Til The Next Time

Today was a quick finish.  I took the route home from my brother's that I am very familiar with.  It is actually a nice ride that passes thru the Ocoee river area and thru the north Georgia mountains.  It was a nice way to finish the trip.  Not much more to add at this point. I had a good time, the bike held up, I held up, and I was very fortunate with the weather.  I never once had to put on my full rain gear.  Now I just have to figure out the next trip.

Present Location:  Seneca, SC

Today's Mileage:  171

Total Trip Miles:  5879

Moving Day

So it's been a great trip, but it is time for it to end.  That means that my goal for today was to get some distance covered.  I traveled primary roads for the most part.  I still stayed away from the interstate, but did not look for that interesting looking road on the map.  I was also hoping that if things went well, I could get to my brother's house for the evening.  Again, this is a bonus to spend some time with him and my sister in law.  Besides that, I really like drinking his whiskey.  So basically, that was my day.  I did get to Steve and Marne's house, and tomorrow, it is only about a four hour ride home.  Again, it has been a good trip, but I'm ready to be home.

Present Location:  Harrison, Tennessee

Today's Mileage:  543

Total Mileage:  About 5500 ( I forgot to get the real totals, and after drinking Steve's whiskey, I really don't care.)

Today's Photos:  Amber waves of grain/My hosts for this evening

Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Today was a little bit of an experiment.  I worked out a route to get out of Kansas that would avoid Manhattan and Kansas city.  My only real goal was to get to Missouri as painlessly as possible.  Once in Missouri, I just took roads that headed either east or south.  I was on main highways, secondary roads, and county roads.  Although I usually find the county roads the most interesting, some of them are not in the best of shape.  It made for an interesting day,  I  must admit, a few times I felt like I was floundering a bit, and it really isn't very efficient.  A really fun exercise, is to try and locate yourself on the map after a couple of hours.  I think that the overcast skies take a little of the fun out of it too.  The weather wasn't bad, but a bright sunny day always helps my attitude.
There are no pictures today.  This doesn't mean that I didn't see anything that I found interesting, it means that at the time the traffic was such that I couldn't just stop and take a picture.  So you will just have to imagine the tractor sculpture made out of hay bales, and the outstanding yard art rooster.

Present Location:  Mountain View, Missouri

Today's Mileage:  482

Total Mileage:  5176

Eye of the Beholder

I departed Ft Collins this morning and headed for the flatlands of eastern Colorado and Kansas.  When I stopped for breakfast, I started talking with a local at the counter.  He asked which way I was headed.  When I told him, he told me that I would be riding thru some beautiful country, he said that the wheat was up and green and that it was one of the prettiest sites in the state.  It wasn't a snow capped mountain, but I really couldn't disagree with him.  The picture really doesn't do it justice.
When I was checking my Kansas map I saw a small highlight which said "World's Largest Twine Ball".  Who could resist the allure of such a thing?  So I routed myself that way to make sure I didn't miss it.  I'm not sure that you can really call it a ball, but it is different.  Just another thing that I can check off my bucket list.
I'm heading towards home now.  Not really sure of my final route yet, but figure if I just keep heading southeast, I'll get there eventually.

Present Location:  Clay Center, Kansas

Today's Mileage:  543

Total Mileage:  4694

Today's Photos:  Colorado wheat field/World's largest twine ball

Another Day, Another Mountain

When I left Gunnison this morning it was 42 degrees.  Not terribly cold, but after riding in the high nineties, I felt a need to gear up and get some more clothing on.  Of course, at the end of the day it was 87 and all that gear had gone back in the side cases.  The zippers on my riding jacket are really getting a workout from opening vents, closing vents and then doing it all over again.  It is amazing how a little airflow can make a huge difference in your comfort level.
So when I left Gunnison, I headed east towards Salida, from there I went north and caught some more scenic byways.  Along the way, I took a side trip to visit a fish hatchery.  All in all hatcheries seem to be pretty much the same, but it was interesting talking with the staff as they went about their business.  I think I got the biggest kick out of watching the kids that were there feeding the fish.
Kept heading north towards Steamboat Springs.  Just like yesterday, I was rewarded with a lot of great scenery.  My final jaunt through the mountains was going east on Hwy 14.  This highway parallels the Poudre River.  The river was really rocking and rolling, with some serious rapids in spots.  It was a good route to end my sojourn in the Rockies.  Guess I'll have to figure out where to go from here next.

