Jun 23 2015

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

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 Idian saint

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

Jun 20 2015

Across North West Texas

We are greeted by a blue sky and sunshine after weathering tropical storm Bill, the second cyclone of the season originating in the Gulf of Mexico. Yesterday saw almost 4 inches or 10 centimetres of rain in Bob and Pam’s rain gauge. We leave Fort Worth having made new friends and learnt a little of its history and culture thanks to Bob and Pam.

As we leave, evidence of the downpour can be seen in the dirt and gravel washed onto the roads. Every river crossing we make has milk chocolate coloured water flowing strongly, the rivers have burst their banks over the surrounding flat areas.

We are riding on US287, a cross country route that has turned out to be an easy 4 lane highway with a 75 mph speed limit. This means we are about the slowest, just keeping up! So no potholes but we still have to concentrate as the traffic, including trucks and mobile homes stream by.

Trucks just fly past us…….

Our first fuel stop, outside Wichita Falls, is just across the road from a large Harley Davidson dealer, a great place for a coffee break.

just for us bikers.

Only motorbikes beyond this point, what a great idea that we have not seen before. We wonder about the vast interior, with every possible accessory for the bike and the person surround us. Good thing we have BMW’s. In the coffee lounge we meet Richard and Helen, a local couple, Helen is the editor of the local HOG chapter’s newsletter. Richard, who will be 80 in a month or so, has just traded two wheels for three and has a beautiful new HD trike.

Harley Davidson handbag!

Richard and Helen with their HD trike

They are a lovely couple and the next thing we know, we are invited to lunch with them. A coffee break turns into a three hour stop. This is the joy of travelling. We spend lunchtime learning more about the USA, its people and its politics.

Texas rolls by, we pass many nodding donkeys producing oil, gas well pads and cattle, all Texas staples and the basis of economic development in Texas. While we were in Fort Worth, we would see pairs of the latest F35 fighters wheeling in the sky above. The planes are built by Lockheed Martin at their Fort Worth plant. These fighters will be seen in coming years in both the UK and Australia. Business in Texas has come a long way since the original cattle drives up the Chisholm and other trails from Texas to the Kansas railheads.

BNSF train in Texas heading west

We have not set a schedule, so our first night turns out to be in Childress. As we are preparing Streak and Storm for the night, Anne notices that Streak, her bike, is missing a bolt, which explains a sound Anne heard while riding and thought was be a stone from a short dirt stretch of road under repair. This missing bolt is one of those holding on the upper crash bars. We are directed to ‘Lukes’ a surplus store in town. Here we find a store with everything from metric bolts in our size to cowhides with the brands cut out!

Luke’s Surplus store since the 1960’s

We start to see Route 66, the famous historical road from Chicago to Los Angles, parallelling Interstate 40 as we move past Amarillo. This two lane road became known for being the route that, during the great depression of the 1930’s, many in the mid west used as a route to a new life in California. Replaced by Interstate 40 during the 1960’s and 70’s, the road and the bypassed towns lost much of their passing traffic and related income. Some towns seem to have been more affected than others. We ride through Vega, Anne spots a couple of interesting cafes as lunch possibles, we circle back make a make a stop at the Hickory Inn Cafe.

Hickory Inn Cafe in Vega TX

We enter to find the place full of locals having lunch. We grab a table and at the next table are a couple of lawmen, the local sheriff and a Texas Ranger. Only this morning I came across a web page on the Texas Rangers and learnt about their badges, made from Mexican Silver Peso coins, what a coincidence. Texas Ranger Martin T. Hood and Oldham County Sheriff David Medlin were happy to pose for photos with us They told us they had first worked together for over 28 years.

Oldham County Sheriff David Medlin and Texas Ranger Martin T. Hood

Martin T. Hood, Texas Ranger

We press on, in the next town we cross the midpoint between Chicago and LA. The total distance of Route 66 is 2,277 miles or 3,666 kilometres.

Midpoint of Route 66.

Soon after we cross the border into New Mexico, whose number plates read ‘Land of Enchantment’ as they did in 1980 when we first visited and fell love with the place. We are looking forward to our time here.

