GREENCHILIODYSSEYwp

GREEN CHILI ODYSSEY

The past several years Catherine and I have taken motorcycle trips in the summer with anywhere from two to four friends. This summer due to election filing schedules and other plans, we couldn't get together with the people we normally go on trips with and all our other friends couldn't get away or had other plans. Since we were going to be all by our poor little selves, we decided to really indulge ourselves and do some things that we normally don't do when we're with our friends. Our plans included staying in the Four Corners region of the USA, which is the place where New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona all meet at one point. We would attempt to stay off interstate highways and find as many little two lane blacktops as we could. We would take our time, camp most nights, and sample as much green chili; which as near as we can tell is a soup, stew or gravy made from green chili peppers and usually a little pork and maybe some other vegetables and is native to the Indian/Mexican people who have inhabited this region for hundreds of years; as we could. Our last goal was to not to be in a hurry to get anywhere and to stop to look at anything that piqued our interest.

We achieved most of our goals. We camped five of the seven nights we were gone. We ate a LOT of green chili. We ended up riding ourselves sort of into a corner and had to ride interstate for about 50 miles because the next to last day we had taken so much time seeing things that interested us we had to start heading east and south instead of north. We did a lot of sightseeing and hiking in National Monuments and parks. A testament to this is I lost three pounds on the trip instead of gaining five or so like I usually do! We met a lot of interesting people and had a wonderful time. Catherine and I will have been married 25 years July 23, and this turned out to be a pretty neat anniversary trip.

Wednesday, July 3, 2002 We were on the road at 7:30 AM and rode through cool and light off and on rain straight west on Hwy 70 to Davidson. We took an unnumbered blacktop west out of Davidson and ended up at Tipton, then followed more blacktops to Eldorado where we got on Hwy 5 to Gould then Hwy 62 to Hollis. From there we took Hwy 30 north till we intersected Hwy 47 west which turned into Hwy 2124 and 277 in Texas and north on Hwy 83 to Canadian, TX where Catherine ran out of gas and coasted into the gas station. Hwy 30 north of I-40 was pretty with some small mesas and hills to ride on. From there we went north to Hwy 281, west to Hwy 760, north to Spearman, and west on Hwy 15 to Stratford. From there we made our last leg up Hwy 287 to Boise City, OK and followed Hwy 325 to Black Mesa State Park. We set up our camp and after deciding we didn't want to ride the 20 or so miles back to Boise City or on into Kenton we went to a little store adjacent to the park and bought a sumptuous supper of Pork and Beans, Vienna Sausages, Fritos, cookies, cold Budweiser and water. It's amazing how good it tasted sitting outside watching the sun go down and listening to the birds sing. The park is a nice place to camp. It was very empty (only 4 other campers there) and had very nice showers and bathrooms for only $8. There are several hiking trails that give a better view of the actual Black Mesa, which is the highest point in Oklahoma, and go by some petrified logs. We met and had a good conversation with a nice man from Wisconsin. We rode 555 miles on our first day out.

Thursday, July 4, 2002 We got an early start again after washing a little of the road and rain grime off the bikes with a hose at the park. We gave up after that as we got into just enough rain every day to keep the bikes nasty. We went straight west to Kenton where we thought we'd eat breakfast, but everything was closed. If you go that way, there is no gas in Kenton. We passed some antelope on the way and as we passed into New Mexico straight west of Kenton on Hwy 456 four elk grazing by the side of the road jumped the fence and took off. It was a pretty neat sight. The scenery up to the park was not real good, but west of the park the bluffs and mesas get taller and the foliage becomes high desert sage and cactus type plants and the combination was awesome for me. The first 25 - 30 miles after leaving the park were really pretty and interesting. The road was good blacktop with no traffic whatsoever. After that we hit 17 miles of gravel road that we averaged about 20 mph on. The scenery was still pretty there, but maybe not enough to justify the ride. If I was in that area again, I would ride to the end of the blacktop, then turn around and catch the main highway. After finally getting past the gravel, where we were passed by one ranch truck, we continued south through Folsom to Capulin National Monument.

