Category General
Fabulous Rides through Colourful Colorado – 1
Sunshine greets us for the first time in days as we head south from David and Leslie, their wonderful hospitality still fresh in our minds. We head south with Cañon City as our likely destination today. Swiftly we travel down I25 to Colorado Springs, passing the US Airforce Academy (USAFA) which Anthony is certain will not allow visitors in today’s security conscious but I spot the visitor’s hours, so we turn back, and pass the offramp for Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, of Cold War and movie fame. Surprisingly, the only security check consists of handing our Australian driver’s licence (which has our name and our photo) to the guard at the entrance, who looks at each one briefly and hands them back and off we drive through the vast USAFA grounds. It surprises us that it is so easy for us to get in, nothing written down, nothing checked. What incredibly huge and scenic grounds the USAFA is situated in. It is one of 580 sites put forward at the time of choosing a suitable site for the Academy and was selected as such in 1954. The graduation of the first cadets took place in June 1959. And the first class of cadets to include women entered in 1976 and graduated in 1980.
Sign on the road leading to the US Air Force Academy
B52 at the US Air Force Academy
We head to the tourist centre which is a good few miles from the entrance gate. After visiting part of the museum which explains the ranks new graduates go through, we watch an interesting film on life as a new recruit during their first year. This is when we learn why they are so brutally waken up every morning, with loud banging, shouting and pounding on the doors: this is how you are likely to be waken up in real life, in case of bomb, attack or other emergency, so get used to it. We see how new recruits are ‘broken’ and ‘built up’ again over their 4 year course. It reminds me of what I learned from my nephew: they break you because when you are at your lowest, your true nature comes out. And that’s when you find out whether you have what it takes to be an officer.
Where we have lunch, we see a very interesting display on the Tuskegee Airmen: a group of African-American military pilots who fought in WWII. Because the US military was still racially segregated at the time, these airmen trained at a separate university and air field. They were flying escorts for heavy bombers and never lost a bomber they escorted, although 84 Tuskegee pilots lost their lives. Interestingly, and sadly, the Tuskegee airmen were some of the best pilots of their time because of their training and personal drive to be accepted for training and it wasn’t until 1949 that black airmen were allowed into the formerly white-only units.
We also visit the stunning USAFA chapel, which has sections dedicated to different faiths.
USAFA Chapel
We stay in a cheap motel in Cañon City and head towards Gunnison on US Route 50. We get to Salida again, stopping at the Royal Gorge – very touristy but worth seeing.
Royal Gorge bridge, west of Cañon City, Colorado
On the Royal Gorge bridge built in 1929, 321m/1053ft above the Arkansas river
Royal Gorge bridge – the world’s highest suspension bridge – spot the train below
A stop along the Arkansas river
As we approach Salida, large storm clouds are looming so decide to have lunch where we had breakfast a week ago and wait for the storm to pass.
Approaching Salida, storm clouds building
After lunch in Salida, will have coffee somewhere and wait this one out
An hour later, it is still raining, so we head into the old Salida and find somewhere for coffee. That is when I notice wires hanging from Anthony’s bike: BMW Denver, when they serviced our bikes, didn’t bother returning the cables where Anthony had them carefully wrapped and tied under his ‘tank’ cover and they have worked themselves loose…
Storm passed, time to move on. US Route 50 has some stunning stretches. We climb up to Monarch Pass, at over 3,445 metres (or 11,300ft), and cruise down towards Gunnison, along Tomichi Creek.
Poncha Springs
Approaching Gunnison
We get to Gunnison around 4pm. All hotels are full, so camping it will be. We recall seeing a number of Klim banners, they made our motorcycle jackets, as we entered town at one of the inns so we decide that we will try the hotel there.
We meet Tonia and Katie, who are running an Adventure Rally Series event on behalf of motorcycling magazines including Dirt Rider, Cycle World and Motor Cyclist. This is an event over three days, limited to 100 participating riders working in teams, that tests their motorcycling skills and gives them the opportunity to explore central Colorado. Tonia quickly offers us a place to pitch our tent and then invites us to be her guests for the evening, how generous of her and how lucky we are!!
