Blacksburg VA to Santa Rosa NM

[krishl]

I had to ride to Lake Tahoe anyhow, so what the hey. My friends John and Paul K (Ringo couldn't make it) met me at the BP station and witnessed my ~midnight departure on Tuesday night (8/2/05). I navigated the truck convoy on I-81 and I-40 the 1525 miles from the 'burg to Santa Rosa in 23 hours and 3 minutes, including a 45-minute nap (no screamin' meanie for me!) in central TN. It was foggy across TN and AR, and hot (100) across OK and TX. Arrived in Santa Rosa just before 9 PM, in time for a couple of beers at Joseph's famous Rt 66 bar and a good night sleep at La Loma (famous Rt 66 motel, or so they say).

From there, it went more or less like this:

Santa Rosa NM to Datil NM (rhymes with rattle). Looked at some real estate, visited the Very Large Array. Top speed 120.

Datil NM to Prescott AZ. Excellent 500+ mile day ending at my sister-in-law's house. On US 191 arrived on the scene of a bad m/c accident. FJR1300 ran wide in downhill right-hander and got caught under a truck/rv. Totaled the bike, but rider was going to be all right thanks to the firstaid adminstered by the rv driver. The FJR-rider had been riding with an ST1300-rider, both from Tucson. I rode with the ST13 guy to Springerville where the injured rider was in the ER, then I rode along the Mogollon Rim (AZ 260) and got to Prescott ~ 9:30 PM. Did I mention that it rained, a lot?

Prescott AZ to Kanab UT. Various canyons including that semifamous one. Also visited a national monument that featured in Easy Rider. Gonna rewatch that one.

Kanab UT to South Lake Tahoe CA. 600-mile day. UT 14 is fantastic, as is CA 120. Speed rush for the day was the Rachel NV to US 6 run of about 60 miles, averaging just over 100mph. Bummer of the day occurred near Mono Lake, shortly after executing two uphill doubleyellow passes. The man with the big hat and righthand always near the pistol grip was not happy about my riding habits. When he asked me if I'd ever been arrested, I felt a bit like Arlo Guthrie. Anyhow, he let me off with a warning and a stern lecture. Good thing he didn't see me when I was running 125 in NV's Dry Lake Valley. Met another ST1300-rider, from OK, returning from a COG rally in OR. Didn't get his name, so don't know if he' s on this list or not.

So, here I am at Lake Tahoe til Thursday AM early, when I'll be getting my kicks on US 50 back through CO and then slab back to the 'burg.

Chrish

[krishl]

Was this your first BBG?
Actually, I attempted a BBG on the ST1100 back in summer '03: Blacksburg to Cheyenne WY. I was on track and around Paxton NE I had about 150 miles to go and 3 hours of I-80 to do it: no problem. Then I started seeing cloud-to-earth lightning in all directions, so I stopped for gas, listened to the weather radio and learned that the storms were covering the area and were slow-moving so I got a room and went out for a beer.

The upside was that the bartender recommended that I have breakfast at Ol's in Paxton. Apparently Ol discovered at an early age that he loved to shoot animals and take them to the taxidermist. The restaurant has an incredible menagery of stuffed animals from klipspringer to giraffe.

So, I got to Cheyenne in time to complete a BB, found a couple of witnesses, but never paid Mr. Kneebone.

Please hurry and buy some real estate in Datil.
I definitely think that the western bits of NM (and the northern region too) are nice, and the riding there is fabulous. But the property in Torrance county is way cheaper and I expect that's where we'll end up buying. Probably won't be living there til we get the boys through college though, so six more years of Virginia living (and we have excellent riding here too).

Chrish

[BikemanKZ]

Have you checked out Silver City? Lot's of good riding down there!

KZ