THURSDAY AUGUST 20 TO SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 1998

18 DAYS / 5,278 MILES

$ 134.83 GAS  /  105.28 GALLONS  /  AVG MILEAGE 50.13 MPG

(INCLUDES CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK, DODGE CITY, KANSAS and WHITE SANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT, NEW MEXICO)
 

11  STATES

CALIFORNIA      NEVADA      UTAH    COLORADO      KANSAS      OKLAHOMA      MISSOURI      ARKANSAS    TEXAS      NEW MEXICO      ARIZONA

On my 1998 Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic with Dana on her new (!!!) 1998 H-D Dyna Low Rider.
 
 

DAY 1    THURSDAY     AUGUST 20, 1998            530        530

Motel 6      Ely, NV.      $ 38.87

DINNER    Silver State Restaurant    Ely, NV.

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

This was an end-of-summer vacation for Dana and she was responsible for selecting and planning most of the routes, motels, destinations and attractions, etc. The original plan was to fly down to Mexico for a couple of weeks and check out pyramids and tacos, but Dana had just unexpectedly found and bought a new Low Rider a few weeks ago so all those plans were scrapped in favor of a bike trip (Dana and her bikes can be seen on another page linked off the Main Page.) Sure, I was sad.... We left fairly early on a bright day that was somewhat cool and breezy near home and hotter as we went along. Traffic was heavy until past Auburn then thinned well until Reno where it was heavy only for a short time through town. We had a load of leftovers from the week and Dana had made a few sandwiches that we ate at the Donner rest area. It was cool in the mountains but after Reno we were both in tee shirts. Of course there was very little traffic on US 50 ("The Lonliest Road In America") and by the time we got to Fallon it was hot. We spoke to a guy on a Super Glide that had looped from Oregon to Utah and was on his way home. While we were talking to him some lady drove off with the gas nozzle still in her tank, but it didn’t mess anything up. As we approached Austin, Nevada, I slowed to see why Dana had pulled over (adjusting her tape player or something) and my fuel injection “trouble” light came on until I picked up speed again. The bike ran very rough at low speed when the light came on. It came on a couple more times this afternoon but didn’t seem to effect anything so we rode on. Just after sundown we pulled over to put on our sweatshirts and rode the final half hour into Ely. We had dinner before going to the hotel and the café Dana picked had a good meat loaf and we drank gallons of iced tea. Afterwards we checked in at the motel and I got out my service manual and with Dana’s help, done the diagnostic check of the FI system with the ignition on-off trick. We came up with an error code of “1–4”, which the book indicated was a problem with the engine temperature sensor. With that done we walked across the highway to Gorman’s supermarket and picked up some snacks. While in the lot I saw a guy with a H-D shirt and asked if he knew any bike shops nearby and he said he owned a shop in town. I explained the problem with the bike and he said he could look at it but his shop was not a genuine dealership and he had no "Scanalyzer" to check the computer. Back at the room Dana fell asleep before 11:00 p.m. and I showered up and watched HBO for a while. I got a cell phone e-mail from Bill in Hayward that evening, too. I fell asleep around 1:00 a.m.
 

DAY 2    FRIDAY    AUGUST 21, 1998            249        779

Super 8 Motel    Richfield, UT.    $ 56.44

LUNCH    McDonald’s    Delta, UT.
DINNER    Stuff From Albertson’s    Richfield, UT.

East US 50 to Salina, UT.; south 24 to Sigurd; south 118 to Richfield.

We woke up at 9:00 a.m. My left foot was killing me and Dana said it was from my new tennis shoes being too tight, so I loosened them up a bit and that took care of future problems. Smart folks, these women…. We ate bananas and milk from last night’s shopping trip and I grabbed some coffee for Dana from the lobby. I phoned Jim at Vallejo Harley and told him of my problems. He said it was likely a bad engine temperature sensor and that it would not hurt to run it until repaired as it would only cause a rich mixture. I phoned Grand Junction, Colorado, Harley and made an appointment for a repair as they had a part (Salt Lake City and Orem, Utah had no parts) but Grand Junction was out of our way and a longer day than we had planned. We fuelled up and left town around 11:00 a.m. It was extra windy but pretty warm and we were soon in no-traffic land cruising the plains and mountains. We stopped at the summit about 15 miles east of the Utah line for a break and some drinks. The trouble light had come on and off a few times after the bike got good and warmed up and it seemed to come on when the bike slowed after lengthy runs at speed or after beginning a downhill roll. We stopped in Delta for fuel and ended up having a McSnack there. It wasn’t much longer we were out at I-70 in Salina, where we were to head for Grand Junction to get the bike done, but it had been running okay so we just stayed on our original course and rolled into Richfield, getting to the motel around 5:30. I phoned Grand Junction H-D and cancelled my service for the next day. This was the first stop at a Super 8 in a while and it looked like we’d have a few more so I bought a Super 8 VIP card for future discounts. We had spoken of pizza tonight and first went to Albertson’s for salads and drinks to go with the pizza. Dana also got a new Western US map so we could more easily plan our route. We got back to the room a while later and Dana said the salad would be enough so we never got any real food that night. Around 9:30 I walked across the road to a truck stop and got snacks for Dana and me. She had been seeing these large sugar cookies with frosting on them and expressed an interest and I found one and brought it back. We watched some TV after that and just hung out.
 

DAY 3    SATURDAY     AUGUST 22, 1998            378         1,157

Super 8 Motel      Durango, CO.    $ 67.23

BRKFST     Super 8 Continental Breakfast     Richfield, UT.
LUNCH     Fry Canyon Lodge     Fry Canyon, UT.
DINNER     K-Bob’s     Durango, CO.

East 119 through Glenwood; south 24 to Hanksville; south 95 to Blanding; north US 191 to Monticello; south US 666 (“The Devil’s Highway”) to Lewis, CO.; east 184 to Mancos; east SR 160 to Durango.

We were up at 8:30 and I grabbed coffee, juice and snacks from the lobby. We saw an old Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn wartime movie while we slowly prepared to leave. It was a warm morning but cooled off on the bikes and the clouds kept it even cooler as we rolled up into the hills. We stopped for a short visit at the Capitol Reef Park visitor center. It was real pretty along the road that cuts through the park and we stopped a couple of times for pictures. We stopped in Hanksville and had been looking for some food but there wasn’t much around there so we had a couple of drinks from the cooler and took off again. We stopped for a picture of “Jacob’s Chair”, a large chair-like formation atop a distant mesa, then soon we saw a very small café/motel/gas pump way out in the middle of nowhere (there was not even a phone except for sone radio to the sheriff's office for emergencies) so we stopped for a sandwich and fuel. We stayed on small mountain roads with few towns and rolled into Durango around 8:00 p.m. We had a short time finding the motel and a soon after unpacking and getting situated we rode my bike down to K-Bob’s for dinner. It was pretty good and Dana’s first K-Bob meal. We rolled down to Wal-Mart afterwards looking for snacks and road drinks and saw a new Harley on display inside the store. The man inside told us that the Four Corners Rally was coming up and there was Harley stuff all over town. I saw a set of playing cards I’d been looking for and Dana snagged them and a few new bandanas, too. Dana’s watch had been on the fritz and she was looking at Tasmanian Devil watches and I bought one for her. We rushed back to the room as the HBO movie “The Rat Pack” (about Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and their gang) was playing and we wanted to see it. We got to the motel with one minute to spare for the 10:00 p.m. showing. Dana fell asleep right after the show and I showered and sat up reading until about 2:30.
 

