Home Again

Hello,

Our trip is over..... Pulling into the driveway was bittersweet. We were glad to be home but a bit sad that our journey was over and the motorcycles were going in the garage for the first time in over six weeks. We rode 7706.7 miles, which is 1,706.7 miles over our budget. That sounds like a typical government contract, doesn't it.....

The last leg home was mostly interstate. We left Will and Trish's house Sunday around 11 am and rode to Gettysburg, Pa. It was July 5th, so we stayed to watch and talk with the last few re-enactors still there from the 2009 re-creation of the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg... I caught a Confederate General from the 1st Maryland wearing WalMart socks and sandals. I smiled, and he quickly pointed out that the rigors of duty of the last few days had given him blisters. His camp followers were still de rigeur, and some of ladies were barefoot!!! Then a Confederate banjo player strode into the circle and began playing and singing doleful southern tunes.. In its own way this was relaxing We got an impromptu history lesson about the 1st Maryland Volunteers. The unit actually formed up in Virginia by Marylanders who fled south to join up "to defend the South in the War of Northern Aggression"....hmmmm... interesting point of view.... Finally we decided to spend the night in Gettysburg and ride home on Monday.

Monday morning after breakfast we met an Italian motorcyclist who was making a short tour of the east coast on a BMW 1200. A friend let him borrow the bike for a week. He started at his friend's house in New Jersey, came to the Hudson Valley and West Point, then to Philadelphia, over to Gettysburg, and last he wanted to see Washington DC. He was spending a week on the bike and then he was going to spend a week with his friend. We wished him well as he pulled south on route 15 as we went north.

We were on the road by 9am and home at 3pm... My Kawasaki has a sweet spot right around 80mph where everything becomes quiet and really smooth.... I couldn't stay there very long on the interstate... We gassed up twice, once near Hazleton, Pa and again at Post Jervis, NY. The gas at Port Jervis was $2.49.. about the same as in DC. The gas in Texas was $2.59 and that's where they make it... The gas in Dutchess County at $2.83 is the most expensive we've seen on our trip.... We stopped for a late lunch at Cafe Maya on route 9 in Fishkill and then we rode the last 10 miles home. ... and into the driveway at 3pm Monday, July 6th.

Marc set up all our e-mails into a blog, with all the pictures. Check it out!!

http://hjacrossamerica2009.blogspot.com/

Man, do I miss my tuba. O.K. please quit smiling and thinking of bad tuba jokes... but it's been a long time since New Mexico State U and I have some new music that arrived while I was away... so a nice practice time with a hot cup of tea seems in order....

Ouch....I immediately broke my tuba. A small plastic part that connects the second valve rotor to the lever split open... This is a pretty common failure and Miraphone has replaced the plastic part with a metal part. Earlier this spring it happened to the first valve. According to Matt from Dillon's Music, the second valve was right on schedule. I think he was hinting to replace the parts on valves 3 and 4 now...but that 50 cent part costs $20....Matt is sending it out today. So, I practiced long notes, without A, E, C# etc., and enjoyed a nice slow cup of Earl Grey.....

We had some interesting news while in DC. Our daughter-in-law Trish works for a company that supports and represents Job Corps to Congress. Interesting that a government program has a private group to represent it. Trish's company often represents some VA hospital programs and university programs too. Trish wrote up a memorandum to make September 23, 2009 as Job Corps Day, and some congressmen are submitting it for a vote!! Then at a separate event, Trish met Chef Robert Irvine in Atlantic City, New Jersey.. Chef Irvine is famous for his program "Dinner Impossible" on the Food channel. Anyway, the result is the possibility that on September 23rd there might be a "Dinner Impossible" for Congressmen in Washington DC using Job Corps students as the kitchen staff. There also might be company sponsorships for financial help too... Let's hope the stars line up and everything works out. Way to go Trish!!

Job Corps will be 45 years old on September 23rd. Job Corps takes people with no employable skills and trains them to have a skill that is needed in the job market. ,Some examples are nurses aide, home health care specialist,, culinary skills, etc. For many people this program is an important first step to becoming a wage earner with a real job...

If you write a congressman, please give your support for Job Corps. This is a blatant recruiting effort to help keep Job Corps a vibrant and effective program. Thanks!!

This afternoon I had to go food shopping (gasp!!).. I got the keys and got in the car. Where's the clutch? Oh, there it is, on the floor, and not in my left hand.. And the throttle and brake are in the wrong place too, not under my right hand..

Good grief, feet are so slow compared to hands... Sigh.... reality is sinking in.... The ride is over..

Home Again

Harris and Jeannine

Oh, Shenandoah.. Oh, Shenandoah

Hello,

It's Sunday, July 5th, and we are finishing up a relaxed Fourth of July weekend with our son Will, his wife Trish and their two cute pugs, Hercules and Annie (both rescued).. Soon we'll have to get packed for the last leg of our trip, and some of it might be in holiday traffic.. Argghh..

Last Thursday morning we started down our last 80 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway .. The north 200 miles of parkway are in Virginia and the south 300 miles are in North Carolina. The Virginia landscape is different from North Carolina, less mountainous and more rolling and leisurely, with farm vistas interspersed with sections of shade and mountain laurel. This is relaxed riding at its finest.... except...

Jeannine was leading on this motorcycle reverie when a deer walked out onto the parkway.. Jeannine slowed down and the deer carefully looked both ways before crossing the road, just like mommy taught her.. Jeannine downshifted into first, and we cautiously started to pull away when BING, another deer jumped right out in front of us... Whew.. I guess we'll have to watch for deer... not the day to be speeding down the parkway!!

A little while later we saw a big turkey vulture off the road and all of a sudden it took flight, but just couldn't gain altitude and headed right for Jeannine, flapping wildly and intensely.. Jeannine really got on the binders that time and the vulture just missed her head. I thought it had hit her windshield... Both of Jeannine's feet went down, then back up as she nearly stopped and then motored on.. with a remark on the radio "That one was CLOSE".. It sure was..

We were soon at the north end of the Blue Ridge Parkway, having covered much more than the advertised 490 miles with our extra excursions. We rode into Waynesville, the nearest town, for a lunch break. We try to pick local places rather than chains or fast food for our meals... Most times we get a pleasant culinary surprise. Not this time.

We returned to the south entrance of Skyline Drive of Shenandoah National Park, right across the street from the north entrance of the Blue Ridge Parkway... Skyline Drive is a beautiful 105 mile ribbon of road going across the ridge of the Shenandoah mountains. It meanders in constant easy turns through forests and fields. Once again we rode through beautiful "tunnels" of mountain laurel in bloom and cool forests interspersed with farmland and vistas. We had ridden part of Skyline two years ago, but the southern part was closed for construction. Now we would do the whole trip in one afternoon.