New Mexico – Land of Enchantment

When we finally reached the USA I started to think that we would have seen the last of the new, interesting and unusual and that blog content would be drastically reduced. How wrong I was, the last couple of days have provided a wealth of new experiences and pleasure for us. Enjoy.

– Anthony

Jun 18 2015

All is big in Texas

We have arrived at our hotel in Clear Lake, Houston, having dodged all the storm showers on the way.

Storm clouds are building

Can we keep avoiding the rain?!

Time to lock up the bikes and take our day pack from our top box and as we are going out, I also take my ‘town’ shoes and handbag out of my pannier and check-in. It’s been a long hot day, we are hot and sweaty and the receptionist gives a bottle of cold water each. Too many bits to hold onto, I sit down while Anthony does the paperwork. Somehow, by the time we get to our room, I am missing the bag with my shoes. Must have dropped them on the way to the room or left them on the couch. I retrace my steps – they are nowhere to be found. This is crazy!! I asked reception a number of times during our stay – no luck! Shoes I bought in London get picked up at a hotel in Houston….?! Oh well, a girl, always a girl, good excuse to go shopping sometime.

I have visited Houston about 15 times but have always been too busy with my art shows and visiting friends to do any sight seeing. Every trip, I have driven past the Johnson Space Centre and promised myself I would take time out to visit it one day. This time, I will make it happen. Especially as most of our friends have escaped Houston, or us?!, and we will miss seeing them. It feels very strange not to be seeing them – sad even, but suddenly, we don’t have enough time to spend a couple of weeks in Houston.

Luckily, we do see Deborah and Larry, especially as it is thanks to them that I held annual art shows in Houston over many years. We have not seen them for 3 years now but it feels like it was only yesterday that we last saw them. They treat us to 2 great dinners and good conversation. It is very interesting to talk them about the current political climate in the US and hear their views on Obama and the current nominations for the next president.

With Larry and Deborah, Houston

Friday, we walk over to the space centre. When we go sightseeing, we never take the bikes as we don’t want to walk around with all riding gear. Of course, we are the only ones walking again.

What a fantastic day at the Johnson Space Centre. Seeing various exhibits, rockets, capsules. I have always found space travel awe inspiring. When you think what the pioneers did, with the technology available to them!!! They were so brave, and so ingenious – they had to be! Sadly, our society has become more and more risk adverse and talking to one ex-Nasa mission manager confirmed our view that this risk aversion is stifling space activity.

Johnson Space Centre

Used to simulate the extreme cold in space

Nasa space vehicle mockup facility

The new Orion spacecraft being developed

Saturn V rocket

Saturn V rocket capsule

Pallasite, or oriented meteorite, which inspired the shapes of Mercury, Gemini & Apollo capsules and Orion spacecraft

On the way back to the hotel, we decide to walk into the sports physio building we had noticed and see whether someone can have a look at Anthony’s ankle. The verdict is that there is still some inflammation and he recommended that we either see a GP who would most likely recommend taking anti-inflammatory tablets or try the foot and joint specialist upstairs. Up we go but unfortunately, it is Friday afternoon and the waiting room has a dozen people. We’ll try again in Denver where we’ll be spending more time.

We get back in time for a quick shower before Deborah and Larry pick us up for another lovely evening and delicious home cooked dinner: we had never eaten halibut cheeks before and they were delicious!! Halibut cheeks have an unusual texture, a bit like stingray, although stingray is finer.

The next morning, we wake up to a very dark, windy and wet day.

We are leaving Clear Lake, Houston today, sometime…

We have breakfast with Deborah and her daughter Emily. We learn a bit more about American culture and laws. Emily is a lawyer and works with an insurance company providing legal advice and representation on 2nd amendment rights (the right to bear arms). Basically, people who own guns can take out an insurance policy against their mishandling their guns!! For example, someone may have just fired their gun in a certain situation in their home against someone, or they may have walked into a building that prohibits carrying a weapon while carrying a concealed weapon or someone with a concealed weapon carry permit may have accidentally exposed their weapon. Taking out such insurance means they can call this insurance hotline and get immediate advice and potentially legal representation under this insurance. While we’re chatting over breakfast, Emily’s phone goes off. “….. What is your emergency?” says Emily as she leaves the table… The thought of people around us in the breakfast area potentially carrying weapons suddenly churns my stomach.

