| August 28, 2t ride. 1000 miles in under 24 hours.
I am trying to figure out the best time to leave. I want to ride as many hours as possible in the daylight but I want to arrive in Rawlins WY at a time that I can be sure to find some one to sign my witness papers. I want to follow all of the rules so that I can my certificate and the license plate frame etc. Hi Gang, I am off on my travels again. As before if you find your self on my email
list and would like to be taken off. Just reply and let me know and it
will be done. As always I look forward to yourn comments. Trying to get out of house. Many little details that need to be taken car of but it looks like I will be on schedule. I got off on schedule this morning, shortly after 10:00am. Barry gave me the send off again and signed my start of trip form. This is a form that is part of the paper work for an Iron Butt award. To get the award I will need to travel 1000 miles in less than 24 hours. My route of choice for this event is to drive from Santa Rosa to highway 80 then on 80 to Rawlins WY. This route takes me through Reno NV, Salt Lake City. The weather was sunny as I left Santa Rosa in light traffic, nice riding weather. I kept wondering of this is a good idea but one good thing about traveling by myself, I can stop at anytime. Even the organization that certifies the extreme rides, cautions you about going with a group. It just kept getting warmer as I traveled until it reached the highest temperature of the trip at 86 degrees at Vacaville. I was hoping for some great photo opportunities along the way but the clouds and sunset colors never quite materialize. When I got to Wendover I had covered 600 of the 1000 plus miles I needed to travel. I had used up 11 of my 24 hours and I needed to get some rest. Checked into a motel and about 10 I closed my eyes. I just laid there, wide awake and the alarm was set for 1:30am. I was starting to seem like an impossible task. I had to make so many gas stops traveling across Nevada. The bike can go comfortably about 170 miles when traveling at 75 mph. The stops are about 60 miles apart so I had to fill up at the 120 mile mark. Just lots of lost time. I laid there thinking that if the alarm did not wake me up it would be OK. I woke up at 1:15am and got up and started packing up. I was almost ready to go by the time the alarm went off. The GPS guided me through Salt Lake. I was planning buying gas just before leaving Salt Lake. I suddenly realized I was outside of Salt Lake and everything in front of me was black. I was now looking at the reserve light which meant I had 40 miles to go. If I have to turn back to get gas, this is all a waste of time. I decided to go for 15 minutes in the direction I was going and then turn back. At about the 15 minute mark there was a sign announcing gas ahead, but is it going to be open? I get there and the station is closed but the lights are on at pumps. DINO MITE The pumps are working and I fill the tank. It is now about 4:00am and I start riding up into the mountains. I had dressed for cold weather when leaving the motel. 45, 41, 38, 34 oh no. 32. Yup, it was freezing cold. I was wearing gloves with liners but I could tell my fingers were getting colder than they should be. I promised the higher powers that I would stop at the first place I could warm my fingers. Then I drove by rest stop and started cussing myself for the next twenty minutes. I finally came to a truck stop. I had to ask one of the young ladies to help me get my helmet off. I then poured warm water over my fingers for about 5 minutes. Hurt like hell but the feeling came back. 16 oz of black coffee and I was off again. It had warmed up to 40 degrees by now and sun was starting to come out. Now the question was could I make good enough time to get to Rawlings in time? I was back traveling at 75 to 80 mph. It was manly me and the big trucks. The trucks can travel at 75 mph in Nevada and Utah but they almost all run around 65 mph. Just about the same speed as California. I think this must be the best compromise on fuel and speed to be cost effective. I was gaining on it and now it looked like I may make it with time to spare. I was starving, but I knew that if I stopped and ate anything, I would get sleepy. I just pressed on from Utah to Wyoming. I finally saw a sign for Rawlings. Amazingly, I have had only a little wind here and there for this whole ride, Now I could see that I was going to make it in time. Now could I get some total strangers to sign my application form. When I reached Rawlings I quickly filled the gas tank at a truck stop. The gas receipt is the proof of time. I then went into the Subway to see who I could victimize. I propositioned a well dressed gentleman, and it turned out he was an old biker and had made many long extreme drives himself. We walked out to bike and he verified the mileage and bike. We went back into the Subway and finished the paper work. When I walked back out to bike a young man chatted me up. He was my next victim. That task done it was time to get something to eat. I ate at the truck stop cafe, loading up at the buffet plus lots of coffee because it was to early to check into motel. As I was about to leave the truck stop a van pulled into the parking lot and this cow boy gets out with a six shooter on his side that would have made Clint Eastwood proud. Yup. I am Wyoming, where there is a little room in back with no lights for the non smokers and real men carry guns. I went over and checked the logo on the side of the van. Armored car service. It was a good story while it lasted. I finally gave up and stopped in Walden CO. About 110 miles from Rawlings. The first motel I check had no vacancies but the funky little one down the street had a room, rate was reasonable and they had wifi. After putting the bike under its cover I laid down to take a nap and realized the wind noise in the room was so loud I would could not hear the traffic on the road. There could have been a big party in the room next door and I would not known it. I had a ground moose, beef and pork steak, with brown gravy dinner at
