ALBUQUERQUE HOG RALLY - AUGUST 1999
(INCLUDES ALBUQUERQUE HOG RALLY, SANDIA CREST, NM., TAOS, NM., BANDELIER
NATIONAL MONUMENT, NM., THE "EXTRATERRESTRIAL HIGHWAY", ARIZONA)
SUNDAY AUGUST 22 to FRIDAY
SEPTEMBER 3, 1999
13 DAYS / 3,127 MILES $ 108.56 GAS / 61.48 GALLONS GAS
/ AVERAGE MILEAGE 50.86 MPG
On my 1998 Ultra Classic with Dana on her 1998 Dyna Low Rider.
DAY 1 SUNDAY AUGUST 22, 1999 440 440 Motel 6, Barstow, CA. Room # 230 $ 39.59 LUNCH Carl’s Jr.
Merced, CA.
East I-80 to Rodeo; east Highway 4 to Antioch then Hillcrest and Lone Tree to Brentwood; east Highway 4 to Stockton; south Highway 99 to Bakersfield; east Highway 58 to Barstow. Despite a couple of earlier trips, this was our “real” vacation for
the year and as we had not been to a major H.O.G. Rally for a while Dana
wanted to head to the one in Albuquerque. As that is one of my favorite
spots I agreed. The only “bad” part about getting to Albuquerque is that
it normally mandates two long days of cruising through places I have seen
dozens of times. In other words, a boring couple of days. But Dana wanted
to leave Sunday and the run began the following Thursday so that gave us
four days to get there and there were things she wanted to see along the
way so that would make it a more interesting ride. We rolled away from
home at 9:30, just about a half hour later than we wanted. The weather
was great and traffic on the freeway was normal. It was a nice ride to
Stockton where we gassed up and headed south on Highway 99, a route we
seldom take in deference to faster (and even more boring) I-5. It had gained
a few degrees by now and was in the mid-90s. Traffic seems tighter on 99
than on I-5 but we rolled along in the sunshine, not making any stops until
a lunch break at Modesto. My bike was making a weird noise when we pulled
off and I found that one of the bolts that hold the end of the muffler
had skipped town. After lunch I tightened the remaining bolt and we jammed.
We took a soda break at a station in Fowler and jammed on to Bakersfield
where we hit the cooler hills over Tehachapi. The wind picked up in Mojave
and stayed with us for the rest of the way to Barstow. On a short break
in Mojave I figured this was my lucky day – if one bought a large soda
they were giving away a free Hershey bar. But they were out of Hersheys
and I got a free ZagNut instead. Haven’t see one of these in a while and
I just felt lucky. It’s the little things… In Barstow it was still over
100º so we turned on the A/C and hung out for a bit. In the dozens
of nights I have spent here I have never found a memorable place to eat,
despite many searches and several disappointments. I checked the Yellow
Pages again and found little of interest. We took off on my bike and cruised,
seeking new food and stumbled across DiNapoli’s, a very nice Italian place
that appeared to be a favorite of the locals. There was a half-hour wait
but it was worth it. We will return! We stopped off at Von’s for some snacks
and returned to the room around 10:00. It had been a pretty good ride today
even if it was a “get-outta-town” no-nonsense cruise.
DAY 2 MONDAY AUGUST 23, 1999 372 812 Super 8 Motel, Flagstaff, AZ. Room # 110 $ 58.08 LUNCH Carl’s Jr.
Needles, CA.
East I-40 to Flagstaff. Today would be a shorter day but still pretty much a freeway cruise
with no new sights to see. School was back in for may kids and the number
of vacationing families had thinned from earlier in the summer. We rolled
out of the motel before 10:00. It was warm already but hadn’t had a chance
to heat up so much. Traffic was light and we were soon in Ludlow for the
first gas and soda stop. It was beginning to heat up but we began climbing
into the mountains, too, so that evened it out to a tolerable temperature.
We rolled through the hills without slowing and upon descending into Needles
found it had already climbed to 100º. We had lunch at Carl’s again
– I had eaten at Carl’s more this week than I had in the past five years.
Once finished there we hit the road and jammed across the desert to Kingman.
Just before our stop there we overtook a couple of guys on two 650 “Funduros,”
BMW’s answer to the need for small dual-purpose bikes. They were equipped
with the back-pack type fluid reservoirs and looked serious about getting
to the next stop. A quick fuel stop in Kingman and we were off again. I
had tossed around the idea of taking Old Route 66 from Kingman to Seligman
but Dana didn’t seem so interested and I had just covered this a couple
of years ago with David Hammond so I stayed on the freeway to make some
time. It cooled off considerably as we began pulling the long hills out
of Ash Fork and by the time we got to Seligman it was chilly and damp.
We could see storms passing in front of us so we stopped and put on the
raingear. We were just in time as a minute later we were in a downpour
so heavy that it was difficult to see well. We slowed and continued and
were out of the storm in ten short minutes. It looked wet in front of us
so we stayed suited up. At 7,000 feet it was cool and dry for the rest
of the way to Flagstaff. As Dana was due for an oil and filter change we
pulled off at Flagstaff Harley-Davidson, which is really in Bellemont,
15 miles shy of Flagstaff, but they were closed Mondays. A few minutes
later we were in Flagstaff, looking for a hotel that Dana had found a discount
coupon for in a travel magazine during the earlier lunch stop. We were
following the signs to the place when I spied the Super 8 where we have
stayed many times before so I pulled in. The kid at the desk told us to
try La Fonda for dinner so we did. It was a very nice place with young
servers who seemed interested in doing a good job. We had a great dinner
and it seemed that everyone got sopapillas and honey for dessert. We stuffed
ourselves and took off for the cruise back to the room, stopping at Albertson’s
for snacks on the way in. It sprinkled a small bit but just enough to make
the roads smell damp but that’s all it done until later this evening. Back
at the room we kicked back and watched TV and read. A lazy night, indeed.
