Coffeyville KS to West Plains MO - Hot and Stormy

With high temperatures and high humidity, there were thunderstorms all over the area last night. When I woke up this morning, the radar showed two storms on either side of me headed north east. I was hoping to go due east, but I would have run right p the backside of one of the storms. So I waited until 10:30 when the last cell went over me, and then headed north east in between the 2 storms. I crossed into Missouri (finally) at around noon and stopped for coffee in Nevada, MO to plan the next step. By then the storm was just finishing up in Joplin MO south of me. I headed south until I got just above the storm and then due east. I might have gotten to the same place if I had just waited back in Coffeyville, but I am here to ride and see as much country as I can. Even the locals are complaining about how hot and humid it is so this is unusual. And it is even worse down on Arkansas and Oklahoma. The next few days should see it cool off a bit.

This part of the country is slowly getting much moister and greener and with a lot more rolling hills, creeks and trees. Most of Kansas was falt and a little green but as you got more east, the trees started in. Missouri seems a lot like Vermont with lots of lush countryside. It seems economically a little depressed and a lot of the old farms have all grown up. There are manufacturing plants here and there and some farming. I started seeing armadillos beside the road, so they must be here along with opossums and huge corn fed raccoons.  Pretty uneventful day all told,

I talked to my brother and it looks like we may meet up in Kentucky tomorrow night. They did the tail of the dragon and stopped at the Wheels Through Times motorcycle museum where the crazy owner guy was riding a motorcycle through the gift shop this morning. That is another great museum if you make it down there. That guy is living out his lifelong passion for sure. So I have the AC on and it's pretty comfy here and tomorrow hopefully it will stop raining by the time I head out. Beemer rolls over 96K tomorrow. My old friend..

Looks like Dick & Dave have been having a good time.

Hays KS to Coffeyville KS - Motorcycle Museums

Yes I am still in Kansas, but I have 2 good excuses.
There was a big storm system east of me and instead of runing up the backside of it, I decided to go south and try to weave under it (almost worked). I was seeking, and found, small Kansas towns. It was more humid and got hotter than yesterday so the morning was ok, but by noon, the air was really thick. Just before Great Bend, I say a little brown sign that said "Motorcycle Museum) and the arrow pointed up a small county road to the left. So I figured, what the heck, might be kinda cute. It was about 14 miles and I came into the town of Marquette, KS. I completely missed the museum, it was right on Main Street (pretty much the only street), of Marquette which is a small quiet town with one of most everything (did not see a hardware or grocery store). The guy inside had just retired (la-la-la retirement is awesome la-la-la) but knew a ton about all the bikes in the museum. It was basically 2 large joined room and maybe 120 motorcycles. Lots of early 1900 "motorized bicycles", lots of Harley's, Indian's and Henderson's, and lots of "classic" 1950,60,70s bikes. I saya couple I have owned (Suzuki  cylinder 2 stroke and Triumph 650). I love these early bikes because they are loaded with Mechanical Engineering experimentation, back when they were building things, watching them break, and then building the next generation. The museum is the bikes left over from a guy from the town who raced motorcycles from 1942 until the 1990's. He collected a few bikes and a lot of people loaned their restored bikes to the museum. Well worth the stop.

I left the museum and half way down the county road, back to Rt 56, it went from drips to dribbles to drizzle, so I stopped to put on the rain gear. I just got my florescent gear on when an old guy in a rusty pickup stopped to check that I was ok. These mid-westerners do watch out for each other.
The guy at the Marquette museum said I should drive teh 2 hrs to Augusta KS museum which had even more restored bikes. I did and they did. A little smaller than the first museum, but equally impressive collection. He said the owner had just left to run in the annual Cannonball Race where they race from coast to coast. This year, the motorcycles have to be at least 100 years old. They actually start on Saturday from Atlantic City, NJ. I  checked the route and we may be able to catch them when the go through Ohio. How cool (and smoky I bet) would that be. He said there were 150-200 old bikes going from NJ to San Diego. My but hurts just thinking about it, those tiny seats.