Jeannine slowed WAY DOWN and pointed to her right... a bear cub on the side of the road, calmly sitting on his haunches and eating berries and watching us go by.. About a mile later I saw a mother and her cub in some rocks on the left side having their own snack of berries.. We saw more deer crossing the road, some hawks, and maybe even a falcon...It was a real wildlife treat. In short we saw 8 deer and three bear Thursday... We spent the night in Front Royal, Virginia and on Friday we headed for DC and Will's home..

Music??

Last night Will started laughing and said "You got to hear this, a violinist in the National Orchestra made a violin out of a baseball bat."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9LXHrzOVYA

Will's question "Can he hit a baseball with his violin too???"

So far we have ridden about 7400 miles. It will almost be time for a third oil change when we get home, and Jeannine will need a new rear tire....

We dodged the rain on the return trip. Our closest call came when we were sitting in a restaurant watching a cloudburst.

Missouri, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia sure are beautiful in June.... no question about that...

Vroom, vroom...

Harris and Jeannine

The Blue Ridge Parkway.. Miles of Smiles

Hello,

Just an additional note about Deal's Gap... The speed limit on the Dragon is 50mph, and on the Dragon's Tail it is 30mph. The road is impeccably maintained.. There are also cars on the road and occasionally a truck or RV drives the Gap.... We saw all three....

Jeannine and I both appreciate how much the Lost Wheel's "Safety Day" helped us on this part of the trip, especially the obstacle courses and Ed Busse's turning and braking lessons.. Thanks Trish!! Thanks Ed!!
When's the next one??

It's Fourth of July and we are now relaxing at my son Will and Trish's house in Alexandria Va. Last night we enjoyed some delicious Mexican in DC, and for the Fourth Will is preparing BBQ spare ribs and Trish is preparing all the rest. Life is cool and easy....

For our return we have ridden our motorcycles from El Paso, Texas to Washington DC without going on the Interstate. Yup, mostly two lane roads, including a few hundred miles of desert and 600 miles on the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive. Sigh, well almost no interstates... We tried to stay off them, but we had to go on about 5 miles of Interstate to get around Dallas, and we couldn't get across the Mississippi River without going on I-155 for about 10 miles. We also didn't do the Blue Ridge Parkway from end to end. We had to jump off a couple of times for gas, and part of the road was closed for construction, so we can't say we rode it 100%, but darned close.. Getting off and on the Blue Ridge turned out to be as big an adventure as riding it...and I'm glad it happened the way it did..... We also had a snafu just a few miles from DC when VA-55 merged with I-66 but that was soon fixed. I'm claiming we were really on VA-55. It just looked like an interstate for a few miles. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.....


After Deal's Gap there are two ways to get to the Cherokee Indian Reservation and the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The first way is to ride Deal's Gap a second time and take NC 28 to Cherokee. The second is to take TN-441 over Newfound Gap to Cherokee.. The bikers at the Princess Motel raved about 441, so on Tuesday that's the way we decided to go. How to get there?? I let Garmin Zumo decide. We went through some beautiful wooded roads in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and over a one lane wooden bridge for a unique trip to Cherokee. Nice ride....


Cherokee NC is an interesting combination of tinsel town and Indian Heritage. There were the typical tourist traps with their souvenirs along side some really nice shops with beautiful and sometimes expensive Indian crafts. The streets and some of the shops are labelled in both English and Cherokee. The Cherokee have their own written language with symbols different from our alphabet. All through town there were full sized painted bears, similar to the popular painted ponies. The Cherokee Indians are known for their beautiful basketry, pottery, woodcarving, and painting. We spent too much time looking at their beautiful artwork. As one honestly said "This over here is what I love, and that over there is what keeps food on the table"... Not everyone has been doing so well, with some shuttered shops ....We asked a local Cherokee Indian where to eat for a late lunch, and she said "Go to Paul's, it's where we go". Paul is a Cherokee and his frybread "Indian taco" and chili on frybread are delicious and highly recommended.... on the porch with iced tea is best...


We got onto the Blue Ridge Parkway and headed north a little late in the afternoon.. The first thing we noticed was that there were twice as many motorcycles as cars.. What gives??? We soon found out.. a 4000 ft elevation change from 2000 ft to 6000 ft in 30 miles, and then back down... Switchbacks. Twisties. Loop-de-loops (!).. Tunnels.. More switchbacks.. Vistas... More twisties... Whoopie!! YESssss.... Awesome!!! ..


The first 150 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway, from Cherokee to Blowing Rock, North Carolina might be the best 150 miles of overall good motorcycle riding anywhere. (Yes, we mean that..) . Shade, sun, solitude, vistas..Viva North Carolina!!

My trip planning for the Blue Ridge Parkway consisted of finding the entrance and heading north. Not too sophisticated but who cares. Here we are in the Nantahala National Forest and then the Pisgah National Forest having a great time, going around constant curves and essess, waving to other motorcyclists, and smiling a lot.. Grinning is fun!! But after a while the sun seems to be going down and so do our gas gauges.... and we haven't seen an exit for the last 40 miles. A quick stop and check of the map tells us why: the gas stations and motels are a few thousand feet lower than we are. Finally an exit, NC route 80. We take it. The stop sign has beside it an ominous yet inviting yellow sign: "Not recommended for RV's and cars with trailers". Of course its too late for an RV or a car with trailer to turn around.. We turn onto NC-80 and its almost like the downhill section of Deal's Gap but this time we're fully loaded with our gear.... Yipes!! Whee!! #$%^!! WOW!! Awesome!!... 10 miles later we're at a gas station and we are both awed and grinning... The guy at the station is a biker and tells us that NC-80 is a really popular ride with the locals. We decide to make a beeline for a motel rather than head back up 80 to the the Blue Ridge Parkway.


Wednesday morning we head for the Parkway by the RV compatible route but we see detour signs.. We decide to go straight and get on the parkway anyway, but after a few miles on the parkway we run into "Parkway Closed" signs and a barracade.. Instead of following the Parkway detour signs (suitable for RV's and cars with trailers) we click on Garmin Zumo and get "shortest distance" directions for the next obvious parkway entrance, Deep Gap.. Garmin leads us on some amazing back roads and byways of North Carolina, and back on to the Blue Ridge Parkway at Deep Gap...It surely wasn't the "shortest time" route but what a nice ride...I don't know exactly where we rode, but it sure was beautiful..

We ride on the parkway until the gas gauge once again starts to quiver, and then look for another escape route.. Sound familiar?? NC route 43 (at mile marker 85) heads to the town of Bedford, NC and looks sort of inviting but maybe intimidating, in part because it has the same RV warning sign. We go south onNC 43 and it suddenly becomes as steep as NC 80, but it has been recently repaired and covered with fresh tar and gravel for about 3 miles. YIKES!! I sure know how to pick 'em. We motor carefully on down, this time cautiously and often in first gear. I was a little nervous about what Jeannine would think after this, but all she said was "Wow!! That was interesting!".We find food, lodging and gas in Bedford and call it a day. We met a Park Ranger who told us about an 18 wheeler moving van that tried to go up NC 43 in spite of the signage.. It got hung up on a switchback and it took two big tow trucks all day to get him unstuck.