a local cafe. I have been listening to country music while writing this
to get me in mood for tomorrow. Phil Sept. 2, 2010 Hi Gang, I got a cup of coffee out of the guys that woke me up this morning. Walls so thin I could follow both sides of a phone conversation. I slept well and long, so in the end all is good. I was on the road by nine local time this morning. It was very nice to travel slowly again. At least this area of Colorado is rolling hills some times mountains with the lush mountain meadows. Road for about and hour and then bought gas and had breakfast. I decided to head directly for Mt. Evans while eating breakfast. Programmed the GPS and headed out. I must have already had an Iron butt because I felt just fine. On my trip to Alaska I became concerned about the devastation from the bark beetle. In Colorado they have the pine beetle. I don't know if they are the same thing. In the areas that I road trough today I would say that 10% to 80% of the tree are dead in any area with probably an average of 50%. This has to be a disaster that is not talked about. It was about the same in Canada and Alaska. Looking at my photos from the Alaska trip you can not see the vastness of the damage. You can only see the damage on the trees close to the road. I got to Mt. Evans (14,130ft) and started the ride up. Not wanting to take a chance on the weather changing or something going wrong I road straight to the top. There were parts that I remembered from last year but without the snow so much of it looked different. The switch backs are very tight as you get close to the top. Had to watch for down hill traffic on the inside corners going up because it is very difficult to keep the bike in my lane. Other than that, it was a perfect day with light winds, clear skies with enough cumulus clouds to make the photos interesting. I did not stop at the ranger stations on the way up. It was a day where you could just see forever. Off in the distance was Pikes Peak to the north Longs Peak. Parking lot at the top was almost full but I got the highest spot for a motorcycle. Where I stayed last night was over 8,000 feet fortunately. So at least I did not get altitude sickness. I walked through the castle like structure and then made the decision to take the trail to the very top of the mountain. It was slow going for this low altitude kind of guy but I made it to the top. I adventurously climbed up on top of a rock and sat there at the absolute peak of the mountain. I took lots of photos from there and got my photo taken. I then climbed down to let others have their chance. It was one more goal for me and bike accomplished. After taking a few more photos I started down the mountain. I had gone down the trail about 150 feet when I realized that the camera settings were wrong. So I turned around and headed back up to repeat some of the photos I had taken. I did not want to be this close to getting it right and not get it right. A family of mountain goats were hanging out next to the parking lot when I got back down. They seemed to have no fear of humans. I now have many more photos of these great creatures. I finally decided it was time to head down the mountain. I had been at the top for about 2.5 hours. I was some how sad to leave as it meant the end of todays adventure. It was another scenic ride down. When I got to base had to decided what to headed for Denver and find a motel. It has been a great day and another goal accomplished. All days should be like that. Have a good one.. Phil.............. September 3, I hustled out of my motel room this morning, intent on getting to Pikes Peak. There was not a cloud in the sky and the temperature was in the high sixties. Denver seems to be a very pleasant and prosperous community. The freeway over passes are finished with art formed into the concrete. Not as artistic as Santa Fe, New Mexico but still very nice. There are bike paths in many of the cities and town areas of Colorado. They are well paved so that it is also possible to roller blade the trails. I understand that Colorado has the healthiest citizens of any state. The locals that have spoken with are fiercely loyal to the area and could not imagine living any where else even though they have traveled. I could not get the GPS to recognize Pikes Peak so programmed it for the Pikes Cog railway knowing that would get me close, not realizing the railway goes up the other side of the mountain. The upside of this mistake is that I rode through picturesque town of Manitou. A nice mixture of historic buildings and nice tourist traps. I have been to the base of Pikes Peak three times before so I should know the route by now. I got back on 24 headed west and about 10 miles down the road is the turn off to drive to the top. A few minutes