Monthly Archives: May 2017

May 19 2017

The old and the new

Three days of camping are over and on a chilly Sunday morning we pack up camp carefully trying to put everything back in its original place. The winds gusting through the tall straight pines that dot the campsite makes packing the tent a little tricky but with skilled folding on Anne’s part we are done. As we ride out of the Fort Tuthill County Park outside Flagstaff Arizona we leave behind new friends, but take away great memories. I understand why people come back year after year. Maybe we will return?

I realise that we have been on the road exactly one month. That exciting moment when we rode out of Air Canada Cargo in Toronto has not diminished in our minds, but the route we had planned back then up to Alaska has been blown into oblivion by the late arrival of summer.

After seemingly spending the better part of a month running away from Jack Frost’s icy fingers, we are finally turning north: this late wintery weather must be coming to an end, although the weather forecasts do not paint such a sunny picture where we are heading. In the East of the USA they are having record high temperatures for this time of year and the mid west there is flooding and storms, so no complaints here. But North we must go, we need to get to Vancouver by early June to have Streak and Storm prepared for shipping to South Korea. We still have a long wish list of places to visit and roads to ride. We acquired a couple of the Butler motorcycle maps at the Overland Expo and have been pouring over the possible routes though the mountain passes, but little footnotes like ‘does not open to 1 June’ and the sight of snow still capping the lower peaks as we ride, tempers our enthusiasm. Those roads will remain unridden by us this time in Utah anyway.

As we head towards Page on US89, I realise that we are now travelling over the same road we rode in May 2012 on a pair of Harley Davidson Road Kings. Our first motorcycle trip in the USA and it had to be a Harley! We felt so cool as we rode our pair of large noisy Harleys across the SW of the USA for 10 days from Los Angles to Monument Valley and back.

We are on the road again and loving it!

We are combining new and old roads, hence the title of this blog. Onto US89A and past the Vermillion cliffs again which impressively look down onto the Colorado river which we cross at the last bridge before the start of Marble Canyon leading into the Grand Canyon. For all the impressive road construction in the USA, the next river crossing is at the other end of the Lake Mead at Boulder dam which is some 288 miles / 463 kilometres by road away, quite a gap and unlikely to be bridged anytime soon.

Navajo Bridge over the Colorado river


The Colorado river and the Vermillion cliffs


The Vermillion Cliffs, Arizona


The north rim of the grand canyon does not open until the next day, another sign that we are early in the season, so we continue northwards and see Zion National Park in the distance. We have been there twice before and do not plan to visit again. It may seem a little strange to be crossing the United States and missing all the major tourist attractions, but as we have seen many of them previously they are not on our itinerary this time. This leads me to a phrase used by one of our loyal followers, Lesley, who said “Love the gems you find” which made me realise that while we do find gems as we travel, there are so many more out there we pass by leaving for others to collect – the world is covered in them, we only collect a very small selection to place in our knapsack of memories. The rest of the gems are waiting for you out there.

In Kanab, we see a restaurant we stopped at on the Harleys, it’s a little like a game to determine what we remember and what we have forgotten. From Kanab, we diverge from our memories and head north on US89 which provides a nice slower alternative to the interstate highway. We cover over 360 miles / 580 kilometres to Brigham City, this is our longest day as we travel to get ahead of a forecast snowstorm through beautiful countryside and interesting small towns. Some towns seem to be thriving and have a well kept look, others run down with closed shops and abandoned houses. What are the economic dynamics that allow one location to prosper and another appear to be in decline?

Signs for the short sighted


At lunch in Manti, UT, we are approached by Jasper a local 12 year old, interested in Streak and Storm. We have an enjoyable conversation about travel, motorcycles and his plans for the future. It is wonderful to meet young people and feel their enthusiasm: they are unfettered by our experiences and the limitations we impose on ourselves. To hear them talk about all they want to achieve raises ones own energy levels. We leave refreshed by both food and conversation.