The rain stopped and the second museum guy sent me on some nice quite roads to end in Joplin Missouri, but when I pulled into Coffeyville KS, a wall of black clouds and big lightning and thunder was between me and where I was supposed to go, so I stopped for the night. Sure enough it poured as soon as I got into the room.
I unpacked and called my brother to see how they were doing, heading west to meet me. They had just gotten to Maggie Valley, NC and so we are still almost 1000 miles apart. So maybe a couple more days until we meet up.

The rain stopped so I walked a few blocks to a BBQ place and chatted up another traveller who turned out to be a computer guy (IT) and we swapped stories about the good old days of S100, CPM, the original IBM-PC, etc. He was a few years younger but we both lived and worked through all the same technology changes. Nerd on vacation..
So tomorrow I head to Missouri. I'll add more pics of those beautiful bikes I saw today.

Boulder CO to Hays KS - This May Take a While

Got a late start since I was up late with Laura jabbering about old dead relatives. Thanks Laura for dinner and great Miller info!!
I just headed east right out of Boulder and got a nice tour of the suburbs of Boulder. Laura says the city bought a lot of the open land to provide large areas of natural space around it and limit growth, and so it is lovely outside of Boulder.
I had to get on RT470 to bypass all the ugly Denver suburbs and the usual stuff you see outside cities. Anything to avoid the Rt25 - Rt70 intersection. Denver seems to have a lot of smog, which I remember from 1978 as well. Lots of cars (and BMW motorcycles of course) and no mass transit.

I finally got on Rt70 and went east until I hit Byers. I wanted to get off the interstate to find a remote back road. Rt 36 provided such and it was peaceful and extremely remote. Having a 19 year old motorcycle with almost 100K on the clock makes me a little nervous about being this far off the beaten path. So I stayed on 30 until I found the next turn south back to the interstate. I rode through a huge wind turbine farm and they were majestic, out in the wheat and corn fields. Best crop they got growing out here I would guess.
Then time to pay my dues, so back on I70 and drop into that deep meditative trance.
My first clue that this was going to take a while was the fact that at 2pm, I was still in Colorado. Rocky Mountains my keister!

Finally I hit Kansas and it was almost time to plan where to stay tonight. By 4pm the humidity started rising, no more dry western air. It was very warm as well and overcast. So I was getting hot and sticky so Hays seemed to be the place to stop. Lots of empty motels and places for cold beer within walking distance (I can have two!).
I met a retired guidance counselor from upstate NY heading to Moab to meet his kids for a 2 week holiday. We walked to the steak place up the the street and had a couple cold beers and a great evening exchanging notes about our families and the inevitable topic, retirement. Wish I could run into at least one person who did not like being retired. OK, sleep calls me. Storms east of me so I gotta figure out where to go tomorrow.

Green River UT to Boulder CO - Rocky Mountain High

 What a day! I almost decided, but undecided, to take an extra day in the Rockies but I need to get across the plains, so the compromise was to do one last long day in the Rockies and then lookup my new found cousin Laura in Boulder to pick her brain about family genealogy.
I hit the starter just as the sun was peeking over the eastern horizon and clipping the Buttes across the valley from the motel. Heading eeat in the morning means riding into the sun, but it was weak sun and the view over my left shoulder was once again, stunning. Today was like the last 20 paintings in the Louvre when you brain is numb from beautiful pictures and it's not fair to those last few pictures.

I quickly realized it was too cold for just my porous jacket, so I stopped and put on the new hi-viz rain jacket (which I am told you can see from the Indian Ocean), and that was perfect. It was sunny and clear, but it gets pretty cold at night.
I put a couple hours on and stopped west of Grand Junction for coffee (to do the job the BHC was supposed to do (Bad Hotel Coffee). A group of old car guys (the cars and the guys) at was what I suppose was the weekly old car farts club gathering. Two brothers picked up the Vermont plate on my bike and told me all about their town and all the get together's they have with their cars. Their generation for sure are motor-heads. They drove off in their gorgeous El Camino.

