BIG TEXAN and bike woes!

Oh boy!  Time to play "catch up" again!  I'm a day behind! 

First I want to backtrack to our Santa Fe/bike repair day!  Between Santa are and Taos is a town called  Embudo.  There's a little museum.....or collection of stuff....called the Classical Gas Museum.  One guy owns and runs it from his house. His collection is INCREDIBLE!  Mostly nostalgia related to gas stations from days gone by, but he also has toys, tools, cars, stoves, tricycles.....  I didn't even know what half the stuff was!  I wanted to take pix, but I was so overwhelmed I didn't know what I should take pictures of!  I was the same way at that military vehicle museum!  Anyway, here's some of Tom's pix of the place.....

He had this one hidden by his house....

This one is my pic...."pump henge"!

The guy that owns all this stuff is passionate about his collection. He's also got quite a reputation.  He doesn't even have to go searching for this stuff. People call HIM if they have some cool memorabilia!  I noticed a donation box for the local humane society on his shelf so I added a couple bucks. He was really pleased!  He donates everything from tbt box to the shelter every Christmas. Last year he was able to give them over $1900.00!!!  I like that guy!  (We saw him again later that evening when we went out to dinner!)

.....ok.  Back to leaving Taos.....

6 am wake up to leave Taos. First we head across town to the Taos Diner to have a delicious breakfast and say goodbye to our pal Kristen. 😢

As we were driving through town I noticed some great smells!  Fresh coffee brewing, biscuits baking, sweet, syrupy smells too!  There sure are delightful smells in Taos!  The other day when we stopped in the grocery store there was a guy outside roasting corn in a big grated drum.  He was spinning this thing like crazy and it smelled so good!  Then, as we were heading into Santa Fe there were several roadside vendors roasting and selling fresh hatch green chilies the same way...the big grated drum.  That smelled incredible too!  I wanted to stop and buy some but I had no idea what we would do with it! 

Back on track....on to breakfast at the Taos Diner!

I REALLY wanted to order one of their fantastic Mexican breakfasts but considering the long ride ahead of me, I'm not sure how chorizo and green chili sauce would sit!  I opted for the California Benedict, which is a traditional eggs Benedict with Avocado and tomato added.  Incredible!  

I know....not the "lightest" breakfast but how can I pass this up?!?! 

After breakfast and hugs for Kristen, we heade back to the hotel to finish packing and loading the bikes.  It's funny, there's such a routine.  Everything has its place.  Then one day, one of the bags won't fit for whatever reason!  You carry around the exact same things in that bag for more than a week and one day it expands or something!  It's a mystery!  

I was alone outside, loading my bike, when Stan & Linda came riding over from their hotel next door.  They were ready to hit the road back to Amarillo.  (Remember Stan & Linda?  our new pals from Amarillo?) Stan said they were taking the Cimarron Canyon and perhaps they would see us down he road somewhere?  We said farewell and bid each other safe travels.  Really nice people!  

We set off through Angelfire and made a brief stop at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Very beautiful and somber there.  

We couldn't stay long because we had a lunch stop planned and the place closed at 2. (We're talking Labor Day and he route we were taking wasn't going to be bringing us through too many towns!)

We took a beautiful route through Cimarron and Philmont. I thought of my brother and my nephew and their awesome Philmont Boy Scout stories. It's so lush and mountainous there.  After a while the mountains and trees give way to rolling pastures and cows, and finally to nothing. Vast expanses of nothingness!  

I'm not even going to go into detail about our disastrous lunch stop!  A two-hour, incredibly frustrating, crappy food stop!  We were captive though! Labor day in small town USA. Slim Pickins for chow!  Just don't ever stop at the Ecklund Hotel in Clayton, NM for a meal!

As we were approaching Amarillo my iPod shuffled to Thin Lizzy's "Cowboy Song".....immediately followed by George Strait's "Cowboys like us"!  The icing on the cake would've been "Amarillo by Morning" but alas, it was not to be!

Lets get to the good part...AMARILLO and The BIG TEXAN STEAK RANCH!!!  I LOVE THIS PLACE!  They have some of the best steaks I have ever had, they have a decent brewery now, and the motel rooms are so fun!  Old west motive with swinging doors leading into the bathroom!  (After about 3 trips through those loud, heavy swinging doors they aren't much fun anymore though!)

