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Published: April 29th 2015
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CURIO SHOP TUCUMCARI NEW MEXICOROADTRIP 2012
10 STATES 22 DAYS
The ride was 22 days, 10 states and 6100 miles. My name is Sonny and I am a contractor working in KUWAIT. I only get to come home once a year and that’s for about 30 days so I try to do as much riding as I possibly can. The planning for this trip started in August of 2011 right after my last trip.
The route changed several times as I researched what there was to see in the states that I was planning on riding through. The primary plan was to ride old route 66 from Amarillo Texas to Barstow California, at least as much of it as we could. My riding partner and I met at Denny’s for breakfast at 4am, we had packed the bikes the night before to make sure everything was going to fit i.e.: sleeping bags, tents small stove and extra clothes and leathers. We were planning on mixing in some camping with some hotel stays.
After breakfast we hit the road, the plan was to ride the highway until the sun come up as to avoid any encounters with wildlife. We headed
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DINOSAURS ON RR66 north on I35 from Belton, Texas and our first stop was in a small town called west, they have some real good kolaches there so we loaded up on some snacks and filled up the bikes. While we were there we talked to some state troopers who had just worked an accident on the interstate involving a car and a wild pig we were told that both the pig and car were totaled and the driver sent to the hospital. I guess you have to watch for wildlife no mater where you ride.
My riding partner is Steve, we went to high school together, he graduated a year before me in 1977 and than we lost touch until 2004 when we ran into each other at a local bike shop near our homes. At that time Steve was riding a Honda VTX 1300 and I was riding a Harley Davidson sportster 883. Don’t let anyone tell you that a sportster is a bike for riding around town. I put 68 thousands miles on that sportster and completed a 1000 mile iron butt in 20 hours on it. I rode that bike all over Texas and New Mexico and part
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WIGWAM MOTEL of Louisiana before moving up to a 2010 FLHTP with a 103CI motor in 2011.
Our first sight seeing stop was to be at Cap Rock Canyon State Park just north west of Fort Worth Texas, this is the area that in the late 1800s Quanah Parker and his band of Indians hid out in. The park was beautiful it was just too hot (107) to spend any time there. We did ride to the end of the road and turned around an was able to get a few pictures and see some buffalo but then headed west towards Amarillo and hopefully some cooler air.
We arrived in Amarillo at about 6pm and decided to continue on to Tucumcari New Mexico before we stopped for the night, at about 830 we turned off of I40 pulled into Tucumcari on route 66, we stayed at the old safari motel. We were able to sit outside and watch some of the classic cars cruising up and down route 66, but after being on the bikes for 16 hours and spending the majority of the day riding in 100 plus temps it was time to take a shower and hit the
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CONCRETE RABBIT IN AZ. sack.
The next morning found us moving at about 7am looking for some place to get some breakfast. We rode up and down route 66 looking for a place to eat and decided on a place called KIXs on 66, it appeared to be an old diner, it turned out to be a new diner made to look retro and the food and service was terrible, lesson learned ask the locals before picking a spot to eat. After breakfast we topped off the bikes and headed west-taking advantage of the cool morning air. Route 66 thru Tucumcari still has a lot of the old shops and motels and is worth riding thru, but we had a lot to see and do in the 22 days we had allowed for our trip so it was time to move on.
The plan was to continue thru New Mexico on route 66 and spend the night somewhere in Arizona, but as we were coming into Albuquerque my bike started acting up like the forks were loose so we pulled into a parking lot and called Thunderbird Harley and they sent a man out with a covered trailer and took us to
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STANDING ON THE CORNER the shop. The shop foreman said it would be first thing in the morning before they could look at it so I unloaded all my gear off the bike and was able to rent a almost new road king for the rest of that day and for whatever days I would need until they got my bike fixed. Just up the road from the Harley shop was a Holiday inn so we rode up there and got us a room. After getting settled in we decide to go into town and see what there was, we ended up at the old town square and park area where some of the locals had gathered to play music, we found a restaurant and got something to eat and listened to the music coming from the park area. As it was getting dark and lightning started appearing in the sky we decided to head back to the hotel, we did not beat the storm and got soaked before we got back. The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and than headed over to the Sandia tram to take a look at the valley from on top of the mountain. It seem
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SELIGMAN AZ. like you could see forever from up there, we were able to see some hot air balloons rising up out of the valley. After a couple of hours we decide to head over to the Harley shop to give them Steve’s number to call since my phone was going dead but upon arrival I was told that the bike was good to go. The shop manager said the only thing that was wrong was my bike was overloaded on the rear causing my front end to be to light, he suggested I redistribute the weight on the bike. The only charge was for the tow which was 60 bucks and the rental which they logged as a shop rental and only charged me 49. Bucks, and no charge for the diagnostics. I was able to get out of the shop for under 500 bucks after I bought some things I thought I might need. By the time we checked out of the hotel and had the bikes repacked it was about 1pm and there were clouds moving in from the southwest, we were headed northwest on route66 so I thought we could maybe out run them, I was wrong again,
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ROUTE 66 OUTSIDE OATMAN AZ we got rained on several times between Albuquerque NM. and Gallup NM. We stopped at a little trading post just west of Gallup that had a couple Teepees outside it. It was raining really hard and we figured to take a break and hopefully it would let up a little. After a couple of hours the rain slacked and we hit the road heading for Holbrook AZ.
