SOUTHWEST JAMMIN' / JULY 2003

(INCLUDES US HIGHWAY 50; RED CANYON, UTAH; CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL MONUMENT; CANYON de CHELLY NATIONAL MONUMENT; MONUMENT VALLEY NAVAJO TRIBAL PARK; TOLTEC & CUMBRES SCENIC RAILWAY; INTERNATIONAL UFO MUSEUM AND RESEARCH CENTER; BIOSPHERE 2)

SUNDAY JULY 13 TO WEDNESDAY JULY 30, 2003

18 DAYS / 4,045 MILES

$ 142.85 GAS / 76.825 GALLONS GAS / AVERAGE MILEAGE 52.65 MPG

CALIFORNIA NEVADA UTAH

NEW MEXICO ARIZONA

DAY 1     SUNDAY     JULY 13, 2003       450     450

PINOLE, CA. to EUREKA, NV.

East I-80 to Fernley; east US 50 to Eureka, NV.

This trip was planned somewhat loosely with plenty of days where we could vary our routes and time. However, there were a couple of things that were planned and paid for and that meant we had to be in place on a couple days or lose our pre-paid reservations. This included the train ride in Chama, New Mexico and a hotel reservation. The plan was to leave at 9:00 but we were out at 10:00 instead. Traffic was moderate and fast and it was warm enough for even Dana to leave in a tee shirt. Past Auburn traffic had lessened a lot and it had cooled a little in the altitude. There were still a few patches of snow at the top of the hills. The next stop was at Verdi when Dana wanted to eat but after seeing the crowd of go-home-Sunday people there we took off and stopped at a Del taco at the west edge of Reno instead. We gassed up, had a quick lunch then took off again. It was warming up again and traffic was thick through Reno but disappeared on the east end. We pulled off the freeway finally and cruising became less hectic along US 50. Around 3:40 we were at a gas stop in Fallon, filling up early because we didn't know what the status of fuel would be out in "lonely US 50" area. Traffic was very light as it usually is out here and the temps were a little over 100. We stopped for nothing until Austin when we stopped at the minimart for some juice. Fifteen minutes later we were rolling eastward and again didn't stop until we hit our destination at 7:15. We checked in at the Best Western Eureka Inn, unpacked and messed around for a while then walked down to the Owl Club casino/bar/café for a pretty good (and sizable) dinner. I had steak and shrimp and it was loaded with extras, fries, corn, bread, etc. After dinner we went to their very tiny casino where Dana won and kept a fast $20. The bartender kid gave me Cokes and talked about his experiences in Santa Cruz, San Diego, Malibu and a road trip to Montana and Wyoming, South Dakota, etc. The staff at the Owl wore tee shirts that said "W.R.A.N.G.L.E.R.S. - Western Ranchers Against No-Good Leftist Environmentalist Rotten Shitheads." It had something to do with groups trying to stick new regulations on the long-time local ranchers but I never got the whole story. We walked in the dark around town for a moment then and bought a few sodas at the Chevron then got back to the room. At the motel we got some post cards and ice from the office, computed and e-mailed and watched TV and relaxed. It was still warm when we came in but I walked out around 11:00 and it had cooled off a lot.

DAY 2     MONDAY     JULY 14, 2003       312     762

EUREKA, NV. to PANGUITCH, UT.

East US 50 to near Baker, NV; south NV 487 through Baker to Utah state line near Garrison, UT; south UT 21 to Beaver, UT; south on I-15; east UT 20 to near Spry; south US 89 to Panguitch, UT

We were awake before the 8:30 alarm but had the slows. I had some food at the breakfast bar while Dana showered. It was still cool but warming up fast. The town was just barely more busy than it had been the night before. We stopped for gas up the street then walked over to the post office where Dana bought postcard stamps. We pulled out of town at 10:40. It was warm and traffic was super-light. I hung at around 55 mph just to relax and enjoy the first leg of today's trip. We saw a huge doe on the road at the start of the ride. We pulled into Ely at 12:11 and spent some time there gassing up, grabbing snacks and a drink and taking a pit stop. We pulled away from town and cruised at a slow roll across the plains looking for the deer and elk that hang out there but we didn't see any. We ran into a road work stoppage on 50 and parked for 15 minutes before the pilot car got to us and led us through the construction zone. He kept us at 35 mph until he cut us loose at the 50/93 split. We were entering the Great Basin National Park area and the traffic was a little heavier than before but still very light. We had decided to take a new road through Baker this time and left US 50 at Highway 487. A few minutes later we were parked in downtown Baker - one post office one open store/café and one closed café. I went to T&D's Country Store and got a super-dry pre-packaged sandwich and a Gatorade and Dana drank some stuff from the cooler. It would be a long time until further civilization but she wasn't hungry. Soon we hit the road and pulled out into yet more desolate country. We passed into Utah at 2:36 and had to set the clocks ahead an hour. We cruised at a leisurely 55-60 for an hour at which time The Gurl wanted to travel. She slid past me at a good clip and I followed her over the next set of mountains at 65-70. She jazzed around for about ten minutes then slowed up and had me pass. We got to Milton but Dana said she'd rather wait until Beaver to stop for gas. We hit another construction stoppage and sat in line for ten minutes. At this stop we had been cruisin' non-stop for 112 miles. Once moving it was by following a slow pilot car again. Once in Beaver we stopped to look at the map. Dana took off her helmet and packed it as luggage here. By the time we gassed up and hit the freeway it was 6:10. We had also discovered that the next "new" road we had planned to take was an added 50 miles before getting to Panguitch so we opted for a shorter SR 20. There was construction on 20 as well but we were able to keep up speeds at 35-55 along the road. We pulled into Panguitch a couple of minutes before 7:00 p.m. It was still warm and there were quite a few folks out and about. Five minutes later we were checking into the Best Western New Western Hotel. We unpacked and relaxed and hung out for a bit. At 7:30 we took my bike out looking for food. We chose the Cowboy Smokehouse. The service was a little slow at first but the food was good and there was a local kid playing guitar and singing, many songs written by him, his brother, friends and father. He was pretty entertaining and we each left him a $5 tip. After dinner we visited the small Indian gift store next door (open until 11) and bought post cards. The couple there were plain ol' white folks, not Indians but they were friendly and talkative and told us of the current heat wave. They had an old dog that wandered about the store. I got Dana a couple of sets of earrings too. We rode to the market and picked up snacks and drinks, then cruised the main street one more time and got back to the room at 9:25.

DAY 3     TUESDAY     JULY 15, 2003       357     1,119

PANGUITCH, UT. to MEXICAN HAT, UT.

South US 89 to near Hillsdale; east SR 12 to Torrey; east SR 24 through Capitol Reef National Park to Hanksville; south SR 95 to Blanding; south US 191 to past Bluff; west US 163 to Mexican Hat.

Dana woke me up just after 8:00. A good ol' boy on a road trip in his Yukon talked to me in the lot about his Harley he had left home this trip. We loaded up, leaving our helmets in the luggage for the next several days. We dropped off the post cards at the lobby and rolled off around 10:30. Traffic was still light and it was warming up well. We turned into Red Canyon a short ten minutes later and stopped at the visitor center to snap a few fotos of the hoodoos at the same spot we did a few years back on different bikes.

