Day 19: Things don’t always go according to plan

18 May 2011

Our initial plan was to check out the Nuclear Museum in Albuquerque, check out Santa Fe and then stay at a place north of Santa Fe. Things were going swimmingly as we started to enter Albuquerque. Then, a bend came in the highway. Up to this point, my bike had not exhibited any strange handling characteristics. I pushed the handlebar to start leaning into the corner... it was extremely difficult. I managed to force the bike through the corner on the highway. Upon straightening out I looked at my front tire; it was flat! This was the first flat tire that I've ever encountered on a motorcycle and I've always been a little scared of potential outcomes. Luckily, I had become a member of the American Motorcycle Association before the trip and they provide roadside assistance. Compared to AAA, this was incredible. They arranged for the bike to be taken to the local Triumph Dealer, which they looked up for me. And also, the tow truck arrived in 45 minutes or so from the time of my first call. Sadly though, because of this delay we cancelled the Nuclear Museum and not sadly we decided to stay in Santa Fe for the night.








The Triumph Dealer was called PJs, and they were all extremely nice and genuine. I ended up getting new tires, both front and back because my tread was low anyway. While we were there with WiFi, I checked out the forecast for our upcoming days. This was bad news. It was then that we did our route change for Colorado.




Finally leaving the dealer, it started to rain so we high tailed it out of there to Santa Fe. Santa Fe was also rainy for the evening.




Santa Fe, aside from the rain, was unique and quite delightful. I expected it to be a bit mroe city-like. Sure, it was expansive, but the entire city had low buildings and felt like a small town. All over were adobe style buildings and quaint little side streets and alley ways. An odd thing about the city though, is that it has a REALLY high percentage of homeless. It seemed that there was a homeless person for every four or five normal citizens. This could have been because we were there on a weeknight after business hours. We ended up grabbing some food at this place called the Blue Corn Cafe or something like that. Their green chili stew is amazing by the way.

Day 18: Arrays of the Very Large Variety

17 May 2011







Riding through the mountains of New Mexico was pretty cold. It was beautiful though. We rode through Lincoln NM, which apparently was very prominent with Billy the Kid, and the whole town was old western style.




Smokey the Bear looks like he did something bad, so I'm scolding him. We stopped by Capitan NM for some breakfast. The place was the Smokey the Bear Restaurant. It turns out that Capitan is the birthplace of Smokey the Bear. We saw pictures of this young bear with bandages. We assumed that he burned himself trying to put out a fire and started telling other people that only THEY could prevent forest fires because he had crippling memories that prevented him from doing it. In reality, I later found out that he was a real bear cub that was burned in a local forest fire. He was taken care of and then became the mascot for forest fire prevention.




We passed through this area called the Valley of Fire. For miles, it was nothing but black volcanic rock. The area was very similar to Mordor.

We finally reached the Very Large Array and had a fantastically nerdy time checking it out. They can move the arms of the array in and out for different purposes. When we visited, it was a fully extended day which made photographs more difficult.

After geeking it up, we hit the road for a campsite in Datil NM. Riding through the desolate open plains towards the mountains made both of us think of the movie Red Dawn. Eventually we set up camp and had a pretty cold night considering the cold front and the fact that we were at 7400 feet.

Andrea Says: They are in California

Today the boys left Las Vegas after Laura and Fabian showed them the sights. (Like Quark's Bar)

They hit the road and ended up in Idyllwild, California.

"It kind of has a Cape Cod feel but it is in the mountains," Mike said.

Along the way they stopped at Big Bear City at Big Bear Lake. (I think that is the name of the city, Mike added).

They ate at a place called the Lumberjack that is run by Spanish-speaking family who hung out in the dining area like it was their living room.

"I got a club salad," Mike said and then he added that he ate bacon! "The salad came in a bowl that looks like it came from the Christmas Tree Shop. It looked like a giant clam that you would fill with marbles and put on your coffee table."



"It made it really hard to eat because it had a bunch of grooves on it," Mike said and added that the entire bowl tipped every time he applied force.

Paul got a sloppy joe with waffle fries and "he shared some with me and I ate them," Mike said.

They are now camping at Idyllwild Park. Tomorrow they head to San Diego.

Andrea Says: Look at the guy in the background

I was scrolling through the pictures from the Grand Canyon Adventures and found this gem. I love the grumpy teen in the background.

Las Vegas: In Depth

Las Vegas was pretty great! I'll come back. Onward to Idyllwild, CA for some camping tonight. More to come!

Day 2 - POV Video

Day 2 - POV from Mike Calvin on Vimeo.

Ever wonder what the Great American Rideabout is like first hand? It's a lot like this, but hundreds of times longer.



This video is from day two of our journey in Pennsylvania I think. This was a really nice road that ran along a river. On the other side was forest and stone wall, and even one water fall.

Andrea says: The Hoover Dam is sooo Art Deco

Mike and Paul woke up this morning at the Grand Canyon Village campground

“It rained overnight and when I woke up,” mike said, “our motorcycles were frosted over and my helmet had a snowcap on it like a mountain.”

Once the temperatures went up the boys programmed Las Vegas in to their GPS and they were off!

They boys rode for a long time on I-40 at a comfortable speed and “then we got off and diverged on to Route 66,” Mike said.

Route 66 was a “whole bunch of little kitschy tourist traps, diners and souvenir stores,” Mike said and added that the area was packed.

Eventually the road turned into a straight nothing. He said there would be patches of grass and then a run down shanty.

They boys came across the Frontier Café somewhere in Arizona. He said the entire diner was run by grandmas.

There was a special that day where you could take anything from the menu that had bread and replace it with fried bread.

“And anything that came with fries, you could replace with a cup of soup,” Mike said.

Paul got a plain Jane cheeseburger with a cup of soup and Mike got his new favorite meal: Chili size

“Chili size is an open-faced hamburger with chili on top,” Mike said and added that replace the bun with fried bread. “It was excellent.”

Then they were on their way again. They then stopped at a souvenir shop where they got Grand Canyon stickers.

The boys got on Route 93 North, the path to the Hoover Dam and Las Vegas.

Once they got to the dam Mike said it was different from TV.

“On TV it looks like the road just goes right across and then ‘hey I am on the dam,’” mike said. “In reality you drive over a bridge and then you go down this long snaky road, go to a security check point and all this touristy stuff and then you go across the Hoover Dam.”’

The boys parked in the “free parking” area and got a good look.

“It is art deco to the extreme,” Mike said.

He said at one end there are these two 25-foot-tall statues of copper men with falcon arms.

“I am sure you’ve seen this thing before because it is super art deco,” Mike said, assuming that I am all up to date on Art Deco.

The boys then headed to Las Vegas. Mike said there was heavy traffic, but the drivers were very friendly.

They found their hotel, the Tropicana, and pulled up to the front. Some guy told them they had to valet their bikes. Mike just looked at him and said that wasn’t going to happen.

They were directed to the south parking spot and they walked, the very long walk to their room.

Their room, Mike says, has a Caribbean/Columbia drug lord motif.

Another perk of the hotel: “The elevator goes down so fast it makes your tummy feel funny,” Mike said.