Our camping site behind the Inn at Tomichi Village outside Gunnison
It is hard to describe the evening as we met so many kind and interesting people. Offers of accommodation from Domenic and Petra, Ned who offered us use of his room and shower at the inn, gifts from sponsors such as Chris from SBS who gave us T-shirts, gloves and brake pads, and Justin from Butler Maps who gave us 3 maps designed by motorcyclists for motorcyclists: these state by state maps highlight and provide information on the most scenic and beautiful riding within the state, with detailed maps of each route, colour coded depending on grade and skill. Riders had travelled from far and wide across the USA. These maps are great for anyone touring the western US and looking for scenic routes – check out http://www.butlermaps.com. It was such a pleasant and interesting evening with simple, friendly, fun and open likeminded souls. The final prize was fun. Participants were asked to who has an interesting to share: the first one described how he rode for a half a day operating by hand an adjustable wrench which replaced the gear shift lever sheered off by a tree root. The 2nd explained how he broke a Ducati electronic key on a friend’s bike (irreplaceable at short notice), and that friend hot wired another key via the light wiring. The 3rd one to put his hand up told how he spent the first 2 days of this 3 day event in prison: on his way over to Gunnison, his expensive bicycle was stolen outside his motel room. He called the police who, after getting his details, promptly told him he was under arrest, handcuffed him, threw him in jail for 2 days – all because he was supposedly in contempt of court for failing to appear in court 24 years ago when his wife filed for divorce, but he had moved interstate and never got the notice. He won the prize.
Chris from SBS
Justin’s starting early on a KTM
Alex, Petra, John and Domenic
A slow rise and pack the next morning from Gunnison, we make a leisurely and short route to Montrose where we find a great little motel as the afternoon storm is building fast – we prefer to stop early, avoid the rain and leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow. Time for shower and machine wash our clothing there.
Leaving Gunnison, on US50
Running along the southern side of the Arkansas river
Along US50 near Cimarron
The first G1 section of our new map (perfect biking road) which we covered was the ‘Million Dollar Highway’, so called due to the cost at the time. Part of US Route 550 runs over 40kms/25 miles from Ouray to Silverton, through the Uncompahgre Gorge via the Red Mountain Pass at 3,358m/11018ft altitude. An absolutely stunning road. We stop at Silverton for tea and coffee, watch a steam train arrive and book ourselves on that train ride for tomorrow.
Ridgeway State Park
San Juan Mountains with Mr Abraham in the distance
Uncompahgre Formation outside Ouray – exposed rock going back 1.4 billion years showing perserved ripple marks
Red Mountain on the Million Dollar Highway
Million Dollar Highway
Million Dollar Highway
Million Dollar Highway
Million Dollar Highway
Silverton, Colorado
Watching the DSNG RR arrive at Silverton
Silverton, Colorado
Silverton, Colorado
Million Dollar Highway at Silverton – fabulous bike riding road
Leaving Silverton on the Million Dollar Highway
Colorado wildflowers
Our campsite outside Durango
We stop in Durango and set up our tent at the KOA campground for the next couple of nights. Not our favourite type of place to camp but the managers there have added some lovely features like fresh herb garden which we can help ourselves to, fresh pizzas made to order and delivered to your tent!!! See Anthony’s next post for commentary, photos and video on that train ride.
– Anne
Two weeks in Denver
We made it to Denver and BMW on 26th June, our 1 year anniversary since we left the UK. It is hot and so green. It is not the brown we have seen in the past because of the amount of recent rain. Daisies, white flowers, yellow flowers, purple, blue, pink. We have arrived at the tail end of the spring flowers but it is still stunning.
Our first stop in Denver when we arrive is BMW. It pains me to keep talking about Streak’s problems, but below is a synopsis in one long paragraph. As this goes into some detail, skip the next paragraph if, like me, you are tired of Streak’s problems, but just know that, as of 9th July, I think Streak is finally fixed!!