We cruised on past the entrance to Zion Park and through the adjacent canyons, riding straight through to Escalante where we stopped for gas. Afterward we rode back to the Prospector Restaurant we had seen on the way in. It was at a motel at the edge of town and was pretty much empty except for two other groups who came in after we did. We had the first Navajo Tacos of our trip and they were pretty good. Back at the bike I found my hat was missing from where I'd hung it on my handlebars. Dana found it way around the front of the café where the wind had carried it. Cool. We rolled out of town at 1:12. We cruised some plains and were suddenly in the mountains past Boulder where we climbed to over 9,400' in a very short time. We stopped at an overlook and watched weird stripey flying bugs trying to land on some flowers that were blowing wildly in the high wind. We left and climbed even higher to 9,587' about five minutes later. It was a slow cruise through these twisties as the newer tar snakes made my bike jumpy around the tighter corners. I passed up the perfect Kodak Moment when I rounded a corner to see the big yellow diamond-shaped traffic sign showing the black bull on it (open range warning sign) and right next to it standing a few feet from the roadway a huge black bull chewing grass and looking at me. We soon pulled into a minimart in Torrey for a pit stop. I loaded up on sodas and Gatorade and Dana called her work to see what was up. A kid that had been driving a car behind us in the twisties asked Dana if he'd been following her too closely back there and she said nope, if he had been she'd have flipped him off. We soon pulled out and headed across more plains and smaller hills. We rode nonstop to Hanksville and got a shock when we found our gas station closed. There was no gas between here and anywhere the last time we came through so it was a sinking feeling but there were two new stations just around the corner at the end of town this time. We pulled in, gassed up and found out from the station guy that the road past Fry Canyon we intended to take to Mexican Hat had three miles of gravel on a steep downhill grade with a cliff that has no safety barriers and also that there were numerous speeding hay trucks on that stretch. We'll think about it. Dana was getting dry a while later and we stopped at the Colorado River / Lake Powell overlook for a couple of Gatorades. It was a short stop and we were soon rolling off into Glen Canyon and the cool roads there. You know you're in the boonies when the big yellow sign says "EMERGENCY PHONE 75 MILES." We passed by desolate Fry Canyon and continued on towards the gravel road cutoff not knowing what road we'd take. At 6:07 we stopped at the intersection of 261 and saw the poor road warning signs and decided to take the longer, safer route around through Blanding and Bluff. It added about 50 miles to the trip but we felt better and it probably didn't add much time due to the longer road being a faster one. We stopped for more gas and liquids a while later making the last stretch an 80-miler. An hour later we were pulling into the San Juan Inn which sat at the edge of town overlooking the San Juan River. We had passed the rock that is shaped like a Mexican Hat which we guessed is the reason for the town's name.

It was still over 100 degrees but was cooling off. The lady at the desk said the on-site restaurant and store closed at 9:30. We unpacked, cleaned up and walked down for dinner at the lodge's Olde Bridge Bar and Grill. This motel was packed and the café was booming as well. Over half the visitors I heard talking appeared to be from European countries. I had Navajo beef stew with fry bread and Dana had a huge salad. We shared some onion rings and filled up pretty quickly. The food here was great, which was good because the small town has pretty slim pickin's when it comes to food and lodging. After that we stopped at the store for liquids and post cards. While eating the wind came up mightily and started a small sand storm in the lot for a while. It was over before we walked out but kicked up again later. We walked around later and looked at the river and just hung out. The power went out for a minute and it stayed warm all night. There was no cell phone service here and the TV had only one channel with no volume control (and it was too loud to leave on all night) but it was a fine place to hang.

DAY 4     WEDNESDAY     JULY 16, 2003       289     1,408

MEXICAN HAT, UT. to KAYENTA, AZ.

East US 163 to near Bluff; south US 191 to Chinle, AZ; through Canyon de Chelly and back out on BIA 7; then through the north side of CdC north on BIA 64 exiting the Park at Tsaile; north BIA 12 to Round Rock; north US 191 through Rock Point to near Mexican Water; west US 160 to Katenta; north US 163 to hotel.

Dana woke up at 7:30 but went back to sleep for "just a minute" then woke up again at 8:30. She woke me up and we got ready to jam. It was warm but cooler than last night. The bikes were covered with red sand from last night's storm. I didn't want to foul up our paint so I didn't even try to wipe them down, just wiped the dust from the seats. We rolled out at 10:30 and gassed up in town. There was a guy and a gal there from Richmond, VA on two Goldwings and we spoke for a minute. Then we done a cool 99.4 mile burn to Many Farms where we stopped at a mini-mart for drinks and snacks (we were hungry now but there were no places to eat and we had no idea what was next or where.) We pulled into Chinle a short time later and ate at the Junction Restaurant at the Best Western Canyon de Chelly Inn. It was some good stuff - I had a mutton sandwich on fry bread. After lunch we cruised the short distance to Canyon de Chelly National Monument (pronounced "Canyon de Shay") and checked the Visitor Center for exhibits. We got a few cards and a pamphlet then rode out the 9-mile South Rim road for a few overlooks and pics.

We spoke to a dirt-biking couple from Quebec who had brought their bikes out to Albuquerque in a pickup then took their tour. We had thought the north road was dirt and planned to skip it but the Ranger lady said it is paved so we rode back into town for gas and liquids then headed out the north road. There was a skittish hungry-looking dog at the gas stop so I bought her a pack of bologna and fed it to her. On the north rim we stopped at one overlook (the mummy ruins), looked at the ruins and spoke to a couple and their daughter from Washington who were on a road trip in their big truck and camper. We then hauled ass 53 miles to the next stop at the Rock Point reservation. A trio of cool dogs liked Dana a lot and followed her to the bathroom After a soda and Gatorade break here we jammed again in the hot, 100-degree-plus heat. I took a wrong turn at Mexican Water and went into Kayenta on the wrong (shorter) road, missing the road we had wanted to take. It would have led us back to Mexican Hat and then on a new road through the Monument Valley area to Kayenta. Damn.... As it was we made a 60-mile dash to Kayenta rolling into the Best Western Wetherill Inn just after 7:00. We checked in, cleaned up and just before 8:00 we went looking for any eatery near a Laundromat. There are only four real restaurants in town and none were convenient to doing laundry so we just chose the Blue Coffee Pot. They had pretty good stir fry beef and broccoli which seems to be an Indian food specialty around here. I had some mutton soup, too - it was either that or Cream of Grease, but it was tasty. After dinner we found the Laundromat in the Basha's center next door was closed so we rode to the junky laundry and done the clothes there. I left for Basha's to shop and got caught in a hard sand blow and light rain - I had to hide out under a bank roof because I couldn't ride with the sand blowing in my eyes. I went back to the laundry and we finished up. We got back to the room at 10:50. The motel was packed and it was still hot. I can see the time is going to be confusing because we keep jumping from state to state along the time line AND the State Of Arizona does NOT observe Daylight Savings Time but the Indian Reservations DO and I never knew what time it was.

DAY 5     THURSDAY     JULY 17, 2003       101     1,509

KAYENTA, AZ. to MONUMENT VALLEY and MEXICAN HAT, AZ. and BACK TO KAYENTA, AZ.

North US 163 to Goulding's Resort at Monument Valley; tour of Monument Valley via tour trolley; then north US 163 to Mexican Hat, UT; back to Goulding's via south US 163; south US 163 to Kayenta.

