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The Colorado Rockies are all that John Denver told us they would be. Beautiful views, clean air, piney trees and lovely rivers cutting through it all. We camped along the west fork of the San Juan River where we met a couple from Texas who loved the San Juan River so much they spent their entire summer camping at this beautiful spot in the San Juan National forest.
We packed up the camping gear and were on our way to Taos, New Mexico because we had heard so much about the wonderful hippie lifestyle. We dropped into New Mexico on Highway 84 and then traveled east on Hwy 64 which climbed to an amazing 10,400 feet which had the Honda panting a bit. We made it easily into Taos where there is absolutely no shortage of expensive art galleries, boutique stores and tourist traps. If there were any bohemian or hippie types remaining in Taos we didn’t see them. The traffic on the main street of Taos was almost a constant gridlock. This popular getaway town does not have the road infrastructure to handle the many, many people it attracts. Been there, done that…let’s move on.
Leaving New Mexico
we took a very long and flat drive north through a huge valley on Highway 64 then cut over to I-25 and blasted north on I-25 to Colorado Springs where Dan’s brother, David and his lovely wife Ada entertained us for three nights. David’s hobby is restoring pinball machines and he has fourteen, yes I said fourteen pinball machines in his basement along with air hockey, video games and a bar and big screen large enough to host any size party. David and Ada’s huge basement was our bedroom so of course we got into all the fun of David’s many games, toys and gadgets. David and Ada showed us a great time with steak dinners, a night on the town, a tour of the Garden of the Gods park and get this… a trip to an immense pinball/video arcade in the town of Manitou Springs. David just can’t get enough pinball!
When traveling east across the U.S. one must cross the Great Plains (formerly occupied by bazillions of buffalo) and we chose to cross through Kansas since we wanted to visit with our friend Joom in Topeka. Yes, it’s true that Kansas is as flat as a flounder.
We opted to zoom across the plains on I-70 rather than take the bumpy and slower parallel highways. We stopped for the night midway through Kansas in the hot, small, dusty and very flat town of Hays. By the time we reached Topeka we had found ourselves off the plains in the slightly rolling and tree dotted landscape of Topeka where met with Joom and her kids for a fabulous steak buffet dinner. We had never seen a “steak buffet” so we (Dan) overindulged a bit while we caught up with Joom. Other than a visit with our friend, Topeka didn’t seem to have a lot to offer us so early the next morning we set off on secondary highways for Missouri.
Some of our biggest surprises of the trip so far were found in the lovely state of Missouri. We had no idea what to expect but Missourians are extraordinarily friendly and once we got into the Ozark hills, the Missouri roads were a motorcycle rider’s hilly, twisty dream. Our first night in Missouri was spent camping on the banks of Lake Ozark and our second and last night in Missouri we camped alongside the Black river in
south Missouri. We could have happily spent more time cruising the Ozarks and camping with the Missouri fireflies and star filled night-time skies.
We left our Black River campsite and made Memphis, Tennessee by mid-afternoon where we checked into a motel right next to the Mississippi river and set about cleaning up from a couple nights camping. We stayed in Memphis for two nights where we toured Graceland, the home of music legend Elvis Presley, and a made a couple visits to Beale Street in downtown Memphis. Beale Street is like a collision of the Las Vegas Strip and Bangkok’s Khao San Road. We could have partied there all night with the great music and good food (Um, we did). This is where many of the South’s famous musicians got their start and there is no shortage of great music venues one can stroll into and out of while carrying one’s drink from place to place. Street performers abound and the people watching is second to none..
We exited Memphis early in the morning on the 4th of July to try and dodge some of the afternoon heat. It’s warming up to close to 100 in the afternoon and
that makes for some hot riding. Driving south through Mississippi we took Highway 51 which parallels I-55. Highway 51 goes through all the small towns that the Interstate avoids so we glimpsed some real Mississippi town life as we slowly cruised these rural towns. Seems like they have two types of housing in Mississippi: mansions and trailer. Few in-between housing options were in evidence. Since it was the 4th, we saw dozens of BBQs underway. Our halfway point in Mississippi was Jackson where we checked into a Motel 6 for a night of air conditioning and CNN. Up and out early the next day heading for Louisiana.
Arrived in New Orleans about noon and checked into the very cool Canal Street Guesthouse which is just blocks from the French Quarter. We’ll stay in New Orleans for a week while we R&R, replace the tires on the bike, catch up with our blog and tour the city with our friend Karen. There are so many things to see in New Orleans that a week may not be enough time! We’ve already spent an evening on the decadent and noisy Bourbon Street in the French Quarter where we sampled roasted Oysters
and Jambalaya. There is much, much more eating to be done in this town which seems to have unique restaurants everywhere we go. Our guesthouse has a kitchen and BBQ so we’ll save a few bucks with some meals at our new home for the week.
Look for more on New Orleans in our next blog. We’ll be here for seven nights before starting the 1,000 mile trip to our third corner of the U.S… Key West, Florida.
Make sure to check out "Page 2" of our photos at the bottom of this page!
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Mandy
non-member comment
sounds fun!
sounds like you're having a blast! keep up the good fun!