The Beemers last day

The whining started just about dawn. I knew this was going to happen, happens every time. The Beemer must have overheard me talking about my flights and it was going on in the garage about being abandoned again. So I gave in and decided to give it one last good drubbing. Jake had to go to work and save the world again so I went looking for a helmet to rent for the afternoon. The wonderful guy at PJ's motorcycle shop just gave me one and said bring it back tomorrow, no charge. OK, I gotta take the nicest guy award away from whoever got it last and give it to PJ's. Jake will have to ride his bike up there tomorrow and return it. Wow!
So Jake's roommate Adam said take the Turquoise Highway to Santa Fe, which I realized I had been on before and it was indeed a great road. It goes through Madrid where the movie "Wild Hogs" was filmed. I took old Rt66 from PJ's and turned onto Rt14 (aka Turquoise Highway) and rode it all the way to Stanta Fe. SF was a tangle of traffic so instead of fighting it and going to Taos, I went north west and then followed the signs to Los Alamos.

 I stopped at the gate but nobody was around. Judging by the cloud behing the gate shack, they were doing some testing I suppose.
So off toward the Jemez Mountains which is twisty roads and a couple of huge natural meadows high up in the mountains. This time I was stopped at the real gate and I had to present my drivers licence to pass. This is new since last time I went through here, but they were very pleasant about it. Nice chat with another road crew guy as I waited for some new pavement to be put down, which was not rally ready for traffic when we went through and the beemer got a good undercoating.
It was nice and cool up high in the mountains and I realized how nice when I got back down and it was 90+ and humid, which a few people mentioned. The heat was ok, but they complained about the humidity. So back to Albuquerque but this time I took some back roads through all those developments on the west side of the Rio Grande. Some are actually pretty homey with some food crops and horse pastures and stuff you would not find up out away from the river (like cactus and lizards). So back east and onto Rt25 then back to Jakes place. He got back from work just after I pulled in so he put on some road clothes and donned the new helmet and we decided to  head back up to Madrid and have dinner at "The Hollar". It cooled off by the time we got there so dinner was great. I had not eaten all day so I got a salad with chicken on it and I ordered chocolate cake and coffee for Jake and I to split, but it was the size of your head and it nearly split us.

So we decided to climb the mine tailings across the street and instead of coal, I found gold. Actaully I found an Apple II computer with (wait for it) a floppy drive unit that took 8" and 5 1/4" floppies. Wow!! I designed cards that fit inside this puppy 20+ years ago and findly remember nights spent writing 6502 code for it. I'm choking up here so I gotta move on.
We climbed back down from the tailing and under the gate with multiple no trespassing signs (oops) and back to the restaurant.
Madrid was actually less busy than I thought and there were 3 or 4 other bikes in the yard, but they were mostly local guys.

So back toward ABQ with the sun setting to the west of us and then it got dark real fast. I took the interstate, Rt40, to make better time and avoid all the local traffic. Jake navigated me back through the side streets and I pulled the beemer into the garage where it could rest for the next couple months before I come back out and take it on another adventure. I packed everything for tomorrows early flight, which included all my motorcycle gear so I can ride back home on my little dirt bike. Sure am gonna miss the beemer.
Another great, and this time last day on this great trip. The final Odometer reading tonight was 87368 and I left Vermont with 83296 so the beemer carried me 4072 miles in 10 travel days. It has bee wonderful and once again, everyone you meet is great and would do anything for you. There is endless more to see so maybe I can get back this fall and do another loop somewhere..