DAY 4     SUNDAY     AUGUST 23, 1998             286     1,443

Super 8 Motel    Trinidad, CO.      $ 55.39

LUNCH     Hungry Logger     South Fork, CO.
DINNER     Burger King     Trinidad, CO.

East US 160 to La Veta; south Highway 12 to Trinidad.

We were up around 9:00 a.m., took our time and had drinks and snacks from the lobby. We fled at 10:35 and I tooled down the frontage road to let the bikes warm up. After four miles it became apparent that the road didn’t reconnect with the highway so we doubled-back and hit the first fuel stop at the edge of town. We left town at 11:00 and cruised in warm weather through the hills and small towns along the way. We had almost made Pagosa Springs when we needed a pit stop so we stopped at Turkey Springs Trading Post, a small outpost. I had a soda and chuckled to see that the man cooking the burgers for a customer was doing them one at a time in an electric skillet. Colorado technology, I guess. They smelled good but the wait would be awful. Pagosa Springs was warm, sunny and very busy. I was saddened to see that The Cottage, a café where Dana and I had stopped last time through, was closed down for good. Fifteen miles out of town we stopped and visited Don and Sandy Walker, two transplants and dear friends from our California neighborhood, at their Wolf Creek Valley Campground. We got the tour and checked out the large house addition that had been done since our last visit. We had arrived unexpectedly and only stayed an hour or so. When we left, they drove their truck and led us 30 miles to have lunch with us. We ran into two miles of construction dirt roads along the way and Dana and her bike handled it well. Dana bought for us all and we had a good visit and good food and when it was over they headed back and we took off east again. We hit a few large rain drops along 160 and we could see the storms building up and darkening behind us, but we stayed out of the gloom. Dana had chosen a road that looped around through the San Isabel National Forest and over 9,900’ Cucharas Pass. She had discussed this with Don before we split up and he said not to take it and that it would be a crummy road. As we approached it, the clouds, gloom and darkness seemed way behind us and it was still early so we made a run for the fun. It was cold, breezy and seemed to be darkening as we left the road into the unknown. I stopped and put on my sweatshirt and clear glasses, however in about twenty minutes we had crested the first windy pass and dropped into a bright, still and warm valley where I had to remove the shirt and put the shades back on. The road was wonderful, the traffic was nonexistent and scenic pastures, small towns and lakes dotted our path. It was likely the best road so far this trip and we cruised leisurely and looked around a lot. There were very strange rock formations that we later learned were granite “batholiths” and smaller “stocks” and “dikes,” going up the first hillsides in the Spanish Peaks area of the park; they looked like 100’ tall “spike” haircuts or large one-piece rock walls. There are a few shots on the website at   http://www.sangres.com/spanpks.htm . We stopped at the last little town, Segundo, but everything was closed so we had drinks from the cooler. We hit Trinidad at dusk and headed for the motel. We had to ride one mile on the freeway and this was the first freeway we had seen since getting off I-80 in Fernley, Nevada over 1,200 miles ago. While unpacking I found the TourPak was loose. As we were hungry and the only nearby café would close soon, we walked next door for burgers. The only thing memorable about this cafe was the Indian (feather, not dot) girl at the register that had gold-colored eyes. Weird, but not in a bad way. Afterwards we went back to the motel where I dumped out the TourPak and Dana figured out what bolts were loose; all four of the inner bolts beneath the mat. With Dana’s LockTite I fixed the problem, hopefully permanently. While I was finishing up the work Dana done the laundry in the hotel. Later I lugged out some water and washed the windshields. It was too late to cruise town and the nearest stores were miles away so we stayed in. I phoned our friend Shirley to see if she was back from vacation but I got no answer. We had to contact her as we needed her to watch the animals because Kenny, who was watching them the first week, was heading off to Hungary in a few days. I phoned Kenny and spoke to him for a bit and learned that all was cool at home. The wind came up later tonight and I sat up at the big window and watched the trees and bushes blowing around. The interstate freeway, I-25, was right outside and I saw a car or truck pass by about every three or four minutes. It’s kinda dead here.
 

DAY 5     MONDAY     AUGUST 24, 1998             283         1,726

Super 8 Motel      Dodge City, KS.      $ 54.87

BRKFST     Super 8 Motel     Trinidad, CO.     Breakfast Bar
DINNER     Golden Corral     Dodge City, KS.

East US 160 through Bartlett, CO, into Kansas and on to Sublette, KS.; east US 56 to Dodge City, KS.

We were up at 8:00 a.m. and had the lobby food downstairs. We had been watching The Weather Channel every day and night as there are rains and hurricanes and storms all over, but today, as all others so far, we were lucky and there is no rain within a hundred miles or more. We rolled out a bit after 10:00 and somehow didn’t fuel up, figuring there’d be gas somewhere along 160. We rolled across a flat plain with periodic farms here and there, and it was warm. There was very little traffic and we saw a couple of other bikes rolling along with us. My fuel needle was dropping and each little “town” that had been on the signs and map didn’t exactly have any fuel but we soon rolled into Kim (a garage, one café/store with gas, a few homes) and spied a gas pump there. They only had regular but it looked good and after filling up and having a couple of sodas we were off once more. It was over 100º again and we were cruising slowly. My trouble lamp had not come on yesterday after leaving the highway but it came on quite a bit today. A short time after the fill-up, we rolled into Pritchett and saw a post office, which we both needed, and stopped. It was a lot larger than Kim and had dozens of business type buildings but the only life was the post office, for which we had to wait a few minutes to open after lunch. A local guy spoke to us for a moment in front and was pretty impressed with the bikes. There was no gas in this town which was surprising as it was pretty large. There was still no traffic around and we rolled across the Kansas State Line without stopping for photos. In Johnson City we took a break and got drinks and spent a while in front of the store talking first to an employee out sweeping the walkway, then to a customer, a landscaper who had a Harley a couple of years ago. After that stop we rolled non-stop into Dodge City, arriving at 5:15 p.m. and passing the closed Harley shop at the edge of town. We stopped at a station for sodas and directions and were soon at the motel. We got checked in and I phoned David Hammond to tell him we had made it. He suggested a place to eat nearby but couldn’t recall the name. I tried to phone my boy Jocko in Oklahoma at his work but the lame babe said he couldn’t receive a personal call, so I left her a message to give him that we’d be by tomorrow to visit. We cleaned up and hit Old Town and Boot Hill where we visited the museums and historic displays. This town is real big into Wyatt Earp. It was about closing time so we had the place to ourselves. There was lot of Wyatt Earp stuff on display and we got some souvenirs on the way out and took a couple of photos. Dana was too hungry to forage for food so we just stepped across the street and loaded up at the buffet. It was pretty good and we were plum up a short time later. After that we stopped at Dillon’s Supermarket for sodas and snacks and headed for the room, getting in at 9:15.
 

