Half Way There!

Joshua Tree Nat'l Forest, CA to Grand Canyon, AZ to Gallup, NM to Colorado Springs...

I grossly underestimated the accessibility of WiFi in campgrounds and cheap motels along the very barren, though very beautiful, Southwestern States. As well, because we're huffing it the way we are (about 10 hours a day on the bikes), by the time we're getting fed and camp is set up, I'm so tired I can't even think about writing in the blog. Regardless, for those of you who were so enthusiastic about keeping up with the blog each day, my apologies for failing to keep it updated. Quite honestly, I just haven't had the time...

Never the less, the story behind day 2 was, we were riding on the surface of the Sun! It was hot... Real hot, and that heat followed us clear through to the Arizona high desert. As we made our way down the Colorado River and through Lake Havasu, the temperatures got to 102 degrees and absolutely not a spot of humidity... Wanna know what that feels like? Shove a hairdryer in your face for an hour...

We found this great public access point on the Colorado River where we met some interesting characters who were kind enough to let us "share their river". I dove in first and the next thing you know, everybody was down to their underwear and jumping in! Most refreshing water I've ever been in! Following the river dip, we continued on to Grand Canyon finally making our destination in the early evening.

The Grand Canyon was everything you think it might be and more... It's HUGE! We took 100's of pictures and stayed way too long, which put us behind schedule and set up a long ride from Gallup, NM to Colorado Springs. On this day, nothing super interesting to report, just some good riding through the Arizona high desert on into Navajo country and the red mesa mountains of New Mexico. We stopped in at a road side motel along historic Route 66 after being duped by a kid in a gas station... Another whole story there... Good days ride, great night drinkin' beer, and no sleep to be had. Turns out we booked our motel along side railroad tracks, and the ole' Santa Fe Express came by every 15 minutes like clockwork! All through the night!!! Just another bit for the story, I suppose.

The ride to Colorado Springs was absolutely amazing... 10 hours on the bike starting in Western New Mexico, we made our way through Albequerque and Santa Fe before picking up 285 North into Colorado. The entire way we were surrounded by the majestic snow capped Rockies. We did learn something however, if you see a gas stop on old mountain roads, you stop... Tuna and I coasted into a gas station called "Shamrock" on fumes... Fitting because it was dumb luck that we made it there at all... Overtime and Rigid were taking bets as to who would run out of gas first, me or Tuna. They both lost... Suckers.

After gassing up, we had to run THROUGH those snow capped Rockies and let me tell you, what a ride!!! Far and away the best ride I've ever been on... 70 mph on wide open 4 lane highways, the occasional logging truck all you'd see on the road, and the snaking through the shadows of the mountains in huge sweeping turns was about the closest to God a motorcyclist can come without seeing him in person... I'm not there yet, so the Rockies will have to do... Amazing. Beautiful. Fun... Anything else you can think of, insert here.

Now we're off to Fort Levenworth, KS leaving out of my wife's Grandfather's house, Grandpa Carl. Grandpa Carl was gracious enough to put us up, and Sara's Uncle Dave, who lives here also, was an awesome host... Beers on ice walking in the door, plenty of places to sleep, and WiFi! As well, we picked up a 5th rider, Overtime's nephew, Justin... He's gonna make the run across Kansas with us on the day... Which brings me to now... Gotta Go! Gotta ride!

ATW '08

We did over 500 miles yesterday