The service manager at BMW Denver in Aurora whom I have been dealing with since early June and well before the end of warranty has been away and is busy in his office so we see Linda, who checks the bikes in and out. I explain what Streak has been doing, including the lag, spluttering and stalling while riding which had reoccurred after Santa Fe but been fine for 2 days, and the previous squeaky suspension and strange sudden sagging feeling with the suspension while riding. We are told to trust them, they know what the problem is with the lag and spluttering as they have seen this many times. We find out from BMW Denver that BMW USA will only honour US specification motorcycles warranty work and that we will have to deal with BMW UK to get warranty work refunded. This has been confirmed to us by BMW USA. This is when the service manager comes out from his office behind Linda, introduces himself and explain to Anthony (I must have been invisible!) that it is what they have always done for people with non US bikes. We cannot afford to go on with Streak in this state so we have no option but to ask them to go ahead, and we will have to deal with a refund later… This is not a good feeling to say the least. This is the first time a BMW dealer has not honored the guarantee, and we have seen many since November in Thailand as you know!!!… Tuesday, Linda calls to say the bikes are ready, both have had their 25,000 miles service and Streak’s lagging problem is fixed. As suspected, we are told, the air filter was badly blocked, they cleaned it and all is fine. (Really?!). But there is a fault with my shock absorber, (which we had been told about by BMW Monterrey in Mexico in May, so well within the warranty period) and it will cost US$1795 and take 2-6 weeks to arrive. It is not dangerous so we decline to have the shock absorber fixed here because we would be expected to pay for this warranty work and we might have to wait an additional 6 weeks for the parts to arrive – we do not have this time anymore. We will get this work done in the UK as the problem was identified during the warranty period. As a bit of background for those new to the blog, the throttle lag and stalling while riding was first investigated by BMW Chiang Mai, Thailand in November, unsuccessfully fixed with a new throttle valve switch and identified as requiring a new DME by BMW Kuala Lumpur in December, all within the 2 year warranty period. The stalling while riding and spluttering got worse in Colombia in April. We rushed through Central America to get to the US in time for the problem to be looked at within the warranty period, but because of a major recall on BMW’s 1200GS, there were no maintenance slots available and we had to wait until end of June. We will now have to work on getting a refund for all this because BMW North America do not honor the guarantee which all other countries we have visited have. Wednesday, our friend Karen drops us off at BMW, we pay, it is painful, but we are grateful that BMW have done all the work so quickly for us. Time to reload the bikes and head to other friends of ours, south of Denver. Streak is purring beautifully once again. 15 miles out, on I470, it coughs, splutters and dies. I put my flashers on, and let Streak slowly freewheel to the curb, cutting across traffic on my inside. I let Anthony know what has happened and once on the curb, let out an almighty primal scream!!! This is now really frustrating. We have to get off this interstate asap and call BMW. Streak splutters, dies, restarts, splutters. We limp to a car park off I470 and call BMW: if Streaks can restart, they want us to return now. Yes, it dies on me again all the way back, once in a particularly awkward spot, but luckily, Anthony is protecting my back and the cars, probably seeing my flashing lights, patiently wait for Streak to eventually restart. This time the service manager comes out immediately so I explain to him the exact symptoms (I am no longer invisible), while Anthony deliberately stays back. Yes, the spluttering that didn’t occur for 2 days has returned, badly. It seems to start when Streak is hot. And the fuel tank is under half. I ask him to take it for run. No way!! It’s too dangerous he says…. Ha, really?! What about the parking lot? Off he goes, but doesn’t go out of 1st gear and Streak doesn’t miss a beat. He asks me many questions. He had ordered a part for Streak before our arrival last week and he will now install it. He had missed an email I had sent him after Santa Fe letting him know the problems had reoccurred and therefore didn’t look into the spluttering and stalling and didn’t hear my telling Linda this too… I point out that the service engineer overfilled my brake