2 weeks- 3500 miles
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Joined: Dec 2009
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From: Danbury, Texas
2 weeks- 3500 miles
Recently completed a 2 week, 3500 mile trip from our home in Danbury, Texas through Big Bend, Tombstone, Az, Moab, Ut, Grand Junction, Co, Canon City, Co, to Amarillo and back home. One of the best vacations I have ever had. Enjoyed good weather and saw lots of beautiful scenery. There were 4 people on 3 bikes. Me on my '10 Ultra Classic, my wife, Fran, on her '06 Heritage Softtail, and our friends Gary and Donna on their '11 Limited. I'll try to give a synopsis of the daily travel and post some pictures. I'm new at this posting stuff, so bear with me as I proceed.
Day 1- 407 miles. From our home in Danbury, Texas via back roads to I-10 at Sealy, Texas and then on to Sonora, Texas. Pretty uneventful as we had travelled this route many times before. Stayed at the Comfort Inn in Sonora for the night.
Day 1- 407 miles. From our home in Danbury, Texas via back roads to I-10 at Sealy, Texas and then on to Sonora, Texas. Pretty uneventful as we had travelled this route many times before. Stayed at the Comfort Inn in Sonora for the night.
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From: Danbury, Texas
2 weeks--3500 miles
Day 2--313.4 miles--May 22--Sonora to Fort Stockton via I-10 then 385 to Marathon. Ate lunch at a small cafe next door to the historic Gage Hotel. Can't remember the name, but had a good sandwich. Then on to Big Bend National Park. We endured the hottes weather of the trip at the temperatures were near 100 and the speed limit in the park of 45mph made for a hot slow ride. We stayed at the Chisos Mountain Lodge in the park I had been to the park many times in the past, but had never spent the night at the lodge. Uneventful except for the fact that our rooms, that we had paid for in January were not ready. Took about an hour to get this straightened out and combined with the excess heat, we decided not to do any more riding in the park that day. Had a good meal at the restaurant at the lodge and settled in to enjoy the sunset through the "window" at the Basin.
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From: Danbury, Texas
2 weeks--3500 miles
Day 3--400.7 miles--May 23 After a great breakfast at the restaurant by the Lodge in Big Bend, we exited the park to the West and fueled up in Study Butte. Headed West on 170 through Terlingua toward Presidio. This is a very nice route. Steep grades and nice scenery as we followed the Rio Grande. From Presidio, we headed North to Marfa where we had some good Tex-Mex food at Mando's Restaurant. Fran had a small incident in the gravel parking lot as she used too much front brake and slowly laid her bike on the crash guards. She probably could have saved it if her foot hadn't slid on the gravel. No harm to her or the bike. From Marfa we took Hwy 90 to I-10 at Van Horn. From Van Horn we went through El Paso to our destination of the Comfort Inn in Las Cruces, NM.
We fought heavy winds most of the way on I-10 and the construction and grooved pavement in El Paso was rather unpleasant. Has a great grilled chicken salad at the Ramada Inn next door to our hotel. Fuel mileage suffered somewhat due to the strong head winds and passing semis took a little longer that normal. Gary's 103 with a Fuel Moto upgrade with catalyst free head pipes had less trouble than my pure stock 96".
We fought heavy winds most of the way on I-10 and the construction and grooved pavement in El Paso was rather unpleasant. Has a great grilled chicken salad at the Ramada Inn next door to our hotel. Fuel mileage suffered somewhat due to the strong head winds and passing semis took a little longer that normal. Gary's 103 with a Fuel Moto upgrade with catalyst free head pipes had less trouble than my pure stock 96".
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From: Danbury, Texas
2 weeks--3500 miles
Day 4--272 miles-- May 24 Las Cruces to Tombstone- I-10 West to Hwy 80 South to Douglas, through Bisbee to Tombstone. Again a nice ride with a fair amount of hig winds, but the temperatures weren't too bad. Got to Tombstone fairly early and got checked into the Larian Motel. Nice room and only one block to historic Allen Street. Had a nice lunch at Helldorado Town and started exploring. Fran and Donna enjoyed the shops with jewelry, etc, and Gary and I enjoyed sitting on the benches "people watching"! Lots of people dress in period dress. One of the pictures is of the charachter that plays Doc Holliday. We met him on the street and being from Texas I said "Hello, how are you doing?". He replied, in charachter as he was headed to the gunfight, "Just Horribly"! Another charachter was the street minstrel "Johnny Bones". He had rib bones attached to his hands, and danced and made music with the accompanyment of a small boom box. He definitely was entertaining. That evening we enjoyed a great steak at the Crystal Palace Saloon. Lots of historic stuff to see in Tombstone and I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys the old west.