Shortly after we got checked in Ron arrived. (Remember, he left Taos a day early to visit his sister in Lubbock.). Good timing!  We got cleaned up and headed over to the restaurant for a tasty steak dinner!  They always have a strolling trio at the Big Texan, taking requests from the guests. Bill really hit it off with them, requesting Jimmy Rodgers songs and others that weren't the usual requests!  I think they played at least 5 songs for us!  

More from the Big Texan...

We turned in early, prepared for one of the longest legs of this trip.... 500 + miles to Russellville, Arkansas. Through the boring part of Texas and Oklahoma. Bah. 

OK!  We're getting caught up!  Today is Tuesday!  (I know that because I just asked Tom!). 

We woke up and were the first customers in the Big Texan when they opened at 7 for their awesome breakfast buffet!!!  They have the BEST bacon!  The only bacon I've had that comes close is at the Original Pancake House in Woodmere, OH. 

Soon we were packed and on the road again. Shortly before our first gas stop it looked like Ron hit a bump and there was a big puff of dust or something. It was hard to tell because he was pretty far in front of us. I kept smelling rubber, too.  There were bunches of tire carcasses littering the highway. Perhaps it was from them?  Strange. Does one of us have a tire rubbing?  Tom and I both noticed Ron's brake light had lit up really bright for a while and then went out, too. Hmmmmmm......

At our first gas stop in Oklahoma we discovered the problem. Ron's bracket broke that supports his tour Pak, which in turn tore out the cables for his lights. Crap. Crappity crap crap. It also explained the rubber smell. Yes, his fender was rubbing his tire. Damn. 

I'm not sure if you can tell from this picture but stuff is not connected that should be!  

Long story short, he rigged a support for the tour-pak with the help of some locals who happened to be there with a welding truck!  The plan was that Ron would get repaired at the dealership outside of Oklahoma City and catch up with us later in Arkansas. The dealership was almost 100 miles away from our location, but he was going in the same direction on 40 for a while.  So we followed him.  From a distance!  None of us wanted to be too close if something let loose!  

Eventually we lost sight of him, he took the exit for route 35 and we continued east on 40.  ....through Oklahoma City. 

Let's sidetrack here.  Throughout our trip so far, I'd have to say the BEST food is in Taos!  Of course, I'm a huge fan of Mexican fare!  Taos is delicious!  The best roads....that's like comparing apples to oranges!  Taos is has beautiful desert and mountain scenery.  Moab was beautiful with is rich red canyons.  The Rockies offered everything from lush pines to scrubby bushes on brown landscapes, to rich reds to granite rocks.  

The WORST road I've ever traveled on so far in my life?  Congratulations, Oklahoma City!  Your dusty, windy, filthy, debris-ridden stretch of I-40 earns you that award!  

I DETEST riding through Oklahoma City. Today was my third time. I prepared myself for how awful it would be and it still exceeded my expectations!  It's so hot and windy. Debris in every material imagined comes hurling at you. Dust, dirt, paper, cardboard, plastic....today I also had bits of wood flying at me AND a metal bracket of some sort making its way into my lane. It's ridiculous. I spend almost the whole time ducked beneath my windshield. And the people there drive like ass. That's a whole 'nother story!  

We finally escaped Oklahoma City unscathed and made a lunch stop just outside of the downtown area.  A quick Subway stop. I figured something light would keep me going so Tom and I split a foot-long BMT.  PERFECT!  

Back on the road again!  I'm getting sleepy!  Sun is hot!  The bottom foam gaskets on my riding sunglasses have come loose and at best get in my field of vision. At worst, they poke me in the eye!  My eyes are itchy and watery. I'm getting REALLY sleepy! I drink some ice water from my travel cup.  I fidget and sing loudly to the iPod music. Must stay awake. So hot. So sleepy!  I finish the LAST of my water from my travel cup. Dammit!  Must. Stay. Awake!  After about 130 or so grueling miles we take our final gas stop!  Thank God Bill's with us!  He has a 5 gallon tank and can't make it as far as our 6 gallon tanks can take us. If it were just Tom and I, we'd be going 200+ miles between gas stops. Ordinarily ok with me....not ok this time, though!