Twenty minutes later, we pull over to allow Anne to sleep off her sugar hit from the hamburger bun at lunchtime. This allows me to take yet another photo of Anne asleep to support my argument that I do all the blog work. It is very frustrating for Anne to find food on the road that is not loaded with sugar. However 10 minutes later, Anne is back on her feet and we are away again.

Anne sleeping on the job again!


The following day, more winter weather is due, again, but we are able to find a window between the rain/sleet/snow forecasts and wend our way from Brigham City to Idaho Springs via a more secondary route that takes us into the Cache valley where we take US91 northwards.

Sweeping roads in southern Idaho.


Mendon, green fields amd snowcapped peaks


Yellow is the colour here.


Last time we were in Idaho Falls we visited KLIM, who make the motorcycle clothing we wear every day and has stood us in good stead for the last few years. So a return visit would allow us to see how they had developed since then. We heard the wind and rain overnight and woke to find that Anne’s bike cover has long gone and mine is half off. A fruitless search follows, but Anne’s bike cover is at least one county away, oh well.

Snow and Ice on our journey to KLIM


Leaving our hotel, we encounter light sleet and hail that sheets and dances across road as we ride north to KLIM. The weather makes our arrival look a little more adventurous. The building has changed and grown with a new KLIM store onsite. We are greeted by Rhylea whom we met on our last visit and her colleague Kelsey. We are taken on a tour of the new facility, introduced to a number of staff as we move from department to department. It is amazing to see all the new gear they are in the process of designing, building, mocking up, spread across various work tables. We have a long chat with Jayson, Product line manager and Pat a senior designer who had organised for Anne to be one of their product testers after our last visit. Jayson is very keen to get our views on the KLIM gear and the other layers we are wearing. It is great to see that they are all genuinely interested in our opinion of their gear, having given it such a tough and long work out! It was particularly exciting to be shown their new range – a real privilege to be trusted with all the information they shared with us.

Anne, Rhylea, Pat, Kelsey & Anthony at KLIM

We have replaced Anne’s bike cover, stocked up on a few bits and pieces, completed this blog entry and for once planned tomorrow’s route through the wilds of Idaho on the back roads to the NW. See you on the other side.

– Anne & Anthony

May 13 2017

Heading to Flagstaff

After an unplanned and fantastic week in Santa Fe, it is time to move on but the weather forecast is abysmal. Massive storm cells, high winds and snow is forecast. A check of the weather radar decides our route and departure time this morning: it has to be an early start and no time to take scenic roads unfortunately. South then west is the way today. We get to Gallup, New Mexico, 320kms away, having dealt with strong winds, managed to squeeze between storms, and pretty much avoided the rain all day. Five minutes after arriving at our motel, it sleeted – the wind so strong it covered our bedroom window. So lucky.

Avoided this storm

Clear skies outside Albuquerque

Avoided this storm too

Sleet covered hotel window

Streak and Storm feeling cold

That evening, through Facebook, I find out about “OE”, an event starting in 2 days’ time just south of Flagstaff. Overland Expo is a massive expo for travellers and seems too good to miss, with an extensive and varied schedule over 3 days. Not surprisingly, just 2 days out, the event is all booked out except for motorcyclists camping: that’s us!!! And the timing is perfect as we are 2 days away.

Weather radar check in the morning: we have a few more storms to dodge in the morning then we should be fine so we’ll be able to revisit the Petrified Forest National park and take small scenic roads the rest of the day. Once again we turn off the main road to rejoin the old Route 66 but for the third time, we have to turn back as it ends abruptly. What a pity as it means having to join the interstate and it is now bucketing. It is an absolutely freezing morning, 5 degrees when we left and decide to have breakfast at the National Park visitor centre. In the space of 30′, it seems the storm has advanced much faster than predicted and in addition to cold, we now have wind and driving rain. Too bad for those twisties, it will be for another time. Sense prevails and we take a different route: skip the park, head west, eventually leave the storm behind us then south at Holbrook on I80 until we turn west again and take small roads through quiet villages such as Snowflake. It is a lovely ride through the countryside, dodging a few storm clouds before checking into a motel in Payson, Arizona.