later I was at the entrance and was informed that there are no discounts for being old. Some money changed hands and I was on my way up the mountain. Still no clouds in the sky and temperature was 70+ at the bottom but they said it was 36 degrees at the top. At the bottom you are at around 7,000 feet so there is a lot of climbing to do. You start off with the road lined with Aspen trees which slowly change to ever greens and then you are above the tree line at around 12,000 feet. The first few miles went by quickly and then I caught with a pair of cars going 20 mph. The lead car pulled off and I thought OK, I will make it to top before the end of the day. Not so fast. We picked up the pace a little. There were a couple of other bike riders behind me. That car pulled off just as we got to gravel road. The gravel road was fine, just needed to leave extra room so I was not eating the dust from the car in front. The gravel road ended after about 3 miles but we were now at the portion of the road where you are aware of the drop off and switchbacks are real tight. Now the car in front was only doing 10-15 mph and almost stopping at switchbacks. I had to ride in low gear. Finally made it to top and found a parking spot almost in front of the billboard where everyone gets their photo taken. This is a totally different experience from Mt. Evans. There are hundreds of tourist who are spending most of their time in the souvenir shop or eating. Probably half had driven up and the other half had taken the cog railway up. Still no clouds in the sky, no wind and the temperature was 47 degrees when I got to the top. I talked with one of the bike riders who was following me up the mountain. He and other rider and the wives were from Texas. He was more upset with the car in front than I was. The whole time we were talking, and we talked for awhile he was spitting about every 60 seconds. Chatted up another Harley rider tonight at the motel and he was spitting the whole time. The Pikes Peak air seemed even thinner than the Mt. Evans air. I wondered around the top and down to some of the over looks at the top. I took lots of photos but with no clouds, they are probably going to be a little boring. I was not able to take any photos on the way up as we were traveling so slow the bike would stop before I could get a photo. But going down hill, that was not a problem so I was able to take a lot of photos on the way down. No sheep, no goats at top but I did see what some said was a marmot, a kind of ground squirrel. Again I had the feeling that there should be more or I should do more or that I was missing something before I headed down. I thought about sitting in the cafe at the top and making some trip plans but I felt to out of sorts to do that kind of thinking at this altitude. There was a car on my tail as I started down the mountain and I had pulled over to let it past. After you have travel a couple of miles going down the mountain there is a traffic stop. They check the temperature of your brakes. They make some drivers pull over and wait before going down the rest of way. There were a few cars in front of me and I could smell hot brakes. They also gave them detail instruction on how to drive down the mountain. They asked the driver that had been on my tail to pull off and let their brakes cool. The women checking brakes was going to just wave me through but I stopped and she checked my front brake 95degrees. I was able to see more of vistas going down. The Aspen are starting to change color. It has taken four trip by the base of Pikes Peak to make this ride. Fortunately I was not riding here to go up but only riding by. Though on my trip last year I did take a fairly long side excursion to make the ride. I was rewarded with a grand day on the mountain. Another goal accomplished. I wandered through parts of Colorado Springs and found a motel. Enough for now. Have a good one.... Phil.............. September 4 Hi Gang I got up at 5:30 this morning to go and watch the hot air balloons take off. I had some vague instructions on how to get there. As I rode along the scene in front of me was surreal with hundreds of people walking in the same direction. Quickly parked the bike and joined the march. There in a large grass field at just before sunrise were all of these balloons laying on the ground waiting to be filled. They use gas driven fans to fill them with cold air and then blasts with the propane flame to heat the air. They slowly rise and and at some point the basket which is laying on it side, flips upright. The pilot and his passengers then board and then there is a period of organized panic as the balloon starts to lift off. People in the crowd just clear a path for the basket as it skims along the ground for a ways and then starts to rise into the sky. They are so graceful as they slowly rise and then disappear. The balloon launch was finished by 8:30 this morning. I then spent about 4 hours in the Garden of the Gods. It is a large city park that is free and open to everyone. It is full of the classic South West red rock. There were a lot of people using the area today. I saw three separate weddings. There were the usual tourist buses with loads of foreign tourist. It is probably bigger than golden gate park but I did not see any police or guards nor did I see any need for them. There were probably 10 different rock climbing groups. It is really interesting to watch them work their way