar, but Myrtle Beach attractions are more concentrated in a line because of the coastal proximity.

The transition into the higher country in North Carolina was nice as well. The farms with no swamps in between and less thick tall pine trees was a welcome change.

The traffic was heavy today and there were hundreds of stop and go intersections, needless to say I didn’t get as far as I had hoped. I look forward to going out to Nags Head, and Kitty Hawk early tomorrow and on the return getting on the freeway and covering some ground. I hope to get up into Virginia by tomorrow evening.

Dublin, Georgia and Savannah, to Charleston, South Carolina

Wow what a day!  The ride to Savannah on route 16 was fast. You can see by the intervals on the GPS plottings. I got there and took a city tour which is usually the fastest way to get the highlights and the lay of the land. Savannah has a very long history with much of it in the 18^th century. There is a Classic as well as French architectural quality to the place. That part is really cool, but it has a sort of New Orleans feel to it, which I don’t like as much.

The ride to Charleston SC via Hilton Head was OK . Hilton Head is a beautiful resort area, very up scale, but it has a sort of Disney feel to it also …nothing is completely as it seems, looking good is everything, lots of very over the top entrances but the properties may not be all that when you look closely. I’m sure it is a wonderful place to go but I had a weird feeling about it.

The brackish marshes of the “low country” on the way to Charleston were very interesting there is so much of it, there is a whole culture and cuisine that developed around it. Lots of seafood, shrimp, clams, oysters etc. and they grow great vegetables on the islands as well. Charleston is quite historic and a bit more relevant than Savannah in my view.

I was able to experience some really great food here in Charleston and the rest is history.

Tomorrow is the outer banks and Kitty Hawk.

North Carolina to Dublin, Georgia

Today was a great day. Judy Davis picked me up at the airport in Atlanta today, and took me up to Franklin, NC where my bike was waiting. Jim had washed it, I couldn’t believe it, just like a brand new bike. Thank you both so much for helping me.

The ride down to Macon and then to Dublin on route 16 was spectacular. Temps were 70-80 and all the flowers are in bloom and grass very green, it is really the beautiful time of year.

Tomorrow is Savannah and Charleston, it should be of great historic interest and beauty.

Augusta, the first day of Masters practice, then Atlanta and home

The weather people have been predicting bad things for days so when I woke up this morning and it was raining hard and the wind howling, I figured my luck had run out. As I got ready to go to Augusta National for practice for the ’09 Masters the rain slowed and by the time I got to the golf course the rain had stopped. The roads were very wet, the bike was wet, but I was relatively dry, and it didn’t rain any more today. The temperature went from about 65 this morning to about 45 when I left for Atlanta I mean it was cold.

Augusta National is only part of what you see on TV, The flowers are like a flower show, and all the grass, I mean alllllll the grass is cut to exactly what is specified for wherever it is on the golf course. I never saw a thin or sparse spot, the edges were perfect even the pine needles were of even thickness and distribution. There is much more contour on the course than one sees on TV, and the elevation changes quite a lot as well.

It was nice to get to see some of the great older players, Tom Watson, Fuzzy Zoeller, Ben Crenshaw, Gary Player, to name a few as well as some of the up and coming younger players. It was a rare and really fun experience to be there today. I will say that the crush of the crowd, the over the top security (more than at the airport), the lines, and parking hassles, make sitting at home and watching on TV a satisfying situation for the future.

As I mentioned the temperature got quite a bit colder during the day so the ride to Atlanta was not comfortable. I did make it just great and Jim Davis was there to collect the bike and keep it until I return on the 24^th of this month to continue…..until then thanks for watching.   

Franklin, North Carolina to Road Atlanta, and then to Augusta

I keep watching the weather news and they keep threatening rain and snow but again today the weather was quite nice. I rode with Jim again this morning up to a town called Highlands North Carolina which was fantastic, the road followed a very large stream (river) which had several large falls right beside the road. The views off the mountain were also quite beautiful.

The ride down to Road Atlanta was very easy and the traffic moved really well. It was great to actually see Road Atlanta and walk around it, while watching all the AMA races there today. The races were quite good except in the context of this ongoing trip not quite as exciting as usual.

The ride from there to Augusta was a lot more of the same beautiful roads, 51, 316, and 78 for about 150 miles with many homes along the road with the usual architecture of the south. Several of the very old large ones had historic markings indicating they were plantation houses from before the civil war.

Tomorrow is the last day of this segment. It will be the first practice day in preparation for the Masters which starts Thursday, and I will be there….Then back to Atlanta and home…

Fayetteville Tenn. to Franklin, North Carolina

This has been the greatest day of riding on the trip. The weather was perfect as I came over on the 64 to Chattanooga where I hooked up with my friend and colleague Jim Davis and we rode about 250 miles of great and scenic roads through the Blue Ridge mountains. Cleveland Tennessee was the starting point where we followed US 64 to Ducktown, Tenn. North on 68 to Tellico Plains. Hit route 143 which is CherohalIa scenic parkway, for about 60 mi then 129 north to Deals Gap. I was able to ride the Tail of the Dragon, a very well known piece of road which has 318 curves over an 11 mile distance. It was a lot like the road up to Palomar only more curves. The fun is just doing it. From there we traveled 28 south east to Jim’s house in Franklin.