Cold, wind and speeding trucks

Part of Route 66

Fabulous storm clouds heading to Payson, Arizona

It feels so good to wake up to a clear blue sky!!!! Finally!!! And we have a magnificient day ahead of us. We had heard Sedona was beautiful but hadn’t expected this breathtaking scenery. What a joy today’s ride is. We feel rejuvenated. There is no better way to describe the area than with a few photos:

 

Heading out of Payson, Arizona

South of Sedona

Sedona

Sedona

We get to Fort Tuthill County Park just south of Flagstaff for Overland Expo by mid afternoon. We find a great spot in the Motorcycle Camping area, without too many pine cones, to pitch our tent for the first time on this trip. This area is beautiful and it doesn’t take long to get chatting with our neighbours and passing fellow motorcyclists. This expo is massive. We have been to a couple of Horizons Unlimited gatherings (dedicated to mostly motorcyclists) in Australia and South Africa and expected something similar, but this is on a much bigger scale. The venue is cleverly designed to keep motorcyclists, camper vans, camper trailers and massive Recreation Vehicles with their respective vendor stalls together.

The atmosphere is fantastic. There is a palpable air of excitement in anticipation of the upcoming week end. I feel this is a place where dreams are made and experiences shared. Friendships are made and renewed. I meet friends I know through social media which is great. I meet Egle who published my first article a couple of weeks ago – https://womenadvriders.com/?s=Borders. We make new friends with our tent neighbours and people walking around, a couple sitting next to us at the bar in the evening. And then… after they leave, someone takes up the seat next to us… Ted Simon! THE motorcycle legend. Every motorcyclist has at least heard of him even if they haven’t read one or more of his books. I only have 10 books on my iPad and that includes one of his.

A bit of background on Ted: born in 1931, he abandonned a career in chemical engineering to move to Paris and take up journalism. Then in 1973, at the age of 42, he set of on a solo journey around the world for the next 4 years covering 64,000 miles. Wanting to see how the world had changed over the last 28 years, he set off again on a second journey, at 70 years of age, covering 59,000 miles through 47 countries over 3 years. His most well know book, Jupiter’s Travels was written in 1979. I remember distinctly backpakers talking about that book they were reading when we were in Khartoum in 1982!!

What a privilege to get to meet Ted! How can I describe our meeting? Luckily, Anthony had heard of his name but not much more. So the conversation was just like with any other traveller there for the Expo, both Ted and Anthony exchanging jokes with their dry British humour. After half an hour, he is called away to prepare for his film show tomorrow but he asks for us to wait for his return. An hour later, we continue our chat. Such an inspiring, open, genuine man. We bumped into each other several times over the next couple of days for more chats which was wonderful.

We saw a movie of the first part of his adventure which recounted his travels, and experiences through Africa in 1973.  It brought back such strong memories for both of us when we saw the photos from Egypt and Sudan, nudging each other discretely several times: we travelled that route, not on a motorcycle but by public transport and hitch hiking, 9 years after Ted, in 1982.  We must dig out our slides, or ‘transparencies’ as they were called from the days when film not memory cards filled our camera, from that journey when we get home… At a round table later, Ted raised the question of what ‘Adventure Travel’ is, given the proliferation of the use of the term today, often in the commercial arena. Ted thought that to be an ‘adventure’, there needs to be an element of change for the participant. My first thought when he asked the question was that it has to challenge the participant.

We have spent 2.5 days here, going to talks, presentations, talking to vendors, meeting various travellers, we could stay another night, join a number of them for a big party tomorrow afternoon, but we both feel it is time for us to move on – and get a shower after 3 nights’ camping!!…

Meeting Mary McGee, Sam Manicom, Ted Simon, Tiffany Coates and so many more, making new friends, chatting to all sorts of inspirational travellers and characters make this an unforgettable week end of friendship and laughter.