Flagstaff to Albuquerque

First stop Macy's for a wonderful cup of coffee. I have been here a couple times and it a cozy place with nice baked goodies as well. Prefect start and it's a short walk from the hotel.
Flagstaff is a pretty ok town. Northern Arizona University is here which has 25K students which means it has all kinds of places to go out to, all kinds of sporting goods places and all the other things that go along with a college town. I also saw a sign coming in yesterday saying it was the first STEM city in the US, so it committed to Science technology Engineering and Math through government, business and education. Nerd heaven. And I could ride my motorcycle year round and start each days ride with a cup of Macy's coffee!!
I had a nice walk through downtown again. My cranky knee is much less cranky and I stopped taking the Alleve stuff a couple days ago. The beemer is very therapeutic, maybe I could write it off as a medical expense? I hear the new ones are even more so..
So I had this great plan today with a fun destination, but it was not to be. Somehow my little iPhone map appeared to tell me that I could take Rt 99 south east and wiggle through Arizona and get to Pie Town, home of Pie-O-Neer Pies and the Good Pie Cafe and other pie related business. So I rode to Winslow (did not stand on the corner this time) and headed down Rt 99. and the first sign I see is a large one saying they do not plow it in the winter, only maintain it so much, do not patrol it on the weekend, etc.

They could have saved some taxpayer money with the good old "I'd turn back if I were you" sign from the Wizard of Oz. The first 20 miles were pretty ok, but the only person I say was guy in a truck burying something next to and abandoned tank of some kind. OK, not that weird. Then the sign saying the state did not maintain this road any more followed by a county maintenance sign. The only maintenance I coul detect was they did a nice job mowing the grass growing up in the cracks in the pavement, but still ok. The another 20 miles or so and the county announced they stopped maintaining the road, and I suppose since there was no other signs, you kind of could fill a pothole or 2 your self if you felt so inclined. And the potholes were a plenty.

It was about this time I say the cutoff to Heber which looked a little less traveled than this one. And no cell service out here, so I decided to keep weaving through the potholes and maybe hit a bigger road. I went another few miles to where the road ended and continued on a dirt goat path. There was a trailer back in the woods, but I was worried I'd interrupt their Pagan rituals so decided to just turn back and go back to Winslow. Somewhere there is a retired BMW engineer I want to thank for over designing this piece of machinery between my legs so it does not break down in places like this..
So back to Winslow and having wasted a couple hours by now, I decided to just hit the interstate all the way to Albuquerque. The only excitement was 2 pretty good thunderstorms on the way. The first one came in bird dropping sized drops and I hid under a bridge and got my rain stuff on. It only lasted 20 minutes or so and was almost delicious in that it dropped the temperature by 20 degrees and my wet gloves made my hands wonderfully cold from the evaporative cooling. I almost took my rain stuff off, but I could see another big thunderstorm up ahead and was treated to another 10 minute downpour. After everything dried off, I stopped and took off all the rain stuff and by this time I was only 20 minutes outside ABQ. I found Jakes place and was a little early.

We had a nice long stroll with Jake's summer roommate Joe, who is also a quantum guy. We had a couple if cold ones and a nice dinner inside garage doors so when the lightning and thunder came, we were just outside the reach of the raindrops. So nice long walk back catching up on the physics world and crash. Tomorrow Jake has to work so I'll poke around ABQ and maybe we can go for a ride or walk after he gets the time travel thing a little closer to completion. Life is good..

Monument Valley & Grand Canyon

Goodbye Colorado! The mountain twisties were a nice break from corn & soy and soy and corn. Now on to the next chapter in the American Tour. The southwest!. I had bad coffee and GMO infested other stuff at the continental breakfast and then lit out of there. I knew I wanted to hit Monument Valley today so southwest it was. No oil consumption yesterday so my 18 year old girl is happy. I had 2 mornings when I had to add a little oil so not sure what was different on those days. With 86K on the clock, she is not as young as she used to be, but it still feels like a brand new bike. And I do wonder many days when I am skimming along roads with absolutely no traffic (or hope for help), what might just go "clunk" some day. I stopped and bought 2 bottles of water just in case. I bought new earbuds a few days ago that work great. For some reason my ear canals are tiny and the first pair died (one side) and the second pair just kept falling out which is dangerous when you are whistling along at 70 trying to stuff an earbud back in your ear, inside your helmet. So I bought a pair with volume control (rare these days) and a handfull of ear canal adapters. These work great and block all the air noise. I have finally perfected the vision / helmet system. The beemer has an electric windshield so I can tilt it up and down to just ehr ight angle that balances noise and how much air you want to get, and of course it's cool to tilt it down when you pull up next to a harley at a stop light (instan windshield envy>>). My helmet has a flip down visor that I stuck a piece of black tape (3M 33+ or course (ask your electrician)) and it is always up except at the ends of the day when the black tape shields your eyes from the rising or setting sun. The other time I put the visor down was when it rains so my face doesn't get bead blasted by rain drops. And then my latest find, safety glasses ( shaded and clear) with built in reading glasses so you can stop and look at the map without taking your helmet off. Perfection.
I run these desert roads at 55 to 60, much to the dismay of many others who blow by me at 80+. But I do it all day, much the turtle of the hare and turtle story. So a few stops to hydrate, which you need to do since the air is so dry and constantly blowing by you through my new neon mesh jacket.