DAY 6     TUESDAY     AUGUST 25, 1998             261         1,987

Super 8 Motel      Ponca City, OK.      $ 38.84

BRKFST     Super 8 Motel     Dodge City, KS. (Continental Breakfast)
LUNCH     Kansan Restaurant     Greensburg, KS.
DINNER     El Chico  (With Jocko)     Ponca City, OK.

South on Saddle Road then east on Highway 154 to Mullenville; east US 54 to Greensburg and Pratt; south US 281 through Medicine Lodge and to near Hardtner; south on Highway 58 / 8 to Cherokee; back north on 58 to near Ingersol then east on Highway 11 to Kildare and south US 177 to Ponca City.

I got up around 7:45 and called the Harley shop in Dodge City about my bike. The man said he could take a peek at it so we grabbed some breakfast from the lobby, packed up and headed out. I got to the store around 9:30. The folks were very nice, wrote up the bike and got it right in. A young mechanic hooked up the computer and done some checks and pronounced the engine temperature sensor was bad. The parts man pronounced that he did not have one. I pronounced that at least I know the problem. Dana had been shopping around and bought a new cap that she pronounced cool. We rode to a nearby station and gassed up and got Gatorade (Dana had been feeling the heat yesterday) and took off onto small roads. We were lost at first but got pointed in the right direction soon. We couldn’t find the “big steer” the guy at the shop told us to turn right at. Must not have been too big. We headed smack into Greensburg, a place Dana had knew as home of the “World’s Largest Hand Dug Well.” We had to stop. There was a large signpost forest at the edge of town but we passed it up. It was over 100º again by the time we got to the well. We paid our bucks to walk the 105 steps down to the bottom and back up, tossing a couple of pennies down as we climbed. The lady in the gift shop was very nice and we bought some souvenirs and left. We had a good country lunch before we cleared the town then took off onto the small roads again. Just before we left the café a farmer with a truck full of watermelons came in giving them away as the store he had them sold to backed out of the deal. I was wishing I had some room for a couple. We passed through Medicine Lodge, my mother’s childhood home, so I had to stop for a break at a mini-mart/gas stop/café. We had sodas and nuts while the small patio filled with farmers and local retirees like it probably does every day. It was a social place for the locals. At the Oklahoma State Line we stopped to take photos of the sign when a local guy in a pickup pulled in to talk. He spoke for about ten minutes and included everything from his school, military, later partnership with his now-ill brother, their thousands of acres and dozen business, his millions of dollars and his boy who now runs the show. He was a happy kind of guy and wished us well. We cruised into Cherokee for fuel and intended on continuing south before crossing over to Ponca City, but two old guys there cooling off at a table told us to double back a few miles and cross on 11. We did and it was a good, small, deserted road. I was listening to local radio and was following a tornado watch and severe thunderstorm warning off to the north about 25 miles. I could see the storms off to the north and west coming in behind us. It was kind of scary but we were moving faster than the storm. About ten miles before Medford the whole sky just a few miles to the north became very black and the wind whipped up a lot, but we only had a half hour to go and the radio didn’t mention anything nearby, so we continued on and stayed ahead of any problems all the way to Ponca City, rolling in around 7:00. We cleaned up and phoned Josh. He said to come by his house which was only a couple of miles away. We rode my bike there and he gave us a tour. He lives there with two other kids who work at the same restaurant. We piled into his truck and he took us to his café to eat. We had very good food and met all his friends. Afterwards we rode out to his grandparents’ house nearby and visited for an hour or so. He then drove us past his mom’s house and back to his home. He said his girlfriend was coming but would be a while so Dana and I rode back to the motel, stopping off at Albertson’s on the way in for provisions. We gave our bikes a short wash-down in the lot and Josh and his girl Kori showed up a short time later, around 11:00 p.m. We visited briefly and they took off. We were done by around midnight and came in, cleaned up and hit the sack.
 

DAY 7     WEDNESDAY     AUGUST 26, 1998             285         2,272

Branson Towers Hotel      Branson, MO.      $ 57.06

BRKFST     Perkins     Ponca City, OK. (w/Joshua)
DINNER     Mazzio’s Pizza     Cassville, MO.

South on US 77 then east on US 60 to Afton; south US 59 to Grove; lost and too far out of Grove on US 59 then back into town; east Highway 25 to State Line; north to Highway 76 and east to Anderson; east Highway 76 to Branson.

We got up at 8:00, got half-prepared to leave then took off to Perkins and met Josh for breakfast. He said his mom might come to join us but she never showed. We had a pretty good breakfast and visit and soon left Josh and headed back to the motel while he took off for work. We packed up and hit the road at 11:00. It was already hot and we were soon on the small and uncrowded roads through the fields. We stopped for a soda in Bartlesville and got directions to the Harley shop, then cruised there to see about my needed part. No luck, but it was a very large and nice shop. We cruised back along our route, fuelled up and headed out of town. In Vinita we stopped for sodas and a break at Subway and after cooling off hit the roads again. Grove was a very nice resort lake town but the roads were not marked so well and I led us about seven miles off our route before we turned and headed back. A very short attempt at rain occurred at that time but never developed into more than a light sprinkle that brought the “wet road smell” out for ten minutes or so. Back in town we took another break at the huge gas station/market and after a soda took off on the correct road. We stopped at the Missouri state line and took photos and put our helmets on. There was a group of real hillbillies there trying to get an old truck started and they had a look that told me they'd really like to have an operable vehicle or two, so we jammed. The roads from here on out were really terrific, winding through green hills and small towns. We had been considering a small road, Highway 76, all the way in to Branson but were unsure of it. At the Anderson gas stop the lady in the store said it was THE best road to Branson so we had made a wise decision. Actually it was Dana that done all the roadwork so it was her good judgement. Most of the roads in Missouri have an array of large yellow signs with black arrows at any curve in the road and Dana commented that it almost destroyed the scenery. I guess folks have a hard time following the roads in these parts but it was still pretty territory. I talked on the CB to a trucker that does this road three times daily. We stopped in Cassville for a pizza dinner. The food was good and we were visited by Daniel, a local 20-year-old who told stories of getting hit by a car when he was four, bad head injury, the doctors said he wouldn’t live, etc. He was a nice guy and told us jokes and bummed a buck for a soda then finally went off to accost another couple, the lady being his teacher last year. Then in the parking lot two couples grabbed us and showed us photos of their kids’ motorbikes and told us stories and what-not. One guy suggested another route and offered to lead us through but we hung on Highway 76 and were soon riding again. Whew! The remainder of the road was good and we didn’t see any traffic until we hit Branson at 7:30 p.m. The hotel was another of Dana’s finds and was a very nice place for less money that the Motel 6 nearby. It was away from the busy downtown area which made it all the more attractive. We unloaded and relaxed for a bit. I phoned Jeff Harrison in Springfield, an hour up the road, and set it up where we could do a visit. I met Jeff, a hard-ridin' Gold Winger, several years ago on a ride to Alaska. We ended up in the same line to put our bikes on the Ferry Boat from Washington to Alaska and have maintained contact since then. He told me that he had a new lightweight hot-rod now (in addition to his Wing) so I wanted to see it. We went to the lobby and Dana got some coffee and we saw that there was an “ice cream social” each evening. I done a small load of laundry this evening and Dana and I walked around the hotel watching lightning storms in the distance. Hurricane Bonnie was kicking up very hard in North Carolina today, Tropical Storm Isis was becoming a hurricane and heading through Baja towards Mexico and the Southwestern states but the weather in our area was fine so far. I called Kenny later and we spoke for a bit. All was cool at home.
 