We rolled into Holbrook at about 7pm after fighting thru several more rain storms, the wind and the rain had pretty much wore us out so I pulled into the first decent looking motel and just by chance it had a Denny’s right next to it. After checking in and taking a hot shower we walked over to Denny’s for some supper and discussed our plan for the next day. We used the Internet and checked out things to see between Holbrook and our next stop for the night.
The next day brought sunshine and clear skies. We walked over to Denny’s for breakfast. Since we had already discussed the days plan it didn’t take long for breakfast and we were on the road, just down the road we came upon
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REST STOP OUTSIDE OATMAN AZ. some large dinosaurs painted in different colors so I had to stop and take some pictures, than it was on the road again. We would go thru several interesting towns this day and see some neat things. We seen the old Wigwam motel with all the rooms shaped like teepees and classic cars parked by each room and somewhere along the highway we found a giant concrete jackrabbit with a saddle on it. I couldn’t resist I had to get my picture taken in the saddle. We also found Winslow AZ and got our picture taken on the corner mentioned in the song, also did some sight seeing in Williams AZ with the old buildings, we did the Grand Canyon the year before so we skipped that. We did Seligman which was a nice tourist town stuck in the 50s and then on to Oatman which was my favorite. I had hoped to stay at the old hotel there but the owners had closed it up to go to Sturgis, so we ended up staying in Laughlin NV. Anyone that has rode Route 66 knows it is not a continuous road but broken up by the nasty interstate so we
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CALIF. SOMEWHERE were forced to ride part of the interstate now and then. We spent a couple of hours in Oatman, we met a group of guys from Germany that had flown into Los angels CA. and were doing some riding on there own on rented Harleys. Oatman is known for its wild donkeys that roam the area but we didn’t see any until on our way out of town to Laughlin NV. We ended our day at the Colorado Belle casino and resort in Laughlin.
Well we are now into day six and getting ready to head for Kernville Calif. We had looked at two different routes to get us there, one was to go thru Death Valley and the other was a more southern route. We decide to try and avoid the heat of Death Valley by taking the southern route but I’m not sure it was any cooler. I thought I was use to hot temps from working in Kuwait where July and august temps stay above 110 and usually hang about 125 to 130 during the days, but riding thru Mojave hell had us stopping about every 30 to 45 minutes just to get some water in
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SEQUIOA NATL. PARK us. We carried water on the bikes but went thru it so fast that we had to stop to get more. We had only gone 300 miles that day when we pulled into Kernville but it seemed like the longest day so far. We found a room (actually a suite) at a place called the pine cone lodge it was a nice and affordable place. The whole town was quaint and we found a nice little diner with excellent food to eat at called Cheryl’s diner. The supper was delicious so we decided we were going to eat breakfast there in the morning. After supper we decided to look around town and found out it was smaller than we thought. You could pretty much see the whole town from the diner.so I took a few pictures and then we headed back to the lodge and didn’t take long to fall asleep.