up the steep faces. A man asked me if I thought I wanted to try it. I said I would rather work on my taxes than do that. It got him laughing so hard he just walked off. The hot air balloons looked like they could be fun but climbing up vertical cliffs just does not appeal to me. I made a second trip back to the Garden of the Gods late in the day to see if I could get some better photos with the evening sun. Have not checked out all of my photos yet from the days adventures. There are over 750. The motel I picked has had a flood of motorcycles this weekend. The owners said this is not typical and talking with the various riders we all stopped here by chance except for the large group of dirt bike riders. I then went back to the park where the balloons were launched for their evening show. They tether the balloons to the ground but use the burners to light them up. It is quite impressive but difficult to photograph. Anyone balloon only stays lit for maybe 5 to 15 seconds. They repeat the process every few minutes. The launch was well attended this morning but there was still a lot of room to walk around. Tonight the place was packed and it was hard to navigate through the crowd. Most of the balloons had a sponsor, though only a few had actual logos on them. I talked with people that had traveled from the East coast to see the balloons and photograph them. The locals said I have been very lucky as frequently they can not get off the ground because of the wind. This has been a great stop and makes all of the effort to ride to the top of Pikes Peak worth while. Enough for now as I need to start repacking the bike for the next part of this adventure. Have a good one...... Phil.................... September 5 73 degrees to 88 degrees with some heavy wind gusts. Repacked my bike this morning. I only had to change a few things this time. I am getting better at this traveling on the bike. I wasted more time trying to get the GPS to take me down the roads that I wanted to travel. Finally gave up and went back the directions taped to the gas tank of the bike. I brought oat meal and my favorite dried fruit mix. It is nice to have a healthy breakfast in the morning and there is always a micro wave available. The greater Colorado Springs area is larger than I thought. It took around a ½ hour to get out of the metropolitan area. As I traveled down the rural roads I realized that each type of area I was going through reminded me of certain areas in other states. I went through miles of areas that looked like Eastern Oregon. Other areas that could be in the Sierras of California, while others looked identical to western Nevada. They were not using irrigation until I got to Southern part of Colorado. The only crops I saw were hay or alfalfa. I saw a large herd of Buffalo that are being raised commercially. There were big signs along the road warning people that the Buffalo are dangerous and stay out of their area. The buffalo appeared to be more healthy than he buffalo in Yellowstone but it could have something to do with the distance between the road and herd. I am sure that I passed at least 500 motorcyclists today. I bet at least a third of these had a passenger. All of the riders waved. It is definitely a friendly group. A fair amount were pulling trailers. One of the riders staying next to me had build his own MC trailer. He had build a cute little tier drop type trailer. Traffic was heavy today but there were no trucks on the road. A prison was the largest facility that I saw all day. I did ride by a Norad base and have to assume that is a larger facility but did not see any large building. They may all be under the ground. I was headed towards Taos New Mexico today but I stopped short, at San Luis CO. I became concerned about getting a motel room or a camp site as I got close to Taos. I am 60 miles from Taos so I will be able enjoy exploring the area for awhile tomorrow. The owner of the motel was working the desk when I checked in. An interesting veteran of the Korean war. He started out with the gas station in front of the motel in 1959 and then made some money in the stock market and decided to build the motel for his kid and grand children to work in. I decided at 6:30 that I needed to eat before everything closed up. From the street I could see a Mexican restaurant next to gas station. It was closed, OK there is another restaurant across the street. It is for sale and closed. Oh there is another Mexican restaurant at the end of the block but it is closed on Sundays. That is the end of the town going that direction so I walk in the other direction. Three more places closed. I get to the gas station at the other end of town and there is a little Pizza, Sandwich and Ice Cream parlor attached to the gas station that was open. This place was right out of the forties. The refrigerated display box had the compressor and coils on top. A newer compressor had been jury rigid to condenser. The cash register is something you now see in antique shops. They do call this historic San Luis. I had a great mini pizza and coke and was on my way. I was beginning to think I might have to settle for a protein bar for dinner tonight. I had to do that a couple of time in Alaska and it is not a comforting feeling. There is a huge house up on a hill over looking the city that has the biggest windows I have ever seen. The windows go around most of the house. There is a large community arts center in the town. A relatively new building with very modern architecture. It seems totally out of place relative to the rest of buildings in town. I passed a number of the home site development places along the road today. They all had a fancy front gate area and advertised lots for sale. Usually you can only see a few homes and the deteriorating sales office. A few close to Colorado Springs were covered in beautiful up scale homes. I don't have Internet access tonight, a lonely feeling. Have a good one Phil............. September 6 68 to 86 with just a few wind gusts. I had a nice stay in San Lous and got off to reasonably early start.