DAY 8     THURSDAY     AUGUST 27, 1998             17         2,289

Branson Towers      Branson, MO.      $ 57.06

BRKFST     Whippersnappers             Branson, MO. (In hotel)
DINNER     B.T. Bones Steak House     Branson, MO.

We got to sleep in until 10:00 today. Cool. We had breakfast in the hotel restaurant then went to the gift shop and bought our magnet souvenirs and some postcards. We relaxed afterwards, watched TV and took our showers and I faxed Jeff, telling him we’d be back in by 5:00 p.m. We then left the room at 2:15 to see our show. The town is full of theaters belonging to various entertainers; everyone from Wayne Newton to Mel Tillis, mostly country singers. We had looked through the various brochures and neither of us are much for western music so we chose the show at Yakov Smirnoff’s (the Russian comedian) place. It was a pretty good show and we had fun. Afterwards we cruised a very short way into the main part of town but traffic was snarled pretty good so we turned back to the hotel. I phoned the Harley shop in Austin, Texas as we knew we would pass through. The service guy there said he had the part on order but didn’t know if it would be there by the time we passed through. I told him I’d check on the part Saturday. Jeff showed up at the room at 6:20. We had a short visit and then took off for dinner at a nearby steak house. I had catfish and chicken and it was pretty good and Jeff sneaked off and took care of the tab. We split up in the parking lot and he headed for home. I got Dana back to the hotel then I took off for the Country Mart nearby for sodas and snacks. Back at the room I checked out the Harley manual again to learn more about the engine temperature sensor but found no additional info. The bike was running okay but the red trouble lamp had been coming on more frequently. We lazed around the room and drifted off while watching TV. Around 4:00 a.m. the grease from the food at dinner caught up with me and my rumbling belly woke me up. A half hour later I had taken care of the problem and was back asleep.
 

DAY 9     FRIDAY     AUGUST 28, 1998             269         2,558

Super 8 Motel      Hot Springs, AR.       $ 55.92

LUNCH     Arby’s Roast Beef     Greenbriar, AR.
DINNER     Applebee’s     Hot Springs, AR.

South US 65 to Conway; east I-40 to Little Rock; south I-30 to Benton; west US 70 to Hot Springs.

I was supposed to have set the alarm for 7:00 but somehow messed up and we ended up waking after 8:00. I sent a fax off to Jeff thanking him for last night’s dinner and letting him know we were taking off. We pulled out of the hotel at 9:30 and found that the roads were fairly busy and the weather warm. We passed through a few small towns and cruised right into Arkansas without knowing as there was no state line sign. We stopped in Marshall for fuel and took a short break there. Traffic was lighter after this but there still seemed to be more people on the roads than before. It warmed to 95º by lunch time and we stopped at a minimart/gas station for a short lunch, then as it was time for a service, asked the guy in the store how to get to the Harley store in Little Rock. We found a post office on the other side of town where we stopped to look up ZIP codes and mail stuff home. A short time later we were zipping up onto the hectic freeway into Little Rock. We got off onto I-30 looking for the shop but it seemed the town was thinning out so we stopped again for directions and found we were going in the right direction. A couple of minutes later we exited at the shop. I first asked about my needed sensor but the parts guy said it was not in stock. We were lucky enough to get in for our services and while that was being done we shopped in the store and hung out getting liquids at the Hawg Diner next to the shop. I bought tee shirts for Glenn Daggs and David Hammond here and Dana found an extra cool shirt for me. The bikes were soon finished and we were on the road by 4:30. These guys at Little Rock H-D are the best and very friendly and helpful. As SOON as we were rolling the rain started and a sudden downpour erupted. This, combined with true California-like rush-hour traffic which was stopped most of the time, caused me to drive right back off the freeway and park beneath a large roof overhang on a nearby liquor store. I removed my bag and placed it out of the rain while Dana’s bag stayed on her bike. This was the first freeway and the first downpour of our trip and both were superlative in nature. We spoke to a few people as they passed by and just stood for about 45 minutes and watched the rain and traffic. It was a very heavy rain and many large puddles were soon slowing traffic even more. One guy in a new Dodge Viper with no top came jamming into the shelter of a gas station next door to put his top on. He was absolutely soaked. When it had dried a little we took off and a few miles later the road opened up and traffic lightened up very well. We rode through a few small sprinkles along the way but they were short and sweet. We rolled into Hot Springs with dry roads and a bit of sunshine and suddenly a lot of traffic. It took a while to cruise the five miles through town to our hotel and we unloaded around 6:40 and relaxed for a bit. Dana’s stuff inside her bag was all wet so it was hung all over the room to dry. One of her paperback books was mushroomed out badly but it would dry over the next few days. We watched The Weather Channel for a bit and found that it may also rain here tomorrow. We left for dinner on my bike around dusk in a light sprinkle. We sat at the bar waiting for a table and Dana had one of their special huge Mudslides while I had one of Applebee’s tall beers. We had a pretty good dinner and afterwards cruised around town. We cruised to the west side of town and got snacks at Harvest Foods then cruised back towards the touristy spa area. We rode up to the Mountain Tower on the extra twisty and dark, deserted road but didn’t stop at the top. We cruised down the main spa street then cruised back towards the hotel. There were LOADS of cops running with sirens and lights all over the place during our trip. It is not a very quiet place. Past the hotel we neared the lakeside area and saw a Camaro perched precariously on a high curb above a parking lot. It appeared that he thought it was a driveway and tried to drive into the lot but high-centered instead. We were back in the room by 10:15 and just hung out and relaxed.
 

