I am alive, just havent had a chance to update this blog.
Flagstaff is a very cool place.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
To Gallup
Starting mileage 1440
Ending mileage 1640
I was told Gallup was a nothing place. A small town at the outskirts on New Mexico, a stopover for trips to Arizona. An uneventful ride, the low light being stuck in a traffic jam in over 100 degree heat due to an accident. my factor 15 was struggling to keep me from burning.
The ride through the western parts of New Mexico had started to see a dramatic change in landscape. I had started to progress towards mountains and as I was getting closer the land changed to boulders and small canyons. The views were amazing as I was taken up and down these roads but unfortunately my camera had run out of battery so I could only use my phone. I was very wary to stop on the highways as the lay by lane was constantly used by trucks that would veer off and on at will. Many times it seemed, when following a truck, that these guys would fall asleep at the wheel and suddenly correct themselves when they felt the rumble strip on the lay by. This would be far too late to avoid a parked bike so the times I did stop were rare.
I checked in to my hotel in Gallup and decided to head out to the local Casino in the evening, 2 miles from here. I have never seen a place where the people are larger than the slot machines. This was no exaggeration. I was the only non Mexican person in there and felt the smallest by far. I mean fat, not muscles just lard asses. The diet in this part of the world is terrible. There was a canteen in there and i was a little peckish. There was nothing healthy so I chose a hot dog. The lady then insisted that these come with a big bag of nachos and a choice of dip. I declined and she seemed offended and said they were free. She was also the size of a small house.
I looked for a poker table to abuse to take some locals food money but they did not have one so I played a slot machine for about an hour, made $30 profit and went home happy. That's my gas bill for another 2 days.
Flagstaff tomorrow where it should be a little more interesting.
Ending mileage 1640
I was told Gallup was a nothing place. A small town at the outskirts on New Mexico, a stopover for trips to Arizona. An uneventful ride, the low light being stuck in a traffic jam in over 100 degree heat due to an accident. my factor 15 was struggling to keep me from burning.
The ride through the western parts of New Mexico had started to see a dramatic change in landscape. I had started to progress towards mountains and as I was getting closer the land changed to boulders and small canyons. The views were amazing as I was taken up and down these roads but unfortunately my camera had run out of battery so I could only use my phone. I was very wary to stop on the highways as the lay by lane was constantly used by trucks that would veer off and on at will. Many times it seemed, when following a truck, that these guys would fall asleep at the wheel and suddenly correct themselves when they felt the rumble strip on the lay by. This would be far too late to avoid a parked bike so the times I did stop were rare.
I checked in to my hotel in Gallup and decided to head out to the local Casino in the evening, 2 miles from here. I have never seen a place where the people are larger than the slot machines. This was no exaggeration. I was the only non Mexican person in there and felt the smallest by far. I mean fat, not muscles just lard asses. The diet in this part of the world is terrible. There was a canteen in there and i was a little peckish. There was nothing healthy so I chose a hot dog. The lady then insisted that these come with a big bag of nachos and a choice of dip. I declined and she seemed offended and said they were free. She was also the size of a small house.
I looked for a poker table to abuse to take some locals food money but they did not have one so I played a slot machine for about an hour, made $30 profit and went home happy. That's my gas bill for another 2 days.
Flagstaff tomorrow where it should be a little more interesting.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
A Day in Santa Fe July 4th
Happy Birthday America !
I woke up with plans to go visit Toas, an Indian town an hours ride northeast of here. By the time I got up, dressed and had written yesterdays blog it was 11am. I got on the bike, rode for about a mile and decided to turn back and have a day off. This was supposed to be a days break from riding and the heat was also very uncomfortable. I wanted to spend the day in Santa Fe and see what its all about.
Santa Fe (Holy Faith in Spanish) has a population of about 75,000, just under half of the town are Hispanic or Latinos. There were a lot of mobster types hanging around both last night and during the day. Some were trying to look cool in there long cars which had hydraulics bumping up the front and back screaming for people to look at them as they crawled through town.
