Big Texan is a bucket list stop for us New Yorkers. You come by me, you are gonna want to see Times Square, which we avoid at all costs. Locals.

Cook's Garage looks like a fun stop, maybe that is lunch on our southern route out of Amarillo.

Not too worried about Texas traffic, born and raised and still working in NYC.

Biggest concern is that the state of California is open come May 2nd.

Plans will continue this weekend, still following the original route, all booked to Terlingua. Need to work on Corpus, San Antonio, Austin, Galveston then New Orleans. Getting excited for this trip just typing that list of places to go see!!!! My wife is supposed to be doing a bunch of research today for hotels in those areas, should have my Texas exit strategy setup and ready to report on Monday. I hope.

Thanks again gents for the help, we are not done yet but the support has been great.

 

The Governor issued an executive order closing all gyms, schools, bars and dine-in restaurants until April 3. Drive-ups and take out food service is not affected by this order. There is no way to predict what the situation will be when you start your vacation The Governor's order follows the recommendations of the CDC so you're likely to find these restrictions in every state you visit. You can contact me anytime for updates on the status of Texas.

 

Hit the Boquillas crossing in Big Bend. Take your passport, take a boat across, donkey into town, eat some good Mexican food, buy some trinkets, donkey ride back to the crossing.

 

Well trip is being postponed, just not sure if to the Fall or a complete do-over for 2021. Strange days indeed. Thanks for the advice, it will be used, just not sure when. Later.

 

Sorry to hear Bill. Hope it turns around. I'm still planning on the July trip, but its month to month now.

 

Fall would be a great time to go.

From Taos, take 64 over the mountains through Cimarron, one of the all time great motorcycle rides.

From there, if you want to cross into Texas, I'd do Santa Rosa -> Clovis, cross over there, interesting terrain. Read up on the history of the llano region, it'll add to the trip.

If you decide to do Roswell, and you have time, get on 25 south outside of Cimarron, stay on that till you get to Santa Fe (which is a great town) then take 14 through Madrid south, staying to the east of the Sandia mountains. Carry that across the 40 through Chillili and Mountainair (route numbers change, just follow the map) and then make your way down to Carizzozo. From there, through Ruidoso to Roswell if you must (there's really not much to see there, although the ride through Billy the Kid country is glorious) or, consider 70 past White Sands, which I found interesting, and enter Texas at El Paso. You wind up with a long grind -- a *long* grind -- down the 10 and the 90 till you get to the big bend region. Crossing over near Lubbock also buys you a long miserable grind through the panhandle, take your choice. I will say, Roswell - Carlsbad - Pecos isn't quite the grind, there are some interesting roads through there. Watch Lonesome Dove to prepare. That sets you up to roll through Alpine and Marfa, cool friendly towns, they consider themselves to the the gateway to Big Bend. (Tempting to say you could watch "I love my Dick" to prepare for that portion, but... don't.)

Fuel-wise, any time you're riding out west, make sure you have at least a 200 mile range. Should be fine on a touring bike but if you have less than 5gal in the tank, might want to bring some extra fuel along.

Make sure you're layered up for a range of temps, easy for it to be 50 and miserably rainy in the mountains and then an hour later 100 degrees out on the plains. I really like a cotton poly base layer, like Hayne's Xtemp. It's good enough as a base layer when it's chilly, feels comfy enough when it's warm, and holds enough water to be useful for evaporative cooling when it gets blisteringly hot. Probably not a terrible idea to have two liters per person on the bike. In the fall it's a convenience; in June, a life-saver.

I'm not a Texan but I've crossed Texas several times by car and bike. If you have to go through a city -- and you pretty much have to -- San Antonio is the least painful imo. I like the ride from San Antonio to Austin, you catch a corner of hill country. From Austin you can cut cross country and take the beltway north of Houston and go from there. Don't focus on getting through Texas, that'll drive you bonkers. Just savor the ride.

 

We are talking at home about taking the trip either in September-November or just push off to 2021. No one knows what will be open in the Fall, this **** could still be going on. Maybe by June we will have a better idea.

If we do the trip in the Fall, my plan was to do it in reverse of our previous route, to take advantage of warmer temps. So we would be leaving NY mid-September, heading south to Florida. Then a hard right towards Texas via the Gulf Coast, NoLa etc. That would put us in Texas for the first or second week of October. Barring hurricane nonsense (and why not 2020 has already been a **** show) how does that time of year work for weather? And if you guys know, also concerned about NM and AZ in late October, still warm enough to ride in the mountains?

Thanks as always, chasing moving targets in NY.

 

I usually try to go to Colorado in Sept. AZ/NW should be fine then. But further north into higher elevations in Colorado might be a problem.
Locals would know more..

 

In nm, anything south of the 40 is fine through thanksgiving. In the mountains you'll be past peak and potentially very cold in the mornings. Consider peeling off in socorro and ride through Arizona mountains, don't miss salt River canyon (a run I also did in November one year). If you go 66 get a map, there are cool stretches between Albuquerque and Grants that aren't well marked. I'd take a side trip out of grants through El malpais and zuni. Be sure to follow old 66 from seligman to kingman.

 

I like taking 64 the other way, watching the vista open up below, approaching Eagle Nest. I enjoyed Lincoln County, the Malpais, the museum in Alamagordo. . . I've stayed overnight many times in Pecos, but that was because it was a convenient and cheap overnight while flying.

I never skip San Antonio when I'm in the area, always hit the Alamo and the Riverwalk. Years ago I was overnight in Austin, somebody directed me to Tony Roma's, and the waiter happened to mention a show in Gruene at the big hall that night. So I went, and saw Jerry Jeff Walker, with a packed house. Noticed he was wearing a shirt I'd seen on sale at Shepler's earlier that day.

Also liked the Texas Ranger museum in Waco, the home of Dr. Pepper.