Florida

New Orleans was fun but it was time to move on and I had some more family to check in with! I was now on my way to Florida and hoped to make it all the way to Orlando in one day. I chose to stick to the highways and pin the throttle...
It was amazingly hot and humid in the Southern states. I passed through Mississippi and Alabama on my way and it seemed to just get hotter and hotter the further I rode.
It rained many times and not just light rain but big booming thunderstorms that drenched me. Lightening flashed all around making me want to ride faster to get it over with. I was thankful for cooler temperatures but these conditions were certainly less than ideal.
I made it to my sister's house around 9 or 10pm. I was definitely ready to get off the bike after more than twelve hours.

I ended up spending a couple of days with my sister, Beth and my two nieces, Kelsie and Hannah. I enjoyed seeing them again. As usual I was the goofy uncle that kept them laughing.



Florida was fun but hot, which seemed to be the constant. My next stop will be my hometown of Asheville, NC and I'm hoping for some cooler weather. At this point I decided not to visit friends in Atlanta in fear of more dreadful weather. Asheville is in the Smokey Mountains and maybe I'll find some relief there :)

New Orleans, Day 2...

After some shut-eye on Max's couch it was time to get up and see more of the city. Max hooked me up with a SWEET ride! Yes, they are the local Vespa dealers as well. Check the seat :)

Breakfast is my most favorite meal of the day. There is nothing better than starting off on the right foot. I was given a great suggestion and had a superb bananas foster french toast breakie. After that I went to the World War II museum, another excellent suggestion from Max, and spent a few hours looking through the exhibits. Scary times. I can't imagine being part of that piece of history.



There were many interesting things to see in the Big Easy...



After all of the walking around and sight seeing I went back to check in with the guys at Ducati New Orleans. Zach was hosting a Bike Night get together for his shop staff, customers and friends. The meet up was a really nice restaurant owned by some of his friends. We spent most of the night there talking bikes and life... ;) Many drinks were toasted.
All in all, my visit to New Orleans was definitely worth the stop. I can't give enough thanks to Zach and Max for their hospitality. If you are ever in New Orleans stop by The Transportation Revolution and tell them that Ray sent ya!

New Orleans!!!

I left Texas early in the morning and hit the "slab". I decided that since I would be passing so closely to New Orleans, I would certainly need to stop. I crossed a really long bridge, Basin Bridge, over miles of swamp.

I intended to make my first stop at The Transportation Revolution - the local Ducati dealership to check it out and to see the owners, brothers Zach and Max Materne. I arrived at their shop just before closing and walked into a celebration of sorts... It was the anniversary of the dealership as well as the birthdays of the owners' Mother and lead Technician, Guy! They were planning a few activities for the evening and I was invited :)

Actually, Zach wouldn't be joining because he had plans to take his wife to a concert for the evening. We went to the French Quarter for dinner and drinks. I had the best $3 Margaritas with mini lime slices at "felipe's", a great spot.

While we were hanging out at felipe's I was introduced to a guy, and fellow motorcyclist... who I found out later is a famous trumpet player, Irvin Mayfield. As the night went on, Max and I did a little bar hopping and sight seeing through the Quarter. It was great to be in such a famous place and have a local take me to his haunts!

These things were crawling all over miles of HWY 87 in Texas today. In fact they moved so fast that I was able to notice that most of the hundreds that I saw were headed from left to right, or in a Southernish direction... Weird! I only counted five going the other way. Hmmm... Texas is HOT by the way and I haven't even received the added benefit of humidity yet :(

I continued on through Texas with some road advice from good friends. This time advice came from Ivan and "Sprinkle" - Dave. I traveled Southeast in a general direction towards Austin. I had recently been to that city with work and certainly wouldn't mind seeing it again. Sprinkle had suggested a specific road, HWY 16, which ended up being the best ride in Texas during my trip. I had planned to camp again somewhere around Austin but it was too hot! I ended up sleeping at a hotel about 100 miles West of Houston. I planned to get up early and make a run for New Orleans.

"Heat Lightning" near campground in Big Spring, TX

I found a UFO crash site!

An alien about to be operated on :)

Rain! Yuck!