We had not set an alarm but were up around 8:30 anyway. We had the slows and it didn't matter since our afternoon tour of Monument Valley was set to start around 4:00 p.m. It had rained just enough last night to spot up the scooters with red sand that had been blowing all over. Super dirty. We walked over to breakfast at the Golden Sands Café next door and had a somewhat traditional American breakfast for a change despite their Navajo specialties. They had great biscuits and gravy. We were back at the room at 11:15. I called Goulding's Resort in Monument Valley to see what the exact time was for our tour and found that they had a shorter 2.5 hour tour at 1:30. Yow! That sounded pretty good since the other tour was 3.5 hours at 4:00. We got ready and jammed to Monument Valley and stopped at Goulding's combo lodge / tours / store / museum / restaurant, etc. Dana bought the tickets and we had time to go down to the market and pick up some snacks and many Gatorades for the trip. The tour guide Rosie picked us up right after 1:30. We had two other tourists, a pair of women from Ocala, FL who were on a month-long road trip as well. The ride was in an open-air surrey type body on the back of a pickup frame and was a fun time, with stops at a Hogan where Sally showed us how to clean and make yarn from a fuzzy ball of wool, weave it on a loom and grind corn for dinner. There were many more stops to shoot pics and visit vendors. Monument Valley is the most popular and widely-seen area with tall red rock spikes and peaks as seen in automobile commercials (Jeeps on top of a spire) and in movies where Tom Cruise is climbing and hanging off cliffs.

It was a dusty ride but well worth the visit. It was 106° in the shade half-way through the tour. We got dropped off a while later and went down to Goulding's car wash and cleaned up the bikes up pretty nicely then cruised out to Mexican Hat so we could take pictures of the road we had missed yesterday when I made the wrong turn on the way back in from Canyon de Chelly. It was a short ride and we loaded up with fuel and liquids in Mexican Hat then came back in to Goulding's where we had decided to dine. We got to the Stagecoach Dining Room just before the dinner crowd and had some of the very best spicy pork green chili stew and fry bread ever. If you ever head to Monument Valley be sure to eat at Goulding's Stagecoach Dining Room. We visited the museum after dinner and bought some post cards and a list of all the movies that have been filmed at Monument Valley. Goulding's Resort is a full-service resort way out in the middle of nowhere and has everything you'd need to set up for a couple of days. We chose their other hotel in Kayenta as we wanted to stay in town. After dinner we cruised back to the hotel, cleaned up and walked over to the motel's gift shop where I bought Dana a cool Indian blanket to place beneath her new tall travel bag on her bike. Afterwards we rode my bike into town and picked up some supplies at Basha's. We came back to the room and hung out. It was hot and the place was crowded.

DAY 6     FRIDAY     JULY 18, 2003       253     1,762

Branding Iron Motel, Chama, NM. Room # 106 $ 87.10 (Zel)

KAYENTA, AZ. to CHAMA, NM.

South US 163 to the crossroads then east US 160 to Teec Nos Pos; east US 64 to Farmington and past Monero; east US 84 then north SR 17 to Chama.

We woke up around 9:00 and slowly got ready. I ate at the breakfast bar and we pulled out of the motel at 10:53. We first stopped at the post office where I mailed a book home to the library then hit the highway out of town. It was warm and traffic was light. We pulled a 72-mile jam to Teec Nos Pos where we stopped at a market for a few sodas. It was a half-hour stop here and we decided we had enough time and fuel to wait and eat in Farmington so we jammed. At Farmington we gassed up, cruised a few blocks and chose Buck's Pancake Alley, a small family place, for my pancakes and Dana's Greek salad for lunch. It was a good meal and the owner came outside and gave us some tips on places to ride. We left Farmington and rolled 72 miles through the heat until 4:10 where we stopped for a break at the intersection of US 64 and SR 537 in the Jicarilla Indian Reservation. We passed through a lot of activity at Dulce but didn't find out until later that it was a Pow-Wow. A short time later we pulled into the Branding Iron Motel where Dana had set us up. We checked in then took off cruising this small town looking for a laundry and somewhere to eat. We found the laundry, talked to the owner, and figured we'd drop the laundry off in the morning and let her do it. We then went back to check out the Cumbres Toltec Steam Train site to see where to park in the morning for our train ride. We pulled up in front of the "Mountain View Mall" to park and were met by the owner Ted Rembetsy. He greeted us, told us to park and led us into his "mall" which is actually a huge gift shop and ice cream/fudge/snack shop complex he runs with his wife Debbie. They bought this business earlier this year after cruising through on their Harley for a local HOG run last summer and falling in love with the area, then stumbling upon the business for sale. They fled their Ventura, California digs in short order and are now Mountain People. They were great folks. They showed us around, offered a place to park in their back driveway when we took the train ride tomorrow and gave us huge samples of their unbelievably rich and creamy fudge. Ted makes the fudge. When I asked him if it had been difficult to just show up and start making fudge and tending to the ice cream machines he laughed. "In Ventura I was responsible for receiving boatloads of cars from Japan, making sure they were all accounted for, making sure they were clean and that any needed body work was performed - thousands of cars weekly. This fudge and ice cream is simple - they left me directions." We told them we'd see them in the morning and fled for dinner which we took at the High Country Restaurant, a busy place that a few people had said was good. We had good catfish dinners even if they had ran out of the hushpuppies that were supposed to be included. They really had their hands full this evening but it was a great place and obviously enjoyed by the locals. Afterwards we went to the minimart nearby and stocked up on stuff. It had begun sprinkling at dinner and rained a little later. There was lightning in the distance but it never got too close. Back at the room we relaxed, watched some TV and read. This town is supremely dead after dark. There was nothing shaking but the leaves on the trees. Due to the Pow-Wow at a nearby reservation this weekend there were cops from a dozen agencies in attendance, many of them staying and eating at our motel. We were well protected tonight.

DAY 7     SATURDAY     JULY 19, 2003       5     1,767

Today was simple and fun. We got up a little after seven and prepared for the day. We first dropped off our laundry across town then went to Ted and Debbie's and parked behind their store. We went in and talked to them a bit and found that sometime between 3 and 5 am someone had torn up several flower beds along their walkway and the storefronts of neighboring businesses. Bummer. We went over and caught the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad train at 9:45.

Dana had tickets for the more exclusive "Parlour Car" which had comfy seating limited to 20 passengers, an attendant and free drinks and snacks throughout the all-day train ride. The train pulled out around 10:00 and chugged its way eastward to Antonito, Colorado, winding and climbing strenuously, weaving into Colorado and back into New Mexico eleven times.

The lunch stop at the Osier Kitchen in Osier, Colorado ("O-shur") was a great time with a LOAD of great food and service that got 175 passengers and their appetites in and out in an hour. We pulled into Antonito, the end of the line, just before 5 pm. It was a great train ride with good weather, good company and great scenery. It had rained a little after lunch but the windows were all down again a few minutes later. It was warm even at the 10,015' summit. Since the ride was so long we all returned to Chama in three tour buses which got us back to the starting point at 6:00.