After I fill the tank, I pour eye drops in my eyes, get a cold bottle of water and pour an Emergen-C packet in it....full of vitamins & electrolytes....I re-slather the sunscreen as always, then I take my long-sleeved fishing shirt that I wear whilst road-tripping and soak in in the sink!  Ahhhhhh!  That's awesome!  Only about 130 miles left until our destination for the night!  My shirt only stayed wet for about 10 miles down he road, but I felt refreshed!  

During our gas stop we got bad news from the Ron front. His saddlebag fell off in a construction zone on I-40 and he couldn't safely stop to get it. At first he said a truck had hit it too.  Needless to say this saddlebag containes some important items. Damn.  

We continued on to our hotel.  We encountered a truck bumper in the right lane.  Luckily we were in the left.  About 500 feet later there was a runningboard from a truck in the center lane. We were still in the left lane but a semi we were about to pass was coming up on it when we were side-by-side. Crap! If he hits that thing it's gonna launch from his tires at us like a missle!  I ducked behind my windshield and luckily the truck made a hard right onto the shoulder to avoid it!  Whew!  Good driving sir!  This all happened in an instant!

We made it to our hotel unscathed!  

We also received more word from Ron!

After losing his saddlebag he continued to the dealership and got his bike repaired. He then backtracked to the point of the lost saddlebag. Incredibly he found it!  Intact!!!  I guess a truck didn't obliterate it after all!  As I type this he's about 100 miles behind us.  He would've  made it here to Russellville tonight but a trucker pointed out to him that he has no rear light!  I guess the dealership didnt do a great job of fixing the wiring for he lights?  Anyway, he's overnighting it at a motel somewhere. He'll catch up with us tomorrow. Whew!  

Ok pals, I'm gonna leave y'all now!  Tomorrow is Memphis and after that is NASHVILLE!  I've gotta say that this may be my last entry until our return to Cleveland on Monday. Nashville will be non-stop for us. I'll be visiting my Nashville friends and family, catching the Iron Maiden/Megadeth show, hanging with my Middle Tennessee Browns Backers to watch the season opener, and...this is gonna sound funny, but I have a few friends coming in from Cleveland and I'd like to be a tour guide for them! I think I know my way around Nashville better than Cleveland anymore! My cousin, who has lived there almost his whole life, tells me I know more people in Nashville than he does!  HAHAAHAAAAHAhaaaa!  

This has been an awesome couple of weeks!  Thanks for following us! 

  I'll see y'all back in CLE! 

 

Last day in Taos. :-(

Hello from Taos, New Mexico again!

I was wrong.  Yesterday was not Friday. Yesterday was Saturday!  So that means today is Sunday!  I am ALL messed up!  

We woke up bright & early again and headed down to the Taos Diner where our pal Kristen was working again!  We brought her souvenir t-shirts from Cleveland. Bill & Sue got one from the Rock Hall while Tom & I got one from the CLE clothing company.  She wore the Rock Hall shirt yesterday but her son Victor absconded with the CLE clothing company shirt as soon as we gave it to her!  Obviously she got it back because she was sportin' it today!

Our plan for the day was to head to Santa Fe, about 60 miles from Taos. We stopped along they way for some pix of the Rio Grande.  It's sooooo pretty out here!!! 

Here's Tom, putting his foot in the Rio Grande!

 About half way there Tom noticed his engine light came on.  Then his battery light.  Then his voltage went down to 11-ish.  Crap. He had his voltage regulator fixed a few years back when we were with Cyndi & Dan in Salem, Mass.  Did that take a crap again?  We pulled over at a gas station in Española to formulate a plan.  There's a dealership in Santa Fe, but the Google said they were closed on Sunday.  There's also a dealership in Albuquerque, but that was another 40 or 60 miles from Santa Fe.  Crap.  We decided to wing it and check the Sante Fe dealership first.  Perhaps the Google was incorrect!  As we're enroute, a bazillion plans of attack are going through my head. It's a holiday weekend.  If they're closed tody they'll probably be closed tomorrow too.  We're on a tight schedule and we have to leave Taos in the morning.  Maybe we could ship Tom's bike and half our crap back home and continue on my bike?  Crap.  No matter what, we have GOT to be in Nashville Thursday night for the Iron Maiden/Megadeth show!  

I still had enough thought to snap a pic of the camel rock during my fretting.....