It turns out that heat would not be an issue... Instead, thunderous rainstorms would be my nemisis for the day.
Actually, when I left ABQ I had a good hour and a half of cool temps and nice scenery. I took some roads through the mountains and was having a nice day. I saw the clouds off in the distance and knew that I'd be in for it at some point. What I didn't realize is that once I crossed the line from dry to wet, that would be all I would get for the rest of the day. I had only planned to make a short stop in Roswell but I ended up staying the night there at Motel 6. I did however, scope out the UFO museum and would take a tour in the morning.

Time to go...

I've been very busy taking a vacation from my vacation ;)

It has been nice and relaxing to lounge around the pool but it's time to get moving. I'll be leaving Albuquerque tomorrow and will begin to make my way East. I'll certainly be making stops along the way and will hopefully find a fun detour or two. I'm concerned that the next few days of riding will be terribly hot but I'm afraid that there is nothing that I can do. I'll just ride on and complain later.
I had some work done to my motorcycle this week at PJ's Triumph/Ducati. They treated me well and I'm confident that my Multi is ready for thousands of more miles. Today, my Dad installed a power outlet so that I could run my GPS or charge my cell phone. SWEET!

The new Multistradas come with these outlets as standard equipment... :p




Roswell, NM will be my first stop tomorrow. I've always had an interest in the possibility of life away from Earth so I'm going to the Mecca of UFOs. Maybe I'll get a picture or two :)

Going to see my Dad

After dealing with the extreme heat the day before, I got up early and hit the road to see if I could get to Albuquerque without melting. It was actually pretty cool temperature wise and I was able to knock out some miles. I ended up taking Interstate 40 which I thought that I'd dread but the only issue was wind hitting me from the side again and forcing me to ride leaning to the right... Oh well, I was use to that already ;)
I made it to Gallup, NM and stopped for lunch and fuel. The final leg would be short and easy.
I arrived in ABQ in the late afternoon. It was good to land back at a familiar place to see my Dad and Stepmother and to get some rest. Air conditioning would be a nice luxury as well.
On Sunday, July Fourth, we headed to the mountains and planned to take a little hike... but that was not to be. On the way up, we discussed driving to Santa Fe to walk around and see the sights. We made a quick decision and headed for the state capitol. When we arrived we were surprised to run into a large festival taking place in Old Town. It turned out to be their annual Pancake Breakfast benefiting the United Way. Pretty Cool! There were thousands of people about; good for watching. We wandered into some really old churches with rich histories and ornate features.




I was pleased to discover an antique auto show taking place there as well. I took some cool pictures of Grills and Tails :)





It was a fun day in Santa Fe.

Time for the Grand Canyon

I got up really excited to head for the Grand Canyon! I have been there before, once as a child and just this past Christmas. I barely remember the experience as a youngster and when I made the visit during last holiday season, snow and clouds blocked all the views just minutes after I arrived. Also, both previous visits had been to the South Rim of the park. I had recently found out that the North Rim was a bit higher in elevation and was covered in green unlike the desert to the South. I made it to a campground just outside of the North Rim before it got dark and was able to pick out a good spot to pitch my tent, make dinner and get another fire going :) It was much cooler than earlier in the day when I was riding through the Arizona desert. Oh! I almost forgot to mention that the drive to the Grand Canyon from CO has almost as amazing scenery as the Grand Canyon itself. Almost.

I really don't have much to say other than everyone should make a trip to this place. The word, stunning, comes to mind but somehow words just don't do it...
Here are a few pics.




I spent about half of the following day exploring the North Rim of the park and then headed off towards New Mexico to visit my Dad and Stepmother in Albuquerque. It was Freakin' Hawt riding through the Arizona desert and my goal was to stop at a campground that my Mom told me about just South of Flagstaff. I came across this really neat Navajo Reservation Center where I took some more photos and tried to cool off but as you can tell, it wasn't in the cards ;)





I made it to Flagstaff and thought that when I got off my bike I would be walking at an angle. Why? you ask... Well I had to fight pounding winds all day long that required me to ride my bike leaned over in order to go straight-NOT FUN. Anyway, I rode into Flagstaff and looked for an ice cream joint! After eating a yummy blizzard with chocolaty peanut butter cups in it I rode towards Sedona to find the campground. (It never occurred to me that it was Friday, July 2nd, and that everyone was headed out to their favorite vacation spots). I was disappointed to find that all of the campgrounds were full. I just kept riding South and the temperature kept rising. I figured that I would adjust my direction to one that would get me going towards Albuquerque and that I would eventually find a campground along the way. Well, after passing through Sedona and then changing course, luck was not mine. I kept going but I was overheating badly. All I could think about was a swimming pool. I soon decided that a hotel room with AC was a must, so I pulled over for the night.