We checked in with Ted and told him of our laundry and he called the Laundromat lady and found that she was waiting for us. We jammed to get the laundry then returned to Ted and Debbie's mall to conduct some business. I bought a cool pewter Harley-type wind chime and a couple of jars of Wild Chokecherry honey and Dana bought a bunch of stuff for her co-workers (fry bread kit, etc.) and some weird socks for herself. Ted even said he'd pack it up and ship it home for us so we didn't have to do anything but sign the slips. Coooooool. We visited for a bit more then took off towards the motel. If you ever get to Chama, the Mountain View Mall (on the main street across from the railway station) is a must-stop, as is an introduction and visit with Ted and Debbie. I described them as great people but that doesn't quite cover it. We got back to the room and relaxed for a bit then decided we'd play it simple and eat at the Branding Iron Café across the lot. It was a tiring 50' walk to diner. Right. I had shrimp and Dana had a taco salad and they were good and sufficient after a long day of exploring. A couple of Indians in Harley shirts leaving after their meal said hi to me as they passed our table. After dinner I saw them across the lot at another wing of the motel and noticed a Tribal Police Blazer nearby so I went to talk to them. Yep, they were tribal cops in town for the Pow-Wow but were also Harley riders so we had stuff to talk about for a half hour. I met Zak who works at the res near Ignacio, Peppy who works south of Albuquerque and Diane, another tribal cop from Colorado who had an Indian Police dog. Peppy knew a friend of mine at Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office as well. Chama is at 8,000' and so far has been the coolest weather at night. Still, it is far from cold and it is also warm in the daytime.

We had loose plans that included a ride from here north into Colorado, the Sangre de Christo Mountains and over to Trinidad but this seems to be The Year of the Storms. Watching the Weather Channel the past few days have shown FLOODS in Colorado and tonight the forecast for tomorrow in the southern Colorado area (where we had planned to cruise) was for non-stop all-day monsoons and flood watches. We figured it'd be wise to head south and catch Colorado next time around.

DAY 8     SUNDAY     JULY 20, 2003       240     2,007

CHAMA, NM. to ALBUQUERQUE, NM.

South SR 17 through town then south US 84 to Tierra Amarilla; east US 64 to Tres Piedras and Taos; south SR 68 to Espanola; south US 285 to Santa Fe; south I-25 to Albuquerque; east I-40 to motel.

We woke up at 7:30, before the 8:00 alarm. We took our time getting ready and packed up slowly. We spoke to one of the Navajo housekeepers in the lot and she told us of all her bike rides with her husband before he died of cancer recently. It was warm as we pulled out and we done a slow ride through the mountains of the Carson National Forest on a road we had turned back from the last time through due to thunderstorms. We climbed to 10,500 feet on this great, twisty road and saw that a storm was heading into our path from the north. We skirted the edge all the way over the mountains and made it a 63-mile dash into Tres Piedras where we stopped at a very small place for gas and a short break. The high mountains were a bit cooler than we have been seeing but I was still in a tee shirt and hadn't put my jacket or sweatshirt on at all so far this trip. The storm was picking up well and heading southwest right into us, with loads of lightning and thunder but after the gas stop we jammed off away from it. When we got to Taos we had to turn west again and found the storm coming at us, far enough away but still catching up so quickly that we decided to wait for lunch until we were at a safer distance. It was hot in Taos and very congested with tourists. Upon leaving town we could see storms developing in the mountains to the south so we shitcanned our plans to take those scenic roads in and headed to Albuquerque by the way of a flatter, lower and dryer route. It warmed up even more but I don't think it hit 100 degrees until later in the afternoon. The storm still followed us to the north but it had warmed a lot. Hunger got the best of us soon and we stopped in Espanola at the Cowboy Family Restaurant for a pretty good breakfast of huevos rancheros. I figured the storm would catch up as we ate but it held back and we got rolling again without rain. The Tribal Police in Pojoaque are supremely sly, working radar in light-colored, lightly-marked Camaros with hidden strobes and a very thin rooftop lightbar. Very sneaky indeed. It got super hot as we approached Albuquerque and we soon stopped for a soda and gas break at Bernalillo. From there it was a fast shot to town and we got into some traffic like we had not seen in a week - fast and crowded. We rolled off the freeway and stopped at the Comfort Inn where we would spend the next three nights. We checked in, cleaned up and relaxed for a bit. While checking in we met Mike, the owner of the Daily Pie café in Pietown, NM. and his son Andy. We spoke for a bit and found that Andy was quite the marketing guru - "Got Pie?" We chose the area we always do due to its proximity to the Laundromat, theater, Smith's and Raley's and the Waffle House. Dana called the theater across the street and found that Pirates of the Caribbean, Curse Of The Black Pearl was playing at 7:00. We took the bike over to the theater so we'd have it for shopping afterward. As soon as we got to the movie and safely indoors that thunderstorm caught up to us and cut loose in a big way for a while. We were safe in the theater and by the time the movie was over all that was left were the big puddles. Before the movie started a guy and gal came slowly limping down the aisle, both with various bandages and casts. I asked if they'd been banged up together and they said yes. I asked "motorcycle?" Again, yes. They were Joe and Billie who lived in Albuquerque and got hit by a lane-changer. They were pretty much beat up but said the bike had suffered a lot more. The movie was fun and we walked over to Raley's and got supplies then returned to the room. We hadn't had dinner and I was hungry so we walked up to Waffle House where I had chili and a BLT while Dana, still full of popcorn, sat without food. We were back at the room by 11:40 and relaxed and watched TV.

DAY 9     MONDAY     JULY 21, 2003       40     2,047

We hadn't set the alarm and Dana slept until 9:00 and I somehow woke up at 9:30. We were almost late for the free breakfast at the motel's "Four Rocks" café as the limit for the freebie is 11:00. We ran into Mike and Andy the Pie Guys again at breakfast. Dana decided she wanted to go to a casino today so after breakfast we jammed off to the Sandia Casino on I-25, about 18 miles away. It was a very fancy place inside and out. We got in and Dana found a slot machine towards the back and I figured I'd play a quick $20 then wait in the lounge or even outside where there was a breeze - I even brought in my book so I could read. I chose a "Heart Throb" quarter slot machine and it just started spitting out quarters for an hour or two so I sat there while it paid me back my twenty and an additional $195. It looked like it was slowing down so I collected the two buckets full of quarters and told Dana I'd be sitting in the Keno lounge. I grabbed a soda and got a table in the lounge intending to play a few games then read for a bit. Dana stayed in the casino so I played thirty games spaced about 6-7 minutes apart, a couple of hours' worth. I spent $60 and the Keno paid me $82.50 so I was still in the good there for a cool, smooth total of $ 217.00. I liked that just fine. Dana finished up and we visited the gift shop where I got some post cards. We left there just past 4:00 pm and it was a hot mo-fye. We jammed back to town in the heavy, fast traffic again and stopped at the larger, newer of the two Los Cuates Mexican Restaurants for dinner. I ate ala carte so I could experience it all - taco, enchilada, chile relleno, tamale and a plate full of hot sopapillas with honey. Pretty good but no better than many other places at home and away. It started to rain a little here as we ate but it appeared to be just the edge of a small storm. We left the café and headed back to the room and found the roads closer to the motel were soaked and I could see the rain ahead. The storm was going our way so I just got off the freeway and slowed down and let it get ahead as we cruised back. Once at the motel we saw that it was almost time for the movie tonight so we relaxed for a bit then headed over to catch the 7:00 showing of Bad Boys II. It was fun and pretty long. After the show we came back to the room for a moment then jammed over to Smiths on my bike for drinks and supplies. Dana had been talking of staying a third night here so on the way back in we stopped at the office, bought an extra night, got our free breakfast coupon, grabbed some more post cards and headed to the room. We hung out, checked the e-mail and watched TV and relaxed.

