Dirt_Dad
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Alright, chances are you've seen the preview so you know how this trip ended. Time to do the actual report.
This all started when we (wife, daughter, me) were watching the Colorado episode of Aerial America. It was fascinating, and by they time they were showing the giant swing out over the canyon my daughter and I looked at each other and knew we were going. So we made tenative plans for a Colorado vacation to drive around the state and see all the amazing stuff from the show.
Our daughter's long term boyfriend decided to throw a monkey wrench into this plan by becoming my daughter's fiance. That set off a chain reaction of different priorities and it was clear, our daughter was out. Still kicked around the idea of my wife and I flying out and driving around, but there was no commitment to it. That's when my wife, Dirt_Mom...i.e. DM, brought up riding the bikes out there. That set off a whole new set of chain reactions...all good.
Fast forward to plans made, prep completed, well all prep except which way to go. We debated a northern approach through Yellowstone then down to Colorado, but decided to throw that one out. There was a lot of cold, even snow storms happening just a couple of days before our departure. We decided to take a southern approach to hopefully allow the northern areas to warm up. Due to all the tornados along the southern route, we also had concerns about that, but it's a big world and tornados are fairly isolated events. Odds were good we'd not hit any...right?
Our daughter took this shot a few minutes before the departure on May 21.
Day 1: Home to Pikeville, KY
Conditions: rain, cold, average temp 47 degrees f
Ending mileage: 400
It was unusually cold and we were in and out of rain all morning on I-81. Traffic came to a stop at Harrisonburg and I checked my Zumo 665 for a traffic report. It told me no traffic ahead. 30 minutes and 3 miles later we reached a crashed truck with the Zumo still reporting no traffic issues. I'm not all that impressed with the traffic feature of the pricy Zumo. At least the weather feature accurately predicted it was about to start raining again and not let up for a long time. It got that one right.
After another hour of rain and 47 degree temps, we were both realizing we had not dressed for the weather. We pulled up to the pumps at a little truck stop to get out of the rain and put on heated gear. Most of the pumps were empty, so we thought no one would care. Of course after the outer shells were stripped off, all the pumps filled up, and a truck took position waiting behind us. Damn... Then the annoyed worker/owner came up to tell us to hurry up. Can't blame him, but it was just bad timing for us.
Later in the afternoon the rain stopped and we enjoyed some great twisties near Twin Falls and Baily Lake in WV. I had ridden some of these roads before with Spklbuk. Great stuff, but not quite as much fun when going up a mountain twisty stuck behind a Coke truck, or a couple of coal trucks. Oh well, we'll take what we can get.
Enjoyed a nice dry ride into Kentucky and found a hotel for the evening.
Day 2: Pikeville, KY to Sikeston, MO
Conditions: 47 degrees in morning. No rain.
Miles: 480
Lovely ride through Kentucky. Wonderful parkways. They were 4 lanes, but empty and very nice. The day warmed up slowly allowing us to shed gear at each stop. Both of us were very impress with KY. Roads are well thought-out with passing lane on most every significant up hill.
To keep our brains engaged we started awarding points to each other. DM said I picked a nice road and awarded me 5 points. She was better able to identify one thing or another, I'd award her 50 points. This banter went on back and forth, and by the end of the day some how DM had 125 points to my negative 3.
Day 3: Sikeston, MO to Tulsa, OK
Conditions: cool morning, no temp recorded.
Miles: 400
Up early on the road before 7am. Ride through southern Missouri was more hilly and curvy than anticipated. Enjoyed the ride very much.
Arrived in Oklahoma with threatening skies. At the state line the road became a toll road. To exit for gas you needed to wait in line to pay a toll to get off the road. Get gas, wait in line to get a ticket to get back on the highway. We're not talking big money, but it was an annoying "welcome to Oklahoma...now pay us" kind of thing. Oklahoma was the only state on the ride to make a negative impression.
Of course you could not be in Oklahoma in May without a major thunderstorm. One let loose just as we parked the bikes under the hotel awning for the evening. Man, they do get big storms there. Plus there was massive flooding in both Texas and Oklahoma while we were there.