I woke up with plans to go visit Toas, an Indian town an hours ride northeast of here. By the time I got up, dressed and had written yesterdays blog it was 11am. I got on the bike, rode for about a mile and decided to turn back and have a day off. This was supposed to be a days break from riding and the heat was also very uncomfortable. I wanted to spend the day in Santa Fe and see what its all about.
Santa Fe (Holy Faith in Spanish) has a population of about 75,000, just under half of the town are Hispanic or Latinos. There were a lot of mobster types hanging around both last night and during the day. Some were trying to look cool in there long cars which had hydraulics bumping up the front and back screaming for people to look at them as they crawled through town.
There were a lot of Indian jewellery and souvenir shops. As much as this is interesting I could find myself any reason to buy anything. Do I really need a quiver of arrows or a machete ?
I stopped for some Mexican food which was really good despite the soggy looking picture. I asked for it mild chilli which still almost blew my mouth out. These guys have chilli on everything, brutal.
I didn't see much in the way of celebrations for July 4th. In fact I saw nothing that would tell me it was today. Maybe a town of such Hispanic background doesn't feel the need to celebrate. In Santa Fe and I believe in most of New Mexico fireworks are banned due to the drought and risk of fire. Most celebrations I was told happen at home with family. Its not the party night I had expected.
I grabbed a few beers later and met an ex Mexican pro boxer who had been lined up to fight Ricky Hatton at some point. He was one of the local mobsters so I don't want to mention any names and said I should stick with him for a few beers, I would be safe around him. We headed over to an underground bar. He was a nice guy, family man and a few years younger than me. He knew everyone. As he gap between his drunkenness and my soberness increased he repeated I was ok with him in this town. He told me that if there was any girl in here I wanted he would drop the boyfriend for me. Hahaha I had my own mobster boss as a bodyguard. I told him I wasn't into causing any aggro but he insisted I could use him if needed. There were some big lumps in this underground bar but I strangely felt safe.
I did speak to one girl who slammed her money down on the bar looking for a drink. She was upset that she had just had her car hit. Well, after she almost fell of the stool she admitted she was drunk, stoned and had just tried parallel parking and hit someone else's car. !! what a concoction.
Drink driving in this part of the world seems to be the norm. It made me think of all the other nights I had met people and everyone lived out of town which meant someone had to be driving but all had been drinking heavily. There's not a huge amount of traffic around or police so I guess its just acceptable over here.
I headed home about 1am ready to leave this small town in the morning.
I stopped for some Mexican food which was really good despite the soggy looking picture. I asked for it mild chilli which still almost blew my mouth out. These guys have chilli on everything, brutal.
I didn't see much in the way of celebrations for July 4th. In fact I saw nothing that would tell me it was today. Maybe a town of such Hispanic background doesn't feel the need to celebrate. In Santa Fe and I believe in most of New Mexico fireworks are banned due to the drought and risk of fire. Most celebrations I was told happen at home with family. Its not the party night I had expected.
I grabbed a few beers later and met an ex Mexican pro boxer who had been lined up to fight Ricky Hatton at some point. He was one of the local mobsters so I don't want to mention any names and said I should stick with him for a few beers, I would be safe around him. We headed over to an underground bar. He was a nice guy, family man and a few years younger than me. He knew everyone. As he gap between his drunkenness and my soberness increased he repeated I was ok with him in this town. He told me that if there was any girl in here I wanted he would drop the boyfriend for me. Hahaha I had my own mobster boss as a bodyguard. I told him I wasn't into causing any aggro but he insisted I could use him if needed. There were some big lumps in this underground bar but I strangely felt safe.
I did speak to one girl who slammed her money down on the bar looking for a drink. She was upset that she had just had her car hit. Well, after she almost fell of the stool she admitted she was drunk, stoned and had just tried parallel parking and hit someone else's car. !! what a concoction.