Monument Valley is gorgeous but it is hard to take a picture mid-day but here it is for posterity.Yes I was taking a picture while riding. Sue me.
I saw a big herd of antelope grazing beside the road and as always I watch out for them always. I learned a few years ago not to try to out run them, They are fast! Best to just brake and let them do whatever they like.
It got hotter as I got further south so I stopped and looked at the map and decided to go northwest to the Grand Canyon to cool off. It was much cooler and the west entrance had nobody around.

Again, the pictures were not great but I shot this one anyway, mostly because of the crow sitting on the rock, who did not seem the least bit interested in me. Reminds me of a Fellini movie or maybe Hitchcock. I asked him what his name was and he said "Cawl" so I assume it was Carl with a Brooklyn accent (It was at this point I remembered to hydrate more).
The south entrance to the park was a zoo scene so I did not go to the village. I have been to the canyon now 3 times this year so felt I could miss the lodge and village.
So it was cooler up here and I went out the south entrance where there were cars piled up to get in, so I assume they are coming up in the afternoon to stay overnight. The road south of Grand Canyon is high altitude and pretty flat and as you approach Flagstaff, you gain altitude, which made it even cooler, just pleasantly so. The wildflowers were everywhere in purple, red and blue. I had tried to call the hotel we had stayed in before but they did not answer the phone this morning, so I made a reservation online and sure enough, I had a room (or I should say closet) waiting for me when I got here. And the price was more than twice what we paid last spring. This is high season so the hotels fill and the prices go up. But I like this hotel because it is right downtown in Flagstaff so you can walk to all the places and not have to drive, which means more than one beer, which I needed tonight (remember the hydration thing). I walked to the Beaver Street Brewery, which I had been to before and had a great salad with walnuts and chicken, etc. Gotta lay off the Mexican food for at least a night. I met a couple from Tuscon who confirmed that coming to Tuscon in the winter is a perfect time. Another couple from Mesa, AZ were in town mountain biking, and said the same, come back in November or February. Sounds like a plan. I topped the night off with a long walk around down town. Flagstaff has a college and a large science community, so nerds in bars. I really like the feel of this town, and you can't beat the weather. Adn I found out there is a ski area nearby. Hmmm.

OK, so now the secret to why I am in Flagstaff. There is a coffee / bakery place called Macy's where I had the second best cup of coffee (the best was in Edinborough, Scotland), and tomorrow morning I will be there with my hands wrapped around one of those big cups. And then on to Albuquerque to see my boy, Jacob.
And tonight I get to listen to trains go by as my room is next to the tracks!! 392 miles today.

Aspen to Cortex CO

All those miles in the flat midwest made my tires a little less round than when I started so today was a perfect day to "sharpen" them up. I think the GPS on my phone is still unwinding. It was a whole day of nothing but turns. My neck hurts from gawking at the beautiful mountain vistas. Troy made breakfast and we went over the route for the day. The beemer oil was perfect so i loaded up and said goodbyes. Thanks to Troy and Chris for putting me up and since we almost never see each other, it was good to get acquainted with Chris and catch up with Troy.
For the high season, there was not all that much traffic. The beemer has plenty of power so it is easy to pass folks if things back up anywhere. This route is perfect in that I got to ride the upper part of the Million Dollar Highway (RT550) which I had not been on before, but turned off before Ouray which I have been to. The other roads and passes were stunningly beautiful. I picked up a little drizzle and wore my rain stuff the last half of the day, but it was very light so no big deal.