DAY 10     SATURDAY     AUGUST 29, 1998             288         2,846

Best Western Palestine Inn      Palestine, TX.      $ 51.87

BRKFST     Super 8 Motel (breakfast bar)     Hot Springs, AR.
LUNCH     Pitt Grill     Queen City, TX.
DINNER     The Red Room      Palestine, TX.

South on Highway 7 to Caddo Valley; west on I-30 to Texarkana; south US 59 to Linden; south Highway 155 to Palestine.

We were up by 8:00 a.m. but I had the slows. I grabbed some food from the breakfast bar downstairs and brought it up to the room. It was hot and muggy already. We left the motel around 10:30 and drove up the road to a rock shop Dana had seen earlier. She bought crystals for the folks at her work and got me a crystal and a whet stone, too. We left town right after 11:00. There wasn’t much traffic this morning and it seemed that every small town had a few swap meets, flea markets and yard sales while all the areas between towns had old guys in trucks selling watermelons at the roadside. We took off onto the freeway for an hour and a half or so but soon left onto the smaller roads again. While on the freeway we stopped around Prescott for sodas and a break and I talked to this black guy in a Ford van who was to be in Austin that night. He told us of some good eating places there. We stopped in Queen City at a place that looked popular but the food was pretty poor. I had the World’s Greasiest Omelet and ended up just picking out and eating the identifiable stuff. We took off again and ran into a very short sprinkle a bit later. There was some type of Harley meet in the area but only a few bikes were seen. As we pulled into Big Sandy at 4:00 p.m., we were stopped at an intersection by two firemen who were working the “Fill The Boot” donation campaign so we dropped in a couple of bucks. I stopped a few blocks up the street and phoned Austin Harley to find that my needed part had not arrived. We bought a couple of cold waters and headed off again. We edged another storm for about twenty miles in the hills. The air was wet and it cooled off quite a bit and the roads got wet, too, indicating we had just missed the rain. It sprinkled a little again but had dried up well by the time we rolled into Palestine at 6:00 p.m. We got our room and were met by a hillbilly family who liked our bikes quite a bit. We talked to them for a bit, unloaded and headed right up to the Laundromat five miles away. We found they had no soap. It was kind of a run-down outfit with no attendant or working vending machines so I cruised next door to Wal Mart and was forced to get a huge detergent and a few sodas for the wait. We gave another customer there some of our quarters to keep her from having to leave for change. We were done in a couple of hours and ran back towards the motel. There seemed to be a lack of cafes along our path and we stopped at the motel’s café next door just before closing. We had some pretty good sandwiches and soup and the lady there took good care of us. We were back in the room by 9:30. I phoned our good friend Paul Spaar to let him know we were coming to visit him tomorrow in Austin and after that we just hung out and relaxed.
 

DAY 11     SUNDAY     AUGUST 30, 1998             203         3,049

Super 8 Motel      Austin, TX.       $ 55.89

LUNCH     Horseshoe Café     Franklin, TX.
DINNER     Matt’s Famous El Rancho     Austin, TX.

East US 79 to Round Rock; south I-35 to Austin.

We got up sort of late but it didn’t matter much because we had a fairly short ride today. We fuelled up and grabbed a soda before leaving town and then cruised along a very small road that carried us through tiny towns that had no food and few open businesses. Traffic was sort of heavy for such a small road so it must have been church traffic. We soon rode in to a wide spot in the road with one café that was open and we stopped for brunch at 11:45. The small place was neat and orderly and even had a breakfast bar but it was pretty empty. We sat and ordered our food and then the crowd came in. It looked like the whole town showed up after church and they filled the front while larger groups filled a back room that I hadn’t seen. Very busy. The food was good and after an hour we took off again. It had been warm all morning but by 2:00 p.m. it was hot. We stopped at a minimart in Thrall and sat inside and had sodas and bought a couple of “Mucho Dinero” lottery scratch-offs that netted us one whole dollar. We were soon on the freeway for a short distance. It was super-busy and bumper-to-bumper but moving fast. We found the motel with no trouble and unloaded and relaxed. Dana was hungry and I didn’t know exactly how we were going to get anywhere to eat with Paul, who has no car, but we took off for our visit. It was muggy and even hotter by then and we took my bike to Paul’s. He is another California friend who strayed too far a few years  back and his place was easy to find and only a few miles away in the less busy part of town. As we parked at his mobile home we saw that he had hung a “Welcome Mike and Dana” banner on front. We had to have a photo of that. We had a cool visit and he was looking extremely good for a guy that just got out of the hospital for a carotid bypass and had a quadruple bypass last year. We walked up the street a couple of driveways to Matt’s and had an extra-good dinner. The big lighted Matt’s sign had a “Welcome Austin” (for the town) sign below it and I thought this was ultra cool as it happens to also be my last name. Paul ate like a horse as usual, the waiter was a young guy that was very good and the Mexican food was delicious. They had a special hot cheese dip called “Bob Armstrong” that was so good we had two (see below!) Afterwards we walked back to Pablo’s and he let us use his computer to send e-mail back home. I sent notes to Kenny and Shirley and then Dana sent a couple to her work and her friends. We yakked a little more then fled the scene. We took some more pics in front of his home then motored away. Before leaving the area, I parked my bike in front of Matt’s sign and had Dana photograph me and the Welcome Austin sign. We were going to stop at the market for stuff on the way back but it was crowded and was starting to rain a little so we jammed back to the room and hung out. Paul phoned a little later and said that my note to Shirley had bounced back on his computer. Rats. We hung out for an hour or so waiting for the thunderstorm warnings to end then we took my bike for a tour. We fuelled up at a mini mart that had cops all around looking for some unruly malfeasant, then rode down to the capital building and visited that area. We cruised over a bridge that Dana says was the home of the country’s largest urban bat colony and draws crowds of observers at dusk. We could see bats flitting around the well-lit capital area. On the way back we stopped at the H.E.B. market and grabbed some snacks. We were back at the room at 10:20. We hung out and relaxed.

DAY 12     MONDAY     AUGUST 31, 1998             351         3,400

Motel 6      Fort Stockton, TX.      $ 36.15

BRKFST     Super 8 Motel (Breakfast Bar)     Austin, TX.
LUNCH     No Name Café     Sonora, TX.
DINNER     K-Bob’s Steak House     Fort Stockton, TX.

West US 290 to Mountain Home; west I-10 to Fort Stockton.

