I’m sore tonight. I left Los Alamos in the pouring rain and headed over the Jemez around 3pm. It rained pretty hard in the first part of the Jemez, there were rocks washed down in areas I have never seen before. I rode through this no problem, though, as all my gear is waterproof. I made a vow that if State 4 was dry by the time I hit the turn off to 126, I would take 126, otherwise I would go the long, paved way.
State 4 was dry as can be miles before the turn off, and the radar map had showed that the rain was to the south of where I was to go, so, I headed down 126. The first part was great, dry, but not too dusty, my new tires doing a good job with the little rocks and etc. One guy in a Subaru stopped me, and asked how far it was to the highway back the way I had come. He looked frazzled. There was a bunch of little girls in the back seat.
Continuing on, the road turned from ‘tuff’ (volcanic ash) to a clay. I came up over a hill, and found just a little bit of mud, and the next thing I knew, the front end washed out, and I was down. I got off the bike and turned it off and looked it over. No real damage to the bike, but my side case was shattered. Ah well. I managed to stand it up, and move it to the side of the road, and move all my clothes and etc into a different bag.
Packing up to head back to Utah in the morning. Spike always finds a way to climb into one of my bags. I think it is a hint. I’m not sure he would actually make 2 minutes on the bike though…
I’m going to Farmington tomorrow, staying with Chris and his family there, as Chris is headed up to visit. Going to ride up into the Jemez, and then take ‘highway’ 126 over the mountain to Cuba. I say ‘highway’ because it is closed in the winter since it is entirely dirt road. Should be fun. The V-Strom is tuned up and will soon be packed up as well. Thursday morning I am headed to Utah. Should be fun.
OK that is a bad picture. The moon had a lunar eclipse last night, and I just happened to wake up at 4:45am and go take this shot. Not enough light to make the autofocus happy, and it was too small in the viewfinder to manual focus, but you get the idea.
Regardless, I’ve been running here and there for the last month or so, back and forth from Utah. I should hopefully have a place rented up there in a couple of weeks and be able to start hauling things up there in bulk, but… not just yet. Right now, I just kind of sit in limbo while I wait for everything to fall into place. Let me tell you how much fun that is.
I’m headed back up on Wednesday, going to ride the motorcycle up since my pickup is already up there. I put on a new tire and did a valve shim job, so the bike is ready to go. I’ll try to update with pictures as I go, but we’ll see. Busy busy.
I finally left Chicago, but not before I had a chance to visit the Sears Tower.
Click here for more shots from the observation deck. It was a cloudy day, so I don’t think I saw the 3 states that you are supposed to be able to see.
I left out and headed for Oklahoma. Along the way I passed some old places…
I finally arrived in Oklahoma about an hour before dark.
Christy put me up for the night. It was fun catching up with an old friend. I had not seen here since I was through Tulsa last with Danny on our way to New York, back in college.
Welp, after delaying for a couple of days so I could tune up the bike a bit and try to avoid some rain, I’m finally about to roll out of Chicago and head back home. I’ve had a good time here, working and hanging out with friends. Hopefully I’ll get around to some picture uploads sometime soonish. I went up in the Sears tower the other day and took a bunch of shots which may or may not come out.
Regardless, 1300 miles to home. Saturday I’m stopping over at Christy’s place outside of Tulsa, so that’ll be an almost 700 mile day, and then it is off to Albuquerque and Los Alamos. So, if you don’t hear from me, feel free to txt me, I’ll be out there somewhere.
Happy trails and all that.