Drink driving in this part of the world seems to be the norm. It made me think of all the other nights I had met people and everyone lived out of town which meant someone had to be driving but all had been drinking heavily. There's not a huge amount of traffic around or police so I guess its just acceptable over here.
I headed home about 1am ready to leave this small town in the morning.
Monday, July 4, 2011
To Santa Fe
Starting Mileage 1123
Ending Mileage 1440
Another hangover and another long ride today. After my steak and beers last night I decided to skip the Big Texan Ranch breakfast. I can only imagine how big that breakfast would have been. I jumped on headed off to Santa Fe, just over 300 miles away.
Ending Mileage 1440
Another hangover and another long ride today. After my steak and beers last night I decided to skip the Big Texan Ranch breakfast. I can only imagine how big that breakfast would have been. I jumped on headed off to Santa Fe, just over 300 miles away.
About 20 miles out of town I saw some cars parked on the other side of the freeway and people walking to some things stuck in the ground out in a field. I then recognised this as the Cadillac Ranch I had read about. I turned around on the next junction to come and have a look.
Its a public art display that was created in 1974 and represents a number of evolutions of the Cadillac car line. These are half buried in the ground and you are allowed to go ahead and spray paint whatever you wish on them
.
I got some spray paint of a kid and wrote my boys name Harry on one.
I headed out again with my next destination being Santa Rosa Lake, New Mexico. I'm only crossing the northern small part of Texas but with so much nothing between towns this State feels huge. Texas is larger than France but from Amarillo to New Mexico I hardly saw a soul. I would come off the freeway and many places just to try to find signs of civilisation. These small towns were empty. I mean left and forgotten. Old gas stations where prices still showed at half the current gas price, motels with old signs swaying in the wind. Boarded up windows and old abandoned vehicles were all I could see of once were bustling towns. The freeways that were built took the flow of traffic out of these areas so commerce suffered. So I am told. Outside of these small ghost towns it was again just dried out fields with a few cattle ranches dotted between. I finally crossed the border into New Mexico and found Santa Rosa Lake. Its pretty much a camping spot with a huge lake in the middle of nowhere. There was no where to grab lunch so I took a couple of pictures and left.
The temperature was not as hot as it had been and I started to notice a big storm cloud to my right. I was heading west still but I remembered from my map that I would have to turn North towards this cloud at some point.
It seemed to coming closer even though I was travelling west and at the time where I had to switch north to Santa Fe it was directly in my path.
I was hoping that it was the other side of Santa Fe so I started to gun it at 90mph to try and get there fast. I had no idea how far Santa Fe was and by the time me and the rain met I realised I was almost out of petrol. The raindrops were like small stones exploding on my body. I had to stop and put my jacket on and then continue at a low speed as I could hardly see anything. My sunglasses were terrible and the wind accompanying the rain was making it very uncomfortable to ride. I had my hand over my face for the 10 or so mins. There was nowhere to stop and nowhere to find cover. Then as I came over a hill a solitary gas station appeared. I was soaked. The bottom parts of my jeans were drenched as they had also been collecting water from the front wheel. I was really unprepared for the wet weather and have been so lucky to get this far without any.
After 20 mins it died off and the sun reappeared. By the time I had ridden the next 10 miles to Santa Fe I had completely dried off. The b&b, El Paradero, is really cool place to find. I'm glad I spent a bit of extra money to book this. Very close to town and the rooms are amazing.
I checked in, grabbed some afternoon home made cookies and headed out to the main square which was 5 blocks away. The nightlife in Santa Fe is pretty much non existent. I had some food, Fajitas !! and then found a Soul/Jazz bar. Now off all the places in the world I would not have expected to hear an English accent at the bar, let alone a guy that used to run or originally opened the Sugar Hut in Brentwood !
The band were really good with names like Soul Man Sam and Catfish, local celebrities. Great voices. I slipped off at 11:30 when they finished.
Me and Soul Man Sam. The sunburn is not as bad as it looks...
July 4th tomorrow...
Joplin
Some pictures from the town of Joplin that was half destroyed by a violent twister a few weeks back.
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