The wind woke me up sometime during the night. I was relieved to find
the wind had died down by the morning. I was headed for Taos, NM. A large
number of bikes passed me going the other direction. I would say ¾
of them had a passenger. Only about ten percent of the riders and passengers
were wearing helmets. It has to be very uncomfortable to have your face
and hair blowing in the wind all day. I maybe could see doing while riding
around town. I got to Taos just before noon and the road was very crowded. It took
about 20 minutes to get to the heart of the activity. I wondered around
looking for a place to park, finally locating something in a public lot
about a block from the activities. It was about a quarter full as people
were all trying to get a place a little bit closer to the action. Taos
is very high on the South West look with a lot of South West Indian jewelry
and art. There things for any budget but it did seem to me that things
were a little over priced relative to other areas. There is some of the
other stuff thrown in, including the standard tourist souvenir stuff.
There was a local artist the does these amazing paintings on this Indian
silk fabric. He uses dyes and wax to do the art. Most of pieces where
nominally poster size line drawings with lines about a half inch wide.
The are quite colorful but interestingly if you look at them with polarizing
glasses they are three dimensional. As he pointed out you loose a little
color saturation. The silk fabric has a very fine weave and changes reflectivity
a lot with a change in angle. I talked to several people working in the
shops and they said people are doing a lot of looking but not doing a
lot of buying. Thanks to a AAA map I was able to identify the scenic route from Taos to Santa Fe. It took me up into the mountains close to some of the ski resorts, then through a large Indian reservation. There was no sign of the pine beetle or bark beetle as all of the trees seemed very healthy and hills were dark green. The only down side was the speed limit was never more than forty mph for 60 miles. There was also a five miles of construction with a gravel road. The gravel was well packed but not graded so there was a lot of wash board. The old bike rattled along just fine. I tried to grab photos of the over passes and retaining wall art while riding into Santa Fe. They have done a great job and I am going to let the photos talk for what they have done. I went looking for South West food tonight but the non chain restaurants are closed in the few miles that I covered trying to find something. Enough for now.... have a good one Phil........... September 7, I decided to leave Santa Fe this morning instead of hanging out there as it would be more fun to explore the city with Jan than by myself. The classic South West architecture has to be one of my favorites. I
love the rounded edges and the red rock colors used most frequently on
these homes. The only thing that concerns me about that style is the flat
roofs. I was thinking about this as I drove by many of the classic homes
in what may have been a housing community with tight CC&R's as all
of the homes were the same color. A few minutes later almost all of the
homes had peaked roofs. They were equally nice homes but there was a variety
of designs. A flat roof is going to leak unless everything is perfect
and the world is not perfect. It was a scenic ride from Ruidoso to Alamogordo. A healthy looking forest in every direction and then back to high desert scenery but the sky was starting to look real interesting. There were a lot of clouds in the sky with some dark clouds here and there but the road seemed to be just skirting the black clouds. Just as I got into the out skirts of Alamogordo it starts to rain. Now I have gotten drenched in this situation in the past so I decide to try and be more prudent this time and started looking for shelter. There it is, I stand on the brakes and pull into an old fashion drive in with awning over the cars. After I had stopped I took off my helmet and was sitting there trying to figure out the menu. The car hop came out to take my order and got herself all wet. I told her I was planning on going in. I went in and ordered and by the time I had finished the rain had stopped and everything was dry. I found a friendly motel and unloaded the bike and put the cover on. The game plan is to spend the day at the space museum tomorrow. I have updated the web presence for the my motorcycle trips. I have some photos from this trip. I love the balloon photos. I have many more. Click on Pikes Peak photos at the bottom of the page. I also encourage you to check out our vacation rental house at The Sea Ranch on the California coast. http://altairhouse.com/mctrips/index.htm Have a good one................... Phil...............