We were up at 8:30 and found the skies cloudy, but it was warm and dry. We ate stuff from the lobby and were out of the hotel by 9:45. We went up the street to fuel up Dana’s bike and the had the pleasure of staying off the freeway for a long while. Traffic was heavy in town but as soon as we cleared the metropolitan area we were pretty much alone on the two-laner. In Johnson City we stopped for a break and I also got some soda and a handful of beef jerky for the road. A short time later we cruised through Fredericksburg and I was thinking of stopping to see Jimmy Judd there but I had spoken to him earlier this week and said he worked the night shift and slept in the mornings. This is about the fourth time I’ve passed through without visiting him so I’d better stop next time. A few miles out of town we were attacked by a sudden and brutal thunderstorm. It was a very cold and very heavy rainfall and there was nowhere to stop, no trees or other shelter and we were both in tee shirts, but we cruised on. It didn’t last any more than five minutes but we were soaked immediately. The rain stopped as quickly as it had started and we just rode on, drying off a short time later. We hit two smaller spots of light rain soon after the biggie but they were not bad at all. We hit the freeway a bit later and soon stopped for gas. We were hungry but there wasn’t much in that part of Junction, so we cruised on up and took the long business loop into Sonora. There were only a couple of  cafés in town and we done okay at a small place called the No Name Café. The food was cheap and servings were huge but as everything was deep-fried I filled up pretty quick. After lunch we went to the service station nearby and I phoned Barnett Harley-Davidson in El Paso and found that, yes, they had my part and, yes, they would fix my bike. I arranged to drop my bike off before closing time tomorrow so they could get to work on it first thing the following day. Cool. We climbed back up on the freeway and cruised another 35 miles to Ozona. Here we got off the freeway and cruised past the Davey Crockett Memorial statue in their park and then stopped for fuel. We sat in the mini-mart dining area and had a couple of colas. We had just missed more rain here but it stayed dry the rest of the day. We left Ozona and done a non-stop 140 mile jam to Fort Stockton. We cruised town and got a room and relaxed for a bit. We were hungry and rode across to K-Bob’s as it would likely be the last along the way. When we came out from dinner it was dark and much cooler – very different than many other evenings. It felt pretty nice. We cruised down to Furr’s and bought our drinks and snacks then returned to the room and just hung out.
 

DAY 13     TUESDAY     SEPTEMBER 1, 1998             289         3,689

Motel 6     El Paso, Texas       $ 41.03

LUNCH     Dutchover’s Restaurant     Balmoreah, TX.
DINNER     Gunther’s Edelweiss     El Paso, TX.

West I-10 to Van Horn; north Highway 54 to Guadalupe National Monument; west US 180 / US 62 to El Paso.

I slept in sort of late. When I awoke Dana was all ready to leave. When we went to sleep last night Joe Cocker was on TV with Jay Leno or Conan O’Brien or one of those guys and this morning when I got up he was on Cathy Lee and Regis. Too cool. Before leaving town we gassed up just down the road. While at the pumps we spoke to an older guy from San Jose who was traveling from California to Florida with his son in his son’s Mercedes. He was pretty happy at being able to experience the trip from the road instead of the usual airplane trip. We left town at 10:45 and found that the freeway was pretty empty. It was clear and warm and smooth sailing all the way. We were hungry from the start but like to travel a bit before stopping. I have never seen anything interesting along this stretch but we took off the loop in Balmoreah and right in the middle of the ultra-small town saw a couple of restaurants. I chose Dutchover’s because it looked a little better than the lean-to next to the auto repair. We were the only ones in the place at our 11:50 arrival. It was a very nice place and had a great menu, good prices and excellent food. At noon the work guys started showing up and the parking lot and dining room filled to capacity in just a few minutes. We left around 12:45 and hopped back up onto the freeway for another hour or so and exited at Van Horn where we gassed up, grabbed some sodas and headed north on a small two-laner just to avoid being on the freeway all day. We saw maybe a half dozen cars along this sixty mile stretch up a farm valley to the Guadalupe Mountains. It was breezy but warm and we stopped a couple of times just to look around. We had traveled the next stretch of US 180 into El Paso before but Highway 54 was all new to us and was a great road. As we approached within fifteen miles of El Paso traffic got heavy and by the time we were five miles from I-10 it was stop and go amongst the traffic signals. We got to Barnett’s H-D before 5:00 p.m., made the check-in with the service department, then ran across the freeway to our motel. We unpacked my bike completely then took it back and dropped it off before the 6:00 p.m. closing time. We checked out the store for a few minutes then took Dana’s bike for a ride back to the motel. We just cleaned up a bit then took off for our ride around town. We done a little shopping at a few places for a few necessities. Back out in the lot I damn near took off with Dana’s front disk lock on, remembering and grabbing the brake just a few millimeters before the lock would have hit the caliper. We lurched and leaned but didn’t spill. We rode up to Office Max where I bought some shipping tape to send stuff home with then hopped over to Barnes and Nobel where Dana found her book. Since the Edelweiss is next to the motel we had dinner there and I was unable to finish mine so I had it wrapped to go. It was great as usual and I drank five huge Cokes, too. We were in the room a short time later. I went to the laundry room and done a quick load while Dana relaxed. It was still hot this evening but the breeze helped keep it tolerable. I watched TV for a while but drifted off around 1:00 a.m.
 

DAY 14     WEDNESDAY     SEPTEMBER 2, 1998         214     3,903

Super 8 Motel    Ruidoso, NM.      $ 48.80

LUNCH     Denny’s         Alamogordo, NM.
DINNER     Schlotzski’s Deli     Ruidoso, NM.

West I-10 through town; north US 54 to Alamogordo, NM; west I-70 to White Sands Monument; east I-70 through Mountain Park to Ruidoso.

I got up early to check on my bike. I phoned the shop at 9:00 a.m. and was told that the bike was on the rack getting worked on. I walked to the office and got Dana some coffee then started getting some of our extra things ready to ship home. I phoned again at 10:00 and found that the bike was on a test ride. We shared my leftover weinerschnitzel from last night and found it was pretty good. I got things packed as well as I could then Dana and I took her bike to the Mailbox Etc. and shipped some things home. We then hit the shop and I was told the bike was ready and was in line for a wash. We shopped around the store and I bought Dana some new goggles. It was getting too close to the check-out time at the motel so we told them to forget the bike wash and we retrieved the scooter and headed back to the motel. We were able to get out of the room right at noon. We got on the hectic and dirty freeway and veered off onto US 54 where we fuelled up a few miles from the edge of town. Traffic lightened up a lot after this and the wind even died down a bit. It was still hot, however, and we rode through a couple of small towns without seeing any attractive eateries. The bike’s “trouble” light had not come on since leaving the Harley shop so I was glad to see the problem had been taken care of. I just hoped that lasted a while. We got to Alamogordo around 1:45 and somehow decided on Denny’s for lunch. It was pretty good and we filled up and ran off in the other direction to visit White Sands National Monument. We had a great visit at the visitor center, then at the gift shop we bought some cards and magnets and stuff and also a tee-shirt for Shirley. Dana liked it so much she got one for herself. We then took the eight-mile road out into the dunes. The road was new pavement for a couple of miles but soon turned into washboard hard-packed sand for the last six miles. It was slow going but not too squirrelly and we stopped a couple of times to take some good photos. We left after this one hour drive and watched some fighter jets being tested over the Holloman AFB test site nearby. Traffic lessened again out of town and we rode through the mountains at elevations over 7,000 feet. It cooled off a little up there in the shade but I never had to put my sweatshirt on. We pulled into town and found the hotel right at the edge. We checked in and relaxed and drank a lot of ice tea from the cooler. We had been considering a dinner at the outdoor cowboy show but put that off until next time. I phoned our friend Jim Nickerson in Ohio to say hi and also phoned Doug Starbuck to tell him we’d overshot his part of Oklahoma and would catch him next time around. We rode out to Ruidoso Downs past the horse-race track and stopped at the front of the horse museum to look at the sculptures there. We took pics of the bronze horses on display off the roadway. It was dusk by now so we toured town until it thinned out and turned back for dinner at Schlotzski’s, a place I’ve seen in many towns but never stopped. It was pretty good and afterwards we went up to Wal-Mart for sodas and snacks and returned to the hotel. I found a Ruidoso race horse tee shirt for Davey A and picked that up, too. We watched The Weather Channel for a while tonight and saw that hurricanes Danielle and Earl were raining like hell to the east and saw that Hurricane Isis had totaled out southern Baja, crossed Mexico and was shooting weather for hundreds of miles into the southwestern US. We had no idea which way to turn tomorrow but figured the farther north the better. We just relaxed and stayed in. This is a very quiet place at night.
 