Day seven had us eating breakfast at 7 and on the road at 8. Our destination was the Sequoia Natl. Park, so we cruised along through the mountains and the valleys, the scenery was beautiful, The valleys had lots of fruit tree groves and we saw some beautiful
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BIG TREE AND STEVE mountain lakes, it was a beautiful day of riding, we had actually spent to much time sight seeing and got caught on the road as it was getting dark so we decided to camp that night but the only camp ground we found was full. We rode down the rode about a mile and found a dirt road so we decided to see if we could find an area we could pitch a tent. We rode down the road about 6 miles and found a spot that got us off the road and in a nice flat area. We pitched the tent and than sat around and talked for a while. It’s amazing how many stars you can see in the night sky when you get away from the cities. In the morning it was kind of chilly almost frosty out. I was up before the sun and got the coffee pot started on a little one-burner propane stove we brought along, got to have the coffee. While the coffee was brewing Steve woke up, while we drank coffee we also took down the tent and enjoyed the fresh air at the elevation we were at. We got the bikes
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CAMPSITE IN CALIF. loaded back up and hit the road. It was slow going on the dirt road but once we got to the pavement we were able to pick up speed a little. The cool morning air felt good in the face, The roads were twisty and hilly, about 15 minutes on the road and we found a place to get some breakfast, the food was ok the service was good but the view from our table was excellent, nothing but mountains and forest. Our destination was Yosemite Natl. Park and the ride to get there was almost as good as the park itself. I love riding roads that have a lot of character, sharp curves, long sweepers a few hills and the occasional pothole just to keep you awake. This part of California has a lot of those roads. We pulled up to the gate entrance to Yosemite and talked to a very nice lady who took our money and told us that the hotels were full except for the Wawona and she thought it might have a few rooms, she called them for us and they did have 1 room left and said they would hold it for us if
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BRIDAL VAIL FALLS AT A TRICKLE. we could be there in the hour, we thanked the park attendant and headed for the hotel which we were told was about a 30 minute ride from the gate. The plan was to check in and then do some site seeing since it was still early in the afternoon but after checking in I decide to download my 2 gopro cameras and my replayxd cam to my computer and watch some of the footage I took during the past 2 days. The Wawona Hotel is a beautiful old structure but I have to say if you are looking for a place with modern amenities they don’t have it. We stayed in a separate structure from the main hotel the room was nice two separate beds mine was very comfortable no air conditioner or heater no ceiling fans and no bathroom. The bathroom was located on the first floor next to the golf pro shop which is also where the showers were located. This hotel sits across the street from the only golf course inside a national park. The hotel is beautiful and is well worth staying at. Just before sunset I decided to walk around the area and take
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A LAKE AT EBBETTS PASS CALIF. some pictures, I walked to the golf course and noticed a deer walking out of the woods on the other side of the golf course. She was walking towards a small group of trees I was hiding in which I noticed were apple trees. I took a couple of pictures of her at the trees it seem as if she was more interested in the apples than me just a few feet away from her.
The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and than checked out. We rode to the grove of the giants and looked at some real large trees, they are amazing to see up close. And then we headed over to bridal Vail falls which was just a trickle, some of the English speaking tourist told us that the spring time was the best time to visit because the falls were really running. We seen that the majority of the visitors to the park were from Japan and other Asian countries it’s sad that more Americans don’t visit what’s in their own back yard. We finally wound our way into the valley and the visitor’s center. I have to say I found the park
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IDAHO FALLS SCENIC LOOP signs confusing when I could find them. The park itself was beautiful but I was very disappointed with the visitor’s area. We decided it was too crowded in the park so we decided to head to Carson city NV. We chose to go over Ebbetts Pass instead of going towards the interstate it just seemed like it would be a better ride. The roads to get us there were really nice but very tight several times I had cages come around the corners in my lane. We pulled into Carson City about dusk and decided to stay at the holiday inn, I knew they had a place for the guest to do laundry and it was about that time. We checked in and cleaned up and decided to ride back down the street to a casino that advertised a real good Buffett. After eating I figured I would donate a 100 bucks to the slots, Steve not being a gambler decided he wanted me to put 10 of his dollars in with my ten and we would split the winnings or loses. Well we ended up taking a grand out of the slots so we each got 500 bucks we
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YELLOWSTONE decided to leave before our luck changed. Back at the hotel we got our laundry done than hit the sack.
After breakfast the next morning we rode to the Carson City Harley shop and picked up a poker chip, we had been stopping at all the Harley shops that we came close to on this trip to get a poke chip. We were than going to the Reno shop to get a chip from them but after getting into Reno and seeing that they had a classic car show going on and a bunch of the streets were closed or partially closed we could not find a way to get to the shop without having to walk a couple of miles. We left Reno without our chip and headed for Elko NV. That was to be our stop for the night. We got rained on about the last 30 miles but when we pulled into Elko the sun was just breaking thru. We pulled into a car wash and washed off the bikes and then started looking for a hotel.
