Day
18, Saturday, May 02, 2015
OK, here we go. My
alarm sounded…at what time? Yes, it
sounded at 6:30 AM. What did I do? I turned it off and got up right away. Chuck got up also. We got dressed and packed our stuff. I took a couple of bags to my Motorcycle and
packed them in. I parked under the
awning at the entrance of the hotel. The
others parked a distance away in the parking lot. I got my Motorcycle as ready as it could be
while the others were doing the same. I
went into the breakfast area. It was
crowded. I got a table away from the
crowd and started eating. The others
came in slowly. We ate our breakfast and
returned to our rooms to gather the rest of our stuff. With our Motorcycles fully packed and ready,
we left at 8:30 AM with Jan in the lead.
Jan led us on Highway 81 north and got on Highway
62. When we reached the city of Anadarko
(sounds like something out of a Star Wars movie), we turned north on Highway
281. Highway 281 was a “green dotted”
highway. Lots of pretty things to see. After riding for 59 miles, we stopped at a
Love’s Truck Stop at 9:33 AM in Hinton, OK, next to I-40. We all gassed up and took a pit stop. The sky was cloudy and we had our jackets
on. We were about done with our break
and Bruce came over to the Group and told Chuck that he and Jake were
done. They were going to get on I-40 and
go home. I was talking with Ken and
looking at the map when Bruce spoke. I
didn’t hear the reason. Chuck said,
“OK,” we said goodbye and we left north on Highway 270. We left at 10:01 AM.
Ken was leading the Group. There were five of us left. We knew that this next leg was not going to
have anything worth seeing. Ken put the
pedal to the metal and we were off at about 75 mph. It was cloudy and windy. The five of us stayed together and we zipped
down the highway. We saw a lot of wind
turbines in this area. We thought that
there were a lot of them in California.
There seemed to be more than there are in California. We had ridden for about an hour and Ken
quickly stopped in a small town named Seiling, OK. Ken pulled into a parking lot of gravel and
pavement. The business didn’t appear
open. He stopped, took his jacket off
and packed it on his Motorcycle. There
was NO restroom, NO drinks, NO snacks…NOTHING!
It was all about Ken. Ken got
back on his Motorcycle and we were off. Ken
was trying to get some distance and after riding 100 miles, we stopped in
Woodward, OK at 11:37 AM. We made a pit
stop, had a drink and snacks. We were
ready to leave and left at 11:54 AM.
Ken and Chuck talked a little about maybe with the next
stop, we would have lunch. Ken took off
again. We rode through farming
communities. The wind was still blowing
and, on occasion, wind gusts were pretty strong. Chuck later said that it was a Blustery Day in
the Hundred Acre Woods. We rode for 130
miles and at 1:52 PM, we stopped in Guymon, OK for gas. Guymon was a larger town. We gassed up and Jan spoke with the postman
and got directions to the local Subway.
I was listening, since it was my turn to lead. We left the gas station and rode on Highway
412 west. We rode for a couple of blocks
and turned north. This road was also
Highway 412, Business. We rode through
downtown and found ourselves on a rough road.
Looking at the road, it was all cobblestone, or bricks. It was very old and not smooth at all. We stopped at the Subway and had our
lunch. It was rather quick to serve five
people instead of seven or eight. We
were served quickly and we ate. We left
the Subway at 3:14 PM.
I was the lead now.
We went north on Highway 412. We
rode fast, like when Ken was leading. We
looked at the western sky and it was very cloudy and they were dark, rain
clouds. We could see the rain falling
from the distance. We rode for 65 miles
and at 4:09 PM we stopped at Boise City, OK.
We made a pit stop and looking at the rain to the west. We were talking about waiting it out, but
after talking about it, we decided to go.
We left 4:29 PM.
We were now on Highway 64 and still looking at the
rain. We were hoping that we could split
the two storm fronts that were ahead of us.
The closer we got to the rain clouds, the windier it got. We had ridden for about 30 minutes and it
started to sprinkle off and on. We
didn’t get wet very much, but we could smell the rain and feel some drops. The more we rode, the darker it got. We didn’t have our jackets on at this time
and it was getting colder. At 5:00 PM,
we crossed over into New Mexico. We also
gained another hour. We rode for 45
miles and at 4:11 PM, we arrived in Clayton, NM. Remember, we gained an hour. We pulled into an abandoned gas station,
under cover. It was sprinkling and we
were putting on our jackets. We left at
4:20 PM.
As we were riding north, the sky was cloudy, but they
were not rain clouds. We continued
riding on Highway 64. We rode for
another 85 miles and at 5:34 PM; we stopped in Raton, NM at a Best Western
Hotel to check prices. The prices were
very steep and they only had three rooms left.
The clerk told us that the entire city’s hotels were pretty much
filled. We decided to continue on to Trinidad,
CO. We left at 5:54 PM.
Trinidad, CO was not very far north. I led the Group onto I-25 and headed
north. A few miles north, we spotted
some antelope on either side of the Interstate.
We rode for 22 miles and at 6:06 PM, we arrived in Trinidad. I led the Group to a Holiday Inn, Jan rode to
a nearby La Quinta and Chuck stopped at a gas station and put 5.7 gallons of
gas in a 6.0 gallon tank. Close! I called Jan and he told me that he got a
good rate and it was better than what I got.
The room price was one third the price from the Best Western in Raton, NM.
Chuck joined us and we all rode to the
La Quinta and met Jan. We all checked
in, unloaded our Motorcycles and took our stuff to our rooms. We parked our Motorcycles and tucked them in
for the night. We decided that we would
eat dinner on the property. We had pizza. After the pizza, the guys went to the Hot Tub
while I stayed in my room and worked on this blog.
Today we rode a lot of miles. We rode for 506 miles. We saw some rain but didn’t get wet. We were just sprinkled on. We rode through the northeast corner of New
Mexico and we are not in Colorado.
Tomorrow, we will ride deeper into Colorado. I don’t know how far. We shall see.
So, until tomorrow…
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