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! 

Moab, Arches, and back to Colorado!

I woke up this morning after the best sleep so far this trip!  I felt fantastic and ready to see Arches National Park!  We wandered over to have some breakfast. Only Sue was there. Bill and Ron took a stroll down to he Verizon store so Bill could get some help with his new smart-ass phone!  After Bill was hooked up with his phone we set off!  

Arches National Park is absolutely incredible!!!!  

It looks like the moon!  Or Mars!  Or Mars' moon!

The rock formations were astounding!  One was called "sheep rock" but Tom and I insisted it looked more like a bull.  We renamed it Bull Rock!  

We rode and stopped at various spots to take pix. I was amazed!  

We rode some more to a spot called the Devil's Playground. There were signs warning to have at least 2 liters of water per person before hiking to see the arches there.  Um. We had NO water!  But we decided to take a walk anyway!  (Oh boy!)   We took some pix along the way....

After walking to exhaustion and still no sign of arches, Tom and I decided to wait under the shade of a big ass rock and take pictures of lizards whilst Ron continued on!  I told him to make sure he takes pix!  At his point I was ready to just buy a nice postcard at the visitor's center!  HAHAAHAAAAHAhaaaa!  I was getting dizzy and was running out of spit to swallow!  Ron returned some time later, carrying his shirt!  Tom surmised he was wringing it out for something to drink!  

OK.... I hate to do this but I'm gonna fast forward!  This daily blogging is almost impossible with our adventure-filled days!

We left Arches,had lunch lunch at the Moab Brewing Co, cooled off in the hotel pool, then got cleaned up for dinner at Bucks Grill House.  I had the duck tamales and they were DELISH!  I also had the best margarita ever!  No crappy sour mix!  Fresh lime juice!  

We woke bright and early this morning.....what day is it, anyway!?!?  Oh yes!  Wednesday!  We've been on the road for 1 week as of today!  We made our way back into Colorado on the secondary routes!  Hooray!  Desolate and scenic!!!!

We stopped at the Colorado state line for pix. There was an elk head in the beginning stages of decomposition laying there. Gross. It photobombed our pic. Double gross. 

Not this pic.....it photobombed our group shot. Tom has that one on his camera still.

OK....Sorry to cut it short right here but Tom just got back from fetching coffee in the lobby and informed me that it's SAUSAGE GRAVY AND BISCUITS day here at the Hampton Inn!!  So I'm gonna jump in the shower now and get me some!

(It's now Thursday morning, by the way!)

Next time I'll catch you up on the rest if our AWESOME Wednesday and I'll tell ya what we did today!  

SEE YA SOON! 

Over the Rockies and into Utah!

I last left you in Denver.  The Mile High City!  Denver sure is awesome!  It reminds me quite a bit of Chicago. In fact, there were a couple times when I caught myself thinking we WERE in Chicago!  Next trip back we'll have to stay longer. There's so much to do and lots of friends to see out there!

We planned on pulling out fairly early and meeting Ron's son in Frisco for breakfast at a Denny's there.  It was a beautiful warm morning and even though I knew I'd have to bundle up before the Rockies, I wasn't ready to do so quite yet. Just after Idaho Springs we pulled off to don jackets. I planned on throwing the chaps on after our breakfast. 

Onward we climbed, up the beautiful Rockies!  What an incredible ride!  I was starting to get REALLY hungry by this point and I really needed more coffee!  Luckily Frisco wasn't too much farther.  We exited and searched for the Denny's. And searched a little more.  Hmmmnn.  There doesn't seem to be a Denny's anywhere.  In fact, from what I see as my first impression, Frisco doesn't appear to be a "chain-restaurant" kinda town!  We parked the bikes and went in search of food.  The first place we found was called the Butterhorn Cafe and Bakery. JACKPOT!!!!  This place ROCKED!  

The menu was AMAZING and our server was awesome.  The day we were there was his one-year anniversary in Frisco.  He relocated from Atlanta.  We told him where we were coming from and where we were going.  He was very excited that we were going to Moab.  He said he's always wanted to get there.  Back to the amazing menu!  Here's a glimpse....

I opted for the Eggs Butterhorn...their version of Eggs Benedict.  Tom got the biscuits and gravy, while Ron, Bill, and Sue got French toast in some form or another.  Check these out!

French Toast

More French toast

Biscuits and Gravy

Eggs Butterhorn!  Under that croissant is 2 poached eggs, avocado, Canadian bacon and a roasted red pepper sauce.  Their croissants were so fresh and fluffy!  This food was amazing!

Oh, Ron's son?  Never got to meet up with us.  He got called in to work!

After filling our bellies and taking some pix, we bundled up and headed on up the mountain!

I'm glad I put my chaps on because there were a few spots I really needed them.  Overall it wasn't NEARLY as cold as when we were through there last year.  I was able to take many more pix this time since I wasn't wearing gloves! 

On the downhill side, we stopped at a rest area to lose some clothing!  As we were pulling in the guy standing by the car next to our spot was wearing an Ohio State shirt. I gave him an "O-H"!  Either he didn't hear me or he forgot what shirt he was wearing but his wife/girlfriend picked up his slack!  "I-O"! She answered!  Buckeyes in the Rockies!  Then, I go into the restroom and see this in the stall....

Hahahaaaa!  Someone was creative!  All kind of Ohio references. At this stop!

We were soon back on the road.  Utah-bound!  But not before lunch and a stop at the Harley dealer in Grand Junction!  

Gassed up and back on the road, we motored on into Utah. Just as the Rockies weren't as cold as last year, Utah wasn't nearly as hot!  Perfect temps!  Unfortunately my camera was acting wonky and setting itself to certain settings....like macro.....so a lot of my riding pix didn't go as planned. Bah!  

Here's a couple, though.....

We left I-70 and opted to take route 128 into Moab.  WOW!  This road is incredible!  As we were approaching the canyon area I could see what appeared to be a pretty good storm brewing over it.  They just got slammed in that area over the previous couple days. I was hoping to avoid the really bad stuff. Especially when they get the roads washed out and whatnot. Don't need no whatnot!  

See it here?  To the right?  Yep....that's where we were heading!  

This road is so beautiful and desolate.  Then we approached the canyon area where the river ran along side the roadway.  WOW!  There are no words to describe how beautiful and awesome this canyon is! It's amazing how small I felt!  

Shortly after these pix were taken it started to rain.  While we opted for no rain suits as a group, Tom & I opted to put on the full-faced helmets. I didn't know how nasty it was gonna get and the full-facers are great for the rain!  No need to worry about foggy glasses on these twisty road with those things!  Luckily it didn't get too bad. We passed several areas where you can see the road had been washed out from the previous storms. They were pretty well cleaned up when we came through though. I'd hate to be in the middle of THAT!  

We arrived at the Hampton Inn Moab a little damp and a little tired!  

They let us park our bikes under the unloading overhang, too!  I love when they let us park there!

After unpacking and showering, we found a Mexican restaurant within walking distance.  The food was tasty and the waitress was friendly. Here's my Carne Asada tacos and my local brew from Moab Brewery...

So far, so good in Moab!  

We wandered back to our rooms and planned for an 8-ish breakfast, then Arches National Park!  i was WAY excited to see Arches!  I hit the pillow where I had the BEST sleep so far this trip!  

Stay tuned for Adventures in Arches!