Luckily, my internal scheming was all for naught!  As we pull up to the dealership in Santa Fe we see that not only are they open, they're having a big event with tents and food and demo rides of the 2014 models!  We pull up to the service area and the guys there are super-nice.  They get right to work on Tom's bike.  That's usually the case when you're from out of town.  They go out of their way to get you on the road again. They close at 4 so that gave us plenty of time to hop on my bike and continue into Old-Town Santa Fe.  However, we got sidetracked by a 2014 Ultra on the floor.  (Side note...I apologize for the following bike-talk for my non-riding friends. I may lose a few of you here!)  The salesman gave us the rundown of all the changes for the new models, and there are a TON!  I'm kinda liking them, except....they don't offer a detachable tour pack yet.  They no longer make the Classic so for my next bike I'll be forced into an Ultra.  That won't be for several years though.  By then they should have the detachable tour-Pak thing figured out!  Tom was interested in a demo ride on the new Ultra so he went out to sign up while I paid for t-shirts inside.  By the time I got out there he was just about finished filling out the required forms.  They lady working the tent asked if I wanted to do a demo ride also.  "Nah", I told her.  If anything I'd want to demo the Ultra also and they were all spoken for.  Also, I told her I didn't want to put a helmet on my head in this heat!  (Helmets required for demo rides.). She asked what I currently ride.  I told her an Electra Glide Classic.  The next part is a RIOT..... She then tells me, "you know what bike you'd really like and you should ride is the Heritage Softail."  I looked at her like she had 3 heads!  I asked her why I would want to go from an Electra Glide to a Heritage?  (No radio, no faring, less luggage room, less comfortable!). THIS was her response....."well, you know when you get older you probably won't be able to hold that bike up anymore!" She went on say "I just turned 70 and I can't hold a Street Glide up anymore so I had to go with a Heritage."  I was dumbfounded!  Im thinking to myself...Ok lady, I'm 44 years old so I have at least 25 years to worry about what I can hold up when I'm 70!  Why the Hell would I want to test ride a bike in which I have no interest today?  Just then the lady sitting next to her in the booth piped up and pointed out to Ms. Bonehead "Um...look at how long her legs are....I don't think she'll ever have trouble holding up any bike!"  HAHAAHAAAAHAhaaaa!  THANK YOU!!!  

I noticed that there were helmeted people on bikes in a line, ready to pull out.  "This is group 4", she tells Tom.  "You'll be in group 5 which will leave at 1:10.  The ride lasts about 20 minutes"  (It was only 12:30).  WHAT???? What kind of demo ride is this?  A lame-ass guided parade that's gonna take up all of our afternoon?  I guess demo rides are different than test rides and this deal was LAME!  I mean, if we were captive there for a few hours then it would be OK.  But we had my bike to hop on and get the Hell out of there to see Santa Fe!  Tom told her "never mind" on the "demo parade"!  We saddled up on mine and went to the Old-Town part of the city, with all the cool shops and restaurants!  After a delicious lunch at the San Francisco Street Bar & Grill, we moseyed around, looking at all the cool stuff we can't afford!  

Meanwhile, the dealership called Tom and said the problem was a bad stator. He's looking at about $600 dollars.  "Is that OK?" he asked. Do we have a choice?  hahahaa!  some of the most expensive souveniers from our road trips are the ones you can't see!  Bike parts!  At about 3 we decided to head back to the dealership, Tom's bike was just about ready.  (They also found that his inner primary bearing was shot, so they replaced that too.)  

Back on the road....back to Taos!  Before too long the skies over the mountains started looking hinky.  Yep....rainstorms.  We were heading right for 'em.  

Before we could pull off to get the rain suits on it hit us.  Hard.  Hail and everything.  Bah.  Cold, stinging, blinding rain & hail.  

We took the next exit and found semi-shelter at a gas station to suit up. The wind was blowing the rain around so hard there wasn't too much dry area under the pump canopy!  Soon we were on he road again.  Luckily the rain didn't last too long and were we're able to shed the rain suits in Española. This gave our wet clothes underneath a chance to dry as well as we continued back to Taos!  

Once back at home base, Tom and I opted to eat at Guadalajara Grill again. 