Present Location:  Ft. Collins, Colorado

Today's Mileage:  394

Total Mileage:  4151

Today's Photos:  A sign you don't see too often/Trout at the Hatchery/Rapids on the Poudre River/One more mountain vista

Glad This Camera Is Digital

A road that I have heard a lot about in Colorado is the Million Dollar Road (there's that catchy name thing again).  It was one that I really wanted to do, but as luck would have it, it is closed due to a rock slide that hasn't been entirely cleared yet.  I guess I'll have to come out another time to do that one.  So I checked out the map to see how many scenic byways I could hit, and everything worked out fine.  I started up the west side of the state on a road that paralleled the San Miguel River.  The good thing about this is that you go up over a mountain pass, and then descend into the canyon area that the river has carved.  After that, I headed back towards the middle of the state. Again great scenery and a couple of mountain passes.  I was pleasantly surprised at how lightly traveled the scenic byways were. Not sure if it will be the same next week when all the schools are out and summer vacations start.  One thing I noticed were water levels.  Through Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, every river I passed had hardly any flow in them and the creeks were almost entirely dry, in Colorado all the rivers and streams are up to the top of their banks and flowing rapidly.
The only real problem I had today, was deciding when to stop taking pictures.  There just seemed to be so many great vistas that I wanted to take a photo of, and then when I turned around, there was another great shot.  I'm glad this camera is digital, because if I had my old Kodak Instamatic I wouldn't have room for all the film.
One more day of riding in Colorado tomorrow. 

Present Location:  Gunnison,  Colorado

Today's Mileage:  405

Total Mileage:  3755

Today's Photos: Scenes from Colorado/Time to clean he windshield( that is one days worth of bugs)

Bonus Round

I am now in a situation that I consider a bonus round.  Since things are going so well, I have time to do some riding in the Rockies.  So I left Tim and Sheri's this morning and headed north.  Early morning is my favorite time to ride, so even though the road was basically a straight shot north, I still enjoyed being on the road.  The scenery does get better the farther north you travel.  I then started to angle up towards Colorado.  On the way I was passing Four Corners, so I made a slight detour to che k out the monument.  It is not all that spectacular, but it is kind of interesting.  Since I was so close, I thought I should head over and look at the Shiprock formation in New Mexico.  It had gotten pretty warm by now, so I kind of lost interest as I went along.  I got close enough to identify the formation, but stopped before I got close enough to get a good picture.  Headed north from there to Cortez, Colorado where I decided to call it a day and regroup for tomorrow.

Presentation Location:  Cortez, Colorado

Today's Mileage:  358

Total Mileage:  3355

Today's Photos:  Four Corners Monument/Me standing in four states at one time(most of that stuff on my boots is bug guts)/Shiprock formation in the distance

A Day Late

Today was a good day.  I left Silver City and headed over to Arizona.  One of the must ride roads there is highway 191 from Clifton north to Springerville.  It's called the Devil's highway for various reasons.  One is that it actually used to be designated as Highway 666.  I think another reason is that motorcyclists and tourist bureaus like to have a catchy name for people to remember,  like the Dragon's Tail up in NC.  The first surprise of the day however was the huge copper mine in Clifton, AZ.  I know that I have already talked about mining, but this operation dwarfed the previous mine I had seen.  As I rode by on Sunday morning, it appeared to be operating at 100%.  Evidently, it is a 24/7 operation.
From there, it was on to the road.  I enjoyed this ride for a number of reasons, it certainly had a lot of tight turns, but it also had big sweeping curves and some relatively straight sections.  The combination of the three makes for a great ride.  Total distance is around 95 miles, and it takes over 2 1/2 hours to complete.  I can't speak for all riders, but I know that I don't want to be doing continuous tight turns for that long.
After the ride, I got what I consider an extra benefit in that I was able to then go see my brother and sister in law for the rest of the day and night just outside of Show Low, AZ.  Even better was that I got to see my nephew and his wife.  Even better was that I got to do a load of laundry.  It was a good time.  We had a couple of beers, pretty well got caught up on everything, talked about everybody who wasn't there, and had a good meal.  Okay, so maybe it was more than a couple of beers, and that might be why I didn't get anything posted yesterday.

Last Night's Location:  Show Low, AZ.