DAY 10     TUESDAY     JULY 22, 2003       63     2,110

I woke up at 7:45, before the 8:30 alarm. We had the slows as usual and I walked down to get the freebie breakfast while Dana showered. We had stuff to do today and we rolled out of the lot on the bikes at 10:00. We dropped off the laundry at the Duds 'n Suds across the street for the wash-n-fold service. We rolled out Tramway all the way to where the city limits end north on I-25 and cut back to Chick's H-D. It was hot by now and we looked through the store and bought a quart of oil to split between the bikes to top off the levels. We spoke to a couple from New York there who had been in the 110-degree heat in Needles two days before. We rolled out of Chick's and headed to Old Town where we walked and checked things out. I picked up some blue cornbread mix, green chili stew mix and hot sauce ("Poot's Peppa Sauce - The Cat's Me-Owwwww!" with a picture of a cartoon cat with a flamin' ass) for Norma Jean and Jerry and also found a cool t-shirt for myself. It was steamin' out here but we walked the circuit. Dana bought me a Route 66 stuff bag to replace my old New Orleans bag that is in tatters. We left the Old Town area then weaved our way to the M&J Sanitary Tortilla Factory for lunch. I had heard about this place for many years and finally got to stop in. It is old and kinda funky and decorated weirdly but the food, service and people were superb, much better than the Los Cuates from last night. The waitresses and the part-owner Bea all came to the table, asked about the bikes and our trip then went out and checked the bikes out. After a few pounds of blue corn enchiladas and all the great trimmin's, a plate full of sopapillas and honey AND a couple of gallons of iced tea, we sloshed our way out and headed back towards the shack. We hung out, cleaned up and relaxed for a couple of hours then took all our extraneous crap and accumulations across the street to Mailboxes Etc. and shipped them home. We then picked up our laundry and came back in. At 6:30 we decided we wanted dinner and took off with a vague idea of how to get to Seagull Street because we felt like seafood. After a cross-town trek on city streets we found the place - closed, as in out-of-business. We were looking for a way out of the area when Dana spied an Olive Garden so we stopped in for a fine dinner ("Spaghetti Dela Rocca"). We got back to the room at 8:45, locked the bikes together and relaxed. Dana had not made any reservations past a day or two ago and tonight she called ahead to Roswell to get a room for us tomorrow.

DAY 11     WEDNESDAY     JULY 23, 2003       241     2,351

ALBUQUERQUE, NM. to ROSWELL, NM.

East I-40 to Tijeras; south SR 337 to near Tajique; west SR 55 to Mountainair; east US 60 to Encino; east US 60/US 285 to Vaughn; south US 285 to Roswell.

The first part of this day was pretty much go-go-go. We wanted to beat the thunderstorms and also wanted to be in Roswell early enough to visit the International UFO Museum and Research Center before they closed at 5:00. We had set the alarm for 7:00 and Dana actually got up and was ready to go early but I slept a bit longer and dragged my feet so we didn't roll out of the motel until 9:20. We fueled up at the top of the hill and climbed on the freeway for a short five miles. Just before our exit we came upon a cop car blocking the middle lane to prevent traffic from hitting the small cement mixer-trailer that someone had lost. It was warm but not yet hot and we rolled off the freeway for some mountain driving through the Manzano Mountains and the Cibola National Forest. The speed limit here was 50 for a long time then only upped itself to 55 for a while so riding was serene and slow. There was very little traffic anywhere after the freeway. We had a great scenic ride along the route and at Mountainair we stopped to check the map to choose our route. There were clouds to the front so we chose the route that turned left and jammed off eastward. We rolled into Encino looking for gas and found the first promising station closed and nothing moving. At the other end of "town" we found one business open, a gas station with a snack rack. The door was closed but the little old lady in attendance heard us and opened up. We gassed up and I asked the lady where to eat. She suggested the Penny Diner in Vaughn, a bit down the road - there is nothing in Encino. We jammed off to Vaughn, cruised the first 95% of the town which is about a mile and a half long, seeing only one ramshackle café and motel and a bunch of closed businesses. I thought we would be skunked on our lunch but then we spied the new Penny's Diner at the end of town next to a new Oak Tree Inn. We stopped - it was crowded with locals and travelers and railroad workers and we waited fifteen minutes just for a seat. We ordered breakfast omelets and when they finally got there they were huge. Extra-huge, really. The service was kind of slow but probably because it was new and staffed with new people. The manager talked to us quite a bit - he works for the company and was sent out from Kentucky for two weeks just to get the place rolling. The food was good enough but a little different and a little too much. We were back on the road after an hour and fifteen minutes - a bit too long but worth the stop. We had a mere 95 miles to get to Roswell so that would put us in at 3:00 pm if we maintained the speed limit, which had upped to 70. There was a rain storm on our right trying to cross our path in the distance and another coming in from the left a bit slower so when we got onto the road we kept it at about 70 for the roll into Roswell. We left the right-hand storm behind after the half-way point and the one on the left never got a grip. It had heated up a lot this past hour and was steamin' when we got out into the plains. We done a straight non-stop 95 mile burn in about 80 minutes, a lot faster ride than we have been doing, but it was over quickly. We rolled into the Holiday Inn Express and checked in, unloaded quickly and jammed off another mile or so to the International UFO Museum and Research Center.

It was a free visit but we donated and spent an hour and a half checking things out, taking pictures, buying post cards, etc. It was a fun place to peep but after I left I still didn't know whether there were really alien spacemen found in Roswell in 1947 - but maybe there were.

After our visit we cruised town, checking the main streets for the heck of it then came back to the room at 6:10. Figuring there were enough places to walk to for dinner I locked up the scooters and cooled off in the room and wrote a few post cards while Dana done laundry. I messed around with my GPS unit which has been acting funny since about Day 3 of this trip. It loses power when the bike ignition shuts off - it should stay on with the battery for power but I guess there is a loose connection on the battery because when I shake it, it turns off. Better get it checked soooooooon. We had heard a couple of times today that Saddam Hussein's two sons had been killed in a shootout. Before 9:00 we walked across to Applebee's for dinner. There was a bright and entertaining thunderstorm way to the east and we watched that for a bit. After a too-big salad dinner we exited the restaurant to see that another thunderstorm had approached from the west. I felt a single drop of rain on my arm and a few minutes later we were under the portico at the hotel watching a helluva wild storm passing over. We stood outside for the better part of an hour watching and listening as the thunder and rain pounded everything around. A group of eight young guys from the hotel who had walked over to dinner after Dana and I came running back to the hotel in the storm and had gotten soaked in the 50 yard dash. Cars driving down the main street threw high streams of water as they drove. We came in around 10:30 and watched from the room but by then the storm had passed and most of the booms were distant. Fun. We sat inside and calculated the next few days for riding, stopping, etc. I went to the lobby and used their "High-Speed Internet" which turned out to be a 28.8 dialup. It was midnight by the time we started winding down.