I'm gonna backtrack to last night here.....as we parked our bikes in not-so-legal spots and were making our way to the Cantina, some guy walking by with his wife says "Hey! You can't park your bikes there!"  We weren't quite sure what to make of him or who he was.  His wife broke the ice though, saying "don't listen to him! He's always joking around like that!"  We chuckled, they got on their bikes, and they were off.  

As we were placing our order at the Guadalara Grill counter, I noticed the couple in front of us was the same from last night!  Tom said "I'm gonna tell him he can't park his bike there". I told Tom to resist the urge and just leave him alone!  Of course Tom couldn't resist!  This guy got so upset!  He pointed at Tom's bike and said "look!  There's another bike here!"  Tom said "that bikes OK, but where you're parked is for cars only."  This guy has a cane and he's waving it around and I think he's gonna whack Tom with it!  Just then his wife recognized me from last night and started cracking up!  HAHAAHAAAAHAhaaaa!  Finally someone messed with her husband the way he messes with everyone else!  We ended up sharing a table with them and chatted up a storm!  Their names are Stan and Linda and they live in Amarillo!  "Hey!  We're heading to Amarillo tomorrow" we tell them!  They're heading back home tomorrow as well.  He's a retired school superintendent. She didn't start riding unti she was 55 years old.  She's now 68.  They've ridden to ALL 50 states!  He admits that they cheated for Hawaii, though.  They flew and rented bikes over there!  They were such a neat couple and I'm really glad to have met them and shared stories!  We finished eating and bid each other farewell and safe travels!  Cool stuff!  

Well, tomorrow we're on the road again!  Amarillo by morning..... Well, by late afternoon!

See ya in Texas!

Woohoo! Taos!

Hi again!  We're still here in Taos, New Mexico. I thinks it's Friday!  I've seriously lost track of the days. I've resorted to reaching into random days in my pill organizer for my daily blood pressure meds!  

Tom, Bill, and Ron woke up and left around 7am to meet Bill's buddy at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Angelfire. Sue and I slept in.  Aaaaahhhhhh!  Finally!  We had an awesome breakfast here at the hotel....The Sagebrush Inn.  Complimentary, to boot!  We had our choice of eggs, French toast, pancakes, etc....the usual breakfast fare.  It was delish!  (Not as good as the boys' breakfast at the Taos Diner though!). After breakfast we decided to take a walk to see what we could see.  Unfortunately, we're at the far edge if town and there is zero retail by our hotel.  Banks, a Ford dealership, a car wash, offices, and a hardware store.  We didn't need anything from the hardware store so we wandered back to home base. Unless Sue wanted to jump on the back of my bike it looked like we were staying put until the guys got back!  So I uploaded some pix and we hung around the pool until they returned. We then went for lunch at the Taos Diner!  Hooooray!  Our pal Kristin was working. She hooks us up with airplane-size bottles of tequila since they don't serve alcohol there!  

We like Kristen!

The food there is PHENOMENAL!  I opted for the Avocado-Swiss burger.  Sooooo good!  Kristen even made a key lime pie for us!  

Did I mention we like Kristen?!?!

Group shot!

We went for a little ride and the traffic through Taos is horrendous. It crawls along at 15 mph. Friggin tourists!  By now it was hotter than balls out there!  How do people live here?  Ugh!  We stopped at a store called Overland Sheepskin. More like OverPRICED sheepskin!  Hats for a mere $400 and jackets for around $1200!  After laughing at the ridiculous price tags Tom and I opted to head back to the hotel pool while Bill, Sue, and Ron opted for a little more sightseeing.  

Did I mention it's hotter than balls here?  Ugh.  

On our way back to the hotel we picked up beer, bananas, and water.  We're all set!  

One thing I've noticed....all the cow signs have UFOs on them.  Or maybe sombreros. EVERY SINGLE ONE!  Toooooo funny!!!

Kinda blurry...this was taken at 70mph though!

After a couple beers poolside with some loud splashy children, we made our way back up to the room to shower and chill out for a bit. We had plans to meet up with Kristin again. 

Our rooms are pretty cool...the main entrance overlooks a grass courtyard while another door opens to a private balcony which overlooks the pool.  

Here's us and neighbor Ron on our balconies!  