Never a dull moment...... and miles and miles of smiles in North Carolina.....

Harris and Jeannine

Deal's Gap, Tennessee

Hello,

Deal's Gap?? What's that??
..

Deal's Gap is a notch in the mountains between Marysville, TN and Robbinsville, NC. From the north side of the gap flows the Little Tennessee River. From the south side flows the Cheoah River. The Little Tennessee has been dammed up to make lakes. Why anyone would build a road up those steep gullies heading to the top is beyond me, but if you look askance at the map, you can see the profile of a dragons back, with the head up north, near where US 129 meets US 411 and the tail which goes through Deal's Gap to the North Carolina border. This section of US 129, called The Dragon, is about 25 miles long. The famous part is the Dragon's Tail, the last 11 miles before the NC line.

Some riders, including us, ride a loop about 120 miles long, heading south on route 129, the Dragon, making a right turn onto NC 143, which is the Cherohala Skyway, a curvy and beautiful road in its own right, and then back north again on TN route 360, another curvy road, back to the start.

We were told that there are a couple of places you have to visit as part of the Tail of the Dragon experience. One is the Deal's Gap Resort at the south end of the Dragon's Tail, with its "tree of shame" of broken motorcycle parts. . Another is Wheeler's Cycle Shop, a little further south on 129.

On Sunday we showed up at the Princess Motel on route 411, the motel closest to the north end of The Dragon, US route 129. There were quite a few bikers already there, and most of them were "multiple repeat offenders" on the Dragon. We might stay at this hotel again for the ambiance, but frankly it is on our "do not recommend" list.
Chatting with the "experts" they advised:
Don't ride the Dragon on the weekend if you can avoid it.
Ride it in the morning, not the afternoon.

On Monday morning we were off. It was a beautiful, glorious day, and a beautiful, glorious road...

As we rode down the head and back of the Dragon the turns just weaved, and the vistas were fantastic. Then we were in the woods, with beautiful shade and about 5 degrees cooler. Then suddenly the road started to climb. There were countless switchbacks so tight you thought you could reach out and touch your own tailight. Some switchback corners were so sharp and steep I was in first gear. Now I could understand how riders could miss a shift and just fall off!! Keep the speed up.. This is the Tail of the Dragon.

The experts were right. Get into a rhythm where you are tipping or swinging the bike, not "turning" it. I found that by not accelerating on the short straights between the turns I was just about set up for the next turn. The Tail of the Dragon is about smoothness and turning, not about twisting the accelerator and grabbing the brake.


One thing for sure: there is no room for error. There is no shoulder to this road. Sometimes there are tree trunks right next to you. Sometimes there are tops of trees. Don't look down. Some of the turns are scary tough, and they are never ending... Then you are at the top of the gap, and you get to go down the other side with the same scary turns but this time downhill. Yipes! Then the Deal's Gap Resort is on the left. There are no more turns and everyone has their blinker on and turning into the parking lot. So do we. We buy our little Dragon Decals for our helmets, and we buy our T-shirts.

What a ride. WOW!! Let's do it again!!!

It turns out (pun intended) that the turns in the Dragon's Tail aren't never ending. There are exactly 318 turns in 11 miles. Some of the more famous curves have names: The Whip, Pearly Gates, Guard Rail Cliff, Hog Pen Bend, Triple Apex, Leo's Lair, Brake or Bust Bend, Busa Bash Bend, Carosel Corner, The Gravity Cavity, Grace's Esses, Parson's Curve, Crud's Corner, Beginner's End ... etc...

There are a few guys who ride the Tail to work every day!!..

Most guys turn around and ride the Dragon's Tail back to wherever they started. We set off to do the 120 mile loop. We stopped for lunch. The ride on the Skyway is just awesome, with one-tenth the riders... We made it back to our motel in time for supper....

How fast did we go?? We averaged about 30+mph for the whole loop, almost five hours riding time, almost 8 hours including stops.!! The odometer was 130 miles round trip from the motel. I guess we averaged about 17mph on the Dragon's Tail itself.. Quite a change from some of the high speed riding we were doing in Texas!!.

On Tuesday morning we packed up to ride to Cherokee, NC: the Cherokee Indian Reservation and the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Harris and Jeannine

Tennessee Wanderings

Hello,

We have had an adventuresome few days. We left Dyersburg TN early Saturday morning with the idea of covering a lot of ground, and also to make up for the rather late start of the day before.. But, we got onto TN 104, a Tennessee Scenic Byway, and it was SO nice and beautiful that we just kept following it. After all, it was heading east...Sigh, there are no scenic pull offs or park benches anywhere on these beautiful Tennessee Byways.. .. As we got away from the Mississippi the land got hillier, and we went from cotton to other crops. In Lexington, TN we had breakfast and picked up route 412, which was heading more east and less south than 104..

I noticed on the map that we were almost due west of Bell Buckle and Wartrace TN, where there is a small Civil War Sutler (shop) I knew about called “Blockade Runner”.. Unfortunately there didn’t seem to be any easy way to get there without heading up to Nashville and back down, so I let my Garmin Zumo take over with its “shortest distance” routine. .. Soon we were heading down narrow county lanes that were way off the beaten path.. The scenery transformed into horse farms!! Suddenly we were in Tennessee Walking Horse country. We would go around a bend on a narrow country road it it would be “Oh my goodness look at that” as a beautiful horse farm came into view. Some of these were so nice that I don’t think I could afford the fence around the farm. One farm had such beautifully manicured trees that I’m not sure I could afford the landscaping bill. Finally we pulled into a more blue collar area and stopped at the Hen House Café for some iced tea and two delicious sandwiches. The waitress’s grandfather had a family farm in Bell Buckle. She said there was lots of Civil War fighting there because they were always finding bullets and things. She didn’t know anything about a store called Blockade Runner, but she told us how to get to Bell Buckle by yet another shortcut of back roads.



We pulled into the “82 Market “ in Bell Buckle and asked an old man there if he knew about a store called Blockade Runner. He sure did, and admonished us to get into the back room where the real good relics are. He then showed us the road to go down and said ”you will have a sharp left turn, then a real sharp right turn, and the building will be set back on the right with a sign by the driveway. “ He repeated the directions over again and we were on our way.