DAY 12     THURSDAY     JULY 24, 2003       321     2,672

ROSWELL, NM. to SILVER CITY, NM.

South US 285 through town; west US 70 to Las Cruces; north I-25 to Caballo; west SR 152 over the Mimbres Mountains and into Central; west US 180 to Silver City.

Today was kind of a haul-ass-get-there day with no planned sights to see along the way. Dana had selected Silver City as a stayover point since Truth Or Consequences was too short a day and at Silver City we'd be closer to Tucson where she wants to stay for the casino there. We had a wakeup call requested for 7:00 but it never came. Dana was up anyway. I had some grub at the breakfast room while Dana showered and we pulled out of the hotel lot at 9:07. We gassed up first thing and hit the road. We passed the Harley-Honda-Yamaha shop at the edge of town but didn't stop. It was warm but not yet hot and the skies were clear after last night's huge storm. The road started out flat and straight for a while but wound into the hills where there were several sections of road construction. At 10:45 we entered Ruidoso and just slid through, seeing the places we had visited last time through. Soon we had climbed from 3500' to 6300' and it was a little cooler up there but still warm. We climbed more over the 7600' summit then dropped into Tularosa where it had warmed nicely. We took a break at the minimart there. A few minutes later we stopped at the Walgreen's in Alamogordo where Dana needed to pick up a few things then we were off into the flat and straight White Sands area for a bit. We could see clouds to the north and south but they were pretty light and hadn't started looking like rain clouds yet. There was a bit of traffic but not too much after we left town. We climbed over the hills a while later and dropped into Las Cruces. I had not been paying attention to the fuel gauge and time had been passing quickly so I was surprised to see we had done 175 miles since our last fill-up. I found a gas stop and pulled off. There was a Subway there so we lunched after gassing up. After this break it was pretty hot, about 101. We jumped back on the highway and a few minutes later were on I-25 which was a necessary evil on a trip where we had been avoiding freeways. The 50 miles of freeway were pretty scenic with little traffic. We left the freeway at Caballo and began our trek across a short plain into the mountains. There were dark clouds to either side of us and the road was pointing straight between them but once in the mountains we ended up under all of the clouds. They looked as if they'd burst out in a storm any minute but we only got a couple of minutes of light rain. We were at 4300' when we had exited the freeway and had began a gradual climb to the foot of the range. When we hit the hills it changed into a narrow and extremely twisty road that had many hairpins and double-backs that climbed to a high, high 8,183'. It was cooler up here and we ended up beneath both sets of clouds at one time or another but we slid through dry. We have been on twistier roads before but only a time or two. Once we hit the summit we had a fine slow downhill run into Silver City. We passed the silver mine outside of town and saw the colorful patchwork of the mined cliffs. We pulled into the Comfort Inn at 4:35 pm after a straight-through, non-stop two-hour-fifty-two minute, 134-mile jam. Not too common but not a record for us either. It was warmer here but it never got hot after we slid into the hills. We checked in and cleaned up and relaxed for a bit. While unloading the bikes we spoke to a woman from Omaha who was on a road trip and wanted to do many more. When it was dinner time we took my bike up to the place we had seen on the way in. What's a vacation without a stop at the Golden Corral? There are a few in California but not in our home area so we must take the opportunity when it is presented. Afterwards we stopped at the Texaco next door and traded in my $2 lottery ticket we had bought a week ago in Chama. We bought two Harley-Davidson tickets and some snacks and returned to the room. It was still warmish and we walked around the lot a couple of times checking out the crosstown views. Dana won $8 on her lottery ticket and we hung out relaxing and reading. This town had no service for either AT&T, Singular or Nextel. Huh.

DAY 13     FRIDAY     JULY 25, 2003       262    2,934

SILVER CITY, NM. to TUCSON, AZ.

Through town west on US 180; south SR 90 to Lordsburg; back and forth on Business I-10 through Lordsburg; west I-10 to Tucson. Later east I-10 and south I-19 to Valencia and out to casino and back the same route later.

Since my scooter had been making funny noises that had concerned me for a couple of days I wanted to get to Tucson without much wasting of time. That meant that today was to be another utility speed day with no look-arounds but we have covered the smaller scenic roads throughout the area on previous trips anyway. We got up with the alarm at 8:00. We left the hotel and stopped at the Texaco down the street for gas, a road soda and for Dana to cash in her $8 winner H-D lottery ticket. We stopped at the edge of town at the B of A Versateller for Dana and officially hit the road at 10:27. It was warming up but we were still early and climbing into the hills. There was little traffic but a load of road construction between the summit and Lordsburg. It warmed a lot as we dropped 2,000' off the other side of the hills. Upon entering Lordsburg we saw a crashed Harley 100th Anniversary Sportster on an offramp, still on its side with a cop car parked waiting for the tow. The rider was not around. Bummer. We cruised Lordsburg for a while as I was trying to find Kranberries, a restaurant Dana and I had eaten at a few years ago that she could not remember. I never saw it but we saw the sign at the edge of town. It must have been on another street. Lordsburg's "I-10 Business Loop" consists mainly of old, closed businesses. I gave up on Kranberries and we hit the freeway for a 70-mile Interstate burn to Willcox. We jumped off for a quick lunch there at the Burger King then hit the road for a straight non-stop 85-mile freeway jam to Tucson. It was warm and clear all the way and traffic had picked up once we got on I-10. It was the most freeway we had seen in two weeks. We checked in at the Baymont Inn then zoomed right off for the Harley shop which is on the same street two miles into town. Of course the noise that had been so loud the past two days was now , after a 200-mile jam, non-existent. I had nothing to show the service guy and he couldn't do anything with my description so we left after Dana bought some stuff for the kids back home. We relaxed for a bit but Dana was in a gambling mood so around 4:30 we cruised out to the Desert Diamond Casino, near the airport about eleven miles out. I got Dana situated inside then took off alone in search for food and a place to sit away from the casino. I saw a Yokohama Rice Bowl and stopped there for over an hour. It was pretty good. I went back out for a ride afterwards and cruised down to I-10 the turned back to the casino. I found Dana and played some Keno but only won $2 on $20 worth of tickets. She was still not ready to go so I dumped a $20 bill into a dollar slot but never won much. Wah. I went out to find it had been storming - everything was wet and there was a heck of a fine non-stop light show in three directions. Non-stop flashing. Dana came out around 9:30 and we returned to the hotel where I dropped her off and rode alone out to a nearby Safeway for snackage. I was back at the room right as it began to sprinkle. Dana and I walked across the lot to IHOP for a late dinner then were back in the room by 11:15 or so. We watched the lightning for a while.

DAY 14     SATURDAY     JULY 26, 2003       16     2,950

East on Grant St then south on Stone to downtown area; back to Grant then north on Oracle to the Tucson Mall; back to Grant and west to the motel later.