We met Kristen to do a little riding and visit the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge nearby for some pix. (It was MUCH cooler at this point!) She rides a Sturgis Shovelhead. This thing is oozing with character!  She came prepared with jumper cables in her saddlebag!  Lol!  Bill fell in love with her bike and tried to get her to sell it to him. She was having none of that!  

Kristin leading the way!

The gorge is AMAZING!  The bridge over it it sooooo high up there!  I was getting butterflies being up that high!  

These pix don't do it justice!

Kristen pointed out a car that was about halfway down the gorge that her Dad climbed down and took the bumper from!  (She was born & raised in Taos.). I couldn't even tell it was a car!  From our height it looked like a crumpled folding beach chair!  She also told us several other stories about jumpers and stuff they used to climb down to find as kids....keys, sunglasses, etc....

Side note.....she's really into rocks and such. She said she likes to take rocks that she finds by rivers and oceans and throw them here in the desert to mess with people!  HAHAAHAAAAHAhaaaa!

After listening to stories and snapping pix, we decided we were pushing our luck with all the surrounding storms in the mountains and boogied back into downtown Taos. 

This one was coming right at us!

That's the cool thing about mountains and wide open spaces...you can see the storms in the distance and kinda figure out if you're gonna get hit or not!

We returned to downtown Taos and had dinner & drinks at a place called The Alley.  We stopped here last time we were in town too.  I had an AMAZING burrito. With sour cream. Sorry, Tom! I like the laid-back atmosphere of this place.  There's enough swanky places here that we wanna avoid!  

After stuffing ourselves we returned to our hotel where I now sit in the courtyard again, sipping tequila. The Taos class of '83 is still here, but dressed much fancier than last night!  The band is a thousand times better than last night's as well!  They're playing everything from ZZ Top to Def Leppard to The Beatles.  People here know how to dance, too!  Unlike Cleveland!  Real dancing... Like "Arthur Murray dance studio" dancing!  And two-stepping.  No one two-steps in the CLE!  

OK...that is all for today!  Ron's gonna leave us in the morning to visit his sister in Lubbock, TX.  He'll find us again down the road in Amarillo. We have another full day here. The plan is to visit Santa Fe after breakfast at the Taos Diner!  

Stay tuned!

Rounding Third and heading home!

We're here in Taos, New Mexico!

We left Durango bright and early this morning!  Well, maybe not quite so early...about 9:30. Bill, Sue, and Ron left about 2 hours prior to us.  Bill wanted to visit with his cousin in Chama, NM.  The plan was to meet them there on the way to Taos.  As we were packing the bikes to leave, a guy was kinda wandering the parking lot around us.  "Be safe!" he said.  "Thanks, man!" I replied.  He continued to hover and finally asked "I noticed the Ohio plates.  What part of Ohio are you from?"  We told him that we live in Northfield.  "No kidding" he said, "I'm from Solon!"  He said he grew up there!  WHAAAT?!?!  We told him that we both work there and that I grew up there too! He said he graduated in '77.  Same year as my sister!  I asked his name...Rick Benicci he said.  HOLY COW!  "Any relation to Sandy Benicci?" I asked.  Sandy's his younger brother!  I told him he's much taller than Sandy!  Hahahaaaa!  I hung in the same circle of friends as Sandy in the late 80's. Nice guy!  Haven't seen him in at least 20 years.  SMALL WORLD, HUH?!?!  This happens almost every road trip....this one was REALLY close to home, though!  I wish we could've stayed and chatted longer!  That was too cool!  

We said farewell to our new/old friend and hit the road! 

Side note...the whole time I was in Durango I kept singing Rob Zombie's "Never Gonna Stop" in my head!  🎶 "Yeah my Durango...Number 95....."🎶

 The traffic in Durango was heavier than I expected it would be.  Once we got out of the "big city" it was smooth sailing though!  The weather was perfect again!  I was comfortable in my leather.  We went through some twistie mountains again.  A lot of these mountain roads are also open ranges.  Great.  The road isn't challenging enough on its own....let's throw a random cow in there, too!  We saw a couple juvenile cows racing each other down a hill, bumping into each other!  When they reached the bottom and got to the rest of the herd one started head butting another cow that was minding his own business!  The other cow looked at him like "DUDE!  WTF is your problem?!?!" Crazy cow then mellowed out.  I gotta wonder what goes through their minds!  I turned on the GoPro!  I hope I caught some of that! 