We had planned on catching up with our friend Ginger at lunchtime and moving hotels to the north side so that we could have dinner with Jennifer and Nicole, but this message changes our plans:

We are not leaving Houston today now!

We decide to stay put. And hopefully reschedule our catchups to tomorrow. This gives us another day for photo upload, hand washing etc. and shopping!! I have nicer shoes now but it still baffles (and bugs) me that I could have lost a pair of shoes here. Very disappointing…

We wake up Sunday morning to a beautiful bright blue sky. It is not long before the storm clouds build up again though. We check the radar and pick our departure time carefully to slip between various forecast storms.

Leaving Clear Lake, the skies are clear for now…

We catch up with Jennifer and Noah on the north side of Houston for coffee and luckily, Anthony keeps a watchful on the sky. Suddenly, it is time to leave before the next band of showers reaches us.

With Jennifer and Noah, Houston

Heading out of Woodlands, Texas, leaving one lot of storms behind us

Heading north out of Woodlands, Houston

It’s been a very unusual trip to Houston for me – not filled with the usual art show activities and missing many of our friends who were out of town during our visit – Debra, Mario, Candace, Jimmy, Nicole, Ginger, Amy, you will just have to come and visit us in Australia. But it was lovely to catch up with those who didn’t escape in time for the 2slowspeeds’ visit!!!

Off we head to Fort Worth next. We spend the day unbelievably successfully dodging storm showers! This is a big state in a big country with big clouds!!

Statue of Sam Houston on I-45, Huntsville, Texas

Big clouds in Texas

Confidence is still high we will avoid the rain

Grain silo in Saginaw, Texas

We arrive at Bob and Pam’s outside Fort Worth. What started as us visiting a business associate of Anthony’s ended up as us leaving good friends by the time we left. What a wonderful welcome!! And a stunning home. We spent 3 fantastic days with Pam and Bob, discovering Fort Worth’s historic centre, city centre, a few museums and generally chatting for several hours over numerous meals. We gave their washing machine a good workout too. It was particularly interesting learning more about the current political and social climate, the various candidates for next year’s election, certain US policies etc. We appreciate their openness in sharing their views with us which helps us better understand this country.

Leddy’s boot store, Fort Worth

Leddy’s boots, Fort Worth

Fort Worth

Long horn

Fort Worth long horns, Texas

Downtown Fort Worth

Kids having fun in downtown Fort Worth

With Bob and Pam outside the Fort Worth theatre

We were originally going to spend 2 days with them, but this made us decide to spend another day:

We are not leaving Fort Worth today now

Glad we decided to stay put in Fort Worth today

The tropical storm that hit Houston was making its way to us and Fort Worth ended up right in the eye of the storm. What better place to sit out this storm – thank you Pam and Bob.

Glad and grateful we waited out Tropical Storm Bill at Pam and Bob’s

We leave Fort Worth this morning with clear blue skies.

– Anne

Jun 12 2015

It makes me smile

As I have ridden over the last week or so, a few sights caught my eye and have brought a smile to my face. Here they are, while I buy myself a day or so to finish my post on Houston!!

The smiley made me smile

Clever cows, in Texas

Love the graffiti – only in America!

Riding at 100kms/hr without a helmet is so cool if nothing goes wrong…

Policeman in Texas

Another quirky sign

Police patroling downtown

As they say, little things please little minds 🙂

– Anne

Jun 11 2015

Welcome to Texas

Our departure from Mexico is with an escort. We had seen little police presence up till this point, just the occasional patrol vehicle and a couple of checkpoints closer to the USA border, but as we by pass Nuevo Laredo to cross the border, we find we are travelling with a three vehicle convoy of military vehicles.

Mexican military armored car

We have been reminded from time to time by friends during our stay in Mexico of the dangers that exist and we need to be careful. In our case, we have sailed through without incident, which could make us, and those who follow us, overconfident but we are reminded of the risk by the police shootout with drug cartel members while we were in Mexico that left over 40 people dead and the two robberies on someone working close to where we stayed in Mexico City that serious crime does exist, so we should be alert but not fearful.

