Day 5 - Oklahoma City OK to Memphis TN

Total miles: 462

Route: 40E

By the numbers:
1 - very short red dress on a hooker at our hotel in OKC
1 - very cute hotel clerk in Memphis
2 - instances of legal drinking in public
6284 - semis passed

Our morning started with a hooker in a red dress walking past us in the hotel. I think her dress was originally intended to be a long shirt. Yet she wore it as a dress with nothing else. She was very good looking -- like she had just come from a club in LA. The other working girls we had seen in OKC and ABQ made it very clear that prostitution is alive and well in middle america.

It seems the bible belt isn't so chaste after all...not that I really thought that. I found this at our first stop in OK and I use it to protect my iPod from the sun during the day. But maybe I too can find a good wife with this service :-)


Eastern OK is very pretty - rolling hills, green, and a few lakes scattered on either side of the road.




We ran into a MSF (Motorcycle Safety Foundation) instructor from NM on his way to Little Rock. Nice guy.


But I was really taken with AR. The Ozarks are gorgeous and Little Rock seemed like a nice place. We made a wrong turn at lunch and ended up in a neighbor hood we shouldn't have been it. Yet, a little girl waved at us as we rode by. We just hoped it was ok to wave back...








There was a 50 mile section of 40E approaching Memphis that was FULL of semi trucks. Full doesn't begin to descibe it. They took up both lanes sometimes 15 deep. The cars darted around them and we just treated it like another commute day on 101.

Approaching Memphis





We made it to Memphis before sun down and went to grab a beer by the mighty Mississippi.




We wandered to Beale St after a couple beers and realized it was bike night. Cool.



We ate dinner at BB Kings because Tim said it had a fried PB&J sandwich. Turns out they don't offer that anymore but their pulled pork is fantastic. We looked everywhere for Elvis's favorite snack with no luck. We ended up at a gift store for Tim as I made chit chat with the best looking woman we had seen. Too bad MA is so far from CA.

With no fried PB&J we settled on a skillet fried apple pie with ice cream. Yum.

We can't believe the road signs. First, let's start with restaurants. Would you eat at the "Rib Crib" or the "Pig-Out Palace"?!? Or how about the "Posessing land in the name of Chist" sign. Or the signs about not beating you kid. They never cease to amaze...

Day 5 pics here: http://flickr.com/photos/pacifisticuffs/sets/72157607656487417/

Day 4 - Albuquerque NM to Oklahoma City OK

Total miles:544

Route:40E

By the numbers:
1 - missed state sign
2.99 - price per gallon of gas in OKC
59 - price for a set of bull horns at a truck stop in Adrian TX

We got off to an early start since we had a long way to ride. Peggy made us some coffee and that served as breakfast for a 150 miles. The coffee was hot but not hot enough for morning in the high desert. We made it to Santa Rosa NM at 9:30-ish and found a little diner on route 66. The green chile cheese omlette seemed like the best omlette I've ever had.

We get back on the road and had to get used to the sights. All we saw was straight road for a hundred miles at a time. Every couple hours the road would turn ever so slightly in one direction. I snapped a few pics of NM and TX. And it was generally flat with a few slight hills.











Everything IS bigger in Texas - the flys, the cows, and especially the people. I can see why after all the fat-inducing food. I've had I need some fiber... Brisket has fiber in it, right?

I want to make a recommendation to the OK DOT - please put a sign in TX that warns me about the small welcome sign coming up. We completely flew past it and the next road was 8 miles up. Ooops.

OK was prettier than I had expected. The rolling hills, scattered rocks, and green grass were a pleasant change of scenery from TX. The landscape is so expansive that I thought a set of far away hills (50 miles) was water because it was so dark in contrast with the light colored hils.





A few sunset shots.




We finally make it into OKC and head downtown. We pull into the Sheraton and learn that a room is $185 a night. Too much for OKC we surmise and Tim pulls out his laptop. CJ the dor man comes out and chats with us since we're the only guys in the driveway. He asks us why we havet checked-in and we explain our money situation. We chat for a bit while the laptop tries to connect to the Internet and CJ recommends the Bricktown Hotel. Turns out it's $89 a night with free breakfast, 24 hour shuttle,and it feet from 40 for a fast take off in the morning. Perfect!



We park our bikes out front, clean up a bit and head to Bricktown for dinner and beers at The Bricktown Brewery. For the record, CA makes better beer.

We wandered the Bricktown canal area and I'm sure it's a fun place on a weekend. I wish I had my camera to snap a few pics of the canal, the bad cover band, and all the old brick architecture. The real gas maps on the street were a nice touch.

Sleep can't come soon enough since we have another 450 miles to Memphis tomorrow...