fluid reservoir and it has been leaking all over my tank over the past hour. That evening, I got really annoyed at myself for feeling so frustrated at them. People rarely get under my skin this way. The next day, Thursday, Linda calls – I get Anthony to answer, as he is so much nicer than me and I can’t face talking to them right now. Their new findings: replaced crank shaft sensor as found, while hot, intermittent signal interruption. On test ride, the bike still stalled. Replaced fuel pump unit as found voltage far above specifications. Regarding the suspension: found a fault for rebound adjustment – an intermittent internal fault and leak in the shock. Friday, at 4.45pm, I notice 2 emails from Stephen telling me the bike is ready for collection. A phone call an hour ago would have been nice… Too late to collect, so that will now have to wait until Tuesday 7th July. While we pay another $850 for a full fuel pump unit, and a crank shaft sensor and some fuel cleaner for Anthony, the service manager comes out and explains what they have done. In total for those parts, and 2 services, $2200, and they couldn’t even give the bikes a clean… Unbelievable. Enough said, we are not happy and now we have to find out how we get some of this back as part of warranty and get more warranty work done when we get back to the UK… All this because BMW USA will not honour other countries’ BMW warranties…. I would like to stress that this is not meant to be a rant against all BMW dealers, as we got absolutely fabulous service from BMW in Kuala Lumpur, Lima, San Jose in Costa Rica, Mexico City, Austin and Santa Fe who have all provided fantastic service, above and beyond expectations, and Streak has performed well apart from those issues, and Storm has not missed a beat.
Karen, whom we met in Brisbane through mutual friends, picks us up from BMW. How great to see her beaming face again. We stop for lunch on our way home to Broomfield – once again, I choose a berry salad. Yumm!! Those salads are so delicious, full fresh raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, different types of lettuce and some seeds for crunch including tiny bits of candied pecans. I must remember this for when we get back to Australia. We spend the next 5 days at Karen and Mike’s home. Mike treats us to his special bbq ribs, marinated to perfection by Karen the night before!! How amazing to see their kids, Kristi and Ian all grown up!!! We dogsat Kristi’s dog Eggo a few times – what a cute and intelligent dog!! Kristi, you’re lucky we didn’t dognap Eggo – I am sure he would love to travel and sit on top of our fuel tank! It was lovely just to be, relax in a home, chit chat, go for local walks to the local supermarket, get our washing up to date again. Packed lots of maps and brochures and sent these home. Said goodbye to Anthony’s old gloves. We had the use of Mike’s car for a day after we dropped him off at the airport and the house was ours for one night as Karen had a golf trip away that had been planned ages before our planned arrival. Karen and I had our toes painted. We did a spot of shopping too, looking to replace my Keen sandals which I have worn every single day since we left the UK and replace Anthony’s torn waterproof trousers – one leg was torn all the way up one side, so it was much needed. Karen drops us off at BMW before collecting Mike from the airport. Our stay with Karen and Mike was simply lovely – thank you Karen and Mike!!
Karen and Kristi preparing the okra for the bbq
Anthony and Mike preparing the smoked ribs
Great evening with Brissy friends Karen & Mike, with their daughter Kristi & Eggo
Happy toes – girls have to be girls – with Karen
Time to say goodbye
After our aborted ride out to Roxborough Park, and return to BMW, our friends David and Leslie come over to pick us up, taking the same route as we were taking in case they find us stranded on the side of the road. We unload the bikes again, leave Streak and Storm behind. It is great to see David and Leslie again!!! David and Anthony first met 20 years ago. They were the pioneers in coal seam gas in Australia and they signed the first coal seam gas deal in Australia. How brave they were back then, with so many sceptics around them at the time. After a few years, Anthony joined David’s company Tipperary and spent the most exciting and rewarding part of his working life there. I met David and Leslie a number of times in Denver, we skied together. They also organised my first ever art exhibition in the US!! It is there that Deborah first saw and fell in love with Aboriginal work and invited me to show in Houston in their restaurant and started my annual Houston shows. So a business association turned into a long friendship.