I woke up to hear Dana showering but the shower turning off and on repeatedly. It don't drain. We had slept until after 9:00 and had no early plans. I ate in the breakfast bar - they had a waffle iron with batter - pretty good. I asked for Draino or help with the shower and was told nothing for help so I asked to change rooms and the clerk said okay. I tired of waiting so showered in the room keeping the water off as much as I could. We got a new room a while later and transferred all our stuff two doors down. It was better. Dana called a chuckwagon-cowboy-style dinner place in town and found they are closed for the summer season. Rats. We thought about a movie and Dana found a theater a mile off so went to the 2:00 showing of "League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen." Before the movie we stopped at a Sonic in the same driveway for an outside burger lunch. It was better than the last Sonic I had eaten at many years ago. The movie was pretty cool but the theater was warm and by belly was full and I was caught dozin' a time or two. I had an extra Coke to keep me awake. After the movies we took off to the "Old Town" area because Dana had seen a sign earlier and figured it'd be as cool as Old Town Albuquerque. After winding around downtown and finally figuring it out we found it to be a block-square enclosed area with a few artists and shops and mostly deserted. We fled the scene and went to the Tucson Mall so Dana could find some new jeans. I sat and read on the mezzanine for a while and she came out with some cool pants. She went back in for a belt and I sat some more. When she was done we walked the mall and found a huge food court. There was an Orange Julius and I hadn't had one in a few years so I got a large. We sat at a table until they were gone then walked out to the lot to find it was beginning to rain. We scrambled the five miles back to the room and parked the bikes for the night. We hung out for a while, Dana done laundry and I showered. We each watched different parts of Mighty Joe Young on TV. When the laundry was done, just before 10:00 pm we walked over to Del Taco for a real late dinner. There was a storm watch for the county and a flash flood watch for town but other than the light rain we rode home in earlier there was no rain at all. It was a little cooler than last night but still warm. We read, watched TV and computed a bit.

DAY 15     SUNDAY     JULY 27, 2003       120     3,070

East on Grant and Tanque Verde to the foot of Mt. Lemmon; later, north Oracle Blvd (SR 77) to Catalina and on to Biosphere 2; back to town on south SR 77.

This vacation is different from most of our motorcycle trips in that we actually spent a few days in the same city three times. Usually we pack up and head to a different place each day. Two nights in Chama and Kayenta, three in Albuquerque and now three in Tucson. I am getting a chance to relax instead of run each day.

We had plans today, yes, plans, so we had the alarm set for a little after 7:00. We got up and done our moseying about and fled the lot a little before 10:00 with the GPS unit programmed to get us up to the top of Mount Lemmon. It is the local ski resort and the ski lifts run all summer to get tourists up to the top where there are cafes and a pie shop that sells pie and Mount Lemmonade. I had wanted to visit this place for years but all the times through Tucson I always had other stuff to do. It was warm and clear and the first leg of the trip was a whoppin' eight miles right through town on Grant Street. We rolled out the next several miles to the bottom of the mountains to find a Pima County SO and National Guard road block. The whole road and mountain were closed due to recent wildfires that had destroyed a lot of homes and businesses and there is no alternate route to get up so we lost out on Mount Lemmon. We limped back through town and Dana suggested we go to the Biosphere, an enclosed and climate-controlled garden community set up by Columbia University. We rolled through yet more town and finally got out into the semi-country where there were small communities scattered about. We were hungry and stumbled upon the Sunny Side Up Café in Catalina, out in the middle of nowhere. We had a great breakfast with plenty of entertainment. The lot was crowded but as soon as we walked in we had a table. One customer, an older woman on her way out after breakfast, grabbed me and messed with my beard and then gave me a backrub. Then one of the waitresses gave me the you-look-like-ZZ-Top routine. The older gals think I'm ZZ Top, the younger ones think I'm Santa Claus - that means the older ones never sit on my lap. Dammitt. The food was terrific and plenty. I had a Catalina Special that consisted of patty sausage and scrambled eggs atop hash browns covered with gravy, and Dana had an egg-ham-salsa-peppers quesadilla. If you're ever anywhere around, ride to this place for eats. We jammed after an hour or so.

Just a few minutes later we stopped at Biosphere and bought the entry tickets. We had been shot in the ass fulla Good Luck again - the basic tour started in ten minutes and then the special "under the glass" tour (inside the actual sealed Biosphere dome) was set immediately after. It was a fun tour but very hot at times as there is a lack of shade and also reflected sun from the glass domes (not to mention in inside-the-glass oven walks.)

We walked around with the guides then stopped off at the gift shop for postcards and souvenirs. Dana got me a Mike keychain and I got her a Dana keychain. Just made sense. We left Biosphere right after 4:00 and headed back down the hills for the 30-mile ride into Tucson. We went back to the room to regroup, relax and clean up. We had discussed dinner and I had been eyeing a small place near downtown called Café Poco Cosa - I had read about it and it is supposed to be a fine Mexican café with "no tacos, no burritos, every salad is different, even the same types at the same table." I opened the Yellow Pages and found that someone had already circled it in ink - an OMEN!!! We took my bike out to dinner, rolled up on the Poco Cosa in record time and found it… closed.

Closed with a sign saying they were off on their annual holiday beginning Sunday August 27 (TODAY!!!) And what made it worse is that yesterday when we were in the area looking for "Old Town" we were right in front of the place without seeing it - and it was open then. Rats!!! Ah, well, I knew of a little Chinese place I had seen Friday night when I went to Safeway and I had also seen it in the Yellow Pages with an indication that it was open until 9:00 on Sundays. We rode all the way back to that restaurant to find it… closed. They lied. Dana was laughing about it - I was hungry. One more try to another Chinese place, the Golden Dragon, way up on Oracle that I had seen on the way in from Biosphere - we rolled up to find it… OPEN! Yay! We had a pretty good dinner despite the hot and sour soup and the green-bean-chicken being a lot different that it is at home. On the way back to the room after dinner we stopped at Borders so Dana could buy a new book then stopped at Walgreen's for supplies. We were back at the shack with the bikes locked together at 8:20. It is our last night here.

DAY 16     MONDAY     JULY 28, 2003       350     3,420

TUCSON, AZ to LAKE HAVASU CITY, AZ.

West I-10 to Quartzsite; north SR 95 to Lake Havasu City.