Sure enough, a sharp left turn and a sharp right turn and on the right – a hay field. Then another sharp left turn and really sharp right turn and on the right – black Angus cows. Then another sharp left and right and – a school. A sharp left and sharp right turn and presto a building set back from the road with a nice lawn and a Blockade Runner sign next to the driveway. It was two thirty Saturday afternoon and they were open.. It is not a very big place but what a step back in history. Jeannine got to talking with a sales lady named Connie Smith, and it turned out she was the owner along with her husband Jerry.. Well, Jeannine and Connie got along famously and even though I kept mentioning how late it was getting, they were very busy discussing what was authentic or not authentic...


Then in walked two Confederate soldiers fresh from a re-enactment at Lynchburg.. One of them had a problem with his bayonet scabbard which they repaired right there. I mentioned that I thought one set of trousers looked just like Union issue. “Yup, got ‘em off a dead Yank. He didn’t need ‘em no more.”.. These guys weren’t strictly hard core, but they said “We’re as Southern as we can get.” The re-enactment was mostly in a freshly mowed hay field. Do you know how sharp hay stubble is?? These guys said that a lot of the Southerners went barefoot to be authentic. They both admitted they wore their shoes and couldn’t imagine running across that field barefoot… It had to hurt..

In short, we stayed until closing... Worth the visit!!!



Sunday morning we got up pretty early and set out east using our Zumo once again. We went back through Wartrace and headed east, getting onto route 30, another Tennessee Scenic Byway, and also the route of the Cherokee Indians, part of the Trail of Tears. We were just east of McMinnville, there was not another vehicle anywhere and the road was unusually straight. It was so beautiful and peaceful , undulating from hilltop to hilltop in the morning mist and lifting fog . As I looked around this beautiful landscape I could almost see these Cherokee Indians slowly walking west, downtrodden and dragging their meager possessions with them. If you believe in ghosts from the past,and if you were on route 30 on Sunday, June 28 around 9:30 in the morning , your beliefs would have been confirmed….

Harris and Jeannine

Tennessee.....

Hello,
We're in Tennessee!! Dyersburg, Tennessee to be exact. Today was another scorcher, with temperatures approaching 100 F and really high humidity... I also discovered I have some red sunburned knees from the canoe trip yesterday.!!

In terms of weather, we've had nothing but sunny weather since the bad rain in Pennsylvania. Jeesh, that was over a month ago. We had some overcast skies in Santa Fe, and some snow squalls at 14,000 feet on Mt. Evans, oh yes, and raindrops heading up to Rocky Mountain National Forest with Marc and Jess. But the rest of the time it has been clear blue and hot. Seems we were in a record of 109 in Texas..

This morning we got up to a leisurely breakfast (YUM) and got on the road at 10:30am. (embarrassingly late)..
We rode south from Eminence down route 19, a scenic byway through the Mark Twain National Forest. What a beautiful twisty ride. It was like riding down a ribbon of candy. No kidding.
We then headed east on route 160, and found out we had discovered another beautiful road in the Ozarks.
One caveat to all this backroad riding.. Don't expect to average much more than about 35-40mph. You may see 60+ on the speedometer from time to time, but when all is said and done the average speed is quite a bit slower. Also, right now is haying time, so the roads have lots of tractors and farm equipment on them..
We saw lots of motorcycles cruising on these roads, so we know this is a popular route with the local riders.

We finally stopped for gas after about 2 1/2 hours and 100 miles and had a soda at McD's. Jeannine was saying out loud that she didn't want to go to Poplar Bluff a "big city" .. The hostess said, "Oh, you can just take that road over there and the HH highway to Qulin..and you will be right at route 53 to the boot heel.."

For those of you who are not versed in the way Missouri names their roads, it goes like this. All state roads have numbers, like 18 or 142 and they are two lanes. The county roads have letters like "J", and they are always called "highways", like "J highway".. Bifurcations off a county road have two letter designations like "JA, JB etc." and can be really small roads. So when someone says "Take HH", that could be a one lane road with dirt sections, a true adventure. But she assured us "It's good road all the way".. Sounded good to us, so away we went... down route 142 to HH and right on to 53.. Another great road and we avoided a four lane once again!!

We were surprised to see how much rice is grown down here. We saw some corn, and wheat, but mostly flooded rice paddies and soybeans. Wow!! We also saw a huge tractor with treads like a caterpillar. First time I ever saw a John Deere like that!! This is Mississippi River bottomland in all its glory..

Finally we turned onto a four lane to go over the Mississippi River on Interstate 155. That is a big brown mean looking river, high on its banks. We pulled into a hotel in Dyersburg around 5pm and went immediately to the pool. Ahhh..

Harris and Jeannine

Canoeing in the Ozarks....

Hello Everyone,

Today, Thursday, we are at a bed and breakfast in Eminence, Missouri, and this is the first wifi I've had for a week.


We arrived in Kirbyville Missouri at Jeannine's family farm last Friday and spent a wonderful few days there. Thank you Muriel and Hank for such wonderful hospitality. We also got to meet our cousin Robert again, which was a great surprise and treat, but unfortunately his wife Phyllis is ill and couldn't make it. Phyllis, our prayers are with you for a speedy recovery. Hank and Robert got in some bass fishing, and each one caught a bass (catch and release).. I was the witness..Oh, I was told that even though Walleye is often associated with small mouth bass, it is really part of the perch family. We don't care. It is still GOOD!!! Muriel, could you please forward this note to Robert?? I don't have his email address..

We scheduled in our second oil change and a new rear tire at Hollister Cycle, near Branson, Missouri. I recommend this place. They do one thing, motorcycle repairs, and have lots of customers, that's for sure. Anyway, I explained that we were on our way home, and we were 6000 miles into a trip from New York to Colorado and back with a few detours.. I said our miles were a lot more than we expected and I needed a new 180/70/15 rear tire, two oil changes and a checkup on our motorcycles. . They had three tires in stock! Could I be there at 8:30am the next morning "before we open"? Well, they had our two motorcycles done by eleven, completely checked out for our next 3000 (????) miles.

Wednesday morning we set out to ride through the Missouri Ozarks. We took highway 76 east, which was the same route our son Marc took us on two years ago. We even stopped at the same gas station in Ava... but we kept heading east on 76 and I'm happy to report that 76 gets even curvier and more delightful.. We joined onto 60 at Willow Springs, and I'm sad to report they are turning 60 into a four lane highway.. .... We wanted to get up into the hill country and do some canoeing, so we got onto a back road and went to Eminence which is right in the middle of the "Ozark National Scenic Riverways" area of Missouri. This is also in the heart of the region depicted in the Civil War historical novel "Enemy Women" for history buffs... The original city of Eminence (probably also called Shannon Court House) was 20 or so miles north of the present location and was burned to the ground by guerrillas in 1862. I don't know whether it was a Union outpost due south of the Rolla railhead and burned by the Confederates, or a Confederate stronghold burned by Union sympathizers. Bothcould have happened in this area during the Civil War. Anyway, in 1868 the city was moved and rebuilt at its present location.