Southeast from there on Rt 50 and it was Rt 50 for 180+ miles. It is very rolling and a fair amount fo grazing in this upper western slope. Rt 50 is relatively busy with lots of campers and big trucks as I am guessing it's the only main-ish road down into the mountains in central Colorado.
The rolling got higher and then the passes started. The temperature in the valleys was in the 80s, so not too warm, and the temps dropped a lot when I would go over the passes. Lots of mountain pass mambo with short passing lanes and big lumbering rigs. A motorcycle makes it easy to pass and if you just drop it a couple gears and hit the throttle, you can pass a whole string of cars with one slow motorhome in front, and you have the road to yourself until the next big hill.
I hit was able avoid he bad Denver traffic when I came off the last hill by skirting north through Golden (home of Coors), and rode the 20 or so miles up the same route I used to take to go to work back in 1978 across Rocky Flats and into Boulder.

I left a message for Laura and poked around Boulder which brought back all those memories of 35 years ago. Found a hotel in-town and unpacked. Laura stopped by and piked me up and gave me the nickel tour. Boulder has done and amazing job of protecting large open areas around the city. We drove up above the city to the place Woody Allen filmed parts of the movie Sleeper back in the 60's (70's?). It is where NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) is and my co-hort George worked there when we lived out here. The sun was just setting and we got a beautiful view of the city.
Then it was time to talk Miller family history.

Laura has been doing family genealogy since she was a teenager and we are 7th cousins. I am a rank amateur and have been dabbling for a couple years so she gave me the Ancestry tutorial, and we talked Miller family history until we couldn't talk anymore. Her family branched off in the early 1800's and she has all sorts on nationalities on her side. She had discovered the Dummerston Millers a while ago and took her whole family to Vermont to where they all started. Looks like I need to get Ancestry dialed up when I get back. I think my lineage is pretty English but we will see.. OK, Kansas tomorrow..
Oh yea, didn't see any marijuana dispensaries today but it seems to all the buzz out here..

Glenn Canyon and Capital Reef (and more).

OK, before you read this, you should smother your credit cards in bacon and feed them to your dog. You will get them back (might need the vet..) but it will give you a couple days to settle down. If I was sitting home, thinking about work tomorrow, and started reading about riding a motorcycle across Utah, I'd quit my job, buy a bike and head west. Today has to have been the most beautiful riding I have seen, ever, period.

I left Farmington, NM around 8am and got pleasantly lost, but soon picked up Rt 64 west to Shiprock and then cross into Arizona to Teec Nos Pos (cottonwoods in a circle, I just knew that really(not)). 

It became quickly apparent that cell service was going to iffy so no cellular, no GPS Maps, no problem. I pulled over and scribbled all the turns (there were a lot) on a hotel receipt and stuck it in the gas cap. Dad would be proud.

It was actually kinda flat and moderately interesting riding but there was almost no traffic and the temperature was perfect. I at one point thought I would skip Capital Reef and just go north to Moab and ride those nice canyons up there and maybe catch Canyonlands, but I decided I could make it through Glen Canyon and Capital Reef and loop north to the interstate 70 and put some miles in toward Colorado.

Deb and I did Rt 95 in a cage (motorcycle term for car) and it was beautiful. An old Utah guy told us it was the most beautiful road in Utah and he was right.

 Glenn canyon is like Grand Canyon, but you can ride through it. There are no towns to speak of anywhere so you need to watch your gas. I got 95 octane at one point, but the Beemer laughs at low octane gas and ran fine. I had one cup of coffee all day as there really was not much other than gas station stores (aka bad coffee dispensaries) but no shakes tonight.