September 8 While I was in New Orleans, on my first trip across the country, I heard about the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo NM. The person I was speaking with said there is a docent at the museum who knew most of the astronauts and had all of these great stories to tell. As I was headed to Alamogordo I wondered if I would meet the great story teller. When I got to the museum there were maybe 20 cars in the parking lot. Parked the bike and wandered through the displays outside including getting my photo taken sitting in the seat of the rocket sled that Col. Stapp had used for those famous test of the number “G's” a human could with stand. Some how the copper colored mirrored windows were appropriate for the museum and made a nice back drop for the rocket outside. When I was purchasing my ticket the I clerk said Charles was in today but that he was training two potential new docents. After I had purchased my ticket she closed her booth and took me up in the elevator to find Charles. How nice is that. Charles was busy doing his usual thing, but lucky for me there was this little old Hispanic lady that was addicted to the NASA channel on cable and new all of the right questions to ask. I just sat back and listened. I followed this conversation for about an hour and half. Charles took the women to his office and gave her some NASA photos including a photo of a Hispanic astronaut that was signed by the astronaut. She was thrilled. She was traveling with her grand son and it was her third trip to the museum and her grandsons first. I had to leave them to go to the IMAX show, on the repair of the Hubble telescope. There were 8 people in the theater so I had the hard task of finding the perfect seat. I went back to the museum to explore the rest of the exhibits. Charles was still there and I had him all to myself for at least 45 minutes. Charles is 85 years old and I was very impressed with his memory for detail. He is an ex Navy Seal and pulled the astronauts out of the capsules after they landed in the water. We ended up in his office so he could show me some photos and his two trainees joined us. Then all of the stories started to repeat and I understood how he had such a good memory for details. He relives the details every day but that is great for those of us lucky enough to hear his stories. I then stopped at one of fireworks stores that you see along the road when traveling. The really do sell firecrackers and fireworks. The price of firecrackers was quite cheap. A huge brick was less than $10. I thought about it for a couple of minutes and decided I did not have any room for it on the bike and headed out. I finally got all of the pieces together for the website. I added a lot more photos from my trip to Alaska. There are probably too many photos in the one directory. Enough for now...... Have a good one.............. Phil............... September 9 67 to 89 degrees Wonderful clouds of all kinds in the sky. My first stop today was at the White Sands National Monument. The white sand dunes are just spectacular. I would love to spend a few days there taking photographs and especially to see them in the different light of the day. There was a sunset walk advertised. I stopped at the visitors center on the way out to ask about the yellow flowers along the side of the road. Because you only see them along the paved roads I was wondering if there was a group that were scattering seeds. The ranger was a little taken back by my question. But she did look up the name of the flower. The book she had described it as a yellow crimson beard but I can not find that on the internet. Then I was traveling along the out skirts of the White Sands Missile
test range. I also pasted a b It has been in the high 80's since I left the motel this morning and the heat was starting to get to me. I stopped at a rest stop and got out the air conditioner. I set it up and got back on the road. Life is now cool again. My air conditioner is an old heavy cotton shirt that I soaked in water and just put on over my shirt. In this low humidity it is almost too cold. When I got to las Cruses I turned and headed North on 25. 