So far, we're holding up OK. We're both tired and my mid-back is stiff and sore from staying in the same position all day. Tim said, "Your the most fidgety person I've ever met!!". True - it keeps me moving on the bike and makes the time pass but it's also a distraction from riding so I need to focus a bit more...

All of the day 4 uploaded pics can be found here: http://flickr.com/photos/pacifisticuffs/sets/72157607624953579/

Day 3 - Tuba City AZ to Albuquerque NM

Total miles: 336

Route: 264E, 491S, 40E, 25S

By the numbers:
1 - massively disappoint Continental Divide marker
2 -number of Indian Reservations ridden through - Navajo & Hopi
7713 - highest elevation reached today by motorcycle

We got a good night sleep and headed to the breakfast joint in the same parking lot as the hotel. It seemed odd that, much like the night before, all we saw were Native Americans and European tourists. I can understand the Native Americans but why would a European end up in Tuba City off all places?!? I think they need to fire their travel agent. Our breakfast was delicious (heuvos rancheros with green chile sauce on top) and we packed and hit the road. It sure was much easier than dealing with the luggage shenanigans at the Monte Carlo.

The road out of Tuba City was boring at first then stunning. In hindsight, I'm glad we got stuck in Tuba City so we didn't have to take Hwy 40. We got a much better view of AZ and NM...















Riding through the reservations really made me appreciate the fact that I'm able to be on this trip. It's hard to see the "have-nots" when you're on a trip of excess like this...

We made it to Gallup NM for lunch and were disappointed that neither of us saw a "Welcome to New Mexico" sign. I guess we're not welcome here. We'll make up for it by taking a picture of it when we leave NM and head into TX.

Tim and I are trying hard to avoid any chain restaurants so we can enjoy a little local flavor. Well, lunch didn't let me down. We ended up on Route 66 heading back West when we settled on a restaurant aptly named "Mexican Restaurant". We head in and we're the only guys in the place. Maybe this whole "local flavor" thing isn't such a good idea. But we were hungry and needed some food. I actually settled on the buffet which luckily was a great idea. I had multiple servings of the spicy carne adovada, green chile enciladas, and rice. Yum.

We truck on to ABQ and make it to my Mom's cousins (does that make her my cousin??) house where she graciously offered to let us stay the night. We chatted for a bit, had a beer, and cleaned up a little before hitting the road. She had made resevations for the restaurant at the top of Sandia Peak so we headed out to see what the fuss about this mountain was all about.

Well, there's a tram that goes to the top of Sandia Peak at 10,378 feet. I'm afraid of heights so, I was happy I couldn't see below as we rose 20 feet per second. The views were stunning. You can see in every direction from up there. I could see Sante Fe which was 44 miles away. I'm sure the views during the day are amazing...



Dinner at High Finance was great but we rushed home to get some laundry done and get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day...

You can see all of the days uploaded pics, go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pacifisticuffs/sets/72157607590362438/

PS - I have about 100 pics per day that I'll upload when I get home.

Day 2 - Las Vegas NV to ummm...where are we?

Total miles: 366

Route: 147, 166, 93, 40, 64, 89, 160

By the numbers:
0 - fees paid to get into the National Parks (good luck)
1/2 - size in inches of the hail that pelted us today (bad luck)
1 - 80 square mile power outage (bad luck)
2 - rain storms
2106 - calories in my chicken fried steak lunch
7508 - elevation in feet at our highest point
??? - number of people who fall to their death trying to get a good photo at the Grand Canyon

So, we drank too much last night. Big deal - it's vacation. Bit it did mean we didn't leave the motorcyclist hating Monte Carlo until 10am. No big deal we thought...

We decided to head over to Lake Mead on our way to the Hoover Dam. We lucked out that there was a triathlon in progress so there was no gate fee. This was a good start to our day! Or so we thought. The views were a surprise - it was gorgeous:










Just 20 miles later we hit the Hoover Dam. It was hot by this point and we were not pleased with the long wait to get across. Looks like the state has heard this complaint before and they're completing a new road to by pass the dam directly for those who just need to get to the other side.





Obligatory state sign shot




We figured we had an easy day but we were wrong. We were on I40 towards the Grand Canyon and we noticed this ominous cloud with lightening shooting out of it.


We ride on because...well, we have no other way to get there. I'm a California kid so a "bad" storm drops 1/2 an inch and lasts 30 whole minutes. This was not one of those storms. I thought we might just miss it but moments later the wind picked up to 40mph, the temperature dropped 20 degrees, and the deluge began. All of this happened in about 1 minute. We pull over to try to put our rain covers on but that was an exercise in futility for me (note to self - buy trash bags in ABQ). There's at least an inch of standing water and I notice the rain drops hurt. Time to duck behind my tank bag. Turns out it was hail about a 1/2 inch in size. Fortunately, it was over in about 20 minutes and we enjoyed the warm weather.