DAY 3 TUESDAY AUGUST 24, 1999 196 1,008 El Rancho Hotel, Gallup, NM. Room 222 (Dennis Morgan Room) $ 60.11 LUNCH Denny’s
Holbrook, AZ.
East I-40 to Gallup, NM. We were looking at a relatively short day today. It was bright and
clear when we left town at 11:00 after a lazy morning. I’d had a couple
of donuts from the lobby’s “breakfast” and was sluggish, but then I’m mostly
sluggish anyway. We fuelled up and hit the road. It warmed up as we dropped
off the mountain but was a little breezy. Again, there wasn’t much traffic.
I led us off the road around Joseph City to visit the Jackrabbit Trading
Post, an original Route 66 establishment that I have never stopped to check
out before. It was the typical tourist store but was fun to visit and we
spent a few dollars and left with a bag of souvenirs. We continued to Holbrook
before stopping for lunch and then saw nothing any better than Denny’s
along the business loop. We had a pretty good lunch there and jammed right
back on the freeway. Before I had left, I had told Jim the mechanic, uh,
pardon me, technician, at Vallejo H-D that my bike had been “pinging” a
little and he said that if it was caused by carbon build-up on the pistons
that I could fix it by adding a little top oil. I had been adding a couple
of ounces of Marvel Mystery Oil at every gas stop and my bike stumbled
a little on the onramp here, so I figured maybe I’d been putting in too
much. We’ll see. It was another non-stop jam into New Mexico. It seemed
that the vacation traffic had picked up a little and there were more big
trucks in a hurry along this stretch of road. There were several large
gloomy thunderstorms around the mountains, many appearing to be right in
our path but we somehow dodged them all. We did pick up a short five-minute
patch of sprinkles but it didn’t slow us down. We shut down and rolled
off the freeway at the West Gallup exit. After gassing up there we stayed
on the loop into town where we stopped at the El Rancho Hotel, another
original Route 66 business (built in 1936) with a rich history relating
to Western filmmaking. The surrounding area was home to hundreds of movies,
mostly Westerns, and the hotel and its restaurant was the host to hundreds
of actors and filmmakers of the era. Each room is named after an actor,
and although the building and rooms are old, they are in good shape and
most have original fixtures. The grounds foreman here offered to make us
a spot to park the bikes on the covered patio but we had a pretty good
place by the entrance so we stayed put. Nice people, though. We unpacked
and got a good parking spot at the entrance. We stayed in the “Dennis Morgan”
room – an actor I hadn’t heard of but I checked to find that he starred
in about sixty movies, mostly from the mid-thirties to the mid-forties
and most of which I had never heard. He did play in two movies I have seen,
The Gun That Won The West and God Is My Copilot. He died in 1994 at 86
years of age. Anyway, Dana has always wanted to stay at this hotel so that’s
what we were doing here and that’s why we had such a short day. I was ready
for a short day anyway so it worked out well. We left on my bike to tour
the town. I stopped and found a replacement bolt for my muffler at a Coast-To-Coast
store and then we walked to Wal-Mart for Dana’s earplugs. We grabbed some
snacks at Albertson’s too and Dana figured we’d skip dinner since we had
such a late lunch. It rained for a while when we were in the stores but
dried up quickly. After cruising the town we figured there wasn’t much
here except for places to buy Indian blankets and pottery so we headed
back to the room and kicked back and watched “Zeus and Roxanne” some weird
movie about a dog and a dolphin. What a wild night, huh? I went down to
the café later for a bowl of soup but other than that it was a pretty
quiet night.
DAY 4 WEDNESDAY AUGUST 25, 1999 181 1,189 Motel 6, Albuquerque, NM. (east) Room # 148 $ 41.26 BRKFST El Rancho Hotel restaurant
Gallup, NM.
East I-40 to Albuquerque Another short day today. I slept until 9:30 and walked down to the
café to get Dana some coffee. We took our time getting packed and
went downstairs to the café for breakfast. We rolled out of the
lot at checkout time, noon. Traffic was heavier than it had been and we
rolled on non-stop to Rio Puerco where we coasted off at a Stuckey’s for
a break. The wind had come up along this strip as it usually does (where
else do you see windsocks along the freeway where the hills stop and let
the breeze by?) but it was pretty warm with no threat of rain anywhere
in sight. Two guys on Harleys came in for gas while we were there and we
spoke to them, Peter Cronk (petercronk@aol.com) and James from Ventura.
They had been on the road for two days and were also attending the rally
in Albuquerque. After this stop we rolled into Albuquerque and went straight
to the motel. Freeway traffic all through town was messy, fast and crowded
with a lot of construction. It was good to stop. We got checked into the
room but didn’t waste any time getting back out. We jammed up to Chick’s
H-D where the service guys took Dana’s bike right in for the needed service.
I picked up the “real” replacement bolt for my muffler while there and
also a wire clip for the one on Dana’s ignition wire that we had messed
up earlier. And, to make things even more weird, while in the showroom
browsing around, we ran across two girls from home that Dana knew. They
weren’t even motorcycle people, but daughters of Dana's friends who were
in an automobile road-trip and had just stopped at the shop looking for
a tee shirt. One of those “small world” things that we get caught up in
frequently just about everywhere we go. We ran up to a minimart and grabbed
a couple of sodas as Chick’s has no soda machine and upon returning to
the dealer ran across two cops who knew and old friend of mine who now
lives in Albuquerque. I got his phone number from them. Once Dana’s bike
was done we rolled back downtown and had a superb dinner at our favorite
place, the 66 Diner. It has been closed due to fire and re-opened since
our last visit but the food was still excellent and the kids that run the
place are always great. While returning to the east end of town, we cruised
the length of Central Avenue, Old Route 66. While in the college area I
saw a bakery called the “Double Rainbow” while we were stopped at a traffic
signal. I asked over to Dana if there was such a thing as a double rainbow.
