I Don't Think We're In Kansas Anymore

We got out of Dodge and travelled to Taos, New Mexico via the Oklahoma panhandle. We think Taos could equally be re-named "Chaos" because when we arrived, the traffic was horrendous, especially for quite a small town. It was easily the worst traffic we have so far encountered and many of the drivers seemed plain crazy, showing little courtesy and carrying out some very risky manoeuvres. For the first time, Ric was a little nervous riding a motorcycle in traffic as he never knew what the other drivers were going to do - most did not use any indicators so it was a case of riding by ESP. To our surprise, we also found Taos to be very very busy and we were lucky to get a room at all.

As we left Taos to head to Colorado, we did ride through some magnificent scenery. On the outskirts of Taos, we stopped at a bridge over the Rio Grande and chatted with a fellow who had a pet wolf. We also saw earthship housing - eco friendly houses built into the earth - which look very impressive. We rode over the Rockies - again through some stunning scenery and stopped at a viewing area at an elevation of 10,000 ft to view the expanse below. The weather was threatening so we moved on but did get caught in a brief but very intense downpour. Not small rain either. It was, to quote Forrest Gump "big fat ole rain." We survived the rain and almost getting taken out by a maniac truck driver who came from a side road and just entered the highway right in front of us without even slowing down. He must have seen us but we reckon he just did not care about us on a motorcycle. We had been warned about that though to date, we have not had any problems with any truck drivers (other than the fact that they are navigating a block of apartments along highways and creating awful turbulence).

We spent the night in Durango as the weather closed in. We woke this morning to thunderstorms and as we write this, the weather is still looking very wet and cloudy. More thunderstorms are predicted. We will leave Durango this morning for Cortez, Colorado and hope to check out the Mesa Verde area, weather permitting.

Looking for the Ruby Slippers

Along the road, we saw a very impressive road building crew at work. They had strung together a number of trucks and various bits of machinery into a train which must have been 400 or so metres long and took up half the road. What it was doing was melting, milling, grading, resurfacing and rolling half the road at a time - all in a series of linked operations. Very slick indeed! We spent the night in Winfield and as we were checking in, a truck pulled up and the driver greeted us. In the truck was Jerry Crowe and his dad. Jerry is assistant Director of the Kansas Chapter of the Gold Wing Road Riders Association (we are also members) and wanted to know who it was that had ridden into his town! It was nice of Jerry to greet us and we exchanged some pleasant conversation. Ric even talked to his lovely wife Cheryll Crowe (like the singer only not spelled the same) on the phone. We left Winfield early as thunderstorms were again predicted. We dodged the thunderstorms but did hit some rain but worse, we were hit with high cross winds. After 250 miles we had had enough and about lunchtime reached Meade where we checked out the hide-out of the Dalton Gang. Two of the Dalton brothers were killed and one seriously injured when they tried robbing a couple of banks in nearby Coffeyville. On the way to Meade, we saw something very unusual. Lots of big black spiders, easily half the size of your hand or bigger were crossing the road! As they were all moving in the same direction, Jenny reckoned they were involved in some kind of migration. Ric reckoned they were on the way to the milking shed.

We arrived in Dodge City having ridden about 300 miles and glad to be out of the wind. The prairies, including Montana, the Dakotas, Kansas, Oklahoma etc are not motorcycle friendly at this time of the year. No offense to the people or the places but the winds (which always seem to be coming from one side or the other) are just awful - especially when gusts and the turbulence from semis are thrown in. At Dodge, we visited Boot Hill and the recreated main street. We were again re-united with our old friend Wyatt Earp who, you will recall, we first met in Deadwood, South Dakota. Wyatt was an assistant City Marshall in Dodge City and with Bat Masterson and a few others, was credited with cleaning up what really was a pretty lawless and dangerous town. Doc Holiday set up his dentist rooms in the hotel in Dodge and of course, both went on to Tombstone, Arizona where Wyatt was deputy Sheriff. It seems ironic that Wyatt Earp, the most famous lawman in history was never more than a deputy Sheriff or assistant city Marshall. After just an overnight stay, we had to get out of Dodge. We left Kansas and crossed into Oklahoma - no tin man, no wizard, no Toto and no ruby slippers.

We've Re-organised the Photos!

We realise it was getting to be a pain scrolling through all the old photos to view the new ones so from now on, the latest photos will appear first.

A Psychiatric Museum? That's Crazy!

After another very windy trip on the Interstate, we arrived at St Joseph, Missouri. When we tried to check into the Super 8, we found out that there was a NASCAR race meeting in nearby Kansas City and all accommodation within about an hours drive had been booked out long before. The motel clerk was kind enough to call around and found one smoking room available at a Best Western motel further down the Interstate (not what we wanted but it looked like we had little choice). As we were about to head off, we decided to just check the Ramada next door and found they had one room left. As we were checking in, the clerk fielded several phone calls from others looking for a room so once again, our luck held. We also managed to find a replacement helmet lead for Ric’s helmet from the local Honda dealer so we were once again on speaking terms.

Like so many other places we stopped at, we found that St Joseph is steeped in history. It is the place where the Pony Express was established and we visited the Pony Express Museum. Everyone has heard of the Pony Express but what we did not know was that it only lasted 19 months and then went bust as it failed to win the necessary government contract.

We also found out that it was in this town that Jesse James was gunned down – and we visited his house where it happened. But the strangest place we visited was the Glore Psychiatric Museum in a psychiatric hospital. Here we learned about how mental illness was regarded in the past and some of the more recent treatments for mental illness. It was interesting but also a little disturbing.

We stayed in St Joseph for two days as thunderstorms were predicted for Sunday and indeed, the thunder, lightning and rain arrived on Sunday afternoon, exactly as predicted. Monday was a riding day - we rode 300 miles (across half of Kansas) in magnificent weather. Monday night sees us staying in Winfield, Kansas for the night and looking at an early departure to beat more predicted thunderstorms.

Donut Flavours # 263 and 264: Vanilla Sprinkle and Blackberry Jelly. We are Falling Behind

Hey Thelma, I Found Your Glasses