I got into Cotez a little early and was going to go west to Utah, but when I called around the motels in Montecello they were either booked or really expensive. So good excuse to be a bum and turn in early here in Cortez. And finally found a good Mexican restaurant! Hot shower, and catch up on the blog.

Scottsbluff NE (flat) to Aspen CO (not flat)

Today was the end of riding on the plains. I looked forward to mountains, but there still is something beautiful and peaceful about the big flat middle of America. I headed due west to soon cross into Wyoming and head to Cheyenne. It's a little iffy where you will get gas but not too bad. Today I came the closest to panic about gas when I pulled into one of the tiny towns and saw no gas station. I asked at a garage and they said the only thing they had was a couple tanks with self serve, but it was 10% ethanol. Sure enough a cement slab with 2 pumps (diesel & gas) were just down the road. It was only 85 octane, but my beemer can run on camel wizz if required so it ran fine. And these folks are so welcoming, I would have no problem asking anyone if they had a can of gas somewhere. Next stop road construction. The WYDOT was putting oil on the road and then sprinkling the red gravel over it and brushing it into the oil. One of the highway guys, with the classic giant cowboy mustache stopped me and said it would be a while. He then walked over to his truck and came back with an ice cold bottle of water (hows that for service!). When he saw I was from Vermont we did the whole comparing our states. And he reminded me that Wyoming proudly has fewer people (584K) than Vermont (625K). He says he can call his representative or senator and they will actually talk to him. I have not tried that, but that may be true. We agreed smaller is better. He also warned me about Cheyenne since the Frontier Days rodeo was going on. I have been to it a couple times before so did not have a desire to stop.

I stopped for coffee just outside of Cheyenne to decide where to go. The north routes would take me too far north so I decided to run down Rt25 toward Denver then decide to go to Estes Park or keep going to Denver. Denver won out and I turned west on I70 and traffic came to a standstill due to a truck on fire further up the road. I originally wanted to get to Grand Junction and head south through Utah, but then thought I could stop in Aspen and see my nephew Troy and his wife Chris. I messaged then and they immediately said come on up to Aspen. I rode past all the backed up traffic on the little strip of pavement on the median side and finally cleared the backup. Troy suggested I go over Independence Pass and was that a nice treat at the end of the day. Denver was very hot but the temperature cooled right off as I climbed the mountains. I pulled into Aspen and it was hopping. I called Troy and he rode his bicycle over to where I was and lead me back some blocks to his house. A cold beer and we walked downtown to get the tour of Aspen. This town has population 5000 or so and Troy says it doesn't grow because it is pretty real estate limited. It is a pretty wealthy town, but they have a lot of public space and everybody was out and about.

We walked through the John Denver park which is beautiful with a semi-natural amphitheater and a creek running through it with a dog beach. Yup, this town pampers their dogs (and for good reason). Summer and winter are the high seasons with tourists and skiers respectively. Sounds like if you want to visit, spring and fall are the off seasons, but September has better weather. I got here just after a lot of crappy weather and it was a beautiful night to walk around town. We go a couple drinks and food in one of the gazillion places you can eat, but this one was one of Troy and Chris' regular places so I met some of their friends and co-workers.
A nice evening walk back from town, and the soft bed called me into sleep. Another great day, and the big change from plains to mountains.