She said she didn’t know. We’d have that question personally answered for
us by Mama Nature herself in just a few short days. We fuelled up across
from the motel after that and headed back to the room. It was a short rest
as there was dirty laundry to tend to, so we packed it up on my bike and
ran across to the Duds ‘n Suds and done laundry. While the stuff was drying,
we walked over to Smith’s for snacks and stuff. It was warm even at this
late hour and the activity on that end of town was winding down. We played
a couple of “Tic Tac Toad” Lottery tickets while we sat and spent a few
dollars, won a few dollars and finally ended up a couple of bucks poorer.
We were back at the room by 9:20 and were surprised to see only one other
bike in the lot. The last time we attended a HOG rally here, the motel
was full of Harleys. The official start day was not until the following
day so there was time for it to fill up a bit more. Again, we hung out
and watched TV and read and just relaxed in general.
DAY 5 THURSDAY AUGUST 26, 1999 74 1,263 Motel 6, Albuquerque, NM. (east) Room # 148 $ 41.26 LUNCH Albuquerque Convention Center
Albuquerque, NM.
Cruise Albuquerque streets and freeways and ride north on Nine Mile Hill (Old US Route 66) to I-40 and back on I-40. We slept until 9:00 today. Even after that we had the slows a bit.
We left the room at 11:00, cruised through town on Central and stopped
at the Convention Center, site of the rally. It was hot but would not get
too high into the 90s today. There were plenty of bikes lining the street
at the rally but it was still not as big as the last. We stopped in the
main lobby and read the displays from Ladies Of Harley members who had
written stories of their funniest and most memorable rides. Once inside
the Center we browsed the booths that vendors and hosts had set up paying
particular attention to the National Parks booth where a ranger told us
about the new parks Dana wanted to visit. I was looking for a Harley hat
with a Kokopeli Indian flute guy on it but the ones Chick’s booth had were
ridiculously steep. A small group of folks from the Ogden, Utah Visitors
Center were on hand, not only with literature but samples of honey from
their area made by a group of Trappist monks in Huntsville. It was the
best I have ever tasted, cinnamon flavored being my favorite out of the
four on hand. Too bad they didn’t have stock to sell, but the samples were
great. I know what to look for in Ogden next time I’m there. Harley-Davidson
had their display of new bikes on hand with one of the new “Deuce” Softail
models. Very nice piece, although the high pipes make for short (almost
worthless for trippin’) saddlebags. It was a good display. We shopped in
the HOG area and I found some souvenirs. Also in attendance were an engraver
with a computer-driven engraving machine which cuts designs into the chrome
on certain bike parts without digging through into the metal, therefore
preventing rust and blemishes. Dana saw this and asked the guy about engraving
the “Tazmanian Devil” cartoon guy into a points cover for her. As it happened,
the guy had a points cover to fit her bike (hers is the stock stamped aluminum
piece with logos and paint) and he also had a picture of “Taz” that he
displayed on his screen for Dana’s approval. She arranged for the work
and while that was being done we walked over to the rest area and had lunch
– already-boxed salad and convection oven pizza from the Center’s vendors.
It was pretty good for what amounts to airline food. In a few more minutes
her bike was “personalized.” But that wasn’t good enough, oh, no. There
was a pinstriper in the next booth who, according to the engraver, was
good, and since Dana has been talking about getting flowers on her tank
for a year we had to go talk to him. She set up an appointment for 5:00
p.m. with the painter and we left for a little cruise. We rode out to the
top of “Nine Mile Hill,” another original stretch of Route 66 and took
a couple of pictures at the top. Back through town, we again rode the wild
freeway and around 3:30 stopped back at the motel for a short rest. We
jammed back to the Center where “By George!” striped some cool white flowers
with green vines onto both sides of Dana’s tank. Now her bike was really
personalized. Just to even out the left side I had the engraver do a larger
Taz on the left battery cover, too. Yow! We were out around 6:00 p.m. and
Dana had the biggest smile I have seen her with for some time. Very cool
stuff, Indeed! We went up to the north end of town for dinner at a Greek
restaurant I had found on the Internet after our last trip to Pismo Beach.
We’d had a couple of Greek dishes there and I was looking for descriptions
of our meals when I ran across a webpage for the Mykonos Restaurant in
Albuquerque. This was an accidental find but the page made me hungry so,
knowing I’d be in Albuquerque soon, I saved the address for three months
and this evening got to experience some GREAT food. I had a sampler plate
with about ten items on it. ALL were great. Again, “I’ll be back!” We rode
home just as it was turning dark, and took the long way around, past the
Aerial Tramway, watching lightning in the nearby mountains but never getting
too close. We were back at the motel at 8:00 p.m. after a great day. We
walked over to Albertson’s at 9:30 for some sodas and stuff but came right
back.
DAY 6 FRIDAY AUGUST 27, 1999 229 1,492 Motel 6, Albuquerque, NM. (east) Room # 148 $ 41.27 LUNCH Sandia Crest House Café
Sandia Crest, NM.