Day 4: Tulsa, OK to Texas and Kansas ultimately to Ralton, NM
Conditions: rainy morning, gray then sunny afternoon, back to gray skies
Miles: 576
Great day riding. Started off at 6:30 AM in the rain. Out of rain after 2 hours. Once again Oklahoma brought traffic to a stop in a couple of places to collect tolls. Oklahoma did have swallows (thanks for the correction Don in Lodi) seeming to swarming under the bridges, and it was very amusing. Going under some bridges it was heads down to ride through all the swallows that somehow never hit you. DM noticed all the little swallows homes that were attached under each bridge.
Traffic was very light so no danger to stop and get a picture. Never seen anything like this. The swallows were the fun part of going through Oklahoma.
(Note: I called them bats earlier. Don in Lodi sent me a note to let me know they were swallows. DM also thought they were some kind of bird. I've never seen anything else fly like that except a bat. Live and learn.)
Eventually we did see some land formations other than flat. Actually thought this one looked kind of interesting.
And of course being in Oklahoma in the afternoon I was not surprised to find tornado chasers. This guy was in a caravan of 4 chase vehicles.
We continued on to hit the top of the Texas panhandle. It was our first return to Texas since meeting there, getting married and living there until 1987. After a 30 minute ride through rainy Texas we returned to the Oklahoma panhandle, realized we were so close to Kansas that it would be a shame not to say we rode in Kansas. We pointed the bikes north and made the 17 mile ride up there as well. Our entire Kansas ride can be seen in this photo.
We took the dirt road to the right of the sign, exited just behind the sign, then returned to the Oklahoma panhandle. Kansas...check.
Despite how the sky looked in New Mexico we managed to miss most of the rain. I thought this photo captured the situation pretty well.
Dark menacing skies ahead, in the mirror a beautiful sunshine filled day. Somehow we missed most of the rain getting to our hotel that evening.
At dinner I was stunned by the idea we had ridden to the dessert southwest. Looking out the restaurant window at the mountains I realized every time I had ever been here it required an airplane. We just rode here on here bikes. It was truly a cool feeling of doing something really different and we both felt great about it. We chuckled remembering the time back in 2007 when we rode 80 miles from home to stay at the lodge on Skyline Drive. Back then we marveled about being so far from home with only motorcycles. My how times have changed.
Up next...Colorado.
This all started when we (wife, daughter, me) were watching the Colorado episode of Aerial America. It was fascinating, and by they time they were showing the giant swing out over the canyon my daughter and I looked at each other and knew we were going. So we made tenative plans for a Colorado vacation to drive around the state and see all the amazing stuff from the show.
Our daughter's long term boyfriend decided to throw a monkey wrench into this plan by becoming my daughter's fiance. That set off a chain reaction of different priorities and it was clear, our daughter was out. Still kicked around the idea of my wife and I flying out and driving around, but there was no commitment to it. That's when my wife, Dirt_Mom...i.e. DM, brought up riding the bikes out there. That set off a whole new set of chain reactions...all good.
Fast forward to plans made, prep completed, well all prep except which way to go. We debated a northern approach through Yellowstone then down to Colorado, but decided to throw that one out. There was a lot of cold, even snow storms happening just a couple of days before our departure. We decided to take a southern approach to hopefully allow the northern areas to warm up. Due to all the tornados along the southern route, we also had concerns about that, but it's a big world and tornados are fairly isolated events. Odds were good we'd not hit any...right?
Our daughter took this shot a few minutes before the departure on May 21.
Day 1: Home to Pikeville, KY
Conditions: rain, cold, average temp 47 degrees f
Ending mileage: 400
It was unusually cold and we were in and out of rain all morning on I-81. Traffic came to a stop at Harrisonburg and I checked my Zumo 665 for a traffic report. It told me no traffic ahead. 30 minutes and 3 miles later we reached a crashed truck with the Zumo still reporting no traffic issues. I'm not all that impressed with the traffic feature of the pricy Zumo. At least the weather feature accurately predicted it was about to start raining again and not let up for a long time. It got that one right.
After another hour of rain and 47 degree temps, we were both realizing we had not dressed for the weather. We pulled up to the pumps at a little truck stop to get out of the rain and put on heated gear. Most of the pumps were empty, so we thought no one would care. Of course after the outer shells were stripped off, all the pumps filled up, and a truck took position waiting behind us. Damn... Then the annoyed worker/owner came up to tell us to hurry up. Can't blame him, but it was just bad timing for us.
