2,600 miles on a Honda - part 4

Thursday, 3 December 2009

The next morning i woke up and headed back into Amarillo for breakfast at The Big Texan. Which is the place where if you can eat a 72 oz. steak in an hour, it's free. However when i pulled into the parking lot it was packed and a line had formed out the door. It was Thanksgiving morning and i didn't feel like waiting in line for breakfast so i left.
I also stopped at this leaning water tower. I'm not sure why it was leaning, but i think the town did it on purpose???
The whole day i would be on I-40 which got a little boring so i decided to see how many miles i could ride no handed. I made it 21 miles without using my hands then had to stop as i crossed into Oklahoma to take a picture. Then i rode another 28 miles no handed before having to get gas.
I planned to camp at Foss Lake State Park for the night and as i was getting gas i talked to a guy and his wife. They said they had camped there before and suggested a good spot. Then the guy tried to give me $20 for gas and stuff. I guess i must have looked poor and dirty and couldn't afford a hotel room. Or maybe it was just a nice gesture on Thanksgiving. Anyways i said no but thanked them for the camping advice.

I rode to the lake and it was great. Camping was free and the only one other family there was in their RV. They had spots right by the lake with electricity, running water, a fire pit and picnic table. I picked the best spot by the lake, set up my tent then grabbed soap and shampoo and went for a swim/bath. The water felt like it was about 40 degrees.

I decided to have a fire that night and while i was collecting wood, a cat started following me. I assumed it was from the RV since they were the only other people out there.
When i got back to the tent i started the fire then had freeze dried lasagna with meat sauce for Thanksgiving. It was really good.

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2,600 miles on a Honda - part 2

Wednesday, 2 December 2009

New Mexico border right after sunset
The next day i only rode 180 miles but it was one of the longest days on the trip for me, 10 hours on the road. My first stop was at El Morrow National Monument. I wasn't sure exactly what this was at first but i was riding by so i stopped. Turns out it's basically a puddle of water at the base of a rocky cliff. Well it's a little bigger then a puddle but not much. But apparently to people 100 years ago this was the main place to stop while traveling to get fresh water.
Then a few miles later i crossed the Continental Divide. Which as we all know is the dividing line between rivers draining into either the Pacific or Atlantic Oceans. Actually i only kinda knew that, i had to google it to be sure. And yes that's snow on the other side of the road. New Mexico is cold at 7,882 feet.

Just down the mountain from the continental divide was the Bandera Volcano & Ice Caves. Let me just say that the name and billboard are way more exciting then the place really is. The volcano was a big cone shaped hole in the ground. And the ice cave was a 50 foot hole that when you walked down into, it gets cold. Let me just say, don't go out of your way to see it any time soon.
I then drove through El Malpais National Forest to I-40. It was only 2pm and i figured i could drive another 180 miles to camp at Santa Rosa State Park. 30 miles down the road that idea came to an end. The traffic on the highway was at a complete standstill. So after waiting a few minutes i rode through the cars on the dashed lines for about a mile, to where i could see the accident. Turns out that two semi trucks collided, one caught on fire and the other spilled paint all over the road. In hindsight i should have immediately crossed the median, turned around and taken route 66. But i didn't, i waited...and waited. From 2:30 to 5:00 i sat, walked around and lied down on the highway next to my bike.


When they finally cleaned up the paint it was near dark so i rode through Albuquerque and stayed at a motel. The low temp that morning was 27 degrees and the bike was running poorly from the altitude so i decided to change the spark plugs in the Comfort Inn parking lot. By the time i left it was all the way up to 35 degrees. I stopped at Santa Rosa Lake State Park off route 66. Apparently New Mexico and I have a different opinion of what should qualify as a state park. It was a lake. Not very big, just a lake. But i guess that's cause i'm from Michigan and there aren't a lot of lakes in New Mexico. I ate lunch at the Route 66 Restaurant then rode to Tucumcari where i was going to buy some $4 mexican blankets from a mexican guy, but i didn't have room on the bike.

Another 50 miles and i was at the Texas border. I thought i should wear my cowboy hat i got in Nashville to try and fit in.

After that i had to hurry because it was almost dark and i wanted to see the Cadillac Ranch. From the pictures i thought it was tons of Cadillac cars buried half in the ground. Turns out it's only 10 but it was still really cool. I got there right at sunset and stayed for about a half an hour.

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2,600 miles on a Honda - part 1

Monday, 9 November 2009

Leaving Adam's house my odometer read 18,598.8 I was kinda nervous and thought "There's no way i'm going to be able to make it all the way back to Michigan." But less than 1 hour later i knew i made the right choice. I was driving to Globe, Arizona which is at an elevation of something like 4,000 feet above sea level. Half way there the view was amazing and i stopped to take pictures.

I got really excited while riding on one of the mountain roads, i rode through a tunnel in the side of the mountain. It was the best bike ride of my life, until two days later.

I rode to Globe to visit my friend Laura who just got a job out there as a counselor for kids on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. The next day i helped chaperon for the all day field trip to the zoo, back in Phoenix. The zoo was actually really cool, they had pretty much everything except elephants.

The next day i was back on the bike riding to the Salt River Canyon. I didn't really notice it on the map but Laura said i would probably enjoy it. She was right. On the motorcycle it was great, with road switch-backs going right down the mountain.
That same day i made it to the Petrified Forest. I just assumed this would be old logs, that you weren't suppose to touch, lying on the ground. It was a lot better then that.



I was planning on camping somewhere near the park but it was too cold and no campsites were around. So i rode east on I-40 into New Mexico.

Here's some other pictures from the first few days:

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