10 minutes or so down the road I came to another Border Patrol inspection stations. This time I had to stop and wait my turn. They just let me through but I as was driving out there is big mechanical arm coming off the truck. On the end there was a device maybe 2x2x2 feet but what left me wondering was it had the radiation symbol on it. If it was an x-ray source I would have expected there to be a detector on the other side of the road. What could it possibly be? Again there were all of the cameras etc. It is one thing to read about this stuff, it is another thing to experience it. I headed North on 25 to highway 152 where I headed West again. I stopped in Hillsboro NM. hoping to get something to eat. I stopped in front of Cafe. When I got off the bike I noticed a man with a respirator and ear protection using some machine in front of build that looked like a art gallery. Curiosity got the best of me and I headed his way to see what he was doing. He had a small belt sander that he was using to make wooden cooking tools from scrap pieces of wood. He had moved from Los Angles seven years ago and just loves life in Hillsboro. Hillsboro has no government. All the city services are done by volunteers. This is an interesting concept. He then noticed that the owner of the Cafe that I had stopped in front of was closing up and he yelled at him to get him to serve me. The Cafe owner had an appointment and was not able to serve me. Dave said that was to bad because the cook in the Cafe was really good but there was another Cafe at the far end of town that was OK. So I said good by to Dave and rode about 500 ft to the other end of town and to the second best place to eat in town. I went inside and noticed there was no one there and was concerned they were also closed. The cook appeared and they were open and suggested it would be better to sit outside where it was a lot cooler. Pattie came out with the menu and asked me what I wanted to drink. I ordered an ice tee and after studding the menu decided on a pulled pork burrito. How ordinary can you get. Pattie came back with my ice tee and I took one sip and realized this was no ordinary iced tee. It was the best iced tea I have ever had. It was cloudy and left a little zing in your mouth, sort of like mint does but it was not mint. My burrito came and it looked sort of average and there was a little plastic container of salsa. I shooed the flies away and cut into the burrito. It was made with white beans that had not been over cooked and the pulled pork was very tasty. The salsa was not spicy hot but exceptionally tasty, probably the best salsa that I have ever had. This was hands down the best meal that I have had on the trip. Pattie had mentioned the owner of the restaurant writes books so I had to ask what kind of books he writes. He writes recipe books and has been a guest on the Julia Childs show. That explains some things but what about the better restaurant. I started to put on my air conditioner but then changed my mind. The road started climbing rapidly, going from 6,000 ft to over 8000 ft and the temperature dropped to 67. A great road for motorcycle riding even though the speed limit is only 35mph. I then took a detour on highway 35 which was just a loop off 152. The best scenery in days and the road got even more challenging but it was all good. I was running way behind schedule at this point so I stopped in Silver City. It is getting late but I keep thinking of things that happened today that I should write about. Enough..... Have a good one...... Phil....... September10 66 to 68 Hardly any clouds in the sky. I left Silver City this morning after getting some good advice from my friend Chuck. Like all advice, I followed some of it, but it is always appreciated, because it shows someone cares. I traveled North on 180 to 78 from Silver City. I made a little side excursion through the town of Gila. As I was leaving the town I noticed that almost every clump of trees I past were accompanied this this loud white noise sound. My guess is that it is some kind of insect. This was a very pleasant ride with nice scenery. I stopped and bought gas in a gas station that reminded me of traveling in Alaska. There is a single gas pump with with gravel, not concrete to park on and two large above ground tanks for the fuel. Just after entering Arizona I did have a half hour wait for road construction. After driving through the paving project I could hear things hitting the bike. At first I was sure that it was some of the loose asphalt but now I was 10 miles down the road and I started to question what was going on. I slowed down and then I could see the rocks on the road were moving. At first I thought it was little frogs but decided it must be grasshoppers. Finally had to stop and check for myself. These were the biggest fattest grasshopper I have ever seen. They were busy making a mess out of the bike and the road and I guess I was ruining there day too. I have been on slow all morning and the only thing I could think of was that the motel had run out of regular coffee and put decaf in both pots. I finally stopped at a Denny's in Safford AZ.were I could load up on real coffee and spend some time trying to figure out which direction to go next. After some conversation with a guy in the booth next to me I decided to head South towards Bisbee. I programmed the GPS and set out. Unfortunately I got confused when I got to 10. The GPS had one route in mind and I had another. They were both valid but I wasted probably 45 minutes running back and fourth on 10 but finally got headed in the right direction. I wanted to check out