And what a warm welcome we are given by David and Leslie!!! We are thoroughly spoilt. We spend many hours chatting about the current political and economic climate in the US. We discuss politics, religion, retirement. Once again, we are touched that they open up so much with us, and we learn more about some aspects of life that is so American. What a wonderful to be and chatting with friends.
Moon rise ar Roxborough Park
David and Leslie take us to Estes Park, in the heart of the Colorado Rockies at 7522 ft/ 2300m altitude. The scenery up to Estes Park is lovely. We have lunch at the gorgeous old Stanley Hotel which was built in 1909. After our leisurely lunch, interrupted by a call from BMW Denver, we head to Loveland, through the Big Thompson River canyon which is stunning – I spot so many places I wish we could just stop and camp along the Big Thompson River. Loveland which has a huge sculpture park. I have always loved sculpture parks. This one is full of humour and joy. One artist made a sculpture of a shepherd with his goats. Some years later, another sculptor had his flock of wolves strategically placed in the park so that they are all looking back at what could be a tasty meal, the shepherd’s goats.
1909 Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado
With Lesley and David at Loveland, Colorado
Conversation by Robert McDermott, Loveland, Colorado
Monument in Right Feet Major, by Todd Kurtzman
Fireworks for sale for the 4th July
Leslie hardly stopped cooking magnificient meals for us. My one and only “core strength” gym session with Leslie wasn’t going to do much to counter the kilos I must have put on but showed me what muscles I need to work on: the legs and thighs are good, balance excellent, but my sparrow biceps need muscling up still!! We had fun making more s’mores.
Perfect marshmallows Leslie but watch that top one!
Love s’mores and the mess
We spent our first 4th of July in the USA since our last one in 1985 in Alaska. Those two evenings could not have been any different. Instead of the loud, beer swilling evening with a bunch of happy-go-lucky misfits, we spent this year’s 4th of July at friends of David and Leslie’s, Karen and Bill who kindly included us, with a group of people actively involved in supporting The Seed Company, a bible translating organisation, currently working on 700 languages in 70 countries. We had a bi-annual update meeting prior to the 4th of July fireworks. Not quite what we had expected but it was lovely of Karen and Bill to invite us, very interesting and we met some lovely people and enjoyed some amazing fireworks:
Gorgeous Ricki
4th of July 2015
4th of July 2015
4th of July 2015
4th of July 2015
This evening, we met some of David and Leslie’s dear friends – what a fun time we had with Pam, Anne-Marie, Teresa and John, especially learning from Anne-Marie about some of the sights in some San Francisco suburbs where for example walking down the streets totally naked is allowed, etc. I will let your imagination run wild with the “etc”…, really wild… The things you learn…
It has rained so much since we have been in the US and Denver has been no different. Very unusual weather we are told. We are leaving tomorrow and hope we get to set up camp before it rains. We have had an amazing time with David and Leslie – what wonderful hospitality and generosity, thank you Leslie and David!! And what a beautiful spot to spend a week.
Beautiful spot to spend a week, at Roxborough Park
Local wildlife comes every day for a drink – didn’t see the mountain lion
My brother would have loved this spot
Roxborough Park
Lovely walk in Roxborough Park
Gorgeous ride to Grant today
Home just before the rain
But we have been here much longer than we expected and the twisty roads, green pastures, multicoloured wildflowers and rushing creeks of Colorado beckon – we can wait to be back on the road again and camp – must remember to watch out for bears and the camping rules!!
– Anne
Taos and onward to Colorado
Anne’s bike is purring as we leave Santa Fe heading north at lunchtime. What a change from last week. We are “back on the road again” as Anne likes to sing often as we leave in the morning. The open road beckons and we are back on highway US 285 heading for Taos. We want to make good time as the afternoon thunderclouds are starting to build. This is a normal occurrence here, but it’s better to avoid the storms if we can.