I must have stopped 20 times (poor starter) for pictures and I'll include a few here. It started as a really peaceful morning and I was just getting settled into not being at work and relaxing when all this damn beauty starting popping up. Roads were in good shape, except that section with those little tar worms that sealed the cracks and causes you to slide around a bit. The guys got a little carried away and I saw at least one set of tar line initials and one tar rainbow. Bet that was not DOT approved.

 Stopping and taking pics got kinda stupid because every time I thought I had the most amazing picture, I went a few miles down the road, and a better vista inevitably popped up.
Once I left Glenn Canyon, I headed right into Capital Reef, which is, in my opinion, not as nice, but it is very different. Lots of white rock and then grey sandstone, followed by deep red rock with dark streaks in it.
After Capital Reef you drop down into a valley that God must have decided should have plenty of water, and suddenly, everyone was growing hay and a little corn, and there were cattle and sheep and, yes indeed, llamas? Lots of irrigation rigs running and canals beside the road with water running in them.

 At the other end of this valley I had to turn north on Rt 72 to head up over a bald mountain range with grass growing and animals grazing. The temp dropped quite a bit and then going down the other side, the rock formation started up, as beautiful as before. I just couldn't take much more beauty so I headed to the interstate (Rt 70) to start back east, and damn it if that wasn't drop dead gorgeous as well. I guess I have never been on this section of Rt 70 or I would have remembered it. This section has almost no towns as well so I rode all the way to Green River.

The interstate speed limit is 80 by the way, but I puttered along at 65, not wanting to push the old girl too hard (out here with no BMW shop for 400 miles). Found a motel and a nice little local Mexican place, where I was entertained by the waitresses 2 daughter who were just starting pre-school and kindergarten. We spent a good amount of time discussing mixing different colors of Play-Dough and had some differences of opinion on the resulting colors. I forgot how many questions these age kids can ask and I assured heir mom I rather enjoyed the conversation as she tried to keep them from bugging me. Very cute and they were switching from Spanish to English easily. I asked what language their teacher used in class and she had to think about it. I don't think they even think of the two as different languages since they just speak whichever works. Cute.



I chatted up a couple bikers from Denver who both had 650 VStroms and of course loved them. I must say, some of those back roads the park service now makes available would be pretty enticing..

I stopped for tomorrows gum ration and the checkout guy told me all about his KTM and how he rides all the back roads.
I'm beat and will figure tomorrow out in the morning.
P.S. in case you have not noticed, I do not check grammar or spelling or anything, but just blister this together at the end of the day so, I really do know how to spell, but am just too damn tired. I'll fix it later. Good night!!

 Good sleep (thanks Jake) and a pot of fresh coffee to star the day. My internal clock is a little messed up with staying up so late and the 2 hrs time difference, but the coffe signals my body it's ok. Jake and I walk to the Waffle-torium, which is crowded as always, but we always seem to find a table. I am stunned to find chicken and waffle on the menu, (not Thelmas mind you, so I order it, take a picture and send it off to my brother Dave (who is starting his trip west to meet me with my other brother Dick on their bikes.). Dave and I discovered Thelmas chicken and waffles somewhere in the south and assumed it was a one time thing, but now to find it in AQB?
His friend Keri met us so I subjected here to the usual grilling, background check and subsequent John tiride. She is a big Bernie fan so we got along fine.
The three of us did a walk around the neighbor hood and discovered some artist homes that were more something you would find in Santa Fe than ABQ. Then back to Jakes place to pack and load the Beemer. Tire were a little low from sitting since last spring. It always amazes me how little stuff I have after I load the saddlebags with my warms stuff and wet stuff. I got this down really well.