The next morning brought dark skies and rain; our destination was a small town just north of Idaho
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OLD FAITH FULL IN YELLOWSTONE Falls. After about 20 minutes of riding we rolled into some sunshine but all across the countryside we could see patches of dark rain falling. We did get rained on periodically but figured we wouldn’t gripe about it since we found out that Idaho had been in a drought and we could see several large grass fires burning. We figured if the rain would help, than so be it. We pulled into the hotel just as the sun was setting, and it was a beautiful sunset. We stayed at this Inn a couple of nights, as we wanted to ride to Jackson hole WY. And the Grand Teton Natl. Park, which we did the next day, we were also able to ride the south loop of Yellowstone and came out of the park in the town of West Yellowstone. The ride from the Hotel to Jackson Hole thru and over the Teton Mountains was beautiful albeit a slow ride with all the travel trailers and large trucks trying to get over the pass. We did make several stops along the way to take pictures. Jackson Hole was a nice little tourist town but way to many people and cars for
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HOT SPRINGS RUNNING IN YELLOWSTONE me.so after we grabbed a bite to eat we headed for Teton Natl.Park here again we found mostly Japanese, and the signs were very miss leading and vague. We went to the visitor’s center to try and get one of the collectable coins but they had no idea what we were talking about so we showed the package from Yosemite and the man just said (we don’t carry those) to say the least he was not customer friendly. So it was on to Yellowstone again the ride there was beautiful mostly mountains and some lakes along the way I can understand why people live in this part of the country. We rode the southern loop of Yellowstone and the only wildlife we saw was a cow elk. But we did see some beautiful waterfalls and old faithful I think our average speed in the park was about 20 miles an hour. We stopped at a visitor center and again were not able to get a park coin although the staff was a lot more friendly and helpful. There were a lot of tour buses and travel trailers moving in the park this was causing a lot of traffic jams, it
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DEVILS TOWER FROM THE HIGHWAY took us about four hours to ride the south loop with stopping to take pictures. We left the park thru West Yellowstone Montana and this is a nice town lot of interesting buildings but we didn’t spend much time there, as we wanted to be off the road before it got dark. We did notice that there was a Mountain Man rondeavux going on and Sunday would be the last day. When we got back to the hotel we both had the same idea to stop at the rondeavux the next day as we were planning on riding the north loop of Yellowstone before heading to Sturgis south Dakota. We decided that the next morning we would get a crack of dawn start so we packed everything up the night before and spoke with the desk clerk about turning in the keys. At 5am we loaded the stuff onto the bikes and rode a few miles south to catch the Idaho falls scenic loop which we were told was just a 26 mile loop.it was beautiful ride lots of trees and a river gorge where we were able to observe the lower and upper falls at some viewing points. We
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MOUNT RUSHMORE entered the highway again about halfway between our hotel and West Yellowstone and were able to hit the randeveaux just as it was getting started. I spent a little money and Steve was able to get some traditional moccasins, there was a lot I wanted to buy but the good thing about a bike is you only have so much room. We stopped in town for some breakfast than headed into Yellowstone Park. I think the north loop is better than the south even with the road construction that was going on. Again the scenery was beautiful I would love to take about 2 weeks and ride thru the park on horse back get back to where most people don’t go. We did see a lot of buffalo on the north loop some next to the road and some off in the distance. That was the only wildlife we seen on this day. We left the park on the east side and had planned to ride the bear tooth but changed our minds and just stayed on the chief joseph scenic byway. This road should be on everyone’s ride list. The scenery and the switch backs are a dream to
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MESA VERDE NATL MONUMENT ride every time I turned a corner or went up another elevation I saw something new and wanted to stop and take pictures. Once we crested the mountain the ride down was just as amazing.