June 1st Mileage:  235

Total mileage:  2992 Miles

Today's Photos:  a couple of the mine in Clifton, the beginning of Devil's Road

No Abduction

I started off the day by heading up to Roswell, NM.  I expected to see all sorts of UFO related signs and buildings.  There are some references to aliens and spaceships, but really not that many. The UFO museum and research center were closed, so I didn't get to visit it.  Thought it might be kind of fun, and was intrigued by the "research center" aspect, especially since it was housed in an old movie theater.  From there, I headed east and towards the mountains.  Located another secondary road on the map and took off.  I've been burned a few times, but I normally far prefer these lesser traveled roads. The only real problem is that I don't think it is possible to maintain the posted speed limit when you rarely see any other traffic.  My reasoning for opening up the throttle on some of these roads, is why would you bother to set up a radar trap on a road that probably sees less than five vehicles per hour.  Of course, my reasoning on other subjects has been wrong on occasion, so I realize this hypothesis is not fool proof.

At the end of this road I came into Capitan, NM.  This is where the Smokey the Bear national historical park is.  Who knew there was such  a thing.  Aside from the small museum, there is a small outdoor garden area where the original Smokey is buried.  The museum was kind of interesting, and I am thinking that I am now the resident expert on Smokey amongst all of my friends. I paid my respects to Smokey and moved on.

My goal was to get to Silver City today.  I had chosen a road to get there and was pleased to see it was a designated scenic back road as I started off .  I think it probably was pretty scenic, but if I had taken the time to look, I,m pretty sure I would have gone over the side of the road.  I don't mind riding these type of roads, but I really need to focus while doing it.  Gotta tell you I would have hated to have been in  car.  You know it is probably going to be a pretty twisty road, when the posted speed limit is 10 mph.

At the tail end of this road (after things had straightened out a bit), you pass by this enormous open pit copper mine.  Looking at this mining operation is both fascinating and disturbing. I have to appreciate the technology and engineering that go into such a huge operation, but the result is so alien (I had to get that
word in somewhere in this post), to it's surroundings that it just doesn't seem real.

So tomorrow I'm off to see my brother and sister in law.  There is however an interesting road that I have to check out first on the way there.

Present Location:  Silver City, New Mexico

Today's Mileage:  403

Total Mileage:  2757

Today's photos:  Roswell's version of the chainsaw carved bear/some peaks in the Guadalupe Mtns/proof that I didn't make up that Smokey the Bear part/copper mine

No T-Shirt

I got rolling relatively earl this morning to head down to Big Bend before it got too hot. I'm glad I saw the park, but must admit, it is not on my list of favorite parks; To be fair, Big Bend is probably like most of the national parks in that you really have to get out and hike the trails to see the best of the park.  While riding, I rarely hike, but just enjoy seeing the scenic views that a park has to offer. Big Bend did have some impressive scenery, and it was fun to ride up in the higher elevations.So after a couple of hours, I left the park. So as far as Big Bend goes, been there, done that, didn't get the T-shirt.

After the park, I rode a stretch of road that paralleled the Colorado river. This was a nice ride, but it was down in the river valley, and it started getting a little warm. As an aside, there has been noticeable presence of the Border Patrol the last few days, including two separate immigration check points with dogs that I would guess were sniffing for drugs.

From there I headed north to go check out an astronomy observatory. On the way up to the point, i passed a bunch of campers with s bunch of shiny covered tripods.  I figured they had to be telescopes. I tried to get into the campground, but they wouldn't let me in.  The guy said it was a gathering of 500 amateur astronomers, there for the week. Guess everyone has their own idea of a fun vacation.( see photo below ).

Since I've covered my main objective, I'm heading up to the Gaudalaupe Mountains for a bit, (where it will hopefully be cooler), and see what happens from there.

Today's photos: A couple of photos of Big Bend and one of the astronomers camp ground.

Present Location: Carlsbad, New Mexico

Today's Mileage: 493 miles

Total Mileage: 2,348 miles

Deja vu

First up, is the date report.  Gotta admit, I had a great time on the twisted sisters. The roads were in good condition, they were challenging and there was practically no other traffic on them.  It is probably a different story on the weekends, but on a Thursday morning, it was almost perfect.  So if the opportunity came up again, I would definitely have a second date with the three twisted sisters, but only in the daytime, these sisters had way more curves than I could handle in the dark.

From there I headed down to Del Rio, Texas. I took a forty mile back road at one polnt, where I saw two other cars the entire time. That was another fun road.  The reason for going to Del Rio, was because that is where I went to pilot training almost forty years ago.  As I approached the area, I started to see airplanes in the pattern, that just gave me an overall feeling of enjoyment.  I couldn't get on the base, but I got as close as I could, and just sat there and watched the planes for awhile.  From there I headed into town to see if I could find anything that I remembered.  Del Rio has certainly gotten bigger, but it still looked like a typical border town.  I wasn't really sure how much time I would spend there, but in the end I only spent about an hour looking, before I headed up to Marathon, Texas.  Planning on hitting the park tomorrow and then head on from there.

