Sept 21st, we left for our road trip. My wife and I left the "west bank" of New Orleans and rode to just outside Baton Rouge to meet up with two riding buddies. Being NOLA, we of course left riding in an absolute Monsoon! The 3 bikes left BR and rode to Lafayette, LA, turning north towards Shreveport. We finally shook the rain after Alexandria, LA, and had a sunny, but boring ride to Euliss, TX, where we met up with a buddy and had some good BBQ at North Main BBQ. After dinner, we jetted off and stopped for the night in Wichita Falls, TX.

Day two brought us thru Texas on Hwy 287, turning west on Interstate 40 thru Tucumcari New Mexico, ending up in Santa Fe, NM, where we met up with more friends for a great Mexican food dinner (arriving just before an uncharacteristic thunderstorm!)

The scenery got better as we went west from Amarillo...

 

After Santa Fe, we wandered out towards the 4 Corners monument taking Hwy 85 to Hwy 550 to Hwy 64 past Farmington NM and Shiprock and Teec Nos Pos AZ. We visited the monument, where I discovered my wife's butt is big enough to sit in 4 states at once! (see pic)

After that, we zipped up thru Cortez and Mancos, CO on Hwy 160 thru some nice high desert areas...we stopped in Durango CO for the night, planning to take the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad the next day. (we also had more great BBQ, this time at "Serious Texas BBQ" in Durango)

 

The train ride from Durango to Silverton was awesome...beautiful views, a great train car, and a great host on the car giving us a running commentary. After returning from the train ride, we hopped on the bikes and rode BACK to Silverton, up the wonderful Hwy 550 North from Durango....it was dark for most of the ride though, so my wife and one of the riding buddies would have to wait to see the scenery....the other guy and I had ridden this area extensively, so we knew what cool stuff they'd be seeing.

 

Of course, any of you that have ever been to Silverton, CO and rode the Million Dollar Hwy know how cool it is. We spent the next two full days in Silverton, taking day trips to Mesa Verde National Park and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park...beautiful roads and scenery all around...also, some cool cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde.

 

More pics

 

More pics

 

I'll upload more pics and finish the narration later...I'm tired!

 

Enjoying the ride report and pic's. this is first year in many that we haven't made our annual pilgrimage to CO, so this helps assuage the frustration of missing it up close.

 

Wonder why this trip sounds so familiar. Looks like I have seen some of these pics already on FB. Send you a friend thing on here lol.

 

Looks like a good trip and thanks for sharing the pics!