This morning we got up bright and early and we were dropped off with a canoe and paddles at Alley Spring on the Jack's Fork river. Alley Spring is quite a spring. Right now it is flowing at 100 million gallons of water a day!! We had a glorious and wet time canoeing from Alley Spring back to Eminence.. Right now with the high water, canoe trips are very popular, but even the outfitter said it is a bit hectic on weekends.. In his Ozark country drawl he said "Some call it wall to wall canoes. I call it combat canoeing."

Jeannine just told me that she has never been in the boot heel region of Missouri, which extends a bit of Missouri south down the west side of the Mississippi River. We are fairly close to the boot heel so maybe we could make the trip. Now if we do that, it might make sense to cross the Mississippi near Haytt, Mo to Dyersburg, Tn.. ...then we could ride across Tennessee west to east.. We've already motorcycled in the Nashville and Memphis areas, but never near Knoxville.. ahhh.. Could this be a Deal in the making? There is (Is there??) a Gap in our motorcycling experience...??... ;-)

Harris and Jeannine

Vroom vroom in Arkansas

Hello Everybody.

Today was a cool 95 degrees. I'm going to have to break out my polartek (just kidding)... Actually we're trading temperature for humidity...

We started out of Hot Springs, Arkansas on route 7, heading north toward Russellville. There are some mountains between Hot Springs and Russellville, but at first I wondered if the south end of route 7 was more hype than fact.... we met billboards, strip malls ec., and then the road started to climb and the curves began.. Whee... I noticed right away that it is important to watch the yellow road signs. They're the ones that give you a hint of what is coming up. It is especially important to note the recommended speeds.. (that doesn't mean you actually do the recommended speeds).

One sign really caught my attention. It said "Steep hills and sharp curves for the next 63 miles." This was going to bea tough ride, but somebody has to do it.... :-)

After leaving Russellville with a full tank of gas, we followed route 7 north up through the Ozark National Forest, and then took a left onto route 16 west . This road basically follows a ridgeline, including all the curves... Then we took another left onto route 21 heading south, back toward Russellville... Both route 16 and 21 are relatively "unknown" to "outsiders" so the traffic is quite a bit less on these roads. Based on the number of motorcycles zooming north on route 21, it is a local favorite.... Another local favorite is route 23, the Pig Trail, but it is very well known with an exit sign on the Interstate...Why do motorhomes want to go up these roads???

I found a rule of throttle for negotiating the corners in the Ozark Mountains based on the yellow curve signs..
Here are the throttle rules for those yellow road signs:

1) Sign: Curves ahead with 45 mph speed.
Action: Make sure there are no motorhomes or some guy towing a boat in front of you... Enjoy!!

2) Sign: Curves ahead with 40 mph speed.
Action: Wipe that silly grin off your face!!. Enjoy!!

3) Sign: Curves ahead with 35 mph speed.
Action: downshift. Feather the throttle.. Enjoy!!

4) Sign: Curves ahead with 30 mph speed
Action: Downshift and get off the throttle, especially if it is a descending curve. You knew better than to be going that fast, right?? The speed limit is 55..

5) Sign: Single curve ahead with 25mph speed.
Action: Downshift and be careful. In one direction the curve is an increasing radius turn (good) but the other way it is a decreasing radius turn. The dcreasing radius really increases the attention factor, especially if it is a downhill turn. Oh, and the sign is lying. There is never only one turn.... they just put a sign up for the attention getter..

6) Sign: Single curve ahead with 20 mph speed.
Action: Slow down. Brake NOW. Downshift. Downshift again. Don't ask me why I know this. Jeannine just checks the brakelight action of my bike and knows to get off the throttle in a more timely manner..

My rear tire isn't wearing as much as it seemed to be before, but it is beginning to look more and more like a drag racing slick, and handling more like one too. I think those 107 degree days at higher speeds might have hardened the tire. I am using my rear brake really lightly because I doubt if there is much traction back there. We are up to 5500 miles for the trip, so I'm going to have to change the oil a second time. We're about 1500 miles over our expected mileage budget at this point.. Life is tough, isn't it.


When we got back down route 21 to route 64, the east-west route that goes through Russellville, , our total net progress for the day was about 20 miles. Can you imagine riding from 10am to 4pm and only moving 20 miles, and grinning???? So we decided to head further west towards Fort Smith, Arkansas and call it a day. We hopped on Interstate 40 and covered the next 30 miles in a little over 20 minutes. We spent nearly an hour in the pool, and met a Harley couple (two bikes too!!) that were going from Memphis to Pikes Peak... He had a Screaming Eagle Road King and she had a Softail Classic. About the only things they had left to chrome on those bikes were the frames. It was nice chatting with them..

Harris and Jeannine

Leaving Texas..

Hello,

Tuesday we rode from Breckenridge, TX to the stockyard section of Fort Worth. Today the Stockyard is more famous for its Coliseum than its cows. The Coliseum was built in 1908, and had the first indoor rodeo in 1923. Today they still have championship rodeo every Friday and Saturday nights The actual stockyards are a thing of the past. Our trip was also to try the Cattlemens' Restaurant, right next to the coliseum, famous for its steaks... We had really high expectations, because the Cattlemens' Cafe at the Stockyards of Oklahoma City was awesome, with blue collar atmosphere, great food, and blue collar prices. Well, the short version of our critique is don't go to the Cattlemens' Restaurant in Fort Worth. They are living on their reputation and taking money from tourists.

We decided to try to go to Mesquite, another rodeo town just east of Dallas. To get around Dallas we had to take the beltway... What a scary experience... We got to Mesquite, but my little Zumo kept telling me to get on the interstate for another 4 miles. I kept telling it "NO!!" I finally just aimed the motorcycle east and we rode for an hour. There's a lot more population here, so the concept of the wide open spaces is somewhat abbreviated.. We were heading toward Louisiana, and we wanted to head toward Arkansas, so we took some roads that headed northeast and ended up in Sulpher Springs, TX... The land here is GREEN.. the roads have curves... the temperature is only 100... even with the higher humidity... Ahhh...

A major industry in Sulpher Springs is a huge OceanSpray cranberry processing plant. Say it isn't so!! Where is the ocean????
So much for the hearty New Englanders growing cranberries out on Cape Cod and battling the winter weather ... The cranberries come from Texas... We bought some fruit.. peaches, strawberries, cherries etc. for supper in the motel room. It was probably the healthiest meal of the trip.

We do not stop at hotels that don't have a swimming pool or hot tub... That pool is worth the extra ten bucks...... We stopped at one hotel in Colorado and the last rule on the pool rule sign was "No Skinny Dippin' ".... I thought, "Good Grief, they have to write that??" then I thought, "Wait a minute, when I saw that pool as I was getting off the motorcycle, I had the urge to take off my gear and jump in." I guess somebody else was less inhibited....