CNM is an old extinct volcano. The visitor center had an excellent video telling how the volcano and several others in the area affected the geography and why Capulin has an intact cone as opposed to others that have part of the cone blown away. We rode up to the cone, and then hiked down to the bottom and around the rim. It was pretty cloudy, but if you go there on a clear day, I'm sure the view from the top is beautiful. We took Hwy 64 east to Raton where we arrived about noon. We had eaten at a truck stop named Hooter Browns last year and enjoyed it, so we stopped for lunch there and had a bowl of green chili and tortillas. Both were excellent. The green chili was spicy, but not overly hot, and a little creamier than some I've eaten. The tortillas were nice and fluffy. Catherine is pretty picky about tortillas and she gave ole Hooter's her stamp of approval. We continued south and east on 64 and just north of Cimarron, we came across Colfax Tavern in what they call Cold Beer, NM. According to what I had read and heard, it was in an old ghost town, but the only sign we saw were a few remnants of old adobe walls up the road a bit. It was a nice little bar, with a little piece of desert out back where they set up oil drums in May each year and drink beer and hit golf balls till they crown someone the winner of the Cold Beer Golf Tournament.

From Cimarron we went through Eagle Nest where we just beat their 4th of July parade. With our flags flying on the bikes and our flag bandanas and scarves, I think some of the people thought we were part of the parade. We went on through Red River to Questa and north on 533. About 10 miles north of Questa we stopped at a little church type thing a friend had mentioned. It turned out to be a Buddhist worship center. It was an interesting building, and it looked like there was a little colony of people who worshipped there living in the little area it was in. We went on to San Luis, CO which is the oldest town in CO and home of the oldest continuously used irrigation ditch in the state for those of you starved for trivia. Hwy 142 took us west to Manassa where we saw a statue of a boxer in front of a little house. In honor of our friends of pugilistic persuasion we stopped. It turned out to be the birthplace of Jack Dempsey, the Manassa Mauler, and his birth house has been turned into a little museum. The lady running it was very anxious to share her knowledge about Jack. She had lots of old pictures and newspaper articles and some of his gloves and shoes and things.

From Manassa we went south on Hwy 285 to Antonito, CO where we stopped for supper at the Dutch Mill. Doesn't sound like a place to eat green chili, eh? It was run by Indian/Mexicans and had wonderful green chili, but it was HOT! Luckily there was a bar next door, so we drank a beer before heading back south. We had eaten green chili at a café called Stephan's a couple years ago in Antonito and it was good, but not as good as what the Dutch Mill had. We headed on to Tres Piedras, which Catherine was kind of excited about since she is a little rusty on her Spanish and thought it meant "three peters". Unfortunately I had to tell her it meant "three rocks". From there it was southeast on Hwy 64 to Taos. It was late and we thought a lot of motels might be full on the 4th of July, so we stopped at the first one with a vacancy we saw, which happened to be the Taos Inn. It's an old, nice motel in the middle of old Taos. It has what looks like a nice restaurant and a good little bar, but lacks some amenities and in my opinion is not worth the price they charge. If a person was going to get in early enough in the evening or stay for a while the next morning to walk around the old downtown area, it might be worth it. Otherwise there are lots of nice and less expensive motels on the south edge of town. We rode 370 miles today.

Friday, July 5, 2002 We headed out of Taos early going east on Hwy 518 to Hwy 76 and followed it southwest to Espanola. I had read an article or two about this road, called the High Road between Santa Fe and Taos. It is a little two-lane blacktop that goes into the mountains and winds around through lots of little towns with names like Talpa, Penasco, Chamisal, Ojo Sarco, Truchas, Cordova, and Chimayo. There are very few gas stations and fewer places to eat. There are quite a few galleries where one can view and purchase Native American art and crafts. There are a couple of Pueblos where the Native Americans live and some old mission churches. I believe tourists can visit certain areas of them to view the old dwellings and sample the foods and look at arts and crafts, but they are not well marked or advertised on the road. If a person wanted to see them, you need to do a little research beforehand and know where you want to go. The Catholic cemeteries in that country are interesting and very colorful. It was a pretty ride and I'm glad we took it but I was a little disappointed as the articles I had read led me to believe it would be easier to see the way the natives used to live.

We continued through Espanola on Hwy 30 on to Los Alamos, and then to Bandolier National Monument. We didn't stop at any of the museums in Los Alamos, but I'm sure they are interesting and tell a lot about the research and manufacture of the atom bomb and the colony of scientists who inhabited that mesa beginning about 65 years ago. It has certainly grown to be a much larger town now than I thought it would be. The scenery got pretty as we got nearer to town. The bluffs and cliffs on the side of the mesa as we got higher were very interesting. There are lots of holes in the rock, which we later learned are from old volcanic eruptions. The holes are where air pockets were in the lava or certain minerals dissolved more easily than the rest of the lava.