 It was heading to 3pm so I probably out to get going. Last good byes to Jakes roomies. Its always odd to say goodbyt to folks you have gotten to know n=and realize you may never see them again. This is Jakes last few months before he defends his dissertation and the he is leaving ABQ.
Thanks Will (nice Yawaha Versys by the way), Mohamed (come to VT any time and practice your story telling), Peter (good luck in Philly) for putting me up and for storing the Beemer this last year!!
Given it is so late, I decide to head up RT550 which gets me to the south-west corner of Colorado, where I can figure out where to go from there. Some light traffic in ABQ and then fresh gas. It was actually pretty hot and the sun was very intense, but as I turned onto 550 and started gaining altitude it cooled off. I go the obligatory couple liters of fluids, extra just in case, and slowly climbed past some gorgeous buttes and rock formations. Lots of campers out for the holiday, but light traffic over all. Through the reservations and casinos and finally over the Continental Divide. Lots of gas and oil work up here but I noticed the oil rigs were all running really slow. I wonder if they pump slower when the oil prices are low. By slow I mean you can hardly tell they are pumping, but they are.

I pulled into Farmington around 5:30, enough time to go a little further, but I have to decide if I am going deeper into Utah (Capital Reef) or up to Moab and Canyonlands, so I decide to stop here (nice cheap motels aplenty). I found the #1 Trip Advisor restaurant in town with out of this work soft shell tacos, and a long beer list. Lots of locals, families and friendly folks. Back to the motel and sleeping by 8pm. Not missing work yet!!

Flying to NM - Airport Day

It take 7 hours (plus the 4 hr layover in NY to watch people from all over the world arrive and fly away again) to fly to NM and about 2 weeks to ride the bike back home. JetBlue did a great job. Last minute packing and checks revealed that Microsoft decided that this morning was a good time to force me to change my remote login passwords, which ironically cannot be done remotely, so a quick drive up to the office to do that. Grrr.
The other ah ha moment was last night when it occurred to me that my bike registration might have run out, but VT DNV to the rescue and I got a temporary registration in about 5 minutes on their website. You might hate government, but a lot of works really well..
I stuffed the usual bag full of all my riding clothes, rain gear, clothes, electronical batteries, charges, cables computer geek stuff, camera stuff (I finally got a small travel tripod) and just before the zipper burst slid in the toothbrush ( in other states they would call it a teeth brush).
Easy flight with a delightful young college sophomore from Check Republic. He is studying Management an as always we contrasted the US with other countries. Like other countries they watch us all the time and we are providing good entertainment this year with our presidential race.
Good people watching in NY and I put a good dent in my book about a guy travelling around the world in 1973 and just in case it wasn't difficult enough, he did it on a Triumph motorcycle. Same message always, things just work themselves out and you met a lot of nice people.
The flight from NY to ABQ was weird. The guy next to me talked to himself (but always politely. A woman had a panic attack on takeoff and they had to give her 3 seats and a blanket to lay down in (she slept the whole flight), and somewhere I kept hearing a cat, which, sure enough, was discovered when we landed. Kinda cute.
Cab from the airport to Jakes place (cabs cost about half what they do in Burlington..) and the driver was a student just graduating from UNM in psychology and moving to Oregon. He said driving the cab 3 nights a week and picking up drunks, helped him think he should work in addiction management. He says there is a new niche around our new addiction to smart phones, Pokeman Go and social media. Might be lucrative!

Jake and two of his other Physics grad students were up at midnight when I got there and we talked for a couple hours about Taylor expansions (they still use them.), programming (two of them write code for theoretical physics experiments and the old guy told tall tales of the good old days writing code with charcoal sticks on cave walls), effects of relativity on GPS signals, and celestial calculations. I was actually pretty awake so I let them go to bed, probably early for these guys. Nice to be around really smart, fired up people.
The bike looks good but I held back starting it at 2am.
I got a text that my credit card was compromised and Deb checked into it and sure enough, they are shutting it off. I have a second one for backup so I'll have to use my good looks for backup.

So they weather looks good today in the 80s and up north (Denver) it looks great this week.
Breakfast out this morning with Jake and a friend.
Life is good..