Mountain storms developing towards Taos
Not the usual boring concrete
We make good progress until, yes you guessed it, Streak starts to play up again. The intermittent loss of power creates a real problem as we limp towards Taos. The issue seems the same as the one we had before. What a bummer. We push on slowly to Taos and arrive before the rain. We will see what tomorrow brings.
Something new every day, cornering must be fun
Since we had no problem with Streak for the first 35 miles or so, and it started to occur after Streak stood in the hot sun for an hour, we will see what a cool morning brings, plus as we head further north to higher altitudes, hopefully the temperatures will drop. Dinner is obtained from a Walmart store across the road and we feast on carrots, humous and low fat biscuits. A change from some of the high calorie meals we have been eating.
We start the next day with some trepidation, will Streak perform and for how long? We take it easy as we head north, the spectacular landscape unfolds before us, we have always enjoyed this part of the USA and it is great to be back in summer. We have decided that will take the back roads to avoid the high speeds of traffic on the interstate highway if we have to limp along. Some backroads! Great two and four lane lane roads take us northwards. All good so far plus the temperatures seem lower today.
Early morning storms developing
Open vista in Southern Colorado
The air seems so fresh and clean, the smell of the pines is wonderful and when the thunderstorms start to develop that scent that heralds their arrival fills the air. We like the smell of the ocean and the smells of the mountains. It would be a hard call to choose a favourite.
We stop at Fort Garland, one of a series of military forts established in the late 1850’s to protect miners and settlers in the San Luis valley. The fort was only in use from 1858 to 1883 after which the westward movement of people and the removal of the indians made the fort redundant. It is interesting to see one aspect how the west of the USA was developed over only 25 years.
Fort Garland parade ground
Fort Garland barracks block
As we swing west smelling the clean air, snow cooled by the still covered peaks even though we are progressing through summer, we enjoy the wide open spaces with mountains, what a great place to ride.
Storms gather as we ride towards Salida, Colorado
We have always tried to support local businesses back home and while we use the larger chains such as Hilton for accommodation when it makes sense as we get benefits due to our Diamond status, elsewhere we look local. We find that the staff at local cafes and hotels seem to go that little bit further, maybe because they have the flexibility and individuality that the larger chains do not have or foster. In Salida we found both a great motel and breakfast cafe that we really enjoyed the service of and would recommend to others.
Our motel in Salida
Legal in Colorado, but not good for riding
Mt Priceton and the Arkansas river in Salida, Colorado
East 1st Street in Downtown Salida, Colorado
Deer in suburban Salida
Colourful house, Salida Colorado
Our route from Salida northwards on US285 then onto US24. High plateau country surrounded by snow-capped peaks soaring to over 14,000 feet, twice our hight on the plateau. We are looking forward to returning to this country after visiting Denver.
On the road central Colorado
What a great name for an Inn
Motorcycle memorabilia Thunderbird Inn, Florissant Colorado
Just a local shower to cool us off
Manitou Springs is a small historic touristy town just outside Colorado Springs. We spend a relaxing evening walking the town and enjoying the local brewery’s food and ales. Our ride out to Denver will take us via the ‘Garden of the Gods’. The name came in 1859 after one Colorado City surveyor thought this would be a good location for a beer garden, before his colleague suggested that this could be a ‘Garden for the Gods’ and the name stuck.
Garden of the Gods Park, Colorado
Garden of the Gods Park, Colorado
One year on the road today, what a milestone. It would have seemed unlikely when we set off from Verwood in June 2014 feeling like frauds on shiny new motorcycles. ‘Riding round the world’ really! I think some of those other riders on the cross Chunnel train would have thought so. But here we are a year later after so many adventures and having met many wonderful people, we are very lucky.