DAY 15     THURSDAY     SEPTEMBER 3, 1998             470         4,373

Super 8 Motel     Flagstaff, AZ.          $ 68.67

BRKFST     Super 8 Motel (Breakfast Bar)     Ruidoso, NM.
LUNCH     Tina’s Restaurant             Socorro, NM.
DINNER     Fiddlers restaurant         Flagstaff, AZ.

North Highway 37 to Alto; north Highway 48 to Capitan; west US 380 to San Antonio; north I-25 to Socorro; west US 60 to Springerville; north US 191 to St. Johns; west US 180 to Holbrook; west I-40 to Flagstaff.

We were up at 8:15 to find it was cool but warming rapidly. We grabbed the breakfast from the lobby and loaded up at a leisurely pace and took off, leaving the motel at 10:00. The bikes started sluggishly due to the overnight cold and they took a while to warm up. We fuelled up in town and I noticed that there was no real appearance of work here, just a lot of buildings that seemed quiet. Traffic was light even in town and there was a bit of road construction on the outskirts. We performed a non-stop jam into Socorro, stopping just once for a roadside pit stop. Along Highway 380 we saw some training helicopters, leapfrogged a couple on a Gold Wing Trike with a trailer and passed the Smokey Bear Museum in Capitan. We hit the freeway for a few short minutes then stopped in at a café where we’d had breakfast before in Socorro. It was hot by now. Our waitress seemed very uncaring, failing to check on us periodically, so we weren’t too nice to her either. The food was pretty good, though, and I even got to finish Dana’s “jalapeño scramble.” The real scramble was in the bathroom later that evening, though. Hot stuff! We fuelled at a mini-mart afterwards and I grabbed a soda and we hit the mountain roads west. There was a small bit of construction here, too, but afterwards there was very little traffic and a lot of pretty scenery. We passed the Very Large Array (VLA) of astronomy radio-telescopes again. Since our last trip through here this research center has been featured in a couple of movies, The Arrival with Charlie Sheen and Contact with Jodie Foster. We done a jam-type ride from here to Winslow, stopping for fuel and a relaxation period at the outside table at the Springerville Circle K. The scenery was great along the whole route today but there was not too much to stop and visit. We stopped for a quick roadside break and then a construction zone with a ten-minute wait before reaching I-10, and the clouds were slipping around on all sides but we seemed to always escape any passing rain. There were a few drops just before I-10 but not even worth slowing for. It was still 85º even with the cloud cover and wind. We’d had no earlier idea how good the day’s travel would go but we had planned on at least making Holbrook. Having made Holbrook, we knew we could make Winslow, so we jammed there and still had at least an hour of sunlight left. We stopped at a station and phoned ahead to Flagstaff and saved a room there, then took off for the last one-hour dart up the hill and into the cooler climes. We got to Flagstaff just at dusk and found many bikers checking in at the same hotel. Many folks were on their way to the “Four Corners” Rally near Cortez, Colorado and this was a stopping-off place. The guys chided Dana a little and she jammed them right back regarding their bikes and hers. We got checked in and relaxed for a bit, watching the COPS TV show about chases and crashes, then jammed off to dinner on my bike to a place we’d found in the Yellow Pages. It was dark and when we finally found the place and got seated we received great food, great service and a cool visit from Miguel the busboy from Mexico. We stopped at Smith’s on the way back in for some snacks and drinks and upon exiting the store found it was sprinkling. The stuff from Mexico’s Hurricane Isis had made its way northward into our path. It was expected so we weren’t surprised. Back at the room I phoned Kenny K to find that all was cool at home and that he was leaving Saturday for Hungary to visit Tillie The Kid. It was a quiet night here and we just stayed in and relaxed.
 

DAY 16     FRIDAY     SEPTEMBER 4, 1998             396         4,769

Motel 6      Barstow, CA.       $ 37.39

LUNCH     Iron Skillet     at the Petro Exit 66 east of Kingman, AZ.
DINNER     Cactus Café     Barstow, CA.

West I-40 to Topock; south AZ Highway 95 to Lake Havasu City; back north to Topock; west I-40 to Barstow.

We woke up to rain all around. I looked out the window to see a few bikes in the lot at the café next door warming up in the rain. Rats! The Weather Channel indicated showers all around but maybe being drier to the west. Cool. I phoned the H-D shops in Kingman and Flagstaff about a new rear tire thinking I could get off cheaper here than at home. The prices weren’t that much better (!) so I didn’t make any plans to stop at either place. We packed up in a steady medium rain, put on our rainsuits for the first time this trip, fuelled up next door and hit the freeway. It rained steadily for about a half hour, then rained off and on until we got to the Petro near Kingman, having made the 140 mile stretch with no stops. The roads were always wet but it would stop raining from time to time. Traffic was a little heavier than it had been but folks were keeping the speed down and it was never too cold. We had lunch at the truck stop and upon exiting decided we’d be smart to keep the raingear on. It was cloudy but dry by this time and we hit the freeway again. I noted that we were going to need some gas soon, probably before Needles, and I knew of no fuel stops between the two places, but I saw a new sign advertising a new fuel stop and mini-mart at the AZ Highway 95 exit, about 35 miles away, so we pressed on. It stayed dry and we were soon passed by four Harley-Davidson factory bikes with factory riders, dressed in identical factory helmets and jackets. They waved and whooped on down the road. When we got to the alleged gas stop we found that it was still under construction. Not knowing if we could make it to Needles, another 30 miles, I opted to play it safe and jam off-course into Lake Havasu, 18 miles away. By this time it was 95º and mostly clear and we were burning up in the raingear so off it came. We got into town to find the cops in full bloom, apparently for the three-day weekend. The first cop was writing a ticket to a gal in a sporty car that had just passed me over the double line a few miles back. Ha! We gassed up and Dana decided that maybe we should stay in town. It was very busy but I phoned a couple of motels to find them booked solid. We left back to the freeway and west. I had set up a reservation at Needles as I had no idea how far we could make it in the rain, but it was so early in Needles that we chose to go the extra 150 miles to Barstow. The freeway was a little busy but fairly friendly and even at the summits it was fairly warm. It was barely dusk when we reached Barstow and got our room. I never have found anywhere special in Barstow to eat (and may never) so I scoured the Yellow Pages and came up with a place nearby. It was okay and the waitress was nice but I’d probably not bother to go back. It was “okay” and that was about it. We fuelled up my bike (Dana’s was still at the motel) as I was on fumes then stopped at Von’s for sodas and snacks before returning to the motel then just stayed in for the night. I phoned Kenny tonight, knowing that he was going to Hungary the next day, and he was bummed as he had read his ticket incorrectly and missed his flight which was today and not tomorrow. He figured he could take care of it the next day (which he did) but he was sure bummed tonight. And HE is the smart one in the family! There was some kind of baseball tournament in town and our room was next to a bunch of players from Utah that were the loudest neighbors we had ever had in a motel. They went on until after 2:00 a.m. but we played our typical noisy tricks on them early the next morning and that usually makes it worthwhile.
 
