I stayed in bed, sleeping on and off, until about noon.  This was a strong indication that I was not in the best of shape as I never sleep past 6 AM.  The drugs and rest did well and about 1 PM I walked to the Plainsman Cafe in hopes of getting a good home cooked meal.  It was not to be.  Buffet time at lunch at the Plainsman Cafe.  $6.99, including drink, for all you could consume.The salad was ok, the vegetables marginal, the chicken dry, the ribs good, and my favorite of the day......fish sticks, were...well....fish sticks.  Interesting that on some of the long stretches fish sticks had actually floated by in my mind.  I had not had or seen them since my youth when my mother tried to feed 5 boys on my dads military salary, back when the military was not paid well at all. It was good that I was ill as I had very little and only finished the salad.

The rest of the day was spent recouping and planing the next few days. The hotel did all the laundry you could stick in a comercial washer for $5.  A heck of deal and I went for it.

We left the "Bates" motel and continued east.  I still was not feeling better, but I wanted to get in a long day today. The first 50 miles was so straight and flat, there was not even one no passing zone. The road continued long and straight and was either flat or a few rolling hills with almost no occupied houses and no one to stop and visit. I did have some long conversations with people a Guyman and a couple of gas stops.  The day just droned on until we came to the top of a hill out side of Buffalo.  Dawn and his side kicks stopped everyone, well me, a car, a Harley and a truck in the half hour I visited with them.  A tractor trailer had turned over down the hill and they were sending everybody back or on 15 mile detour which had 8 miles of dirt road.  I asked them if I could go down and ask the patrolman if I could push Scoot around on on the shoulder.  They totally rejected that idea.  The detour was down the hill, so we rolled on by, ignored the bypass, asked to Highway Patrol if we could slide around and he said sure and bring those two pickup trucks with you.  I have always had a problem with people telling me "no" to a sensible solution.

In Buffalo, we got gas an met Kelly Smith.  Kelly is a pipeline welder from Georgia and was riding around the midwest until a new pipeline job starts next month.  Then rolled in the Harely that took the by pass.  They were from Tennessee, a husband and wife.  The detour was not to bad until a truck passed them and they ate his dust for six miles.

I saw the Harely couple again in Alva eating at a gas station as there seemed to be no restaurants open this late.  I pushed on down the road to a BBQ joint that had a parking lot full of flashy motorcycles.  They left as I came in.  There was one left when I finished and it belonged to a couple from Wichita who were just out on this beautiful day riding around.

US64 took a turn to the right and it had no hotels at the distance I wanted to stop today, so I continued straight ahead on OK11 to Blackwell.  By the time I got there and checked into a very comfortable Comfort Inn my strep throat was killing me.  I called my Dr., Saint, Stan and he called in a prescription to the Hutton Drug store in town. Blackwell is another town that Walmart killed, but Mr. Hutton was hanging in there.

I am going to take a lay day here and see if the medicine works.  If not I might have to load Scoot and a truck an make the next 1220 miles on 4 wheels.

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Taos is an interesting town and I would have liked to go back out to Earthhouses to get a closer look, but we pushed on east, over our last mountain range.  It was beautiful riding through the Taos Canyon up to over 9,000 feet again and down into the plateau.  It was a beautiful ride I failed to capture in any pictures. We ran across the high plain to Eagle Nest were we started our last climb up the mountains.  I stopped at the top to take a picture of what we had crossed behind us.  Scoot had done a great job, even though his little 150cc heart was not meant to drag my fat butt and luggage over 10,000 feet passes.  He struggled at times, but never gave up. 

We roared down the other side.  In Cimarron we made a left onto NM21 to avoid 6 miles of interstate highway.  It was a beautiful ride, with tree lined stretches much like Europe.  We passed the Philmont Boy Scout Camp, one of the nicest ones I had ever seen and a very large facility.