Since we didn't eat breakfast we ate lunch at the snack bar at Bandolier National Monument. You thought you had me didn't you? You thought I couldn't get green chili there! Wrong! We had green chili cheeseburgers and they were pretty dang good too. BNM is a canyon in the mesa where Native Americans lived beginning around 700 or so years ago. They started living in the little caves in the cliffs and built adobe walls against them, and then later they built adobe type communal houses on the canyon floor and on top of the mesa. They hunted and gathered and farmed corn, beans, and squash. On a hike through the monument one can view many of their cliff homes, petroglyphs, a partially excavated communal pueblo structure, kivas, and if one wishes to hike about a mile there and back and climb a series of ladders about 700 steps, you can see one of their ceremonial burial caves. Catherine and I did the whole hike and really enjoyed the sights and the information. The visitor center has some interesting exhibits and offers a cool place to relax after hiking the trails.

After leaving BNM we headed west on Hwy 4 towards Jemez (pronounced Haymus) Springs. Our intention was to visit Jemez State Monument, which is an old Spanish Mission, then camp in the area and maybe visit some of their hot springs. We visited the monument, which is small, but interesting. Unfortunately all the National Forest campgrounds in the area were closed due to the extreme dry weather and fire danger. The closest campground was back at BNM, so we bought groceries (you'll never guess what they were) from a little store and beer and tomato juice from a bar and headed back the 40 miles to Bandolier. They have a nice campground there and there were plenty of spaces available. The restrooms were nice although they had no showers. We made camp and sat to eat our supper of beanie weenies, corned beef for me and sardines for Catherine with crackers, topped with green chilis. I broke out my little portable cd/mp3 player and listened to music and the radio while we ate and drank a few beers. We met and visited with a young couple (about 24-25) named Mike and Julie from Ohio who were on a two-month camping trip on an old BMW bike. It amazed us that they could pack camping gear and their other stuff on one bike along with themselves. They were really nice young people and we enjoyed visiting with them. We only made 180 miles today, but it seemed like walked at least that much! I learned why one of Garth's Biker Rules is "Motorcycle boots are not made for walking".

Saturday, July 6, 2002 We got up early and packed up and hiked about a total of 2.5 miles to the canyon rim and back. We had a great view of the canyon and the partially excavated pueblo below. After visiting with Mike and Julie and making arrangements to try to meet in Red River that night we hit the road and went back east through White Rock and Los Alamos to Espanola. We hit Chimayo just before lunch and searched out a restaurant I had seen a little sign for when we came through there the day before. It was called Restaurante de Chimayo and looked like a cute little thing, till they took us through it and we were seated out back on a tiered patio with a lot of tables. We were with a few other people then suddenly at noon it began filling and we discovered we'd happened into one of the most popular restaurants between Santa Fe and Taos. It was easy to see why, because the food was wonderful, the service was great, and the atmosphere was really neat. Their green chili was more of a stew with potatoes and pork and it was just spicy enough to be really tasty. I would highly recommend it. Their Sangria wine wasn't bad either. After lunch I saw a sign for some kind of shrine with a Spanish name, so we followed the signs out in the country a little ways and found Santuaro de Chimayo. It is an old Spanish/Indian church that is renowned for healing people. It was really pretty and interesting. There were lots of letters from people who were supposedly healed and lots of crutches and things from people who were healed. Quite a little village of people selling food and souvenirs has built up around it.

We took off again and backtracked our path from the previous day to the junction of Hwy 76 and 518. A grave in the cemetery in Truchas caught my eye, so I stopped and took a picture. It was the grave of a young man apparently and the monument was erected by a few of I suppose his friends. It looked like an old bed frame like structure with a couple of raked out choppers in it. They weren't complete and some parts were silhouettes of cut out metal, but still it was an eye catcher and made me want to find out more about it. Instead of going back to Taos, we went southeast on Hwy 18 to Mora, then north on a little two lane called 434, which ends up on Hwy 64 just south of Eagle Nest. 434 meanders through a wide valley through some old towns. We saw a large alpaca farm, and then just as a light rain started the road passed onto private ranch land and became narrower and closer in the trees. We went through a couple little communities looking for a bar or an overhang to get under until one of my contact lens washed out of my eye and I had to stop to put it back in.