This morning we got on to Texas route 11 after riding down a one lane county road 1328.. Then we took Texas route 8 and finished our meander east. Except for our trip around Dallas we rode all the way across Texas, all the way from El Paso, without getting on an Interstate. We did hop on Intersate 30 to get into Arkansas, mostly to get the free map at the visitor's center... We finally came to rest in Hot Springs, Arkansas. On the advice of the clerk at the hotel we went to a restaurant called "Jason's Burgers and More" This is a really good local place, and they apparantly have the best burgers in Arkansas. Jeannine wondered if it ever passed any zoning laws. The floor was a bit bouncy, the roof was tin, ceiling was low, the electric sockets were questionable, and the smoking section was the front porch. Anyway, Jeannine had fresh walleye, and I had fried catfish-- not those farm raised frozen fillets, but four catfish, bones and all. Yummm..
What's walleye?? They have fishing tournaments down here to catch walleye (hint: bass)..


More on New Mexico: Our final concert went Great.. We made the front page of the "Sun" section of the Las Cruces paper, and we were the warm-up band for "The Big Band of the Rio Grande".. Our concert was limited to less than 45 minutes, so it was zip between songs... We were PAID, well sort of. We got free admission to the Big Band concert - a TEN DOLLAR value!! The auditorium was full .. Nice..

Now its off to the wilds of Arkansas... We'll be going up route 7, one of the most scenic and winding routes in the Arkansas ozarks....

Harris and Jeannine

Devil's Kitchen... 107 degrees....

Hello,

We left Las Cruces early Saturday morning with a destination of Carlsbad Caverns. The trip from Las Cruces to El Paso was uneventful, and it felt good to open up the motorcycles after puttering a total of 48 miles in a week.

Leaving El Paso I had the urge to fill up the gas tanks again before we headed east. The desert ahead looked awful big. There was a hot dog stand at the gas station. Nope, it was a taco stand. Taco plus beans and rice for $3.50... We opted to go inside the gas station for a cool drink... The temperature outside was now 105F. With 150 miles to Carlsbad we had four bottles of water plus insulated nalgene bottles for about two quarts of water each. The first town, Cornudas, was about 70 miles away for a first water and gas stop.The road was straight as an arrow for boring but fast riding. We arrived at Cornudas in about an hour. There was one boarded up souvenir shop... Dell City junction was only 32 more miles.. What did we find? One house.

It was really, really hot. When I raised the visor on my helmet for some fresh air it was like a furnace blast on my face!!! The lid came back down as fast as it went up...After Dell City we went through some salt flats, but not salty enough to kill all the vegetation, and then the road went up into the Guadeloupe mountains, which resulted in the temperature dropping a few degrees... Guadelupe Peak is really beautiful.. Worth the trip.

It was back down the other side, the temperature back up, and we crossed back into New Mexico, but the lone town there was again a couple of abandoned houses. The speed limit on this two lane road is 70mph.. This road is the shortest road to Carlsbad and Hobbs, NM so there are lots of trucks using this road too. When you cross an 18-wheeler going the other way, the motorcycle feels like it is getting hit with a hammer. It is a real shock.. The closing speed is 150mph!!

We got into Carlsbad, the whole town was full of tourists, and the motels were full..and it was 107F. We finally found a motel called "The Stagecoach", in a good location right downtown and only $60 and NOT recommended. We got out of our sweaty gear and decided to wear shorts and sneakers to dinner, in spite of our rule: All the Gear, All the Time. It was hotter riding in shorts than with our mesh pants!! Our legs felt like they were in a blast furnace at 30mph..

We found a great BBQ place, and over dinner decided that since Sunday was going to be a hot day like Saturday, we would spend the day at the cave, and forget traveling until Monday...

Carlsbad Caverns is just incredible. The ride up to the cavern is just beautiful and the cavern is surreal. We spent 4 hours taking the walking tour into the main entrance. We made sure we saw every nook and cranny, and confirm that each one was at the advertised 56 degrees.....
At the end, around 3pm, we listened to a geology talk, and it was time to ride back down to Carlsbad. We stopped at every roadside "point of interest" on the way out of the park, among other things we saw some Apache cave shelters less than 1/8 mile off the road, while everyone else zoomed by.

Today our plan was to get as close to Fort Worth as possible. We got up early and left for Hobbs, NM, 70 miles away, for breakfast. We had breakfast at Casey's Restaurant, a local place on Main Street. (Actually Broadway).. We just asked a guy on the sidewalk, and he said "I just had breakfast there". Really, its nothing special, just a small diner open for breakfast and lunch, but we felt like we had been going there since forever in about five minutes. After that it was due east on route 180 in Texas, some more two lane, 75mph+ straight road driving, with the temperature climbing up into the 100's.

We saw the longest freight train we have ever seen. The road made an "S" turn to go on a bridge over the railroad tracks, and the train extended in both directions as far as we could see!!

After 120 miles we pulled into Gail, TX for gas, only to discover that Gail TX does not have a gas station. A kindly gentleman at the Post Office offered to get us some gas from his house. We found out that Snyder, just 35 miles away had "lots of gas stations", so we thanked him for his Texas hospitality and rode to Snyder.

We also went by two large wind farms.. Neat..

Right now we are in Breckenridge TX, about 100 miles outside fort Worth, at one of the three motels in town. We will have gone almost 2/3 the way across Texas and not spent one minute on an interstate highway.... As the weatherman said, it was cooler today, only got up to 105....

Looking back to New Mexico, I am going to miss their bridges, underpasses, and watertowers.. It is so nice viewing works of art. There is an underpass in Las Cruces that is just beautiful, almost a sculpture in its own right...

Harris and Jeannine

Las Cruces Music Camp

Hello Everyone,

We are on our last day of music camp. Everything ends tonight night with our concert at the School of Music at New Mexico State University..

We have over 4000 motorcycle miles on our trip so far but we have ridden only 25 miles since Sunday, mostly to the music school and back. Last Sunday morning we had the idea to ride to Truth Or Consequences for breakfast. (hey, you have to visit a town with a name like that.) It's about 80 miles north of Las Cruces... For the trip back we took the old Sante Fe to Las Cruces road, which is likely also part of the El Camino Real.. This is a beautiful road which goes down the Rio Grande, which this time of year during the snowmelt is quite full. The Rio Grande actually goes north to south in New Mexico.. Wtih the irrigation along the Rio Grande it a a lush and verdant garden. We could smell the fields as we rode by, snap peas, onions, chiles, alfalfa and endless groves of pecans. 100 yards away there is desert. In the desert and in the fields everything is in bloom. It is a beautiful time of year in New Mexico.

We also saw the Border Patrol and US Marshals in action... The presence of the Border Patrol is quite high.. We have seen more Border Patrol and Marshals than regular police. It is very interesting to note that our New York License plates say "New York" on the bottom. The New Mexico license plates say "New Mexico, USA" on the bottom.

