Mac writes about the trip
Let me start this story, by saying that God punishes you for sending e-mails to your friends about your bike being clean and polished and all ready for your trip that they’re not going on. How do I know it was God punishing me? Because of the locust! On Hy. 25 we hit grasshoppers, millions and millions of grasshoppers. So within hours of departing, my bright shinny bike was covered in grasshoppers. Thank God for full-face Helmets! Carl, I hope you remember this story when you go on your trip.
On the second day just out of Needles we got on old route 66. There is a section before Oatman that was never on the TV show, narrow with a lot of tight covers. A great bike rode. We finished the ride on route 66 into Seligman. We stayed the night in Williams Az.
The third night saw us in Winslow Az. Hell no longer frightens me because I’ve spent the night in Winslow. It was about here that my sinuses really started to act up and I didn’t get very much sleep for the next three or four nights. But up at 5am and on the road by 6 am, this seemed to work well with John and myself. It was cool in the mornings and hot in the afternoons.
Day four saw us enter New Mexico. Let me say they drive fast in New Mexico. I had the cruise control set at 80 miles an hour until a semi passed us.
Leaving Albuquerque on day 5, we finally got on some of the roads we came to ride. Hy. 4 into the Bandelier National Monument was a great ride and we saw our first elk. Also out of Taos, Hy. 64 to 38 is a beautiful ride. Riding into Fort Garland Colorado we got to see the first thunder and lighting showers. Great to watch because it wasn’t raining on us.
We spent the night in Fort Garland. John and I went to see the old fort, which has been restored. It’s not what I thought of as a frontier fort. There were no walls around the buildings.
Day 6 we road Hy. 149 over two passes one 10,900 and the other 11,360. A great ride with beautiful scenery. If you’re in the area take Hy. 149. I think you’ll enjoy it. On to Black Canyon National Park, and Cedaredge for the night.
This is about the time John came down with food poisoning or a bug from the water he had been drinking, and he wasn’t in top form. But you would never know he was feeling bad. Day 7 we stayed the night at Ridgway.
Day 8 is the day John or I well never forget. It started out great with the morning ride to Silverton and breakfast, then the spectacular ride from Silverton to Durango. This is a must ride road. Stopping at the train station to see about train tickets for the next day, there was a guy trying to sell some extra tickets he had for the train ride leaving in 15 min. He made us a deal we couldn’t refuse, two tickets for $50 when they go for $60 each. So in the tradition of the SMBC (cheap) we got the tickets, and made the train. Well John’s bug really kicked in and I came down with it to. This beautiful train trip that we had both been looking forward to became the train trip from hell. About every two or three seconds the train would give a hard jerk. You can only guess what a 3 1/2 - Hour trip with an upset stomach and that jerk was like. Arriving Silverton we had a 3-hour layover for the bus trip back. By this time we were both really sick, and a 3-hour wait was like 3 weeks. But the fun was not over yet. We had a 1 1/4 -hour bus ride back to Durango. I don’t know about John but by the time we got on the bus I had body aches and chills, which made for a hell of a long bus ride. I was never so happy to get a motel and hit the bed.
Day 9 didn’t get started until 10:45: checkout was at 11. We rode to Mesa Verde National Park and then to Kayenta for the night. It was on the ride from the park to Kayenta, that I changed my mind that maybe we should keep Arizona in the union. We saw some of the most beautiful skies. With mostly cloudy skies, from black clouds to the whitest of clouds, the lightest of blue skies to gray-blue skies. One of those great rides. We stopped at four corners; John and I are now part of the hundred million to have stood in four states at the same time. But we were feeling better.
Day 10 we stopped at the Grand Canyon and then went on to Kingman for the night.
Day 11 was Kingman to San Luis Obispo. From Bakersfield we rode Hy. 58. This was the first time that I rode 58 past Hy. 5. But I think it is one of the great bike roads around with fifty or sixty miles of curves and ups and downs.
Day 12, we left a little before 6 am and rode up Hy. 1. This was one of the great rides of my life. From Morro Bay to just before Big Sur we past one car and met one car. We had the road to ourselves. It was brisk out but not cold, I just wanted the ride to go on and on. But just before Big Sur we started to hit traffic and the mood was broken, but what a wonderful ride for the last day. Breakfast in Monterey, then up the coast to home.