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