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Published: August 17th 2010
My rest day is now nearly over, but I have received words from some of the others out in the heat of the day.
At the moment, the USA is suffering the most days over 100 deg F since 1980!! There is building storm type conditions in the Southern States (Bugger that's where I am headed) Also as I write New York is bracing it's self against a low coming in....
I will leave Socorro early in the morning and head down to the Carlsbad Caverns and then make my way down to Harlingen, pretty much as far south as you can go in Texas, to catch up with Curtis, who I met on my first sortie to South America in 2005.
So until the next up date, stay cool,
Rosco.
From Robin Hood and Friar Trev (TT)....
Howdi ya all,
Just wondering how everyone is travelling... sore butts all round, Interstate that just keeps rolling out in front of you?
TT and I have just completed our first day on the TAT, which was fab.
The XRs having been popping along okay.
Southern Colorado is very picturesque.
We made a detour off the trail today from Westcliffe
XR's Rest up
They look at home out hereto do the Cripple Creek circurt.
We are at a Super 8 in Canon City tonight.
After saying adios amigos at the Warehouse in Cal. we rode through to Kingman on Route 66 that night.
The next day onto Trinidad, Southern Colorado, the starting point of the trail for us.
No major mishaps to speak of to date... only TT having his $500 video camera rattle off his helmet on the I40 (did anyone by chance pick it up, somewhere between Barstow and Kingman?).
My rear tire shred quite a few knobs off itself and was totally munted by the time we rocked into Trinidad last night.
I guess all in all... just par for course ‘on the road’.
For you information, Valcom Motorcycles in Trinidad is a great place to stop.
We put new tires on our rears there this morning (Dunlop 606, apparently what most people are using on the trail), plus changed our engine oil (the guys at Valcom, Michael and Edgar, allowed us to use their workshop to do this).
Michael even allowed me to borrow his Ducati to ride into town to do a coffee run (don’t count on that happening
again).
If anyone wishes to use their services, they are only a mile out of Trinidad, on the right on the TAT route.
Closed Sunday and Monday, Tel. 719 846 9446.
Trust everyone is having fun and enjoying the US!
Hasta la vista lads!
The XR boys.
Here is another Post from Robin Hood and his Merry man TT
RH and TT here...
Another great day in the hills!
Cripple Creek and Victor, old gold mining settlements, were pretty cool.
At one stop sign I had to give way to a dump truck carrying about 350 tons of rocks on 6 x 4 metre high wheels.
TT took on a bumble bee with his cheek on the trail today.
BB not happy and gave TT both barrels - arwel!
Now at Super 8 in Salida - nice cool pool, great for dedusting the body and bringing down the blood temperature.
XRs still popping along just fine, as they do.
Plenty of dust around to make you feel you are out the back of beyond and some.
Once again awesome scenery along the way.
Trust everyone is having as much fun as they
Tunnel time
just another hole in a rock can handle, and bikes are going well.
That’s a little update from XR boys.
Happy safe travels to ya all.
RH/TT.
Keith and Bryan are well under way...
We are 50 miles East of Little Rock Arkansas. It is Sunday night as we write this, and we have done 1900 miles since leaving L.A. Thursday lunch time, so we are quite happy with our progress. We are on target to reach Clinton Tenessee on Tuesday to have our bikes serviced, fitted with knobblies, and hit the TAT proper on Wednesay morning for the ride back to Oregan.
It has been an interesting, HOT ride so far - we saw 127 deg celcius in the desert! We were going quite hard (for trail bikes - cruising at 75 mph) and unfortunately I cooked my rear tyre, so we lost about 1/2 a day getting that replaced in Albuquerqi. Other than a bit of route 66, we really have not seen much more than the I40 freeway, (other than the one horse towns we have overnighted in) but the changing geography and land use has been interesting. This is a bloody BIG country!
One feature was seeing
A Bloody BIG Truck
Best you give him the right of way... a most amazing sunrise over Texas, with glowing fingers of red/orange light shooting up into the Eastern sky.
It was also interesting to experience the winds of Oklahoma (remember what they did to the farmers there in the 30's) which were strong and HOT, compared to strong and COLD last year in Patagonia. Battling those winds was the most unpleasant part of the ride so far.
Starting in New Mexico, we have found the best way to to handle the heat (e.g. 117 f today and humid) is hit the road pre-dawn, get 100 or so miles away, then then stop each hour at a gas station or find some shade for 5 or 10 minutes break. This really seems to re charge our batteries and allows us to ride through the whole day. We wet our t shirts and heads when ever we can. We rode over 500 miles today using this method.
Tomorrow's target is Nashville, then the final (of this leg) 200 miles Tuesday morning to Clinton.
Bryan and Keith.
Tony has a Melt Down....
A bit of an update for you..
I am totally buggered today (heavy cold
A Big Hole
They have big trucks to make a big hole with hot and cold sweats etc.) and have arranged to stay at the motel in Oklahoma City for another day, possibly two. I crossed paths with String, Bugsy and Dave yesterday just off I40, but they have gone on and I had to pull off to get to a motel.
Keith and Bryan are making good progress to Clinton and I have kept them up to date on my status.
I fear that I won't be able to now catch the group in time for the start of the TAT on the 19th especially as I have a service and chain and tyre swop to do, and I don't want to hold the group up. So I am thinking of giving the start of the TAT a miss and eventually doing the Ozark section of the TAT straight from here and then do my detour Kansas to Trinidad afterwards, with a possible meet up with the group there. I will look at the details today / tomorrow.
Now going back to bed.
Tony
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Kim
non-member comment
Awesome
Great blog guys, keep the pictures coming. It looks so nice and sunny over there, I'm jealous! Anyone seen any snakes? or scorpions?