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From: Danbury, Texas
2 weeks--3500 miles
Day 5--1 mile- Spent day in Tombstone, only travel was to laundromat to do laundry. We took the trolley ride, which was only $6/person, around town. The driver was very knowledgeable about the sights of the town and even dropped us off at Boot Hill Cemetery and picked us up about 45 minutes later. We had a great Reuben sandwich at Big Nose Kate's Saloon followed by the largest single dip ice cream cone at an ice cream shop down the street. We toured the courthouse and did a walking tour of most of the downtown area. Bought some t-shirts at Tombstone HD which isn't a motorcycle dealer, only clothes, etc. The lady at the Larian Motel has suggested Morgan's Pizza as a place for breakfast and it was good, so we ate breakfast there the two mornings we were there, plus had pizza for supper on day 5. We had thought about riding back to Bisbee to check it out, but the wind was blowing very hard, and we decided to just spend the day in Tombstone. Bisbee will be a destination of a later trip.
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From: Danbury, Texas
2 weeks--3500 miles
Day 6--304.9 miles--Tombstone to St. Johns, Az. After a great breakfast, loaded up and headed North to Benson and I-10. Then East to Hwy 191 through Safford, and by the big gold and copper mines at Morenci. Those are some big holes in the ground!! That is followed by 90 miles of very curvy roads!! Hwy191 is definitely different than any road we see here on the Texas Gulf coast. I would recommend this road to anyone that likes curves and beautiful scenery. After Alpine, the terrain becomes flatter, and we gained a pretty substancial tail wind. We really didn't notice this until we started to enter Eagar. We stopped in Eagar at an Arby's for lunch and before Gary could put his foot down while stopping, the wind blew him over. The parking lot was sloped somewhat and the wind was blowing about 40mph. Again, no damage to the bike, and neither he nor Donna suffered any injuries. We made it to St. Johns without further incident and checked into the Days Inn for the night. For supper, we walked several blocks to the El Camino Restaurant. The food was a little spicy for my taste, but Gary liked it. Other than the high wind, a great day of riding, but Fran was glad to see straighter roads again! I forgot to mention that some of the pictures are mine and some are Gary's. Donna was able to take pictures while riding, so they got more pictures than Fran or I did. Maybe a GoPro before next trip??
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Joined: Dec 2009
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From: Danbury, Texas
2 weeks--3500 miles
Day 7--338.1 miles--St. Johns, Az to Moab, Ut. Again on Hwy 191 through beautiful scenery. One stop for gas, I can't remember where, the card reader at the pump would not work because it was full of sand! One of the guys at the next pump told me that the road had been closed for about 3 hours the day before because of sand blown across the road. We stopped in Mexican Water, Az for lunch at a small restaurant next to a trading post. Gary saw a sign for "dumplings" that sounded good to him, so he asked the waitress about them. She said "mutton", so Gary decided to get a hamburger! Everyone in the restaurant was Native American except us. The food was great, Donna had vegetable soup and said it was really good. The restaurant is definitely in the middle of nowhere, or close to it!! We made to to Moab and checked into the Kokopelli Lodge. Supper was at Zak's pizza where we had the buffet with salad and soup. Had some great cheese/broccoli soup and good pizza. We did a walking tour of the shops and bought gifts for our neighbors who watched our house while we were gone. Found a small ice cream shop and had some huckleberry ice cream. It was really good. Been raining here today, so I have time to post about the trip.
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From: Danbury, Texas
Day 8--53 miles--Visited Arches National Park. I would recommend a visit to this park to anyone who enjoys colorful scenery. For supper we dined at Peace Tree Juice Cafe. Not a place I would normally choose as I am a chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and gravy guy. My wife and buddy, Gary, always give me a hard time about not being open to new quisine! I had a tuna wrap in a spinach tortilla. it was pretty good, but can't compare to a good chicken fried steak!!! We really enjoyed our visit to Moab.