Lake Andes SD to Scottsbluff NE

Greg gave me a tour of the area this morning. We had breakfast at the local diner, which being a small town is also the gas station, bait shop and grocery store. He took me across the dam to where the original fort was in the 1850's and there is a cool graveyard and info center. These pioneers were a tough bunch and a lot of them died of various diseases. We then went to a friend of his' farm which appears to be a typical "diverse farming" setup with crops, goats,and they are just setting up a 500 head feedlot to raise beef. Looks like you typical Vermont farm, but everything is bigger. We then went to some land that Greg is setting up for wildlife. It is a perfect balance of wetland and prairie grass with some assorted domestic "food" crops for the critters. You can tel this is bird country. I have been being dive bombed the last couple days by birds and we say a beautiful pheasant this morning. Also saw a badger, which we do not have at home. This corner of SD is not your typical prairie spot but much richer with wildlife. Thanks for putting me up Greg and giving me the nickel tour.
So I had so much fun on Rt 1 yesterday, I decided not to tax my brain today and just stay on Rt18 which goes due west. Very little traffic and smooth road. I saw move birds and a deer. This bottom part of SD has the reservations on them and you can usually tell by the election signs with Indian names and the lack of national chain stores. I stopped for gas in Pine Ridge which did have a large Conoco station where I filled up and got a drink. I got pan-handled by one of the locals who told me he just got out of jail for the day and needed gas for his truck. Good story for a buck, hopefully not for beer.

The original plan was to stop in Hot Springs for the night, but it was still early. Cheyenne was a little too far away, but Scottsbluff NE was perfect at 2 hours away. And it's probably time to start thinking of going south since i am supposed to end up in New Mexico. So another late day perfect weather ride south with no traffic and great vistas and smooth roads. The last 40 miles I ran alongside a big banks of thunderstorms with lightning and the whole works, but it stayed south west of me so I had ugly black stuff on my right, and blue sky and big puffy clouds on my left the rest of the way to Scottsbluff. Got a hotel and found a Mexican food place down the street with nice cold beer.

420 miles today.

Peoria IL to Lake Andes SD

Another perfect weather day and nearly perfect traffic day, as in almost none. I started around 7:15 and rode all day. This is a cake walk out here. The tiny county roads are mostly all paved and everything goes north-south, east-west. So all I used is the compass attached to the underside of the mirror. I tried to contact Debs hiking buddy, Flip, but he was in Colorado so I decided to just wiggle all day north west toward Lake Andes where my cousin Greg lives. I had told him Weds so I had plenty of time. Illinois is pretty  nice and mostly corn & soy. But I noticed a difference when I got into Iowa. Everything is much tidier in Iowa. Several times I saw people mowing next to the cornfield with no intent of feeding it to anything, just mowing it so it looked nice. The towns are also tidy and well kept. Lots of classic Mayberry RFD scenes where boys with baseball caps and girls with white jumpers were riding their bikes around town. And the businesses in most towns seem pretty healthy. I got a late lunch and kept wiggling toward Sioux Falls and suddenly I was there. It was 6pm and my GPS said Lake Andes was only 2 more hours away so I called Greg and he said come on down.

I took Rt 18 which is a small but smooth road with almost no traffic and 65 mph speed limit. I cranked the beemer up a bit and it ran smooth as silk.
This corner of South Dakota is a real surprise. There is still a lot of crops, but there is also some wheat being grown which looks golden in the late day sun. But there is also a lot of rolling countryside with trees and wetlands. There are birds everywhere and I was surprised over and over with birds swooping in front of me. I stopped 10 miles before getting to Lake Andes and called Greg so he could meet me someplace obvious and I followed him the few miles to his house on the reservoir behind the dam. Greg has lived in SD or MN for a long time so answered most all of my questions. He had cold beer (thank you, thank you) and we sat the rest of the evening catching up on his deck overlooking the water and a few glimpses of the night sky. Perfect way to end the day. Huge thank you to Greg for putting me up.

 I rode 674 miles today, and the beemer didn't use any oil, good girl..