This music camp is quite different from what we expected. The band is basically faculty, friends and community members around New Mexico State U. About half the camp are from Las Cruces and half are visitors... The head of the camp is Dr. Bill Clarke, Professor Emeritus and tuba player. He loaned me his tuba and got a baritone for Jeannine. He is insightful and comes up with very interesting remarks. I mentioned this to a faculty member and she said: "Oh, yes, some students compiled a book.." .

"Gosh, it sounds like feeding time at the zoo"
"That last phrase sounded like when the vet was deworming my dog..."

"Tuning is very important. Don't let anyone tell you different. It has nothing to do with your instrument and everything to do with your mind."

"Blend and Balance... and if you stand out, you're probably playing sharp."

Each piece we play has a different person conducting, so we are seeing a lot of conducting styles.
Here's what we're probably playing..
*"Overture for Winds", Charles Carter, Bourne Co, New York 1959
"Kachina:Chant and Spirit Dance", Anne McGinty, Queenwood Pub.
*"Moscow, 1941", Brian Balmages, FJH Music, 2006
*"Britainnia", John F. Edmunds, Carl Fischer, 1966
*"The Music Makers" Alfred Reed, Frank Music, 1968
*"Coat of Arms", George Kenny, Summy Pub. 1957
*"My Jesus, Oh, What Anguish" (Bach), Alfred Reed, Birch Island, 1965
*"Dave Brubeck: A Portrait in Time" arr. Robert Smith, Derry Music, 1963
*"I Dreamed a Dream" (Les Miserables) arr. Sandy Kerekes

The last pieces might not make it to the final concert..

Camp started Sunday night with a two hour rehearsal. We played through all the possible pieces. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we had two three hour rehearsals a day and sectionals... We had a potluck dinner (nice) and everyone went out to Mexican another night, and last night we had a dessert party.. So far Las Cruces has been very nice to us... Weather is about 85 and sunny. But, the temperature goes up a couple of degrees a week from now through August.............

Next we'll probably head toward Carlsbad Caverns. We'd like to go to Deming (Billy the Kid land) , Silver City and the Gila Indian ruins while we're here, but they are in the wrong direction. It also looks like a trip to Roswell to see all the aliens may be put on hold.. Maybe next time...

Motorcycle gear comments:

Praise and Plaudits:
1. Suspension adjustment... Jeannine really likes her bike even better with the suspension adjustment. Thanks Marc!! I now recommend suspension adjustments...
2. Brake-Away speed controller. This is the best $160 bucks we've spent. It really helps that right wrist, and touch the brake and the throttle is off.
3. Kawasaki Gel seat. Great!!
4. Air Hawk seat pad: Jeannine loves it. Gets an A.
5. Iron Rider luggage. For us, this is the way to go.
6. Garmin Zumo 660: This is the motorcycle version of the Garmin Numi GPS. It is the model just introduced and has a bigger screen than the old one.. How did I do without it??
7. Acer Aspire One netbook. This is a tiny laptop with a 2/3 size keyboard. Fits right inside the saddlebag. The darn thing is more powerful than my laptop at home, but doesn't have a CD/DVD drive.. WiFi about anywhere (like right now), some McDonalds, Panera Breads etc. lots of WiFi hotspots.....

Gripes and Grumbles:

1. Light bar lights.. Jeannine is on her third light bar light this trip. They keep burning out. Every dealer says the same thing..It's the vibration from the high speed driving. Why only the light bar lights? I'm on my second light, and I can't find a 25W H3 lamp anywhere, so now I'm running with "one eye closed". Also, I discovered my lightbar lights are wired to the low beams and not the running light circuit. I'm going to complain about that when I get home!!

2. Tire wear. I may have to buy a new rear tire before I get home.. It's really the 80/85 driving (the first number is MPH, the second is temp) that is taking a toll on our rear tires. There's a lot more tire wear than motoring around the shady back roads of the Catskills, Berkshires and Adirondacks, also a lot more weight on the bikes..

Well, the money is starting to run out, so we're going to have to turn the bikes around and head back east... Sigh.. That also means riding into the morning sun...but afternoon riding will be a pleasure :-).

Harris and Jeannine

Hello from Las Cruces,

Hello Everyone...

First,some comments those who were amused by the Rockband2 photo that sneaked in.. Last Monday night the four of us, Marc, his wife Jess, Jeannine, and I played rockband2 on the Wii. Jeannine and I concentrated on two songs, "Eye of the Tiger", and "I Wish I Could Have Been a Cowboy" by Toby Keith.. That's Jess, our daughter (in law) who jumped in as lead singer on "I wish I could have been a Cowboy"... It's quite an intense game, and the Nintendo gives you a grade at the end of each song.... It was a really fun evening. Marc says they sometime have Rockband2 parties and they are a blast!!!..

Now our trip south....
Friday morning we left Espanola, NM and jumped on I-25 to go around Santa Fe and and Albuquerque. We jumped off I-25 at Los Lunas and started down back roads to check out some Pueblo ruins and White Sands Missile Range.......where the first A-Bomb was detonated, and today where they test missiles, stealth bombers and fighters, other stuff, and have a landing field for the space shuttle. Check out where Roswell is compared to White Sands. It all fits.

We saw some beautiful Pueblo ruins, and the descent from the Rockies to a mere 5000 ft and being further south meant some much warmer weather....,Finally we could wear our shorts.. Venturing east of I-25 leads you into a very desert landscape.. We arrived in Mountainair, NM, expecting a small metropolis based on the information on the state map. We found a gas station and a few houses and a hotel for sale.. We often had stretches of 50 to 75 or more miles where we didn't see a single person, nor a single car... I didn't check for cell phone service, but I imagine one could be out there quite a while with a flat tire. After a long ride we pulled in to the town of Alamogordo. This is on the eastern/southern part of White Sands and there are a lot of Air Force guys in town.



This morning we went to the White Sands National Monument, which is on route 70, the only road that goes through the White Sands Proving Ground.. The sand is really white, almost blindingly white like snow. The sand is also quite heavy, a gypsum, so it does not blow around in dust storms like some sands. Also, since White Sands is surrounded by mountains, the scant rainfall cannot run off, so it forms shallow lakes which then dry up.


Tomorrow we register for music camp!!

Harris and Jeannine

On the Road Again

Hello Everone,

We had a great time visiting our son Marc and his wife Jess. It was such wonderful hospitality.

Wednesday we left Longmont, Colorado and headed in the general direction of Las Cruces, New Mexico via roads that go up into the Rocky Mountains. (The fast way is to just hop onto I-25 and head south...) Marc gave me his Joe Rocket pro motorcycle jacket and is it great!! Thanks Marc!! We had planned a trip through some passes thaat go off I-70, but Marc told us to take route 285 instead, in part because of the recent weather.. We headed off to Boulder and stopped at Performance Cycles for a bulb for Jeannine's motorcycle. Then it was off to Morrison, Co and 285.. and UP into the mountains.. It was cold at 11,000 feet on Wednesday, let me tell you,, and there were some nasty looking clouds up north acting like they wanted to come down and visit us.