East I-40 to Cedar Crest; north Highway 14 to San Antonio; north up the 536 Highway to Sandia Peak and down to San Antonio again; north Highway 14 to La Cienega and Santa Fe; north I-25 past Santa Fe then south US 285 to Lamy; south Highway 41 to Moriarty and Estancia; west Highway 55 to Tajique; north 237 to Tijeras; west US 66 to Albuquerque. Today was our day to tour the area and see some new sights. Despite
our many visits to the area there was a load of stuff we had missed. We
slept late again and left the motel at 11:00.There were only a couple of
new bikes at this and the next motel. Still not a very big run. We took
off on the road on the back side of the Sandia Mountains as Dana wanted
to see the artsy/touristy town of Madrid. We started out fairly warm with
a gradual warming and clearing. We had also decided to travel to the Sandia
Crest by road, something we had done only on the aerial tramway. We had
started to do this on the bikes a few years ago but turned around because
of construction. The road to the top is a good paved road and is very twisty
and just simply wonderful for biking. It was cold by the time we hit the
top (10,678’) and we took photos at the overlook then walked to the gift
shop where we nabbed a few more souvenirs. The small café next to
the gift shop had a lunch special of hot green chile stew and tortillas
and it was very good. There were quite a few bikes in the lot as we returned.
We were next to a couple from back east and the woman had a custom red
three-wheeler that was pretty sharp. I saw the pair in one of the bike
magazines a few weeks later. It was cold enough to be wearing a sweatshirt
but I knew it would warm up half way down the hill so I stayed in my tee.
I was able to coast the first 6.5 miles in neutral from the top. At the
bottom of the hill we stopped at the mini-mart for a break. While there
we met an older couple on two new Road Kings from California. We were talking
about our rides when I slipped slowly into the realization that I was talking
with Dean Hummer from Petaluma. Dean is a well-known figure in the world
of the Harley-Davidson “Hummer”, a lightweight Harley that came into the
world in 1948 and was produced in many models for about 18 years. His wife,
Priscilla, told us she met him in the late 40’s and started riding solo
just a couple of years later. She has continued to ride all these years.
That was definitely a highlight of the trip and we got to talk with these
lovely folks for quite a while. After they left and while we were getting
ready to leave we were approached by a young couple from Colorado who had
questions about their new bike which was spewing a little oil. They were
having a great ride, too. We split a moment later and it was very warm
by then. We got to the artist colony of Madrid that Dana had wanted to
see, but just like Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) seeing the Grand Canyon
in the first “Vacation” movie, she simply looked around as we passed through,
nodded her head a few times, and said, “Yep, okay, that’s it!” I stopped
but she had seen enough, so we rolled on up the narrow valley road to Santa
Fe where we fuelled up and caught the freeway for about fifteen miles during
which time we got sprinkled on for about five minutes. We took yet another
two-laner back south towards Albuquerque, this one chosen by Dana for its
presence on the map. We didn’t see ten cars along this stretch, there being
an absence of artsy places along the way. We got to Moriarty and stopped
for an ice cream and discovered we had not planned any route after this
stop. We could have jammed back on I-40 but elected to head farther south
and cruise more mountains. It was a fun ride with rain and darkness looming
all around us but we never quite hit any moisture, the road constantly
making turns necessary to keep us dry. Dana was still proud of her Taz
and floral decorations but because of new paint she couldn’t wash the bike
for several days so we had to cruise dirty. Around 5:30 we arrived at the
motel, dropped off Dana’s bike, cleaned up and took my bike to a tour of
Old Town. We visited several shops there but didn’t stay long. I wanted
to eat at a Furr’s Cafeteria so we got directions to one of five in town
and had dinner. It was pretty good but I remembered it being better many
years ago than it really was now. The food was okay but it is a pain to
get seconds as you have to take your tray to a window and have someone
else get it. The catfish was good, though. I may take a pass on Furr’s
in the future only because of the procedural thing. We were back in the
room before 9:00 p.m. We Locktited Dana’s new points cover to reduce the
risk of losing it then just hung out and relaxed.
DAY 7 SATURDAY AUGUST 28, 1999 235 1,727 Motel 6, Santa Fe (North), NM. Room # 213 $ 73.45 LUNCH Po’ Suwae Geh Café
Pojoaque, NM.
West I-40 to center of town then north I-25 to Santa Fe; north US 285 to Pojoaque; north US 84 to Espanola; north Highway 68 to Taos; return to Santa Fe over the same route. We were a bit more lively today in that we were up at 8:30, but we
still didn’t hit the road until 10:30. I took a box full of stuff
we had collected over to the Mailbox Etc. and shipped it home, freeing
up a load of space in the saddlebags. We jammed up to Santa Fe, taking
the fast freeway this time and found the motel and were checked in by noon
or so. We didn’t know what to do in town but we had both been wanting to
make a visit to Taos – we had never been and we always hear about it, so
off we went. It was warm and there were loads of bikes around. The Santa
Fe Harley shop was the site of the demo ride fleet and they were as busy
as Albuquerque’s dealer. We stopped in the Pojoaque Pueblo and ate Indian
Tacos at a nice restaurant that had a name I can’t figure out how to pronounce.
It was a good lunch and very filling for being so cheap. We also had the
sopapillas style fry bread and honey similar to that we’d had in Flagstaff
at the Mexican place. Yummy! Then on to Taos where we found the biggest
traffic jam of the whole trip. We found a place to park and walked around.
It was hot and due to the impending rain, muggy. It began to rain while
we toured town on foot. All there is to Taos is unlimited gift shopping.
Dana found a bunch of cool crystals to take home to co-workers and I found
a cool “Taz” New Mexico magnet for her. About the time we figured it was
time to leave it stopped raining and we jammed out of town. As the storm
was in full bloom to the east we returned on the same road we had came
up on. We got back to the motel and unloaded our new stuff and hung out
for a bit trying to figure the town out. It’s a popular place, but again
it’s a place where all there is to do is spend money. Mark Miller, the
kinda-famous chef who does the salsa books and pepper posters has a café
in the downtown area so we went there on my bike to eat. We first walked
the shops and Dana bought some necklaces and other goodies. We ate upstairs
at the “casual” part of the café; the “other” part is a no-menu,
come in, sit-down-and-eat-what-we’re-making-at-the-moment $80-per-plate
kinda thing, like Chef Paul Prudhomme’s in New Orleans. The food was excellent
and I had achiote blue corn Chicken tamales with mango-habañero
salsa and Frito Pie. YOW! Very good stuff. A thunderstorm passed over while
we were dining and even though we were outside upstairs there was a roof
that just covered us. It was cool watching the lightning while dining.