As I was working on it Catherine exclaimed "I think I see a beer sign on that building up on the hill!" Sure enough it was, so we hustled up there and went into the Poor Boys Country Club in Black Lake, NM. Art, the owner and bartender has had bars there for 35 years. He started in an old converted church, and then moved to a trailer, and finally built this new building, which is very nice but homey about 10 years ago. It's called Poor Boys Country Club because the yuppie sort of people who live in Eagle Nest think it's too rough there and they're too good to frequent the place. He said a lot of bikers come there during the Memorial Day rally they have in Red River and surrounding areas. We got our wet jackets off, warmed up by the wood stove and had a few drinks. When Art pours a drink, I'm telling you it's a drink! Cat's Bloody Mary was maybe 20% Bloody Mary mix, and my Crown and coke was about 20% coke. We visited with Art and a couple guys who have summer cabins in the area who were supposed to be going to town to get quarters for their wives' card game that night when a local came in and sat down at the bar beside me and Catherine. He was about my age (turned out he is 51) and had long gray hair.

We began visiting and he told me he had moved to the area 26 years ago from North Carolina. I finally asked him why he moved here, expecting him to say something about visiting and liking the area or something similar. He immediately told me he moved here because he had escaped from prison. I guess the look on my face was funny cause he laughed and explained that he had been running with a bad crowd and had stolen cars, committed burglary, and sold drugs. He was sent to prison for eight years. After eight months he was allowed a six-hour pass and his mother picked him up. He met some buddies who took him to Albuquerque and from there he met a guy who put him to work in southern NM. He gradually saved a little money and under an assumed name borrowed money from a bank, started a little business, and became an upstanding member of the community. Finally after several years he got letters from ministers, business associates, and friends and with the help of some money from his mother, got his sentence commuted by the governor of NC. I just had to laugh that is such a good story. I wouldn't have guessed in a year that would be the answer to my question.

I almost wished the rain would continue, but we grudgingly left Art's when the rain stopped and headed for Red River. After stopping in town and putting our name on the list to eat at Texas Red's Steakhouse, we set up camp in a National Park campground called Junebug west of town. Our dirty old Harleys carried us back into town and we waited in Texas Red's bar and listened to a local musician play and sing some country rock. Through the magic of cell phones we directed Mike and Julie there and we ate supper together and visited till late in the night. Texas Red's served us grilled green chilies as an appetizer, and I had green chili stew with my meal. It was good, but not as good as the more local native places we stopped. My suspicion is that the Texans who frequent Red River like to brag about liking spicy food, but if they got hold of some of Tierra Amarilla's green chili they'd holler uncle in a New York minute. We traveled 170 miles today.

Sunday, July 7, 2002 We slept comfortably as a bug in a rug during the night despite all the bear warnings in the campground. Next morning I drank coffee and visited with a guy trout fishing in the little creek behind our tent. Next time I'm taking a little fishing line and a few hooks. Fresh trout sounded pretty good at that time. We got a fairly early start and headed back to Questa and north where we ate a heuvos rancheros dish smothered with green chili at Miss Rios café in San Luis. The meal was very good. By now I was about to decide that there's really not a bad green chili. After breakfast we decided to investigate what a building on top of a hill at the edge of town was. It turned out to be the Stations of the Cross Shrine. The building at the top of the hill was a church and the actual shrine was a series of bronze statues of the Stations of the Cross (scenes beginning with Jesus' trial before Pilate and ending with his resurrection from the tomb). The statues were beautiful and stationed on a little gravel path that meandered back and forth up the hill. The whole thing was very somber and reverent. It was definitely good exercise after breakfast and made for a lot of questions to be answered at some later time.

We traveled on north on Hwy 159 to Fort Garland where we visited Fort Garland State Museum. This is a partially reconstructed fort that was a player in the Indian wars, the Civil War, and in protecting the settlers during the westward expansion of the U.S. Kit Carson was its commander for a few years. It was a well-done display and interesting. We had to laugh as we were finishing the short walking tour and saw Mike and Julie just starting it, so we visited with them for a few minutes. We hadn't seen many bikers till now on our trip but we saw quite a few through southern CO. We filled up with gas and filled my little collapsible ice chest with water and other fluids and ice to go with the few beers and tomato juices still in it and headed west on Hwy 160, then north on Hwy 150 to Great Sand Dunes National Monument. There we watched a good film in the Visitor Center about how the sand dunes are formed and why they stay there, and then we hiked out into the dunes. From pictures and from the road they don't look so large and immense, but after hiking for about 30 minutes and seeing we barely made the first little one, I decided they are pretty dang big. We saw some young people climbing to the top and surfing down them on boards. That was pretty neat.