We rode into Cody WY. About 4pm and found a place to eat, the plan was to spend the night there but we found out the hotels were all booked up. This was Sunday night and the Sturgis rally was over and the town looked like it was having a (after Sturgis rally) the ERMA hotel looked like it had a couple of hundred bikes in front of it. We were able to get to the Harley shop just as they were closing and picked up a couple of poker chips. We decided to hit the road and ride until we found a place to stay at about 9pm we pulled into Greybull WY. We found a nice little motel, which had several other bikes outside; the clerk was friendly and helpful. I asked Steve if he had seen all the pronghorns standing on the side of the road he scared me when he said no. We left Greybull the next morning and headed
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BUFFALO IN YELLOWSTONE to Sturgis by way of the Devils tower. I had seen this place in pictures and on TV but there is something mystical about being up close to it in person. We finally rolled into spearfish and figured we would camp at the city park, which was a really nice place. We had plenty of daylight so after setting up camp we gathered up our dirty cloths and headed for a laundry mat that the park attendant told us about, and then we found a place to eat supper. We had decided to camp next to the creek instead of the bathrooms and showers. Sometime about midnight I was running in my underwear to the bathroom about 100 yards away, I had got a bug and it was making me spend a lot of time on the toilet, buy the time it started getting light out I was wore out from no sleep and a lot of running. And again it was starting to rain.
After I was able to get dressed we packed up in the rain and headed out. The plan was to ride spearfish canyon (14) to highway 85 than into deadwood. We spent a couple
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EXIT AT YELLOWSTONE of hours in deadwood I was still feeling pretty rough and had to hit the bathroom several times and was starting to get dehydrated. After deadwood we rode into Sturgis and seen everyone tearing down the giant tents and starting the clean up. We ate a good lunch than rode over to the Harley shop to get a poker chip but they were out so we headed to mount Rushmore. It was just after noon when we got to Rushmore and the carvings are nice but everything else was dissapointing.we spent about an hour there and I was done we rode back to Keystone and found a room I believe at the best western. At about 3pm I lay down and didn’t wake up until the next morning feeling a lot better. After eating some breakfast we hit the rode, we went thru Custer state park and seen some deer and buffalo and some wild donkeys here in Custer state park the visitors will block the roads and try to feed all the wild donkeys. Even though this is interesting its not good for the bikes so we had to thread our way thru the cages and the donkeys to
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CHIEF JOSEPH SCENIC BYWAY get thru the park without over heating the bikes. The ride thru the park was interesting the way they built the roads thru the rocks and looping back over itself. We were headed to Colorado Springs, which was going to be our overnight. How ever just getting into Cheyenne was proving to be a challenge we hit some very strong and gusty crosswinds that seemed to try to throw us off the bikes. I was watching Steve fight the winds in front of me and kept trying to turn the camera on that I had mounted to my windshield but couldn’t let go if the handle bars long enough to get it done. Steve finally found a set of cross roads that a few little stores so we exited the highway and pulled into one of them. We got off the bikes and I was laughing so hard at the picture of Steve trying to control his bike that Steve actually got mad at me. For some reason he didn’t think it was funny. We stayed at the little shop for about 4 hours waiting for the wind to let up that was long enough for me to loose a
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FROM THE BYWAY couple hundred dollars in their slot machines. The wind finally let up and we started south again, we stopped at a few more Harley shops and were able to get some poker chips. The shops in this area are great. One even had a motorcycle museum. While riding the highways in California, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming and South Dakota you really didn’t seem to be riding on the highway the scenery was beautiful, but the minute you get into Colorado you knew you was on the highway all the way to Colorado springs.
The next day had us headed out highway 50 to the Royal Gorge. We spent a few hours at the Royal Gorge and riding the new zip line, we also got rained on while we were there. I have to say I think those were some of the biggest raindrops I’ve ever seen, each one must of contained an ounce of water. Highway 50 is a pretty road and interesting to ride. We rode it all the way to Montrose somewhere along Hy50 one of the towns was having a classic car show because there were old cars everywhere. I can’t remember the name of the town;
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CHIPMUNK ON CHIEF JOSEPH BYWY just remember it being a small town and classic cars everywhere. I’m not much for anything with more than 2 wheels but some of them cars looked really nice. We spent the night in Montrose even though we got there early, I asked the girl at the desk where a good place to eat was and that I wanted a steak, she gave us 2 options one was her favorite because of the margaritas and the other was her husbands favorite because of the steaks. We opted for her husbands favorite, when we walked in I thought we were going to get kicked out it looked like some place that we should have had a suit and tie on. Now we did clean up and put on clean clothes before we went to dinner but it was blue jeans and a Harley t-shirt, we had to wait in a waiting area for a table (figured they would put us in the back out of sight.) while we waited there was an elderly couple sitting across from us and the lady was giving us some dirty looks. We still had our wrist bands on from the Royal Gorge and Steve looked
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OLD GAS STATION IN TEXAS NEAR CAP ROCK CANYON at me and said (in not so quite a voice) I guess we should have took these off when we left the brothel. The lady told her husband that she thought they should go someplace else to eat, so they left. The waitress finally came and got us and took us to a table in the middle of this beautiful room with about 20 tables and all were full. We had a good meal the food was excellent and the waitress was very good. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and wiped down the bikes, the hotel provided some old towels for us to use and we had our own chrome cleaner and window cleaner.