Our campsite at Overland Expo West 2017

Overland Expo West 2017

Overland Expo West 2017

Overland Expo West 2017

Gene

Chaco in his (Gene’s) Ural

Karen and Mike

With Tiffany and Ted

With Mary and Mark

With Eric

Just one last thing: I have a new love….

My new love…

I want one…

Anne

May 9 2017

Santa Fe, the never ending story

The multitude of brown buildings that comprise Santa Fe are fast disappearing in our rear view mirrors as we accelerate towards the gap in the thunderstorms at 9 am in the morning. We are leaving after an unplanned week in Santa Fe. We had no idea we would find another reason to stay a little longer day after day; would we ever leave? Let’s roll back to last Monday and see how this unfolded……

Rising above the sound of the wind beating against our helmets as we travel south on I25 in New Mexico, the ‘chain death rattle’, that sound we have heard before in Peru indicating that the chain is stretching fast, warranting a daily adjustment every couple of hundred miles/kilometres. We had hoped it would last until Vancouver but it was not to be. When we checked the milage on Streak’s chain, last replaced in Dubai in September 2014, we calculated that it had done an amazing 28,500 miles / 45,000 kilometres – wow!!! – when we heard the an average chain lasts around 15,000 miles / 24,000 kilometres. We have done well.

For some time, Anne has had problems with low speed braking, with a juddering effect that was finally diagnosed as a warped front disc. Outside the normal tolerances by over 100%. Another eye-watering priced present for Anne’s birthday list, why are motorcycle spares so expensive? With the chain and sprockets installed and front disc on order we will spend a couple of extra days here renewing our acquaintance with a city we spent time in on our way from Texas to Colorado in June 2015 on our last RTW trip.

We are staying is the same hotel, the Doubletree near to BMW Santa Fe, 6 miles / 10 kilometres outside town we used the last time we were here and with ‘Streak’ in the shop as they say here, we will use the Santa Fe Trails bus service. This service is very reasonably priced especially for the over 60’s, only a dollar for the whole day. Anne will benefit shortly!

Riding the buses for a couple of days gives us an insider’s view of a world that, as motorcyclists, we only see as advertising written on the side as we pass buy. Conversations, friendships, generosity are all part and parcel of an interesting world that we are clearly not part of.

“Someone just posted, never thought I’d get out today” says one passenger on his cell phone next to us, another shares her written poetry with others to read and misses her stop, a third opens a new packet of cigarettes and offers them around, ‘take two’ he says to one man. Constant conversation between passengers who obviously know each other well fills the bus. There is a virtual community on the buses and this includes the drivers. Sadly this community also includes some who appear to have substance abuse problems, but that notwithstanding, a great experience for us in a country that is based around the automobile, to see how another group of people interact.

As we start to relax, we have both found that the last two weeks riding have taken a toll on us physically, with a few persistent aches and pains emerging. Our bodies not have not taken to kindly to elements we have exposed them too. Spending time in one location, the easily paced days, comfortable hotel rooms and good food did have me questioning the reason for this RTW adventure and whether I would not be happier on a beach somewhere in Mexico or the Caribbean for the next few months. While I wrestled with these thoughts for a few days, Anne mentions to me that she has been questioning whether she feels like chasing the sunset for the next 5 months. As we discuss the options, we both agreed that the journey continues unless one or both of us really feel that we do not want to continue, same as the last trip. I suspect that these thoughts will resurface for both of us from time to time, but that is all part and parcel of the adventure.

Anne wants me to see the works of Allan Houser, a famous native American sculptor, so that accounted for another day spent in Santa Fe. The visit is covered in a separate blog entry by Anne but I did find it amazing to see how much one man could accomplish in his lifetime.