the Chiricahua National monument on the way. There was no one manning the gate when I rode in but there was a sign that all visitors needed to check in at the visitors center. Got to the visitors center and the rangers said the bad new is they are closed but the good news was I could just go ahead and ride in and that I should ride up to the top and get off the bike and walk down to the overlook. Sometimes I follow directions and off I went. About 15 minutes later I arrived in the parking lot at the top and parked next to Harley. I then wondered down the path to the overlook. The canyon is filled with rock formations similar to Bryce cannon but in very subdued colors. They look like there might be made of granite but since the visitors center was closed I have no idea. There was a couple standing in the overlook and I did not want to intrude on them but then decided that I needed to get my photos and get going if I was going to finish my journey today. It turned out that the couple were the Harley riders and we started talking motorcycles and anything else that came to mind. Time flies when you are having fun and all of sudden the sun was going down. Connie and Butch were headed to Willcox for dinner and asked me if wanted to join them. Since I was going to be riding in the dark at this point I decided that going back to Willcox made more sense than pressing on into the night and not knowing what was ahead of me. I was also enjoying my conversation with them and it would be nice to eat with company. We took off with me following. I was grabbing photos as we went down the mountain. It was soon dark and it was nice to have someone leading the way. I could see Connie's hair flying in the wind ahead of me. I saw Butch make a sudden evasive move and then the outline of a cow on the road. It went to hit my high beams and missed the switch so just slammed on the brakes and came almost to a halt so I could figure out what was going on. The cow gave me a look as if, what are you doing in my pasture, as I rode by. We rode into Willcox and had dinner at a restaurant in an old rail car. Our conversation continued with it coming out that live in Chandler AZ, which is where I am headed next to visit with my sister for a few days. When we parted they were going to head home with the option of stopping along the way. I quickly found a motel and settle in for the night. Have a good one....... Phil................ September 11 I over slept this morning. So my plans for a scenic ride today went out the window. I want to visit the Air plane museum in Tucson so that will become the main focus for the day. I just did not want to pound down highway 10. The cruise control on the bike is temperamental. If it does not work right first thing in the morning then that is the way it is for the rest of the day. This morning was one of those. There was some great photo opportunities while traveling but the cruise control kept going from almost full throttle to almost full off jerking me around on the bike. Yesterday it worked flawlessly all day. I have tried everything I can think of to make it switch modes but it has to sit over night to change. An interesting problem for my technical friends. The Tucson Pima Air and Space Museum is the third largest air museum in the country. They have an amazing collection of old air craft. Some are in hangers but most are just outside. But the have multiples of many of them painted in different colors representing how that would have been painted in different battles or if they belonged to different air forces. They have an SR-71 black bird. I did the tram ride with a guide and he said we had looked at 160 different aircraft. The museum is run mostly with volunteers and they went out of there way to be helpful. It was a very pleasant experience and I just wished that I had more time. The volunteers do a professional job of restoring the old air craft. Many of the air craft are on long term loan but as the docent said nobody will probably want them back. After leaving the museum I head North to visit my sister in Chandler AZ. I knew it was hot when I was outside looking at the air craft but when I started down the road on the bike, the temperature was 98 degrees. I got the air conditioner out again. The good old GPS took me right to my sisters house and the bike is safely parked in her garage. I was still 88 degrees out when I pulled up at around 8:30 pm. I will be here for a few days. I will try to another dump of photos on the website while I am here. Well that is enough for now. Have a good one. Phil......................... PS I am now in Alameda Calif. The bike and I have parted ways for awhile. My mother inlaws health is failing quickly and I flew back to support my wife and her family. Thank you to my sister for giving the bike a place to stay with a roof over its head. When I get back the bike I will start my log again. |