The next day had us heading to Durango but the plan was to stop at Mesa Verde National park
. We rode highway 550to Ridgeway than we took Colorado 62 to 145 which will take you into Telluride on a spur, but just prior to Telluride we went right on 145 and stopped at a gas station just after making the turn. We filled up with gas and got something to drink and eat since we didn’t take the time to
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OUR FIRST NIGHT ON THE ROAD TUCUMCARI NM. eat breakfast this morning. One of the clerks told us that there were quite a few celebrities in Telluride on this day, that was a good enough reason to keep us out of town so we continued onto Dolores where we took highway 160 to Mesa Verde National Park. The ride into the park was a long one but very interesting. There had been several wildfires in the park so we saw a lot of burnt area, we stopped at the visitors center but wasn’t much there so we picked up a map of the area and continued on a sight seeing trip. There were a lot of cliff dwelling and some dwellings up on the mesas, I would recommend this park to anyone that hasn’t been and is interested in early Native American history. I would recommend planning on being there for the whole day. We left the park and headed east on 160 to Durango. We had stayed in Durango the year before and had ridden highway 550 to Silverton and Ouray. This trip we had decide to ride the old steam train to Silverton and back just for a change of scenery. The train we rode has
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SELIGMAN AZ. been used in several movies, the one I remember the most is the train robbery scene from Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid. The ride was awesome and was relaxing to spend the day sightseeing and not dodging cars. After returning to Durango on the train we just roamed around town and did some sight seeing there. We spent 2 nights in Durango just to rest up and reenergize.
The next day we left Durango and the plan was to spend 3 or 4 days riding in New Mexico. We headed east on 160 and stopped at a little bar and grill at Chimney Rock that was open at 8am and serving breakfast. The owners, a husband and wife team was very friendly and originally from Louisiana. There was a 1947 Harley sitting in the place that the lady said they had rode it from Louisiana to Colorado when they bought the bar and grill. The food and coffee there was very good as was the company. While we were there Steve had gotten a message that a doctors apt. He had been waiting for was finally scheduled and it would be in 5 days so as any
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OATMAN AZ. trip goes our plans once again changed, but when you finally get an apt at the VA (veterans affairs) hospital you don’t miss it. We pulled up Google earth and looked at several routes that would get us home in time. We figured we could spend 3 nights in New Mexico so we tried to pick the route that would give us the best riding and sight seeing opportunity
We left the bar and grill and continued on 160 up through Wolf Creek Pass and on to Pagosa Springs. We went south on 84 from Pagosa Springs until we hit 64 and than went east to Chama New Mexico, we stopped in Chama long enough to fill up the bikes and get something to drink. Leaving Chama we took a road called Los Caminos Antiguos, It was a very nice ride up over they mountains and followed it to 285 and took a left on 285 and followed that to Romeo where we took a right, our destination for the night was Angel Fire NM. We ended up riding several smaller roads that we couldn’t find names for but they were headed in the right direction, we went through
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OATMAN AZ. several small towns that I cant remember the names of but the were interesting looking and probably had some history to tell if we had the time to stop and listen. We finally ended up on Colorado 159 and turned south. The road eventually turned into New Mexico 522 we stayed south on 522 until we came into Questa where we stopped for fuel and drink. When we were ready to leave we got onto road 38 which would take us to red river, this road makes a scenic loop around the mountains and is a beautiful ride, every time we go through New Mexico we ride this road. Along with all the other wildlife you have to watch for you really need to watch for the elk they are here by the thousands it seems. We eventually made it eagle nest and turned into Cimarron canyon to get us a camping spot at the Cimarron canyon campgrounds. We set up camp and than road back into eagle nest to get a bite to eat and look around town. But made sure we were back in camp and off the roads before it got to dark.