Afterward we checked the gift shop and strolled a bit more and took off,
getting lost immediately. I found some cops and they directed me back in.
It rained a little on the way but not so much. I couldn’t find any mini-marts
with any of the good caffeine-free sodas so after I dropped Dana off I
cruised down to Albertson’s and got some sodas and stuff. It was quiet
around here this evening.
DAY 8 SUNDAY AUGUST 29, 1999 262 1,989 Motel 6, Farmington, NM. Room #103 $ 45.52 LUNCH Bandelier Trading
Company Bandelier National Monument, NM.
North US 285 to Pojoaque; west Highway 502 to near Los Alamos; south Highway 4 to Bandelier National Monument then into the park; back out to Highway 4 and west to San Ysidro; north Highway 44 to Bloomfield; west US 64 to Farmington. We were up at 8:30 After showers and just being slowpokes, we left
the motel at 10:30. It was sort of breezy but warming up. We cruised to
Bandelier National Monument fifty miles north. Dana had seen it on a map
then read about its cliff dwellings. She likes cliff dwellings somehow.
It was a great ride with little traffic. The road drops a fast couple of
thousand feet from the entrance to the visitor center. We made a quick
trip through the center, bought a trail guide then started off, for some
goofy reason, for the two-mile self-guided tour. It was well laid out and
we read about the stuff we saw as we walked. The trail goes way back then
branches off up inclined walkways to the mid-level plateau areas of the
cliffs. Just when I thought I couldn’t walk any more, we came to “the”
place to see. There are three vertical ladders to climb way the hell up
to some secret ceremonial cave. A few hundred ladder rungs straight up.
I wasn’t all that thrilled with the prospect of making this climb and Dana
had already turned to retreat but what’s the use of walking all this way
in 100º heat just to turn around? There was another old fart balking
at the climb and I just turned to him and said, “let’s go” and up the ladders
we went. At the top was a great cave with an underground room and we stood,
panted, sweated and took pictures. We climbed back down to the trail and
back to the center where we got some souvenirs and then had a simple lunch
made by the kids at the grill there. A storm had passed while we were in
the park and appeared to be hanging in the direction of our escape as we
headed out once more. We were unsure of our gas situation as the road had
bypassed Los Alamos but the ranger at the entrance assured us we’d have
gas by Jemez, only 45 miles out. In a few miles we were climbing again.
It was chilly and began to rain, mostly around us but only on us for five
minutes. With wet roads for a half hour, there were many places where rivers
of mud were left on the roadway but we made it through okay. It cleared
up quickly and we dropped off the mountain where it was warm with a lot
of tourist traffic. We took a break in Jemez at a mini-mart on the reservation
and were soon out on larger roads. We saw a huge black storm in front of
us but the road twisted so much we would find it to our left, then our
right then ahead of us, changing every few minutes. Dana put her jacket
on as it was cold approaching the storm. We stopped in Cuba to call ahead
and guarantee our room and we met a motorbiking couple from Ruidoso who
had came from the stormy area. They assured us that the road twisted its
way between the storms and that we’d stay dry if we hurried along. We took
off expecting to get drenched, but other than a brief two-minute sprinkling,
we zigged and zagged between storms. We were on wet roads about half the
time and the lightning was blasting to our left, right and in front of
us but we were somehow spared. We pulled out of the mess a little bit past
Nageezi and were met by sunshine and blue skies ahead. Dana came jamming
up on my left pointing behind us. I turned to see a huge bright double-rainbow
crossing the horizons. This answered my question from four days ago. We
had been keeping up a peppy pace for the last 60 miles trying to get through
the storm and now that we’d cheated it, we slowed for the last 30 miles
to Farmington. This had been a 100-mile no-stop roll. Upon approaching
Farmington I saw the most greenery I had seen in many days. Many lush fields
lined the roads and there were farm businesses and things different from
what we’d been seeing in the deserts. It looked like a good place to visit.
As we had been eating too late most of the time we decided to find grub
before the motel. We cruised a short section of town and decided upon a
steak house. We had a good dinner then cruised to the motel and checked
in, done our laundry and relaxed. This town is pretty dead at night.
DAY 9 MONDAY AUGUST 30, 1999 239 2,228 Motel 6, Page, AZ. Room # 133 $ 66.22 LUNCH Café Teec
Teec Pos Nos, AZ.
West US 64 to Arizona State Line; west US 160 to near Cow Springs; north Highway 98 to Page. I awoke at 7:30 as I needed an oil change and the Harley guys opened
at 9:00. I packed a few things and got Dana’s coffee and jammed off to
the shop as she was getting ready to shower. The man said he’d get on it
as soon as he finished the bike he had going. I visited the store and found
a couple of items to buy and sat at an outdoor table talking to a lone
rider from Denver for a bit. Just before my bike was done Dana pulled up
to visit. I had left my hat and gloves on my seat and when I collected
the bike my trusty old, beat-up nasty-ass hat was gone. I had just spent
a couple of nights at the motels sewing the hems on it, too as it was falling
apart. I couldn’t find it so Dana, being such a great baby, went back in
and bought me a NEW replacement! YOW!! Happy again! We went back to the
motel, packed, gassed up a few blocks down and left town around 11:00.