After running into (you guessed it) Mike and Julie again, we headed west to Mosca, south to Alamosa, west on Hwy 160 to South Fork, across Wolf Creek Pass and into Pagosa Springs. We were about to eat our saddlebags by then so after striking out at a couple places that looked good, we ended up at a Mexican restaurant at the west edge of town. It was sort of El Chico-ish and was OK, but after eating at local cafes, it was pretty bland. The green chili was only fair. This was the worst meal we had on the trip. Our plans were to camp in a National Park campground between Pagosa Springs and Durango. Unfortunately we didn't find one and we could see a big storm with lightning and everything coming in from the northwest. At Chimney Rock we headed south on Hwy 151 to Arboles and Navajo State Park. We rode in a light rain for about 20 miles but got out of it just as we got to the town. Before we could get camp set up a real bad storm hit with a lot of wind and rain and lightning so we sat in the bathroom for about an hour. Luckily it was a brand new campground with a big, nice bathroom, and there were hardly any other people there, so we weren't disturbed. After the storm passed we set up camp in the dark and went to bed. We made 265 miles today.

Monday, July 8, 2002 As we were packing up, I started chatting with an Okie from Chickasha who had moved to the Los Alamos area about 20 years ago and was at the lake fishing. We talked fishing and heat and humidity and stuff like that. I was surprised to discover that there are channel catfish, bass, crappie, trout, northern pike, as well as several other species of fish, all in the same water. I figured if it was cold enough for trout to live, the catfish couldn't survive. We rode the 18 miles into Ignacio, which is a little Indian, town southeast of Durango and site of the annual Four Corners Iron Horse Motorcycle Rally. We ate a really good breakfast at The Patio there. The huevos rancheros smothered in green chili was good. The green chili had a good flavor, but had a sort of gelatinous consistency, which was not real pleasing, but the rest of the meal was great. If you're ever through there and like pie, theirs looked wonderful. Hwy 172 led us back to Hwy 160, which we followed through Durango, Cortez, and almost to the Four Corners Monument. We cut back northwest on Hwy 41 into Utah and Hwy 262 through Aneth to Montezuma Creek. Our whole ride had been comfortable till here, but it started getting hot in this area. We stopped in Montezuma Creek to ask directions and shed clothes (well, not all of them) and drink some water. We then stayed on Hwy 163 through Bluff, Mexican Hat, and to Kayenta, Arizona. The scenery around Bluff was interesting. There were lots of little mountains with bluffs, as the name would imply. It is right beside the San Juan River and I was amazed at how much activity there was there in the middle of nowhere. After Bluff we started getting into Monument Valley, which was awesome. Seeing all the rock formations on the horizon then watching as they come closer and closer brought back memories of all the old cowboy shows and movies. Mexican Hat is named for a tall rock with another rock on top of it that looks sort of like a Mexican hat. The temperature was hot but with no humidity it really felt pretty good on the bikes. It was a nice ride till we hit Kayenta. Then as we headed northeast on Hwy 160 it just got hot and the scenery wasn't anything to write home about. We cut southeast on a little unnamed two-lane blacktop 9 miles out of Kayenta and followed it through Chilchinbito, Rough Rock, and at Many Farms we cut south on Hwy 191to Ganado. From there we went over a little mountain pass into Window Rock on Hwy 264 and followed it till we hit Hwy 666 and followed it south into Gallup. There we found a place called Red Rock State Park on old Hwy 66 east of town. I remembered seeing those red rocks from when I was a kid and traveling Route 66 from California visiting my grandparents in OK. They had a nice little campground there with nice bathrooms and showers to clean up in. After setting up camp we rode back 7 miles into town on Route 66 and ate supper at the Roadrunner Café. Their enchiladas were good, but they were the only place we found where the red chili was hotter than the green. We went back to camp, cleaned up, chatted with the folks from Indiana camping next to us, and went to bed. Soon after we got in the tent a storm hit and the wind blew and lightning flashed and it rained pretty hard for a few minutes. Our little tent kept us dry and I fell asleep during the storm. We rode 420 miles today.