Finally we got to South Park, that place made famous by Comedy Central.. We came down from the mountain pass into a beautiful valley going through the town of Grant and toward Fairplay, Co where we pulled into a gas station (maybe the only gas station). Posted on the wall was the South Park High School football schedule for next fall. I asked "Where is South Park?" The answer: "Right here.. It is this valley and it is a region of Park County. We have a high school, middle school, and shops that sell those South Park T-shirts....." I guess the TV show is considered a mixed blessing in the real South Park...

Fairplay is at 9000 feet, and somebody built a small baseball field north of the town at 10,600 feet that they call the "Two Mile High Stadium". I don't know if anybody really plays ball there....

We left Fairplay and headed toward Buena Vista and Johnson Village. These towns are all pretty small....then made a left turn south and headed on 285 toward Salida, Colorado. Route 285 is fairly straight through South Park and through the valley between Johnson Village and Salida. It is really strange going fast (speed limit is 65) down a two lane highway in the Rockies with snow covered peaks all around. I just never thought you would have such straight roads so high in the Rockies.

Salida is a small city with a dozen or more hotels etc. It is definitely the largest town since we left Morrison. The main drag is route 50. We met some people who came down from Denver through the mountain passes via Leadville (our planned route) and they told us about running into snow in the mountains....... Then it seemed that those black clouds we saw up north were getting closer.....

Salida probably got started as a source of salt, just based on its name, but its early claim to fame is the hot springs right in the center of town.. Most of the hotels are "60's modern" and kept up quite nicely. We pulled into the Travel Lodge (argghhh, no Wifi) ...and we just got unpacked when those black clouds arrived.. RAIN...

This morning (Thursday) we woke up to clear blue skies and an incredible vista of snow covered mountain peaks. WOW.. We had breakfast in a local diner and read the local paper.. The front page had an article about the snow restrictions in some of the mountain passes.. hmmmm... There are sure a lot of mountain passes in the Rockies. .. Also, Nestle Corp (of chocolate fame) bought Ruby Spring, which used to be a local trout farm and they are going to use it for their bottled water..

We got a late (ahem, leisurely) start heading south down 285, and soon it turned into another straight as an arrow road for 25 miles at a clip. Then we got onto 17 to take a detour to see the Great Sand Dunes National Park. This was another straight road, arrow straight for about 50 miles and at 8000 ft above sea level.. The sand dunes are just amazing. They are caused mostly by winds, which bring in sand particles from mountains 65 miles away, and which then settle on the east side of the valley, swirling against the west side of the Sangre de Cristo mountains.. These are the highest sand dunes in North America and cover about 300 square miles.. Impressive.... Anyway, even though scientists developed this theory how the winds caused these sand dunes, as a scientist myself, I have my own theory. Specifically, Paul Bunyan did it. End of story.

Tonght we are in Espanosa, New Mexico, and we just finished our first visit to a New Mexican Chinese restaurant ... Ever have Chinese with southwestern spices? Egg drop soup with tomatos and vegetables?? Salsa instead of Duck Sauce??? Very Interesting...and good... The locals really like it. The place was packed...

Harris and Jeannine

Rocky Mountain High

Hello,

We've been having a really good time with our son Marc and his wife Jess. We changed the oil and filter on three of the bikes, Jeannine's Suzuki Boulevard C50, my Kawasaki Vulcan 900 and Marc's Suzuki M109R.. Which one has the easiest oil and filter change?? Not the Vulcan or the Boulevard. It's the uber-sophisticated 109R !! Marc also adjusted (stiffened up) the suspension on Jeannine's bike after he took it for a test ride and said it was way too soft. Jeannine really likes it better now.

We had a wine tasting at Marc's house which was really nice. Everyone at the wine tasting salutes "Lost Wheels Motorcycle Club"...

Yesterday we rode the highest paved road in North America.... It was the most amazing 200 mile bike ride yet. What's it like to ride up to 14,000+ feet???

Wow!!
Yikes!!
Cold!!
Snow!!!
Awesome!!
Incredible views!!
OMG!!!!
Got oxygen???
Glad you got fuel injection???


The highest road in North America is to the observatory on the summit of Mount Evans, Colorado... How can you get there from the Hudson Valley, NY?? Take the Bear Mountain Bridge and follow route 6 west to Idaho Springs, Colorado and take a left onto Colorado route 103 toward Mount Evans. Just hop on your bike and go!! You could also take I-84 to I-81 etc. and finally get on I-70, drive through Denver, and take the exit for the visitor center in Idaho Springs, but it would be a more boring ride. Anyway, when you get to the restaurant and the entrance to the auto road up the mountain, the fun begins.. There is a sign that says "Speed Limit 30 MPH", but I think that is an observed fact, not a restriction. It is a steep 14 miles and 6000 vertical feet to the summit, with no guard rails... The switchbacks are really steep, and I shifted down to first gear on nearly every turn. It is pretty breathtaking to come up to a switchback and see nothing but air in front of you!! It really motivates you to make a proper turn!! At the summit there was a lonely mountain goat licking the handrails on the stairs. Apparently he is the subject of several post cards sold at the restaurant at the base.. What views... Every cloud that went by left a little snow shower.

The trip down the mountain was great, and actually less dramatic than the trip up. mostly because we were on the "inside" of the really scary corners.

Yesterday was Another Sunny Day... I'm really liking Colorado weather!! We went to the Thunder Mountain Harley Dealership near Longmont, Co.... Its a great excuse for a great ride. Jess is a computer consultant, and manager, but when she's not wearing the required three piece ladies suit she is a dyed in the wool Harley Chick !! The prices on some of the Harleys have come down, but not on their prestige models like the Softail Classic. I think the real deals at Thunder Mountain are the custom choppers. They make some really nice choppers, but if you need to maintain them, you can go to your Harley dealership. The running gear and wiring are 100% Harley!! We also had some chicken wings at the Hooters Restaurant directly across the street before we left... We just had to stop at a restaurant renowned for being simple and unpretentious, and whatever.....That Hooters restaurant gets quite a lot of business!!

Jeannine got to ride Marc's M109R. She really liked it... She said the low speed handling was fairly easy, in spite of the big 230mm rear tire. Marc said that's because he got a much better rear tire when he put on new tires. She said you have to be careful when you twist the throttle. Marc's bike has JDM ignition and other "invisible" options that make it quite a performer.. What a motorcycle!!!

Today we might head out to Rocky Mountain National Park... Not a cloud in the sky...

Harris and Jeannine