Off to see more of CO

That night while sitting in the brewery in Gunnison, CO I wondered where I'd head in the morning. I figured that I could stick to the mountains and end up in Durango which would be pretty much in the direction of The Grand Canyon. I starting messing around on Facebook and ended up chatting with Quentin. He asked where I was and after I told him he demanded that I go to ride highway 92 (i think) in The Black Canyon. He stated that this particular ride/road was in his top 5! Well, with advice like that, how could I resist?!! He noted that it was just West of my current local and that if nothing more I should consider making a run up the canyon and turn around once it got flat and straight.
I had a destination for the morning :)

Wednesday, June 23rd
I slept in a little later than I wanted but managed to get up, grab breakfast, load up and hit the road. I checked the map before leaving and noticed that if i took the Black Canyon route, (which I remembered that Tyler had also recommended), I could follow the road around to Highway 50, take that South to the 550 and that would put me directly on the path to Durango - SWEET!
The weather was perfect! It didn't take long for me to run into some more awesome Colorado landscape. I came across this lake with a really neat rock formation in the background.


I made it to The Black Canyon. Damn! Q was right! Awesome road, curvy and empty. Great scenery, deep canyons and Super high vistas. I was certainly worth the extra miles, if any and I urge anyone that goes near to make the drive up the canyon. :)




Unfortunately, that ride up Black Canyon wasn't without drama. At one point, pretty far into it I was riding around a right hand bend when all of a sudden a young girl, about 12 or so, came flying into my lane from a dirt road on the right. She was riding a four-wheeler and hadn't looked my direction to see if any vehicles were approaching. I knew that there wasn't enough time or room for me to turn or get my bike stopped and impact was eminent...
This girl did not have one single bit of protection on, no helmet boots or gloves. As a matter of fact she was wearing shorts, a tank top and flip flops. This was going to end very badly. (Its amazing how much information the human brain can process in times like these. I had so many thoughts go through my mind in what seemed to be less than a second.)
This girl looked just as she was directly in front of me and her eyes shot open like saucers... Then panic set in and she did what her instincts told her - SLAM THE BRAKES! ...and I thought, OH SHIT! (I'll likely escape with some bumps and bruises and likely a damaged bike but this tiny girl with hardly anything on is going to get seriously f@*ked up!
Then, when I was sure that we would hit, she took control and accelerated like a bat out of hell out of my path! My heart was pounding and I don't think that I've ever gotten angry and scared so fast before. I was still breaking to slow down and was able to look back over my shoulder and noticed that she had turned around towards the dirt road. She looked more scared than me and appeared ready to cry. I was going to stop and yell some sense into her when I realized that she had the experience and skills to know what to do with that big-ass 4x4. I reconsidered, took off and left her to review the events by herself... In the end, no one was hurt and it was something that didn't happen but what did happen took place in fractions of seconds.

After Quentin's ride, I started making my way down the "Million Dollar HWY" (550) towards Durango. I stopped in a small town somewhere and found a Mexican restaurant to grab lunch. After eating, I came outside to find the bike that started my motorcycle obsession, an '89/'90 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-7 in the SWEET Green/Blue/White paint schemed that I loved. Check it out!

It was even for sale, but this bike was less than perfect.

I took off yet again and made my way through Ouray, which is a wonderful little town. It reminded me of a little ski village. I wanted to stop and walk around a bit but it started raining right as I was passing through. I was pretty pissed about the rain because the road going out of Ouray was super curvy and looked like fun. Oh well, I'm sure there will be more. Just outside of Ouray, I found these strangely colored mountains... They were in an old mining community. I'm not sure whether the community was there to mine what the mountains had inside them or if the mining caused them to change colors?


I made it to Durango and it sure was hot there... I had hoped for cooler temperatures because I was going to camp for sure! There were two campgrounds listed on my map and they were both very close to the city. I was a little nervous that these would turn out to be the local high school late night party spot but it was getting too late to ride any further. I picked one and headed towards it. I was surprised to find that after passing through some very dense neighborhoods, I ended up on another gravel and dirt road with still a handful of miles to go. After arriving at the spot, my fears went away when I discovered that this campground was very well maintained and was filled with tall trees and natural beauty all around :) It was a nice place to lay my head. I had a little fun with the camera that night ;)