 

DAY 17     SATURDAY     SEPTEMBER 5, 1998             267         5,030

Harris Ranch Inn      Coalinga, CA.        $ 89.10

LUNCH     Domingo’s Mexican Restaurant     Boron, CA.
DINNER     Red Robin         Coalinga, CA.

West SR 58 to Bakersfield; north SR 43 to Hanford; west SR 198 to Coalinga.

We got up around 8:30, took our time getting ready and fled. We gassed up Dana’s bike then hit the road, opting for the old road rather than the new freeway. Of course I got lost as the road is no longer marked but it was only for a couple of miles while winding through some desert residential areas. We cruised on in the warm breeze and after Kramer Junction I spied a new roadside sign for a café in Boron. Dana had never been off the road into Boron so I exited and soon we stopped at a place I had never heard of. The service and food were terrific. The guy said he had been there eight years but had only put the sign up a year ago. We’ll definitely stop here again. We left Boron at 12:15 and got back onto the highway. There was a very low flying small plane flying over the road along with traffic but I never figured out what that was all about. It was breezy and a little cooler up on the Tehachapi Mountains and I took the business loop to visit the small motorcycle shop up there, but they were closed. It warmed up a lot coming off the grade and we stopped in Bakersfield for fuel, a rest and some fresh drinks. As we wanted to stretch out our day we took off north on 43 through the farmlands and small towns. It was a great ride up this route and even going slow, we burned in the last 120 miles non-stop to Coalinga by 4:30 p.m. Dana had always wanted to spend a night at Harris Ranch and had called for a room a couple of times earlier to find it booked. We had a reservation at Motel 6 here and had first stopped for a soda upon entering town, so Dana called Harris Ranch one final time and found that they had just had a cancellation. We jammed back across the freeway and got the room and unpacked. It was warm still and was breezy as is normal here. We relaxed for a while and enjoyed some cold tea and the air conditioner. We soon took off on my bike for dinner at Dana’s favorite place and had a most excellent meal. Dana had one of their specialty drinks—a Neon Neutron, that she said wasn’t worth the $7.00 for the drink and tall plastic beaker. Afterwards we walked down to the store again and I picked up some fruit. We rode back to the hotel and relaxed a bit more. Dana wanted to see more of the grounds so we walked around, checking out dozens of frogs hopping around the walkways. There was a huge pool with a large patio and a cool spa and we walked over to the gift shop in the restaurant building. Afterwards we walked over to the mini-mart and had a couple of ice cream bars then went back to the hotel around 8:00 p.m. There was a full moon in a clear but slightly hazy sky and I was pretty happy to have found a Cup O’ Gold candy bar at the mini-mart as they are scarce lately. We watched The Edge on HBO as we had missed it at the theatres and wanted to see it. There was a party in the spa, just outside our window, until 12:30 but these folks were barely audible and all the women kept their clothes on (dammitt.) It was warm all night here.
 

DAY 18     SUNDAY     SEPTEMBER 6, 1998             248         5,278

BRKFST     Harris Ranch Hotel (Room Service)     Coalinga, CA.

North I-5 for three miles then east on 145 to Kerman; west 180 to Mendota; north 33 to Patterson; east J-17 then north Carpenter Road to Modesto; west 132 to Vernalis; north 33 to Tracy; north Byron Highway to Byron; west Highway 4 home.

When I woke up at 8:30 Dana was already out of the shower. We had a room service breakfast of muffins, juice and milk at 9:20. There was no “real” food on the menu. We had plenty of time to relax and watch TV. We walked back over to the gift shop to pick up some things for KennyK and Shirley. As we approached the entrance there was a guy showing his kids a large praying mantis on a leaf so we had to check that out too. It was warm when we left at 11:30 and after a short trip on the freeway we headed for the two-laners again as Dana wanted to go to Modesto so she could spend her remaining credit at the Harley shop there where she bought this new bike. It got hot fast and other than a map check in Kerman and a quick fuel/pit stop in Mendota we rode on to Modesto. Dana spent most of her credit on oil and filters but had a few bucks left over. Try as she may, she was unable to find anything else in stock that she needed, so I spent the last $5 on a new issue collector spoon. Zow! We left a short time later, kinda hungry but not enough to chance a new place and miss out on good food later in our home area. Around 4:10 we stopped for sodas at the Quik Stop in Tracy as the heat had increased, then just jammed on home. The traffic increased a lot by the time we reached Antioch on Highway 4 and by the time we hit Pacheco it was crowded and the temperature had dropped 15 degrees. Hey, welcome home!!!
 

FROM THE NET - regarding the dip from Matt's restaurant I mentioned on Day 11  -

Don't miss the house specialty, the Bob Armstrong dip ($3.95 small, $6.95 large), named for a former Texas land commissioner. Once an off-menu item that regulars at Mr. Martinez's other restaurants knew to ask for, it's a secret no more: layers of guacamole, ground beef, sour cream and chile con queso. Mix it all up to get the full effect.  (Just in case you HAD to know)
 

All in all, it was a very good trip. As usual, Dana had a lot to do with that and is, as I have mentioned before,  without a doubt the best traveling partner I can imagine. No, you still may not borrow her. Highway 50 is a great run across Nevada and Utah and continues to the East Coast. If you tire of freeway riding as I do, I recommend 50.

Temps over 100° all but two days. I like it; of course I enjoy Death Valley in July.  And it always seems to rain whenever we leave California. Having only to use our rain gear ONE day on this trip was a true blessing.

If you have questions about any road or place you see mentioned here, please e-mail me and I'll try to answer it. Thanks for reading!!!!!!