We stopped at a small post office in Waterflow and Dana bought stamps and
we mailed cards out. I wanted to eat in Shiprock but there was only the
standard fast food places so we continued, leaving town after a brief mix-up
and a wrong turn. We were in desolate areas afterwards and I was expecting
to wait a few hours for food but we crossed into Arizona and into this
small “place” called Teec Pos Nos (Navajo for “Circle Of Cottonwoods” -
it can’t even be called a community – three buildings, I believe.) I saw
a sign for a café and we stopped and found a very small room attached
to a store with a pizza oven and sandwich board. Good enough! I had a convection
oven pizza that was pretty good for what it was and Dana had a sub. A local
Indian came in and we got to visit with him. Maverette Lee is a drug rehab
counselor for the Navajo Nation and was just having lunch. I gave him a
few slices of my too-big pizza and got his business card so I can keep
in touch. He was a nice guy and lived way out in the boonies with his three
kids and wife. It rained very hard on us for about five minutes as we pulled
out of “town” but we were soon dry. We passed the roads into Canyon de
Chelly National Monument and Monument Valley as it looked like heavy rains
were on the way. We made plans to return to this area again soon. There
was little traffic along here and I snapped a few pictures of Dana while
we were riding side-by-side. We stopped near Rough Rock and took some cool
pictures of the rock formations. It was pretty windy but fairly warm. Upon
approaching Kayenta the whole Tribal Police force went zooming by the other
way. Must have been big whatever it was. We fuelled up and took a break
and talked to a couple of Gold-Wing-with-trailers guys who had come in
behind us and also with an older couple in a pickup. The storms were welling
up ahead and five miles out of town we stopped to put on rain gear. A lone
oncoming Harley rider stopped and told us it was storming up ahead.
We pulled a few miles farther and I remembered that I wanted to wrap my
clothes bag in plastic and as soon as we pulled off the road we got hit
by a helluva thunderstorm that dropped buckets of water on us. We just
stood there in our raingear for ten minutes and when it lightened up a
little we rolled on, coming out of the rain in ten more minutes. It was
cloudy but dry and almost warm the rest of the way into Page, a place we
have been wanting to visit for years. We left our rain suits on the last
75 miles but they were not needed, even though storms would pass in nearby
areas. The roads before Page were scenic with little traffic. We pulled
in at the motel around 4:00 and unpacked and relaxed. We turned on The
Weather Channel and saw storm and flood watches all over our location and
saw rain all around and promises of more tomorrow. We looked through the
Yellow Pages and picked a Chinese place in a nearby shopping center for
dinner, mostly as it would keep us close to home in the event of big storms.
We didn’t know that the “real” part of town (with “real” restaurants) was
a mile the other way, but it was convenient as it was next to the supermarket,
too. We had an okay Chinese dinner (I find it difficult to find “good”
Chinese food away from the metropolitan areas) and walked to Basha’s for
snacks and then to Wal-Mart for Dana’s sunscreen. A huge storm passed while
we were at the shopping center but had calmed a lot for the short ride
back to the room. We watched the weather and debated staying an extra day
here.
DAY 10 TUESDAY AUGUST 31, 1999 205 2,433 Casa Blanca Resort Casino Hotel, Mesquite, NV. Room # 5039 $ 31.60 LUNCH Nedra’s Too
Kanab, UT.
West US 89 to Kanab, UT.; south US 89 to Fredonia, AZ. West Highway 389 to Utah border; west Highway 59 to Hurricane; west I-15 to Mesquite, NV. We got up at 9:00. The Weather Channel still promised storms with
three inches of rain all around the area but it was merely muggy with a
couple of brief sprinkles. We moved slowly and left at 11:30. Last night
Dana had figured out a route for the next couple of days and I was hoping
that her plan of moving northwest would keep us dry. It worked out well.
We had a very light rain leaving town. We got to see the main part of town
and the dam, river and surrounding recreation areas. We had seen a local
brochure last night that showed rock formations that were accessible only
boat – we will have to return just for that, I think. Traffic was light
out of town and the sky cleared rapidly as we moved on. We pulled into
Kanab and chose Nedra’s for lunch as I had read of it in the phone book
last night. Dana had spinach enchiladas and I had an Indian taco and both
were great. We pulled across to the Chevron to gas up and ran into five
Harley guys in the lot. I saw that one had a SNDR (Sierra Nevada Digest
Rally) which indicates he is on the Harley E-Mail Digest and may be from
California or Nevada so we spoke to them and found they were from San Jose
and that area. They knew some of the same folks that Dana reads and communicates
with on the motorcycle newsgroups. The group had come in from the north
and were heading south to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We soon departed
and chose a small two-laner instead of the highway. We cruised more reservation
areas and ended up zig-zagging from Utah, into Arizona, back into Utah
and into Arizona yet again. The weather was great and we were in no hurry
today. When we rolled out of the protected valley two-lanes and dropped
down into Hurricane we were met by a pretty decent wind that stayed with
us into Mesquite. It was pretty much a non-stop cruise to Mesquite, where
one of our favorite stops is located. At the Casa Blanca we found that
the management no longer allowed bike parking under the entryway but the
valet allowed us a cool spot nearby. We unpacked and checked in to a room
that, as it usually is at this place during the week, was the nicest and
cheapest on the trip. Guess that’s why we like it so much. After a brief
cleanup we rode my bike down to Smith’s and grabbed some snacks and returned
and locked up the bikes for the night. We had dinner at the restaurant
in the casino and played a few games of Keno while we ate. We each won
a couple of bucks for our $10 (each) investment. The keno guy got the winnings
as a tip. My steak and shrimp was good and after dinner, around 8:30, we
dumped some cash on the slot machines. No winners tonight, dang it! We
had left our Casa Blanca VIP cards at home but it was a breeze getting
new ones at the desk. We went back to the room and hung out, read, watched
TV and relaxed for a good while then around 10:45 we walked down to the
Swenson’s shop in the lobby and had a couple of nice, large hot fudge sundaes.