We hadn't solidified any plans for anything after last night but we figured we'd head over to Lake Havasu. That was over 300 miles so we set the alarm for 7:00 and got up earlier than normal. I ate in the breakfast room while Dana got ready. We were packed up just after 9:00. We spoke to some Mexican guys in the lot about the bikes. While in the room looking out the window Dana saw one of the guys take my hat from the handlebars and try it on before I had been in the lot. It was warm, not so hot really but hot standing in the sun packing up. We pulled out of the motel lot at 9:30 and stopped down the street for gas and a road soda. We hit the freeway a moment later and found it to be very full of traffic but moving along well - pretty orderly. I saw a sign for a Cracker Barrel a few miles ahead and Dana nodded the okay so we had an early lunch there. Pretty yummy as usual. Back on the freeway we found the traffic getting heavier and a little wilder as we approached Phoenix and by the time we were in Phoenix the traffic was heavy and thick with most folks not bothering to signal while jumping around the lanes, mostly tailgating and just being in a general frantic hurry. It was loud, no fun and just plain shitty until we got past the major interchanges. We rolled off for gas and a pit stop a while later at the outskirts then headed for the freeway once again. We could have taken a couple of available scenic rides today but with the semi-high-mile day and impending storms we just jammed on the Interstate until we had to exit. After gassing up we done a 112-mile non-stop burn to Quartzsite. At 3:18 we stopped at the roadside north of Quartzsite for a soda break. Along the interstate we had seen rain to the south and north and had even felt a few drops in a few places but we done good and stayed lucky and dry. We shot the last 70 miles into Lake Havasu in one bite, slowing in many places for town traffic and smaller roads. We pulled into town just as a bit of light rain began to fall but we only rode in about 10 minutes of it. We checked in at the Ramada Inn, unpacked and relaxed for an hour then at 6:00 we took one bike out for a 23-mile ride around town. We cruised the bridge looking for a place to eat later then rolled along London Bridge Road to see the new hotels along the strip. Casa Miguel, a favorite Mexican restaurant from years back that had changed to simply Miguel's several years ago, was closed and boarded up. We stopped at the minimart for sodas and juice and the lady there told me Miguel's kitchen had burned two years ago and no one has ever tried to do repairs or reopen the place. I cruised us along the Bridge road out to the airport then around the Palo Verde loop looking at the houses. When we got back down to the highway my reserve gas light had been on for a while so I fuelled up then took off for dinner, getting us to the Barley Brothers Brewery at 7:00. Dinner was very fine here - I had wood-fired pizza and The Gurl had rigatoni. Both were worth repeats anytime. We walked around the lower area near the bridge afterward then went up to Walgreen's for some stuff Dana needed then started off on a loop around McCollough Blvd. After a couple of miles it began to rain so we u-turned and jammed back to the room, rolling in at 8:45, just in time. A huge thunderstorm, wind and rain hammered the town for the next hour or so. It was great. We stood out on the walkway watching it and talking to a family from Cucamonga who was watching as well. It slowed a bit and we went inside and relaxed for the evening.

We like the thunderstorms a lot as long as we don't have to ride in them but we have done that on previous trips. Living in California, we don't see thunderstorms at home except on rare occasions. This year was weird for weather in these parts as well and the folks at the hotel say they hadn't seen heavy storms like this in Lake Havasu for many years. The storms were tearing up Southern California as well, making for very unusual weather there. Something about hurricanes coming from the south and bring the monsoons in ahead of it. At any rate, they have been a source of entertainment for ua during this trip.

DAY 17     TUESDAY     JULY 29, 2003       332     3,752

LAKE HAVASU CITY, AZ. to BAKERSFIELD, CA.

North SR 95 to I-10; west I-10 to Barstow; west Main Street to SR 58; west SR 58 to Bakersfield; north SR 99 to motel.

The theme for the day was head home and beat the forecasted thunderstorms. We were up around 7:30 and took our time getting ready to leave. We left the motel, got gas and a soda at the Texaco at the edge of town and hit the road at 10:04. Traffic was a little heavier than we had seen in the smaller towns, probably because we were on a small road that was one of only two ways out of town. We had the helmets on for the first time in a couple of weeks since we'd be in California in a half-hour. More freeway today - almost all of the ride. Traffic on I-10 was light and we stopped for a break at the Chevron in Needles where a couple of truckers heading from L.A. to Texas stopped to talk to us about our bikes and theirs, too. They had matching trucks and hit the road together while we were saddling up. There were clouds all around but no rain nearby. It was a little cooler as we passed over the hills between Needles and Barstow and it looked like rain off to the southwest while we were dropping off the other side. The truckers said it had been raining all over the Southern California area for a few days and we had seen all kinds of weird weather on The Weather Channel daily. So far we had lucked out on dodging the rain and today was no different. We done a non-stop two and a half hour 144-mile burn across the mountains. By the time we hit Barstow we were hungry and needed gas and it had heated up well, gaining on the 100-degree mark. We had lunch at Coco's where the air conditioning was in great shape. We cruised the old road through town, gassed up, grabbed a soda and hit Highway 58 for the last leg of the day. At 3:30 as we passed Boron and were approaching Edwards AFB Dana signaled that she wanted a soda from the cooler on my back seat. I reached around and lifted the lid and it fell off. I had the Coke in one hand and the lid in the other at 70 mph… I managed to pull over on the EAFB exit and get things fixed while we had a couple of sodas. A bit later we were in Mojave and stopped at the AM/PM for a whole lotta liquid. It cooled off a little as we crossed the Tehachapi Mountains but never got any kind of a chill. When we dropped into the valley and approached Bakersfield it got hot hot hot. The weather station indicated a temp of 105 degrees. We wasted no more time getting into town and stopped at the La Pinta Hotel at 5:14. We unpacked, cleaned up then relaxed and cooled off for a while. When we got hungry we decided on Basque dining and just after 7:30 we headed off to a place we had been before with Shirley when she lived here in town. The food was great and LOTS - all diners start out with soup, salad, bread, salsa, beans, beef tongue and drinks then when the main course comes they also bring vegetables, rice, spaghetti and fries. Dana had petite fillet mignon and I had oxtail stew for the main course. We left with a couple of doggie-boxes. We got back to the room at 9:45 and hung out.

DAY 18     WEDNESDAY     JULY 30, 2003       293     4,045

BAKERSFIELD, CA. to PINOLE, CA.

West SR 58 to Buttonwillow; north I-5 to past Westley; west I-505 to Tracy; north Mountain House Parkway to Bethany; north Byron Highway to Byron; west SR 4 to Hercules; west I-80 to home.

Get up. Go home. That's the kind of day it was and the type of day we usually do on the last day out. But it was a cool day anyway. It had stormed during the night, the thunder waking us both up a time or two but it was still hot in the morning making it muggy. We left the motel lot just before 10:00 and cruised out to Buttonwillow for gas. We climbed onto I-5 at 10:41 and found traffic to be fairly light. It was cloudy all around and extra-dark to the west and east. We would feel a drop or two of rain here and there and saw lightning to the west and east but we had a dry ride home. Dana had mentioned having lunch at Pea Soup Andersen's but that was kind of far off so when we saw Harris Ranch approaching she said she wanted to stop. Harris Ranch was packed but we got a table right off. The waiter Bob was a cool guy and told us about his bike rides and his wife who has her own bike, too. I had a Chinese chicken salad but was afraid it wouldn't be enough so I ordered a bowl of chile tortilla soup that when it arrived looked more like a half-pot of thick chunky beef chili. I got too full but everything was good. Dana always has huevos rancheros here and today was no exception. We visited the gift shop and got some things to take home. It had cleared up the farther north we got and when we hit the road after lunch it was a great day. Traffic increased the farther north we got as well. We stopped for gas and Gatorades at the new Patterson travel area then made a fast burn towards home. We got to Concord and found it had cooled off a lot and by Martinez Dana needed her sweatshirt so we pulled off and suited her up - ten miles from home. A few minutes later we were in Pinole and if I'd had another half hour to ride I'd probably have been looking for a sweatshirt, too. We stopped at the Beacon a mile from home for some milk then slid into home a couple of minutes before 5:30.

I managed the entire trip without grabbing my jacket, raingear or sweatshirt out of the saddlebags. Tee shirts all the way. This is one of the few summer trips out-of-state where I was able to leave my raingear in the bottom of the saddlebag.

It was a more relaxing trip what with three-night stays in Albuquerque and Tucson and the two-night stays in Katenta and Chama. Other than the turn away from the storms in Colorado we were able to stay pretty much on course, not that it mattered a lot this year. Dana had planned the first week and paid for a couple of things in advance but other than that we were free to vary in our plans.

All worked out well with no problems other than huge menus with too many food choices.