Streak & Storm on our 1st anniversary – at Garden of the Gods Park, Colorado
We arrive at BMW of Denver in Aurora and Streak and Storm are handed over for their 24,000 mile service and hopefully the diagnosis and solution to Streak’s throttle lag (the spluttering and dying not having occurred again for the last two days). Time will tell… Now for a relaxing weekend with our friends Mike and Karen.
– Anthony
Enjoying the land of enchantment in Santa Fe
After crossing into New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment, and visiting the tourist centre for maps and hotel/motel discount vouchers, we get to Tucumcari on Route 66. Originally founded in 1901 as a construction camp for the railroad construction, it was called Ragtown, it then became known as Six Shooter Siding, due to numerous gunfights and finally was renamed Tucumcari. You can imagine what it was like in its heyday, especially at night with all the neon lighting.
Blue Swallow motel, Tucumcari, NM
As we ride through, I notice one place has burnt down, then a second and wonder whether the fires were lit by desperate owners wanted to recoup some of their investment after their business went bankrupt. Then we see a third. It can’t be coincidence that 3 businesses have burnt down in the space of a few miles. So sad… I decide I no longer want to follow any of old route 66 as I found too many sad deserted places. I will remember Vega where we met the 2 local lawmen yesterday instead.
Burned down Shell petrol station outside Tucumcari, NM
Finally a petrol station on Route 66 which is still open
The stretch between Tucumcari and Santa Rosa was extremely gusty. Good neck strengthening exercise!! More storm clouds building and moving rapidly but we manage to dodge them. We spend the night at Santa Rosa, staying at a sad motel, after sharing a huge salad at the roadhouse across the road for dinner. It is good to see a Route 66 roadhouse that has not just survived but is thriving.
It is windy on our way to Santa Rosa
Santa Rosa roadhouse
Anthony had heard of a good motorcycling road to Santa Fe. It feels great to finally get off the main road. Our pace has now slowed down wonderfully. We have plenty of time to get to Denver for our 24th June appointment for our 24,000 miles service for both bikes.
As we ride, we are reminded of our first trip to New Mexico in 1980. We loved it then, had promised ourselves to return on day in the summer, and here we are, loving it just as much. The smell of pines thanks to the heat takes back to that first visit. Isn’t it amazing how powerful smells can be?! I want to camp!! I really want to be out there. We see more and more bikes – all going much faster than us. We get to a little village called Madrid, spot a pub with a few bikes and decide to pull over and stop for lunch. Little did we know this old mine turned tavern was a well known stopping off pub for bikers!! Today, 80 Harleys are expected for lunch (86 turned up). What a sight!! And the noise!! This tavern was featured in the science fiction comedy movie Paul.
86 Harleys arriving At Madrid’s Mine Shaft Tavern, New Mexico, for lunch
Love her pigtails attached to her helmet – marshall for the 86 Harleys arriving at the tavern
At Madrid’s Mine Shaft Tavern, New Mexico
At Madrid’s Mine Shaft Tavern, New Mexico
At Madrid’s Mine Shaft Tavern, New Mexico
Typical US letter boxes
Shortly after leaving, poor Streak began spluttering, badly. After a while, I asked Anthony to ride it so that he could feel what I was trying to explain to him (the jerking of the bike dying and suddenly restarting is hard on the body) and so that he too could explain Streak’s problem to Denver next week. Streak was worse than ever. We somehow managed to limp into Santa Fe. I knew, somehow, we would drive past a BMW dealer, and… we did! Very helpful, a service advisor rode my bike around the block. He is pretty sure the fuel injectors are clogged. He gives Streak a good dose of special fuel injector cleaner concentrate which will eventually work itself through the injectors. After a bit of a chat, we leave for a hotel I booked while at BMW, Anthony having put its location in his GPS. As usual whenever we are in cities with an address to go to, I follow as Anthony has the GPS. Streak is behaving. Thank goodness. We get 200 metres heading back to the main road, down the hill to the lights, start going through the lights and Streak dies. My first thought is of the red car behind me – I don’t want to get rear ended and put my flashers. Impossible to restart it. I turn around to let the car know I cannot move. I am in the left hand lane as we were turning left at the lights. Awkward spot to be blocking traffic!! I push myself as best and quickly as I can off the road. A biker waiting in the traffic at the red lights spots my predicament, calls out at cars next him to let him through, parks his bike and rushes over and pushes me off the road. Very very helpful. Anthony rejoins me having had to turn back to get back to me. Eventually Streak restarts, briefly then dies. Anthony offers to ride it back to BMW.