A nice way to end a relaxing day, indeed. That was it for the night. It
was a nice room to stay inside and enjoy.
DAY 11 WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 1, 1999 373 2,806 Best Western Desert Lodge, Hawthorne, NV. Room # 101 $ 77.00 LUNCH Del Pueblo Truck Stop Restaurant
Alamo, NV.
West I-15 to Glendale; west Highway 168 to near the Desert Wildlife Range; north US 93 to near Hiko; west State Route 375 (“The Extraterrestrial Highway”) to Warm Springs; west US 6 to Tonopah; west US 95 to Hawthorne. I guess I had been tired last night as I had fallen asleep without
a shower. Usually I shower at night, Dana showers in the morning and we
don’t bump into each other so much. Today we awoke at 7:30 and were bumping
into each other all morning getting cleaned up. We left the room just after
9:30 and wasted no time checking out, packing up, fuelling and hitting
the freeway. Dana was wearing a tube top with worn elastic that threatened
to jettison good meaty skin out into the sunlight whenever she hit bumps
so when we rolled off the freeway to head north she changed shirts. Darn…
It was warm and breezy through the area and we kept a pretty good side
wind until we got up to the end of 168. There is little out on these roads
but it was nice and relaxing. We found the only café within a couple
of hundred miles and had lunch with all the locals and a group of highway
cops after gassing up down the street. We fled the town, found ourselves
alone on the street once again, and cruised a few miles before turning
onto “The Extraterrestrial Highway.” It seems that the infamous “Area 51”
military base is located nearby NO, it is not in Roswell, NM) and
the highway bears a name that gives it the same mysterious aura. There
isn’t much along this route although one café has a similarly chosen
name – “The Little Ale-Inn.” I tried out the bike’s new air filter/breather
kit along this road but couldn’t get it to bump 100 mph. After I slowed
Dana came jammin’ by and I didn’t catch up to her for a half hour. We were
pretty alone out here – we met two cars in 75 miles. We didn’t see any
UFOs or weird-looking beings. At the end of this cool road we stopped at
Warm Springs, a ghost town, for a break. I had a soda and walked around
for a bit. We saw a couple of hunters nearby as well. There is nothing
at all in this area any more; just cows, dirt and old broken buildings.
We then headed to Tonopah and fuelled up. Most of today’s roads had been
new to me so it was a real plus. It had gotten cold climbing into Tonopah
and it didn’t look any warmer ahead so I put on my sweatshirt for the first
time this trip. Wah! We cruised on through more new roads, along fields,
through hills, across plains and through small towns and finally got to
Hawthorne. I hadn’t been to this town since one of my first group Harley
rides with the Old Gang back in the early 80s. Dana said that passing the
old military bases and arsenals on the way in made her think of a movie
she had once seen, “My Science Project.” We would end up watching this
movie less than three weeks later after she copped the video from her sister.
Cool. We had no reservations here so we cruised town and ended up going
back to the first place we had passed, the Best Western. It was a great
room and the folks were nice. We got settled in and hung out for a bit
then watched Wayne’s World on the TV. It cooled off rapidly and it was
still and clear. We walked down the street to a nice small family café
where I had veal and Dana scarfed a huge salad. It was dark when we walked
back to the room and there was not too much moving on that end of town.
I rode solo up to Safeway for snacks and tomorrow’s drinks and found a
few cruisers down in the center of town. After Dana was asleep I walked
around the hotel a little and in 20 minutes I didn’t see one car move.
What a place.
DAY 12 THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 2, 1999 178 2,984 Best Western Sonora Oaks, Sonora, CA. Room # 119 $ 67.07 LUNCH Sportsmen’s Inn
Bridgeport, CA.
West highway 359 to California state line; west Highway 167 to near Lee Vining; north US 395 to Bridgeport and to Devil’s Gate Summit; west Highway 108 to Sonora. There’s not much left to the trip. Dana actually had five more days
on her vacation, but we remembered a few days ago that the upcoming weekend
was Labor Day Weekend and that there’d be crowds and traffic crazies out,
so that’s why we’d turned towards home early. We woke up this morning around
7:30 and took a long time packing. We left around 10:00, rode down to the
Chevron for fuel and hit the road. It was warm in town but that changed
quickly. It is an immediate climb out of town and we had shot up a thousand
feet higher in just a few minutes. It cooled off rapidly and we climbed
even more. The two-lane road was pretty much deserted and it was a nice
ride through the scrubby mountains. We crossed into California just past
the summit at 8,000 feet and began a drop that was as fast as the climb.
It was warm by the time we hit the Mono Lake cutoff and traffic picked
up, too. After another very rapid climb to chilly 8,100’ we dropped once
more, this time stopping in Bridgeport for breakfast. It was warm here
but we still had one more mountain pass to cross. Breakfast was good (even
if it was too late and we had to have lunch) and we were soon off again.
We made the Sonora Pass cutoff in just a few minutes and rolled along past
the US Marine’s “Mountain Warfare Training Center,” which is always odd-looking
to me, being a cool modern complex way back in the boonies. The climb begins
rapidly again, but this time it is a very narrow road with many 10 mph
hairpin turns and switchbacks. There was little traffic back here and the
roads were good. The scenery is some of the best along these hills. We
were stopped at the 9,600’ summit by a flag-lady who explained that big
trucks were hauling asphalt up the other side and that we had to wait for
them to dump it, then for it to be spread and rolled before we could continue.
We were not held up for more than twenty minutes or so then followed a
guide truck over to the downhill side. We stopped for a short break at
an overlook that had a sign pointing out Bald Mountain or some weird landmark
that had guided the original settlers across this part of the Sierras.