Later in the afternoon the rain stopped and we enjoyed some great twisties near Twin Falls and Baily Lake in WV. I had ridden some of these roads before with Spklbuk. Great stuff, but not quite as much fun when going up a mountain twisty stuck behind a Coke truck, or a couple of coal trucks. Oh well, we'll take what we can get.
Enjoyed a nice dry ride into Kentucky and found a hotel for the evening.
Day 2: Pikeville, KY to Sikeston, MO
Conditions: 47 degrees in morning. No rain.
Miles: 480
Lovely ride through Kentucky. Wonderful parkways. They were 4 lanes, but empty and very nice. The day warmed up slowly allowing us to shed gear at each stop. Both of us were very impress with KY. Roads are well thought-out with passing lane on most every significant up hill.
To keep our brains engaged we started awarding points to each other. DM said I picked a nice road and awarded me 5 points. She was better able to identify one thing or another, I'd award her 50 points. This banter went on back and forth, and by the end of the day some how DM had 125 points to my negative 3.
Day 3: Sikeston, MO to Tulsa, OK
Conditions: cool morning, no temp recorded.
Miles: 400
Up early on the road before 7am. Ride through southern Missouri was more hilly and curvy than anticipated. Enjoyed the ride very much.
Arrived in Oklahoma with threatening skies. At the state line the road became a toll road. To exit for gas you needed to wait in line to pay a toll to get off the road. Get gas, wait in line to get a ticket to get back on the highway. We're not talking big money, but it was an annoying "welcome to Oklahoma...now pay us" kind of thing. Oklahoma was the only state on the ride to make a negative impression.
Of course you could not be in Oklahoma in May without a major thunderstorm. One let loose just as we parked the bikes under the hotel awning for the evening. Man, they do get big storms there. Plus there was massive flooding in both Texas and Oklahoma while we were there.
Day 4: Tulsa, OK to Texas and Kansas ultimately to Ralton, NM
Conditions: rainy morning, gray then sunny afternoon, back to gray skies
Miles: 576
Great day riding. Started off at 6:30 AM in the rain. Out of rain after 2 hours. Once again Oklahoma brought traffic to a stop in a couple of places to collect tolls. Oklahoma did have swallows (thanks for the correction Don in Lodi) seeming to swarming under the bridges, and it was very amusing. Going under some bridges it was heads down to ride through all the swallows that somehow never hit you. DM noticed all the little swallows homes that were attached under each bridge.
Traffic was very light so no danger to stop and get a picture. Never seen anything like this. The swallows were the fun part of going through Oklahoma.
(Note: I called them bats earlier. Don in Lodi sent me a note to let me know they were swallows. DM also thought they were some kind of bird. I've never seen anything else fly like that except a bat. Live and learn.)
Eventually we did see some land formations other than flat. Actually thought this one looked kind of interesting.
And of course being in Oklahoma in the afternoon I was not surprised to find tornado chasers. This guy was in a caravan of 4 chase vehicles.
We continued on to hit the top of the Texas panhandle. It was our first return to Texas since meeting there, getting married and living there until 1987. After a 30 minute ride through rainy Texas we returned to the Oklahoma panhandle, realized we were so close to Kansas that it would be a shame not to say we rode in Kansas. We pointed the bikes north and made the 17 mile ride up there as well. Our entire Kansas ride can be seen in this photo.
We took the dirt road to the right of the sign, exited just behind the sign, then returned to the Oklahoma panhandle. Kansas...check.
Despite how the sky looked in New Mexico we managed to miss most of the rain. I thought this photo captured the situation pretty well.
Dark menacing skies ahead, in the mirror a beautiful sunshine filled day. Somehow we missed most of the rain getting to our hotel that evening.
At dinner I was stunned by the idea we had ridden to the dessert southwest. Looking out the restaurant window at the mountains I realized every time I had ever been here it required an airplane. We just rode here on here bikes. It was truly a cool feeling of doing something really different and we both felt great about it. We chuckled remembering the time back in 2007 when we rode 80 miles from home to stay at the lodge on Skyline Drive. Back then we marveled about being so far from home with only motorcycles. My how times have changed.
Up next...Colorado.