We are approaching the border and we can see the USA over the Rio Grande river with the building’s American flag. We make our way towards the border, which seems to have a number of crossing points and it is not clear which one we need to follow. We find ourselves in the VIP lane, but sadly have to be diverted out through the concrete barriers as our VIP status, in our minds, is not recognised here.

We had to decline this lovely man’s offer of floor mats and cross

Entry into the USA is easier than we had thought. After stopping at a kiosk, we are told to park past the customs inspection area to do our bike paperwork. As we ride through, past drug detection dog checks and vehicles being pulled over, we realise that we could just keep on riding and ignore paperwork process completely. Process seems to be built around US and Mexican citizens crossing regularly, which is paperwork free. Turns out we do not need a temporary import permit or the EPA document we had acquired as this only applies if we are staying in the USA, not just visiting.

We ride out of the customs and immigration area, we are in the USA after more than 11 months of travel, we have good roads ahead, we let out a huge shout, we have made it here! Couple of sets of traffic lights and we are on I35 North. Smooth tar and multiple lanes greet us as we ride north. The first thing that strikes me as we pass truck after truck and see Union Pacific locomotives pulling double stacked container trains, is a that this transport is a measure of level of business activity in the USA. As we got closer to the Mexican border, we saw increased business traffic, but here in the USA we can see a much higher level of economic development that is then reflected in people’s living standards and employment opportunities.

Double decker trains in Texas, Union Pacific.

Onward we travel, some roads under our wheels, sun shining, as usual we are in good spirits we ride further into Texas. We are surprised at the amount of green that surrounds our journey until we remember that last month, Texas had the wettest May on record. Again we see a different landscape to the one we expected.

Our first night in Texas is outside San Antonio. We are staying at a Hilton near Seaworld in the middle of Texas – I thought Seaworlds were all by the sea. The hotel is filled with families and we get our first exposure to making s’mores. These are tasty nighttime campfire snacks made with toasted marshmallows, chocolate and biscuits or crackers as they are referred to here. The hotel sells kits with skewers to make your own. Casey at reception kindly gives us a pack for free to experiment with.

Casey giving us a do-it-yourself s’mores pack

A number of fire pits surrounded by seats are setup at the hotel so we approach a family for assistance. A six year old, face covered in chocolate and marshmallow, quickly explains the process and we are away. They are tasty and we look forward to more s’mores, maybe on the 4th of July?

Learning to make s’mores

The finished s’more.

While trying to resolve Anne’s bike problem, Anne had found a BMW dealership in Austin which was willing to investigate her bike’s situation. Drew has been so helpful in following up with BMW in both the USA and Berlin, Germany. With the current BMW Motorrad recall for the larger bikes, there were just no free slots available in Austin until the end of June, which would not work for our schedule. We wanted to visit Drew to say thanks for all the help he has given us so a quick side trip to Austin was on the cards. If you are in the Austin area and need some servicing on you BMW or Triumph, do contact Drew Cooper at Lone Star BMW/ Triumph or BMW Motorcycles of Austin as they are being rebadged.

Texas highway interchange

Austin skyline

With Drew Cooper, Lone Star BMW Motorcycles of Austin, Tx

We replace my Draggin Jeans with a new pair, the old pair had reached the end of their life, five continents, many 10’s of thousands of kilometres and two accidents. I think I have my money’s worth out of these.

Anthony’s patched up Dragon Jeans are ready to be given away

On our way to Houston, we stop at La Grange, a small town that has a great feel: we smell the cut hay, hear the birds singing as we walk from our hotel past farm machinery for sale and even a Walmart with its own pedestrian crossing that goes nowhere. Everyone else is driving, but we don’t want to ride with all the motorcycle gear to dinner, so we negotiate long grass and gravel, probably to strange looks from locals, I do not think anybody walks here. It is a very pleasant town and a real change for us from the big cities – we enjoyed our time there.

Pedestrian crossing to nowhere in La Grange, Tx

Crossing the Colorado River at La Grange

Storm clouds are building

Can we keep avoiding the rain?!

Having dodged a few storms, we make it into Houston where we will spend a couple of days.

– Anthony

2slowspeeds

Loving life – Turning Dreams into Memories

Tag Archives: Santiago to UK 2015

Enjoying the land of enchantment in Santa Fe

Across North West Texas

All is big in Texas

It makes me smile

Welcome to Texas

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