Pictures for today:  first up are some wildflowers that were along the road.  Next up is a picture that was taken at the front gate of Laughlin AFB.  Final picture is one of the first house that Diana and I lived in at Del Rio.  It's a little hard to see, but there is another front door there, because it is indeed a duplex.

Present Location:  Marathon, Texas

Today's Mileage:  411 miles

Total Mileage:  1855 miles

My Date With Three Twisted Sisters

My riding today was thru eastern Texas.  Mostly flat straight roads for the most part.  There was enough variation and traffic to pass though to keep it interesting.  The end of today's ride brings me between Austin and San Antonio in the Hill Country of Texas.  Every state has some roads that the local riders claim are the best motorcycling roads in the state (or the nation, depending on who you are talking to).  In Texas three of those roads are in the Hill Country.  Known collectively as the Three Twisted Sisters, they are on my date calendar for tomorrow.  I'll let you know how it goes.

I meant to relay this story, but I forgot.  Yesterday as I was taking a break in McDonalds, it started to rain, and poured for about twenty minutes.  Once it let up, I got my rain gear on and started to head out.  The water had collected in the area between the crown of the road and the curbs, as cars went down the road, they were sending up a wave of water that splashed about four feet into the parking lot.  Since I had to exit at this point and needed to wait for a break in the traffic, I nosed up as close as I could get without getting a shower.  About this time here comes a semi down the road throwing up a wave about eight feet high.  I couldn't back up, and there was no traffic break to get thru, so I just resigned myself to getting drenched.  It was then that the semi driver saw me.  Because of traffic he couldn't stop, so he slowed down enough so that the wave he threw out was reduced to about two feet high.  As he went by I mouthed a thank you to him.  He just smiled and nodded and headed down the road.  The whole incident lasted less than ten seconds, but it stayed with me all day.

Today's pictures are definitely Texas related.  I have no idea what event the first one is used for, or what else goes on the trailer, but it certainly does stream Texas.  For the second one, let's just say that there is at least one rancher who doesn't care for coyotes.  I'll admit that it is not that nice of a picture, but it was definitely one of the more unique things I saw today.

Present Location :  Kerrville, Texas

Today's Mileage:  478

Total Mileage:  1444

Maps Are Funny

I know we live in a GPS world, but when I am looking for interesting roads to travel, I find that a GPS just doesn't do the job for me.  So I carry maps, and I don't mean a road atlas.  If it is available, I have the official road map for every state I plan on traveling thru.  In the evening, I'll plot a general course of where I am headed in order to avoid traveling thru large cities, staying off major highways and to look for anything interesting that might be along the way.  So I was actually looking forward to the ferry crossing of the Mississippi that was depicted on the map.  One of the pictures below shows the present ferry.  It was a bit of a disappointment, but it was a neat looking bridge.  The other picture shows one of the back roads I tried to take.  Nowhere on the map is this road designated as gravel.  I've described both of these as disappointments, but that's really not true, it's always the unknowns that are the best part of a trip for me.

Present Location:  Jasper, Texas

Today's Mileage:  488

Total Mileage:  961

Just Like Willie

I'm on the road again.  I'm off on a two week ride.  Main goal this time is to get to Big Bend National Park in Big Bend Texas.  No real reason for this except that I have never been there and the distance and travel frame should work out about right.  I left this morning and took the interstate to get thru Georgia.  Actually had very little traffic and getting thru Atlanta was a breeze.  I saw an awful lot of blue flashing lights today but I never saw any in my rear view mirror.  Obviously law enforcement was taking the holiday traffic seriously, and they were really out in force.  Once I got past Auburn in Alabama, I took to the secondary roads and kept heading south and west to angle down towards Mobile, Alabama.  Really love cruising along on the county roads that have very little traffic on them.  Only problem is how the speedometer seems to just creep up on its own when I'm out there.  Luckily for me, all the police cars seemed to be out on the major roads today.  One note to add about the blog for this journey, I no longer have internet service for my tablet.  That means that I will be at the mercy of free Wi-Fi service (good thing that I find McDonald's coffee acceptable), so I'm not sure when the posts will come thru, but I will try to continue to post once a day.  I hope that everybody had a great Memorial Day, and maybe had a chance to reflect on the meaning of the day for a few minutes.

Start:  Seneca, SC
Present Location:  Jackson, Al.
Today's Mileage:  473 miles
Total Mileage:  473 miles