It is now 4.30pm Saturday afternoon, they close at 5 and tomorrow is an annual motorcycle fair in town for which BMW are the major sponsors, so it is frantic. On hearing and seeing us return so soon, all the mechanics comes out to see us. They offer to take Streak and clean out the fuel injectors and hopefully get to the bottom of this problem. This will take them 3 hours but they can only do that Tuesday morning as they are closed on Mondays. So they offer us a loan bike for the week end. Wow, so helpful. They only have 1200GS, which is too high for me, so Anthony will ride that one while I ride Storm. By the time we paperwork and I go to Streak to get my overnight bag out, Ben, the chief mechanic, has already started getting to the fuel injectors. Wow, what service!!! And dedication. It is now 5pm on Saturday.
Streak is now very sick – being looked at by BMW Santa Fe
I am now in charge of navigating with the GPS for the first time!! That means riding with my reading glasses at the tip of my nose, lucky it is long, so that I can read the GPS.
The hotel I have booked is a couple of blocks away from the old town square, so after a shower and change, we go for a lovely walk around the old town, share a salad for dinner with a glass of locally brewed cider and retire for the night early. We are both exhausted after the emotion of Streak dying and riding a loan bike.
Santa Fe cathedral
Statue of Kateri Tekakwitha, first North American Indian saint
After a leisurely breakfast and chatting to a few bikers over from Denmark, Norway and Sweden, we pack up and head for the classic Motorcycle Show in Eldorado, outside Santa Fe. We see some interesting machines, lots of custom bikes, some lovely characters.
This 6 horsepower diesel bike does 35kms/hr uphill and is one of only 2 in the US
Damian – such a gentle soul
This biker’s dog has sunglasses on!
It is a hot day, we retreat to an air conditioned restaurant for a cool drink. It is now 1pm. Do we still feel like riding out to Taos today, we ask ourselves? No, too hot and listless. Let’s find another hotel out of town, read “cheaper”, and stay here until Tuesday morning.
We stop at a factory outlet and get a couple of tops to replace our old ones – they have done well and it is now time to donate them.
Our new hotel is across the street from a movie theatre so we go to the movies for the first time this year. We saw Spy – a 007 spoof – very funny. I really enjoyed being entertained, the laugh out loud moments and loud music. You could say that we have been on sensory overload since we started this trip, having had so many experiences, visual, emotional, physical, intellectual, spiritual, cultural, culinary and olfactory but seeing this movie made me realise that I had missed a couple in particular: being surrounded by music, and being entertained by comedy – senses we hadn’t experienced for a while. We have watched movies downloaded onto our iPad which we listen through a great little speaker friends gave us before we left, but that sense of being completely surrounded by a story and music suddenly felt new. I am finding it hard to explain…
Monday comes and goes with a few walks, emails, banking, planning, chain tightening for Storm.
Some mobile homes also tow/carry boats, bikes in addition to cars!
Evening storm cloud building in Santa Fe
Tuesday, we pick up Streak. Ben at BMW Santa Fe cleaned the throttle bodies, cleaned idle actuator & passages in the airbox, cleaned the fuel injectors and reset all adaptation values. He has gone for a good ride and all is well with Streak. We ask where to go to pay for this service. There is no charge. No charge?!?!?! Absolutely no charge. I cannot thank Ben and Teo enough, or recommend them highly enough.
Teo and Ben from BMW Santa Fe – such helpful guys!!!
We leave Santa Fe for Taos and Streak is purring beautifully.
– Anne
2slowspeeds 