We were up and on the road before sunrise this morning. We knew that there was going to be rain and thunderstorms along the route today, so we wanted to try to get in front of them. As we headed south out of Blanding, the sun was coming up illuminating the banks of clouds with an orange glow. As I was looking at the huge bank of clouds, they were suddenly all illuminated with a huge flash of lightning! As we went further the lightning got more frequent and closer. This part of Utah is VERY flat, making John and I the highest thing around... not a good feeling.
A bit further on, it started to rain... not bad at first but very soon we were in the middle of heavy rain and a really heavy crosswind. The wind was so strong that we had to lean the bikes into the gusts in order to keep from being blown off the road. It was by far the worst storm I had encountered on the entire trip.
The original plan for the morning was to stop at the Colorado (state line number 18) and Arizona state lines (number 19) for photos, then a quick stop at the 4 Corners Monument for a photo. The rain and lightning were still all around us, so we decided to just power through to get as far in front of the storms as possible. I was a bit disappointed I didn't get to see 4 Corners, but I wanted to get far away from that lightning.
Just after we passed into Arizona, the rain let up a bit. In Teec Nos Paz, we turned east on to US 64. I stopped and got a photo, as I will be on US 64 most of the way back to North Carolina. So NC folks - it isn't just Murphy to Manteo, its actually Teec Nos Paz, AZ to Manteo, NC.
After the photo, it hit me that this would be the final turn east. I now had fewer miles to go than I had already ridden (although, mathematically, that happened in Crescent City, CA). The end of the trip was coming in just about a week. As I was pondering this, I almost passed the New Mexico state line (number 20). I had to brake pretty hard to not blow right by it.
A few miles later, we finally got an unobstructed view of Shiprock (click for more). Shiprock is a monadnock - "an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain." And it certainly fits the description - it rises 1500 feet above the flat desert floor. We had seen this popping in and out of view for quite a while now, but this was the first unobstructed view we had.
Not the best conditions for photos, but you can kind of get the idea. Click the link listed above, it has an interesting history.
We passed through a bunch of little towns along the way that slowed the progress of the morning a bit, but we were still trying to put distance between us and the storms. John was leading for most of the day today, and at one point, at a stoplight I realized we had gone about 175 miles on the current tank of gas. There was another town listed on the mileage sign about 15 miles ahead, so we figured we'd get fuel there. Guess what. No gas station. The GPS said the next one on our route would be 60 miles. That would put us at 250 miles on the fill up from this morning.
I had pushed the KTM that far before, but I was actually trying to run it out of fuel to see how far it would go... and I had an gas can strapped to the back. No such luxury this time. We had no choice but to keep going and hope that there was a station that didn't show on the GPS. Thankfully there was. With both of our trip odometers reading 219 miles. This was also the longest I had ever ridden without a break. We stopped for a few photos along the way on this stretch, but never got off the bikes.
The next stretch of road would take us back up over 10,000 feet. A little gray, with off and on rain, but still beautiful
Back down the other side of the mountain into the Taos Valley. Thus far, US 64 had not been the best road in terms of condition of pavement. Coming down the back side of this mountain pass, it got even worse. I really hope all roads in New Mexico aren't in this bad of shape - it was beating the shit out of us. Another downer is that most of the side roads (county roads) in New Mexico are dirt.... which tracks onto the main road. When it is actually raining, the crap that flies up from the cars in front of you gets rinsed off somewhat. When it isn't actively raining, the crap that files up, just keeps coating you in crap. Both us and the bikes were just getting filthy.
As we got closer to Taos, we rode by the Earthship Biotecture Community (click for more). John had heard of these before and had told me about them earlier. It was one of the places we thought we'd stop if we had time. We had time, but it had started to rain again, and it was dirt roads to get there... no thanks.
The next stop would be at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge (click for more). I have a pretty severe fear of heights - John wanted to walk out on the bridge - there is a sidewalk on both sides, but the railing is not very tall - another big, fat, fluffy "NOPE!" from me! I stole one of John's photos so you can see for yourself.
What is amazing about this is that you are just going along through a very flat high desert valley, and this gorge just drops off... you can't really even see it as you are coming up on it. Click HERE to see the Google Street View image of it.
Only a few more miles into Taos. We arrived about 2:30 and checked into the AirBnB - another really nice one! We unloaded the bikes, and got a bit unpacked. John had an appointment with a local tattoo artist to get trip memento done, and I had to go to the post office to pick up the general delivery package of recharge supplies Kate had sent me. We agreed to catch up for dinner after his tattoo was done.
Taos is an interesting little town - lots of art galleries and neat little shops. There are also a TON of places to eat and drink! I stumbled upon a great little brewpub called Eskes (click). John caught up with me there a short while later - we hadn't really eaten much all day so we both decided to try a cup of their green chile stew - WOW! Probably one of the best things I have eaten on this trip! We had a beer there then wandered down the street a bit to the Taos Mesa Brewing (click) taproom to give their beers a try. We were still hungry, so we ordered a pizza as well - a bit fitting that the first night in Crescent City, CA was a wood fired pizza night, and our last night would be wood fired pizza as well!
Tomorrow, I would head out at 7:00 to be at the KTM dealer in Santa Fe when they open to see if they could get my clutch issue sorted. John would leave a bit later to head down to Albuquerque to return the rental bike and spend the day checking out the ABQ.
I can't thank John and Erin enough for coming along for this portion of the trip - it has been a really great time, and we have seen some incredible places. Always better shared with friends.
Today's miles - 340 (547 km)
Total miles - 5700 (9173 km)
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