 What's REALLY cool is that they have signs that light up and that read "Wildlife Detected" When there are critters in the area!  We saw a few of those lit up.  I wondered what kind of wildlife was detected!  A bear?  An elk?  A squirrel?  Prarie dog?  What should I be looking for?  Tom said the animals probably go and purposely mess with the traffic..."Hey guys!  Watch this!" As they wave their hooves around in front of the sensor!  Like a magical crosswalk for critters!  

There was a hugeass semi hauling ass a few cars behind us.  I was amazed at how he could keep up on these roads.  He eventually passed some cars and ended up with one car between us. He was so far up this poor car's ass!  I'd be freaking out if I were them!  Another passing zone came up and he ended up right behind us.  Crap.  Don't push me, dude.  I'm doing 5 or 10 over!  Surprisingly he kept a respectful distance from us!  It was greatly appreciated!  The same thing happened a little farther down the road....a Dodge pick-up was behind us for a bit...not riding our ass or anything...but when he had an opportunity to pass he did so....and proceeded to completely ride the ass of the car in front of us!  Respect for motorcycles!  That sure made up for the shenanigans in Nebraska!  

We pulled into Chama and found Bill & Sue waving to us on the street corner. Not unlike in Chicago a few years back!  Guess what?  His cousin wasn't home!  Gaaaaa!  They spent a couple hours eating pancakes and visiting the corner bar while awaiting our arrival.  We stopped in the corner bar too for a cold one.  Foster's is the name.  Established in 1881.  Survived 2 fires and the wars.  This was a VERY cool old place with a super-nice bartender!  There were also 3 locals shooting pool and singing to the jukebox. VERY loudly and VERY poorly!  They were talking with Sue earlier.  They were Apache from the reservation. Or 'Pache as they corrected her....with a silent "a". They were VERY drunk! And amusing!  I so wanted to stay but there was more than 100 miles to cover between Chama and Taos.  No having of too much fun yet!  

We ended up going through the Carson National Forest, with more mountains, twisty roads, lush pines, and COWS!  

Most of the cows were well-behaved!  One cow was on the wrong side of the fence.  The road side. Bad cow!  Tom shook his finger at her as we rode past!  She didn't seem to be aware there was a problem!  

After the National Forest came desert.  And heat.  And some strange people out there.  Every mile or so there'd be a little shack surrounded by a shit-ton of old junk vehicles. Not just cars.  School buses, dump trucks, we even saw a junk garbage truck!  It's like they drive a vehicle 'till it dies, then park it and drive something else.  Collectors. 

Once in Taos we finally made our way to our hotel though the heavy traffic.  We're staying at a place called the Sagebrush  Inn.  It's certainly not a Hampton Inn but it's clean and the people are friendly!  We're on the second floor and half of our room slopes seriously to one side!  When I got in the shower I felt like I was in an RV that wasn't properly leveled!  Our bathroom door won't stay open without a prop!  Kinda funny!

  I LOVE this town!  We came through here in 2010 and made friends with our favorite waitress at the Taos Diner, Kristin. She hung out with us after work a little back then.  Very cool chick!  Rides a shovel.  Drives a sick '63 Chevy pickup.  (A shovel is a Harley engine term for you non-bikers!)  Bill and Tom have kept in touch with her via text since then and I was very excited to see her again!  After a leaning shower we met her and her son at a place called the Guadalajara Grill. We brought her souvenir T-shirts from Cleveland and she made us an apple pie!  

After stuffing ourselves on some serious delicious Mexican grub we said goodbye to Kristin...for now.  We plan on doing some riding with her tomorrow.

We came back to our hotel where I now sit blogging in the courtyard, enjoying my tequila. Inside the bar is the Taos High School class of 1983 reunion, complete with a live band that just slaughtered "the Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie" by the Chili Peppers. I wanna cry!  

Tom just returned from the bar with ice and informed me that "the class of '83 is lookin' rough"!   

Bahahahaaaa!  

See ya soon!

Durango!

I'm back!  

Before I get you caught up on the trip back to Colorado, I wanna backtrack to when we were  riding through that incredible canyon to get to Moab!  If you remember, I put on the full face helmet because of the rain.  after the rain stopped, there were bats everywhere!!!!!!  It was sooooo awesome!  At first I thought they were swallows but a lot of them came close enough to my head that I saw they were bats.  Good thing I had the helmet on, huh?  That's another thing it's good for...cold weather, rainy weather, and bat protection!  