We soon stopped at the Donnells Lake rest area where we hiked down to the
overlook and checked out the lake, way down in a canyon. It had warmed
up nicely after dropping off the summit but we were still a few thousand
feet up so it was far from hot. Some blind Volvo wagon driver pulled out
into my path from a side street somewhere past Dardanelle but I had a few
spare feet left by the time I had braked to miss him. We had one more ten
minute construction stop a few miles later then rolled on down the hill
to Sonora where we found our hotel and stopped. This was the hotel where
we had stayed on one of our first out-of-town trips together many years
ago so we were discussing memories and our early trips for a while. We
hung out for a bit and decided to see a movie. We took off on my bike and
made it to the theater about 45 minutes early and took the time to walk
around the corner to a restaurant for dinner before the show. We
saw “The Thirteenth Warrior” with Antonio Banderas then stopped by the
Lucky store for some snacks and returned to the room around 8:15. It was
a slow night with a little TV and some reading but mostly just hanging
out and wondering if it was good or bad to be back home. I was glad that
we would miss the three-day weekend hassles but still thought it would
be cool to stay out another week. Or two……
DAY 13 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 3, 1999 143 3,127 LUNCH Denny’s (I-5 @ SR 4) Stockton, CA. North Highway 49 to Angels Camp; west Highway 4 to Hercules; west I-80 home. This is it. Last day and only a couple of hours from home. Wah….. We woke up sort of early and moped around for a while and left motel around the 11:00 check-out time. It was warm and breezy and I was already hungry. We fuelled up and left town and found quite a bit of holiday traffic coming at us, heading from the cities in towards the hills. We peeked around for a breakfast place in Angels Camp but nothing really smacked of greatness. When we got to Stockton I remembered that the Denny’s there next to where we usually got gas had been in the process of remodeling to their new “diner” theme when we were heading out two weeks ago. I navigated through town and stopped there for food. It wasn’t so much that I like Denny’s a lot, but Dana and I had been watching a movie last month (“Smoke Signals”) where these two Indian kids were talking and one went into a lengthy and precise recounting of his last trip to Denny’s. He had eaten a Grand Slam Breakfast. We had gotten a little laugh from that part of the movie and I figured it would be fitting to have that particular meal somewhere along this trip and this had the appearance of a “now or never” situation. It was warm and traffic was on the rise when we stopped in to experience the “new” retro-diner-style décor of Denny’s and had a fine lunch. What did I have? I followed the lead of the kid in the movie… “It was afternoon, ya know? But I still had the Grand Slam Breakfast. Two eggs…… two sausages…… two slices of bacon…… two pancakes…… and some juice…… and milk! Ya know…… sometimes it’s a good day to die…… sometimes it’s a good day to have breakfast!” Profound, huh? Anyway, it was good and we were soon back on the familiar road home. The holiday traffic was building up in the oncoming direction and I felt better about coming home a couple of days early. We rode straight in to home and by the time we got past Antioch the oncoming traffic was bumper-to-bumper. It had cooled off a bit, too. By the time we got home it was cooler on the Bay and we were met by a new surface on our road! For weeks the street had been under construction with loads of fresh gravel and tons of dust and here it was, finally finished with a new smooth, clean, black surface. I guess if ya have to come home it may as well be to a good surprise like this.
So…… what more can I say? It was a terrific trip. Maybe better than most. I haven’t figured out exactly why this is but maybe it had something to do with never having to be in a hurry and having quite a few low-mile days. We also got to see many roads, places, a National Park and other attractions we had not seen before. This is always a plus, especially after spending the first thousand miles simply getting out of town over the “same damned roads” we have previously traveled dozens of times. Even that wasn’t bad as we took four days to do what we normally do in two. We met a few folks that were fairly memorable and only got rained on for brief periods. Rainsuits on twice – not too bad. It was mostly warm and never got too very hot for too long a time. The food was excellent in most places and it was just plain fun and that’s what we like. There were no bike problems and we were able to get our services done with a minimum of waiting which is sometimes hard to do in areas where large rallies are in progress. And, Dana got her bike engraved and painted, something she had been meaning to do but just never could get around to it at home. I missed a few spots that I want to see but I can expect that on most any trip. There is only so much time and one must miss out on some things to do the others. We finally got to visit Santa Fe and to see Taos. Not a big deal on either count but now we know. I’ll take Albuquerque over these two tourist places any day. We got the El Rancho Hotel out of the way so Dana won’t have it on her mind that she must stay here. Or maybe she will – we found out later that in addition to all the rooms named after movie stars, there is a “secret room” that’s not on the register. Maybe we can just look at it sometime without staying. We’ll see. We really have to return to the northwest New Mexico and northern Arizona areas and see a little more of the places between Bandelier National Monument and Mesquite. The roads we used bypassed Los Alamos but I expect that it is just another town. However, after Shiprock we managed to scoot right past the Canyon de Chelly National Monument and Monument Valley. These, I understand, are “must-see” places so we’ll be back. Also we want to see more of Page and the surrounding areas like the Navajo Bridge and maybe take a boat tour of Lake Powell to see the caves and formations that are accessible only by boat. We’ll stay a few days next time. A bit farther up the road, we want to see the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, so that’ll be on our list next time we pass through. And, of course, I must mention that traveling with Dana is pretty much a breeze. She can sleep through my snoring and other noises, she rides at any speed that is right for the conditions and riding in the rain doesn’t seem to hinder her progress. She likes to see and experience the same things as I. I have still not found a better riding partner. She’s a tough act to follow. There’s not much I’d want to change about this ride. ‘Twas a BLAST!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dana’s superb Pinstriper is: George (& Pam) Williams
Dana’s dynamite Engraver is: “ENGRAVEYARD”
|