The next morning
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NEAR KERNVILLE CALIF. WILD FIRE we slept in until it was almost light out, we had spoken with the camp host the night before and I asked him if he would like to keep the tent I was using and he said yes so I left it up and we tried to make it out of camp as quietly as possible with two Harleys. We went into eagle nest for breakfast and some coffee, the plan was to go to the Vietnam memorial after we ate, we go to the memorial every time we come thru the area it is a beautiful memorial right outside anglefire New Mexico both of us being veterans we feel it’s the least we can do to pay our respects. After leaving the memorial we rode to Taos and than down to Santa Fe, we stopped at the camel rock casino for a break on the way to Santa Fe. For some reason I have a hard time passing up casinos and I had not been to this one yet. I believe I walked out of this one a couple of hundred dollars to the good. We stopped at several casinos on this trip that I didn’t mention and lets
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WILD BURROS IN OATMAN AZ. just say at those I either broke even or lost. We pulled into Santa Fe and pulled over to fuel up the bikes even though we still had over a half tank. There were a few occasions on this trip where we got worried about fuel and Steve even had to coast into a station as his bike shut off as he was pulling in. so we learned that we should fill up even if not needed. When we are out on these trips we may see a road and just turn down it to see what is there. This is the third year in a row we had ridden thru New Mexico but there was still a lot to see. I had wanted to ride thru Madrid again to pick up a couple of shirts for some friends of mine in Kuwait that had seen the movie wild hogs but since Steve had the appoint at the VA we changed our plans. We had stopped in Madrid the year before and pulled into the Madrid dinner for lunch, that’s when we found out it wasn’t really a diner it a little store that sells a lot of wild hog
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WYWONA HOTEL IN YOSEMITE movie memorabilia. The town itself is a nice little artist town colorful buildings and an interesting bar and restaurant at the end of town I believe it’s called the mine shaft as it is attached to the enterence to an old mine. But as I said we had changed our plans and the plan now was to head for Roswell, which is where we planned on spending the night. We had spent the night in Roswell the year before so we could take in all the alien sights it is an interesting little town but you really only need a few hours to take in the sights. The one thing I like was all the street lamps had alien head shaped light globes on them. We slept in the next day, as we wanted to hit the Harley shop and pick up some poker chips. We packed up the bikes and found a place to eat breakfast and tried to figure out the best route to Killeen Texas, which was our home, and final destination and we were going to try to make all the way without another over night. We new there were several routes we could take into
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SUNSET FROM THE WYWONA Texas but only a few to get us home after we hit Texas, so we picked the one that we thought would be the most interesting. Needless to say we were on the road after dark and didn’t get home until after 9pm. which was close to 12 hours on the road with gas and water stops. We probably broke the speed limit a few times knowing we were going to have to slow down after dark to be safe.
Just to recap the route of the trip we went from Killeen Texas to cap rock canyon state park, then over to Amarillo and hit I40/RR66 to Tucumcari New Mexico. We road RR66 as much as possible to oatman AZ. Than into Laughlin NV. From Laughlin to Barstow CA. Than to redwood Nat’l forest and Yosemite, than to silver city NV. Than to Grand Teton natl. park and Yellowstone, than the chief joseph scenic byway to devils tower and than to Sturgis. Custer state park, mount Rushmore, and than south to Colorado. The Royal Gorge and Mesa Verde Nat’l monument. South to New Mexico and the scenic loop (enchanted loop) and than back to Texas. This trip covered 10
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LOOKING DOWN THE VALLEY IN YOSEMITE
states 22 days and 6100 miles. We got rained on and had some very strong winds in Wyoming.
When you read this please take into consideration that I am not a writer but instead a rider. I love to tell people about my trips and even show them the pictures and video I take along the way. I don’t believe there is anything as relaxing as getting on a motorcycle and riding the open road. I hunt and fish and shoot firearms and archery just for the fun of it and those to are relaxing but I don’t believe they compare to riding a motorcycle through the mountains and valleys and plains of the great UNITED STATES.
this is a link to one of the videos of the chief joseph scenic byway i posted on youtube
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Welcome to Travel Blog
Sonny, really enjoyed reading your blog. You've used your time in the U.S. wisely. We've got a beautiful country and you've captured some great photos. I hope you will continue to blog about past, present and future trips. Eager to follow along.