With Anne’s birthday looming, I was still looking for a location to the west where we could spend the weekend, go somewhere warmer, Las Vegas, mountain cabin (burrrrr… in this weather!) but nothing seemed to make sense so yes a couple more days in Santa Fe were the answer. We enjoy it here so why rush somewhere else?

We spend the time in town seeing a small show of Mexican lowrider cars, a special category of cars that started in Los Angles in the late 1940’s and early 50’s. From sandbags first loaded in the boot/trunk to today’s sophisticated electro/hydraulic systems, the aim, by modifying the suspension and chassis, is to be “low & slow”. The cars were also decorated, paint and trim, to reflect the Mexican culture where the drivers came from in contrast to the then “Anglo” culture prevalent in the USA at the time.

1960’s cars, crazy suspension, Santa Fe

How to create a little ‘lift’

1950’s Chevrolet Impala Lowrider

When one sits in the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, the vision that surrounds you is that of a French Church. This is made more believable when you are told the architect is French, Antoine Mouly, and that the stained glass windows are from France and the altar, organ and other fittings are from France and Italy. The most interesting aspect of the chapel, and the reason for its fame, is the double helix spiral staircase which gives access to the Choir loft. The architect died while the chapel was under construction and upon the chapel’s completion it was realised that no staircase had been built to access the choir loft some 20 feet / 6 metres above the chapel floor. Since the chapel was small, a normal staircase would take up too much floor space, and the Sisters of Loretto, not confused with Mother Thersea’s Sisters of Loreto order, whom the care of the church was entrusted to, did not appreciate the proposal of using a ladder in their habits! All the local carpenters do not have a solution to the problem, so the nuns decide to pray to St Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. On the ninth and last day of their prayers, a unknown carpenter arrives and offers to build their staircase. We understand he worked with only the most basic of hand tools and spent three months building this amazing self supporting staircase then left with out asking for any payment. The nuns believed that their prayers to St Joseph had been answered and who can doubt them. It should be noted that the staircase originally had no handrail, which both the nuns and I found a little unnerving. The handrail was added a few years later.

Loretto Chapel staircase, Santa Fe

On our final day in Santa Fe, we visit Canyon Road, famous for a variety of art galleries and a must see place for visitors. We wander along the street and nothing catches Anne’s eye to entice her in until we see a large gallery space that appears to be setting up. We are invited in and meet Kiyomi, Joseph and Jesse who are preparing the gallery for its opening next week. They have created a great exhibition space, perfect for an Aboriginal art exhibition? Who knows, anyway we learn that a series of five marble sculptures will be craned in at 6 am on Monday morning, yes you guessed it, we are staying another couple of days to see this. Will we ever leave Santa Fe?

Mural in Santa Fe

A central hotel location would be great for this early start so on the way home we stop at the Hilton and ask what rate they would do for us. We are greeted by Haley who, I think after hearing it is Anne’s birthday says she will match our Doubletree rate. We are moving to a great location. Little did we know she had given us one of three apartments in the restored historic building adjacent to the hotel with our own lounge, dining, spa bath and two fireplaces! Are we so lucky or what?! I think I want a fireplace in the bedroom at home, it looks great, but have no idea where it will fit.

Lounge in our upgraded hotel ‘room’!

We do get up early, hard to do in such a comfortable location, our apartment, and go to see the statues being unloaded and installed with great precision by an enthusiastic group including the galley owner and the sculptor. Both show great pleasure in seeing the works installed.

 

Carefully does it….

Three down, two to go.

This rounds off a memorable week that also saw us visit Ghost Ranch, where Georgia O’Keeffe painted, stopped while riding to avoid a ferocious dust storm and listened to Native American drumming in the centre of Santa Fe.

Indian drumming and chanting, Santa Fe

Georgia O’Keefe’s studio, Ghost Ranch, New Mexico

Crazy wind gusts north west of Santa Fe

The Santa Fe story ends for us, but the journey continues….

– Anthony