OK...now back to your regularly scheduled programming!  

We stopped at the Colorado state line on route 46 for the pic where we were photobombed by the dead elk head.....

See it there? Behind Ron?  Ick. 

After taking  a couple pix, Sue had to visit the woods.  "Watch out for rattlesnakes!" Tom cautioned her! There was zero traffic, but as we were getting ready to leave a truck came down the road.  He stopped and Bill chatted with him for a while.  

He informed us that there's a bear that's been hanging in this area for a few weeks. He said he sees it just about every morning and every afternoon "right about there"... And he pointed to the area of woods that Sue had just visited!  Gaaaaa!!!!!!!

We were soon rolling again, through back roads and mountains and canyons and small towns. One was called Bedrock!  Yabba Dabba Doo!  The only thing in Bedrock was a store that appeared to be closed and a bridge. We stopped for a restroom break in a little town called Naturita, population about 650. 

As when we traveled into Moab, I could tell that we had just missed some serious bad weather.  there was standing water in what were normally desert fields and evidence of road wash-outs. We've been incredibly lucky!  Mother Nature's been very kind to us!  

Here's some more shots of yesterday's ride.....

We made a lunch stop in Ouray before heading onto the Million Dollar Highway!  This stretch of route 550 between Ouray and Silverton is famous for its narrow twisties, sheer drop-offs, and incredible views.  Unfortunately for the REALLY awesome views I needed both hands on the bars and couldn't  take pix.  Here's some that I was able to snap though.....

I had the GoPro going for a lot of it, hopefully some good video footage comes out of that!  (The GoPro is the video camera mounted to my handlebars.)

This road was everything I hoped for!  Exhilarating!  The drop-offs were insane!  I couldn't look down or my stomach would flip-flop!

After the ride of a lifetime we ended up in Silverton, where we were just in time to see the Durango-Silverton Narrow Guage Rail depart.  Fun stuff!  Oh!  As we were waiting to see the train leave, I felt a little pinching feeling in my wrist. My first thought was "did some hot coal go up my sleeve?"  I looked.... BEE!  BEE IN THE SLEEVE!  Crap Crap crap crap crap!!!  In an instant, everything was in a heap on the ground at my feet....jacket, shirt, camera, keys, phone!  I dropped everything and disrobed in a split second! (No worries, I was still wearing a tank top. This didn't turn R-Rated!) the people on the train got quite a show! All was OK though.  Thank GOD that thing didn't sting me!  I got stung ONCE before...about 10 years ago....on my ribcage....It so happens I was on my bike then, too! .... my side swelled up to the size of a cantaloupe and I felt sick for the rest of the day!  I imagine I'm allergic to bee stings. I'm allergic to everything else!  

Silverton's a very cool little town. Gritty with a lot of old west character!  We stopped for a cold one at a place called Handlebars. 

The bartender was super nice!  We talked bikes and such with her. I wish we could've stayed longer but we still had to get to our final destination, Durango, which is about 50 miles away.  

OK.....I'm gonna get us all caught up here!  We're here in Durango, which is another really cool little town.  Lots of bars, shops, and restaurants in the downtown area!  They're having a "Four Corners Bike Rally" nearby this coming weekend so the motorcycles are starting to pour in for that.  Good thing we're leaving in the morning!  Too many people in one place for me at those Rallies!  

Tom and I took a ride today to the Four Corners Monument, where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona all meet.  It was a long, scenic ride!  To be honest, the monument area itself was underwhelming!  We took the obligatory tourist pix.....

We then saddled up and headed for Cortez, Colorado, where we found lunch at the Main Street Brewery.  OK food with GREAT beer.  Too bad I could only have one! 

After lunch, we headed back to base camp, where we swam in the pool while doing some laundry.  It's tough fitting 19 days worth of clothes on the back of a bike!  Doing a load of laundry here & there makes us much more socially acceptable!

Ok...that's it.  You're caught up!  I left a LOT out, I know!  It's tough keeping up with this blogging thing because we're always on the go!

We leave Durango in the morning....destination, Taos, New Mexico!  

See ya there!