Tuesday, July 8, 2002 We got up early and climbed the big rocks behind the campground and hiked north along the ridge till we got back where a little dry creek bed ran through. There were some neat and interesting rock formations. There was nobody else around and the sun was just coming up. We followed the dry creek back to the campground. By then we were ready for breakfast, so we packed up and headed back into town on Route 66 and stopped at a café called My Sister's Place the woman at the campground had recommended to us. It was the best breakfast we had on the trip. I had enchiladas and eggs covered with green chili and it was scrumptious. We rode through old downtown Gallup on 66 then took off south on Hwy 602 through the Zuni Indian Reservation, and then we took Hwy 53 east and north through the Ramah Navajo Reservation. There are several National Monuments and ruins and pueblos in that area, but unfortunately we were running out of time, so we were unable to stop. We decided to go to that area and check them out another year. The country through there is hilly with high desert plants and was interesting. One still sees the occasional hogan and Indian dressed in traditional garb, but most of them live in dilapidated mobile homes. We stopped at Bandera Volcano and Ice Cave. It is a privately owned attraction. We hiked up the volcano and viewed how the side of it blew out and lava poured down a valley. It was quite a bit different than the Capulin volcano. The Ice Cave was only a short cave, but it stays 31 degrees there all the time and there is a pretty large chunk of ice there.

We hit some rain as we got to Grants, but stopped to get gas and stayed under the awning till it mostly passed. We got on I-40 east there for about 40 miles till we were able to take Hwy 6 to Los Lunas. We could have stayed on Route 66 instead on I-40, but it switched back and forth over the four lane and was nonexistent in places, so we decided to just get on the interstate. Traffic was heavy and fast and reminded me why I hate riding on them. From Los Lunas we had to take I-25 south to Belen then we cut southeast on Hwy 47 to Hwy 60, which we followed east through Mountainair, Willard, Encino, Vaughn, and Yeso to Fort Sumner. The weather was comfortable and the scenery interesting and kind of pretty. We passed some dry salt ponds just east of Willard, which had a neat looking little bar in it. Between Willard and Vaughn we raced a rainstorm that was heading southeast. It was so much fun. There was nobody else on the road. The storm got closer and the rain was visible to our left coming down in sheets. The wind started blowing and it got very cool. The bikes were running great in the cool air and we raced it going between 70 and 80 mph and finally broke out ahead of the storm. I had to laugh, it was so much fun. (link to that story) We rode through Fort Sumner and visited Billy the Kid's grave on the east side of town, then rode back in and got a room at the Billy the Kid Country Inn. We walked down the street a couple blocks to Fred's Bar, Café, and Liquor Store to eat. I didn't expect much, but it turned out to be a very good meal. I had steak and enchiladas with green chili. We cleaned up and went to bed in a real bed for the first time in five days. We rode 390 miles today.

Wednesday, July 10, 2002 We breakfasted on Billy the Kid's coffee, tea, and pastries and hit the road at 7:30 OK time. The weather was cloudy and cool and we made good time going east on Hwy 60 to Clovis, NM, then we took Hwy 70 east across the Texas panhandle. We hit a little rain around Plainview, but that just kept it cool and our jackets felt good. We were making good time but failed to stop for gas in time as Catherine had to hit reserve east of Matador, with the next town 25 or so miles away. She slowed down to conserve fuel, but ran out about 3 miles west of Paducah. One of the funniest sights of the trip was following her watching her shake her bike back and forth to jostle a little gas into the fuel line, but it kept her putting along till she pulled into the gas station. We shed our jackets there and kept moving and the further east we got the hotter it got. We got a good old OK hot welcome back. We knew it was hot, but didn?t think it was that hot till we saw a bank sign that said 103 degrees. We pulled into Tishomingo at 4 PM and went to River Ribs for some barbeque ribs before making the last 15 miles on home. The last day we rode 500 miles for a total of 2850 miles in eight days.

We had a wonderful trip. The bikes were good and gave us no trouble. We had no close calls or accidents, and we enjoyed each other's company and the company of the people we met along the way. We missed the companionship of the friends we frequently ride with, but it was really fun doing the camping and hiking also.

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