I will be staying with Jim and Judy tonight, and tomorrow Jim has another small ride for me to do with him in the morning, then I’ll be heading down to Atlanta and then to Augusta.

 

Little Rock, Ark. to Fayetteville, Tennessee

Today was the best ride of the whole trip to this point. The weather was perfect and the country is extraordinary. I took a bit of a tour around Little Rock then headed east to Memphis, across the Mississippi river. I went and saw Graceland, and it is not to be believed. This thing seems to have a life of its own and its growing. I have seen tourist traps but never on this scale. I should have seen it 25, or 30 years ago.

The ride east from Memphis was on route 64 which is good country roads, it was nice to be off the super slab but after 150 miles I wondered if I had done the right thing. I am going mostly due east 50 miles north of the southern Tennessee border. I’ve been through the center of all the towns along the way, lots of stop and go. One town proclaimed itself the center of Dixie. I saw several Confederate flags flying on some personal flagpoles. The gentle rolling hills with the dogwood and red bud trees blooming is really beautiful. Several times when I came over the top of a hill it looked like Disney’s Happy Valley, like some perfect world, really beautiful.

Tomorrow is continuing on to Chattanooga, and then to Franklin, North Carolina…..

Dallas to Little Rock

The flight over today was really great clear and smooth except about 250 mi from Dallas it got quite bumpy with some unstable air as there was some thunder storm activity. I took a shot of the white sands that we had a hard time with last week because of  the wind.

Richard picked me up at the airport which was so great! how easy, just load up the bike and head out.

The ride up to Little Rock was uneventful except that there was quite a bit of wind, and the roads were very wet, but it did not rain on me. Lots of state troopers with some very fancy looking radar equipment lots of cars pulled over. The terrain went from lightly rolling grass and oaks to more density and quite a lot of conifer trees, more streams and rivers, not so many big lakes as in Texas.

Tomorrow will be Memphis and across most of Tenn., Over back roads so I can really see the place. More tomorrow…

Dallas and return Home

Dallas was beautiful yesterday. Nothing like the weather we had coming over.

The King Tut exhibit was really good but they did not have any of the really large pieces like the masks they had 20 or so years ago. They did have some very interesting x-rays of the mummy,, additionally there was a striking rendering of Tut’s skull and dentition made of bronze from a CT scan done several years ago and they let you touch it and examine it . This was great.

We rode over to my friend Richard Moore’s house and dropped off the bike. His wife Ladonna made a fantastic meal for us and then he dropped us at the airport, thanks so so much.

This segment overall was tough but we managed to do everything that we wanted to. Jane had fun and she is still talking to me

I will return to Dallas solo to continue the tour Thursday April 2, in the afternoon….Stay tuned.  

The final leg of this section

March 28 10:50 p.m.

The ride today was from Odessa to Dallas, with a stop in Midland.

What a fantastic Museum, the Permian Basin oil museum should not be missed. The history, the development and the current technology were shown, in addition to Jim Hall’s Chapparal race cars. There is also an art exhibition which was quite outstanding with the major subject being life around the oil patch. I really liked all of it.

The weather today was really quite OK. Temps were 50-60 with a strong but consistent wind at about 90 degrees to direction of travel until the last 100 mi or so in the Texas hill country, when it was really great but then the temps went lower…..not complaining. It was a great day, and we look forward to seeing the major interest stuff around Dallas tomorrow before returning home.

Ice Snow Wind and Cave

March 27, 10:15 p.m.

This was a very remarkable day for many different reasons compared with yesterday. Last night it snowed over this whole area, only a little but the temps were very low. The bike had ice on it this morning. The ride over the mountain going east was very difficult as there was snow and ice on the road, with light snow falling. We really got cold, I had the heated grips on full and it had almost no effect. When we got to Artesia we stopped just to warm up.

The ride on down to the Carlsbad Caverns was better but there was still lots of wind and the temps were now in the 35 range which was much better than earlier. The caverns were an amazing natural creation, like maybe Yosemite valley or Rainbow bridge. The very large rooms and labrynths go for miles. They only allow the public into about half of the explored areas. I really enjoyed seeing this National Park.

The ride from Carlsbad to Odessa was about 200 mi and windy. The landscape in west Texas is quite flat and the roads are quite straight. I have never seen so much oil equipment in my life. Wells and oil rigs dot the land for hundreds of square miles.

This day will be remembered mostly for the weather but also because we made it safely.

 

Bob's first big day of riding

What a day !!!  Left home at about 5:20 a.m. and initially the riding and weather were great. I found out after the fact that the spot GPS had not been working and so I’ll try to do better with getting it up and running before I leave tomorrow. Anyway we had some extremely strong wind buffeting from about 50 miles east of Tucson all the way to here in Alamogordo. I am happy we didn’t have too much cold or any rain, outstanding!

When we crossed the Rio Grande at Las Cruces I really started to feel like we were out of the So Cal area. The wind and dust made seeing everything somewhat more difficult. Even with the wind, the White Sands are a very unusual sight. We rode 815 miles today and I am tired.

Carlsbad caverns are on the schedule for tomorrow. Hopefully the spot GPS will work and y’all can follow our progress.   

 

Bob's Adventure

Bob begins his wild multi-month trip accross the United States