Bowling Green OH to Peoria IL

Wonderful wonderful day. I can't explain it to non-motorcycle folks but my cheeks are sore from smiling all day. It was a perfect temperature and the sky was clear, the corn and soy is growing, the little towns are busy and very little traffic on these little 2 lane roads. I slept like a log after the long day yesterday so did not get going until 8:30 or so this morning. Last night I found Rt 24 which would take me a long ways across the mid west through small towns. I like to find roads that go a long way so I don't have to deal with stopping and checking where I have to turn next. My little brain can just keep one road number in it at once. So Rt 24 it was. And it was a winner. I did some even smaller side roads a few times (not on the map since I don't remember where they were), which is really easy since everything is square. There was a big storm front that would meet me near Peoria (and it did), but the rest of the day was just big puffy clouds or clear sky. Traffic was very light and drivers are really decent. The crops look really healthy compared to the trip I took a couple years ago (3?) when they had drought conditions. Illinois had all the signs of having had floods this year with standing water in several places and "Thank you flood volunteers" signs here and there. I rode for a couple hours and then stopped for breakfast at a local diner. Lots of retired folks (pretty much all guys) catching up. The knee is doing great and I do my standard standup routine every time I hit a small town which helps a lot. Alleve every 6-8 hrs (no heart attack yet). The routine is the same all the way across. Go 55 for 20-30 minutes, then 35 through town (and they do have police checking), then 55, then 35, then 55 then 35.
I saw a lot of wind turbines all the way across and took some excursions to find them. Perfect fit since they can still grow corn and soy underneath them.

I added a few tablespoons of oil this morning to the beemer, which worked really hard yesterday. None required tonight since we took it easier. This bike is perfect for this cross country stuff. Smooth and quiet.
Now the bad news. The little diners are disappearing. It must be either the Subways or the combo gas station / mini-marts that are doing them in. Sad..
I saw a little piece of Rt 66 so it must be around here somewhere.
When I pulled into Peoria, big ugly black cloud banks were in front of me. So a quick stop and radar check and I decided it was time to call it quits. Super 8, hot shower, laundry and a walk, then a nice salad and piece of coconut cream pie. Tomorrow I head north through Iowa and maybe into South Dakota depending on the weather.

384 miles today and all is good here in Peoria..

Oswego NY to Bowling Green OH - Long Hot Day

Friday I rode from VT to Oswego. Deb's dad lives in Oswego so I have been making this trip for 30 years. I went the "Hauge Route" this time just to mix it up. This was the test day to see if my knee would hold up. A few weeks ago I twisted my knee and after a week in pain, went to see the doc. She first thought it was something torn, but x ray'd it and said "Good news! It's just arthritis". Jeeze.. So she recommended Alleve, which my wife told me was on the list of pain meds that cause heart attacks. Oh the choices we have to make..
So the Alleve worked pretty well and Saturday I spent going to Debs grade school and high school re-union. It was fun to watch people re-connect after 40 years and I met some really nice folks and heard about all they had been doing for the last 40 years. Life kind of bumps everyone forward along different paths.
So Sunday I got a leisurely start with the goal being getting as far west as I could to avoid the congestion of the cities, which meant interstate. I did start with a nice lake run through the fruit belt. They grow cherries, potatoes (not a fruit, I know), pears, apples, and lots of stuff we do not grow in VT.
I decided to skip Buffalo and cut south instead. It got muggier as the day went on and the Alleve was working great (no heart attack yet). I had planned on going to Akron and then heading across the corn belt on 2 laners, but the radar showed big nasty thunderstorms down there so my only choice was staying as far north as possible which meant staying on Rt 90. So that worked but I got a 3 minute downpour, which I go my rain duds on for, so no big deal except it's 90 and muggy so it's best not to keep them on. And then Toledo. A giant ugly black front appeared and I got off the next toll exit and as I sat in the line to pay the toll, the boomers just rolled over us and I asked the toll guy how to go south, he said Rt 450, which I bolted on after finding it and high tailed it away from that mess. Once I got south enough to miss it, I turned west again. It's all flat and clean and friendly looking here. Big farms and people relaxing on their front porches I assume talking about how big the corn is this year (it sure looks big). I rolled into Bowling Green and got a motel, then went for a walk and found a sports bar where I had a tall sudsy one of the local brew, some so-so Mexican food, and then walked back to he hotel. I had to chase the polar bears out of my room and chip the ice off the shower head since they had left the air conditioner on full blast all day. My eyes were closed by 8:30. Long hot 550 mile day, but I'm here.