This set up back a bit and the late start made me concerned about getting to the Grand Canyon in time. But we continued on and finally made to to the Grand Canyon. We pull up to the gate and the gorgeous blonde ranger gave us some good news - the normal $25 fee is free today! Twice in one day?!? Maybe our good luck has returned...

On the way to "The Canyon" as the locals like to say






Stupid? You bet - and totally worth it.




We left the park as the sun was setting and quickly snapped a few more pics so we could hit the road before it got too dark.





It got dark quickly as the sun dipped behind the clouds and we made it out of the park and onto Route 64 to Cameron AZ for gas. It was hard to tell where the dark clouds ended and the dark night sky began. Again, the wind whipped up and it dumped on us for a few minutes. We contemplated pulling over but decided to ride it out and got lucky. It ended shortly there after and the skys cleared. I was able to clearly see the big dipper way out in the middle of nowhere. The desert at night has an ominous feeling to it. And it got worse once we got to Cameron to fill up our almost empty tanks.

We pull into the dark gas station in Cameron and realize we're SOL. The lights are out and it's pitch black everywhere. This means we can't get gas. Before panicking, I pull up the nearest fuel stop on the GPS and see that it's either 20 miles north to Tuba City or 40 miles south to our destination in Flagstaff. We decide to not test the limits of our tanks and ride to Tuba City. Its dark out there and it didn't get better as we pull into Tuba City. The entire city is dark. Pitch black. Oh shit - we're not gonna get any gas here, either. We pull into the Sonic and try to figure out what to do.





We chat with the manager at the Sonic to learn that the storm we road through blew out a transformer to the entire area and we should have power back in 3-5 hours. 3-5 hours?!?! Well, at least we have some beef jerky and water to serve as our dinner. He recommends we stay at the Quality Inn just up the street so we head over. They have a generator going but it doesn't do much. We rent a room and try to fumble around with my headlamp. Just as we start to take our luggage off the power comes back on. Oh well, we'll stay in Tuba City tonight and cancel my reservation in Flagstaff. The only "restaurant" open was McDonalds so we head over for a crappy burger and some fries.

The map shows that we can get down to ABQ through the reservations and we should have some great sights tomorrow...

Day 1 - San Jose CA to Las Vegas NV

Day 1 total: 577 miles

Route: 101S, 152E, 99S, 58E, 15N

By the numbers:
0 - times Tim has been to Las Vegas (!)
1 - dropped iPod (luckily, it still works)
1 - comped meal because the Monte Carlo hates motorcyclists
4 - biscuits covered in delicious gravy
11 - dollars spent on a single whiskey
3885 - suicidal bugs

Tim and I met at 6:30 at the Starbucks down the street to grab a coffee and a bite to eat. His girlfriend (Hi Vlatka!) saw us off and we hit the road about 7:15. We were both worried about the heat but, because we left early, we mostly beat it. The central valley quickly passed by andI plugged along the familiar scenery with my iPod blaring.

We stopped in Mojave for some gas and lunch at Mike's Roadhouse Cafe. Luckily, Tim and I have impeccable taste and had breakfast for lunch. I enjoyed some delicious biscuits and gravy with my "hobo" skillet. I hope I don't regret it. We didn't push it since we have two more week of this so we took a few minute break at each stop.

Basically, the ride to Vegas was uneventful. It was straight. Then it was straight some more. Then it got hot. And we got more straight after that. I suspect that I'll appreciate the variety of California landscape after I visit some less fortunate states. We can easily make it back to any of these parts so we got out of town as quickly as possible.




On the way to Vegas. We intent to continue taking pics of state signs.


30 miles out of Las Vegas


Tim hadn't been to Vegas before so I took us down the strip. Bad idea on a Saturday night. It was hot and we hit every light. But that gave me a chance to grab a few shots of capitalism in action...err, man-made marvels of bad architecture.


We finally make it to the Monte Carlo only to learn that the Monte Carlo hates motorcyclists. They don't allow motorcyclists to pull up to the lobby due to construction. Instead, we had to use the parking lot across the street and drag our gear around. Needless to say, we were not pleased. Luckily, I was able to get them to comp us dinner. I have to say, free filet mignon tastes better!

After dinner, we wandered around a few local casinos (MGM, New York New York, etc) and finally settled on Diablo Cantina back at the Monte Carlo. Well...I'll just let the pics do the talking.






Happy birthday, Brian! Sorry we missed your party...hopefully these ladies will help you forgive us.



We didn't get in until 1am - I'm sure we'll be *fine* tomorrow....

You can find all of our day 1 pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pacifisticuffs/sets/72157607556560245/