In Springer we stopped for lunch in front of a little shop that said "cafe".  After I took all my gear and walked in I found out it "was" a cafe, but now is antique shop.  Across the street was a cafe in an old hotel.  Breakfast was good, but more interesting was the black white pictures and short bio's of local cowboys.  Some old and some young.
Back on the highway, we were following hwy US56/412 as US64 took a big kink to the north, but we would rejoin it later.  This is flat land with nothing on it.  Just mile after mile of parries.  We stopped in Clayton, NM, the last town before Oklahoma, and thought of a hotel, but it was early and the town was not very exciting.  I have been fighting a cold or something the last couple of days and was a little run down, but I figured if I had a bite of lunch and sat for awhile, I would feel well enough to press on to the next town.  I found lunch in the oddest place, the back of Mary's Flower Shop.  No sign about a restaurant you just have know.  You walk through the shop  and in the back are a few tables and they serve the greatest food.  There is a door straight into the shop but it is disguised both on the outside and the inside.  The green chili did the job and we were back on the road. Outside of Clayton, there was evidence of the tornado had come through the day before and broke off about a mile of power line, rolled a lot of irrigation machinery and damaged one barn.  Got a lot of thumbs up from the electrical repairman.

We stopped for the night in Boise City, OK.  There are two 1950's hotels owned by the same people.  From the outside it looks like the Bates motel, but the rooms cleaned and the bed comfortable.  By night fall, the parking lot was full.

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Today I moved slowly because last night's low was 28 degrees and I was waiting for it to warm up. At 7 I went next door for a "Gucci" coffee and breakfast. Steve, the chef, came out and said he had to look at Scoot. We went outside and I learned he and his wife Jenny, had scooters and wanted to do a long journey and seeing me made him realize it was possible. She is a local radio personality and immediately called and set a radio interview with me that morning.

I met Jenny at the studio of KZRM 96.1 in Chama for her 9 AM "Magical Mystery Tour" show. I knew it would be fun just from the name of the show. She introduced me to Steve and others who came into the studio. The interview was about 10 minutes and a lot of fun. This is another one of those little jewels of a town and people that I just happen to stumble across on the scooter trips.

We said goodbye and away I went. One advantage of leaving later is that it had warmed up for me to follow US-64 across the mountain to Taos, NM. I had planned a route around the mountain because of the low temperatures. We clawed our way up to the over 10,000 foot peak. Scoot was not designed to drag my fat butt and gear on these inclines and altitudes but we made it and zoomed down the other side.There was still plenty of snow and spring had not come to the trees up at the top yet.

On the way up I found a cow caught in a fence. I stopped at the nearest house and told the owner, but it was not his cow and he did not care. There really was nothing else I could do so we continued on. I am sure that homeowner is not from around here, as everyone else I met up until him, were very caring people.

On the way down we stopped in and met John, a relative of Smoky Bear. He is not looking forward to the upcoming holiday weekend as it brings all kind of situations from fire to "relationship" problems.

When we reached the plateau we came across Cassandra in the middle of nowhere. She had walked to town to the Post Office and was on her way home. What is not seen in the picture is that she was walking on an artificial leg.

Coming into Taos, there were several interesting sites; adobe house, earthship houses that were really, really different and a group of students paying their respects to a friend at the location he was killed on the highway. Too bad the camera battery was dead.

Taos is an artist town and mostly in the Adobe style. I decided to quit early and checked into the Taos Inn that was founded 1935.


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I had slept well at the Hampton Inn in Kayenta, NM and when I looked out the window there was no blowing sand, but I could tell from the trees that there was still a pretty good wind blowing. I got ready slowly waiting for the temperature to raise a few degrees. When I went for a walk around the building, the wind was much stronger than I thought and little white things began floating by. IT WAS SNOWING!


I went back to the room to make up a plan. I had two choices: 1) slog my way in 20 mph winds up to Monument Valley, a beautiful place, but something I had seen before, and it would take about 3 hours or 2) head eastbound and use the 20 mph wind to push me along. I chose the later and headed east on AZ 160. I wanted away from the snow and a tailwind is always better. I really wanted to take Scoot to the Valley, but it was not to be. Here are pictures of snow in the mountains and a some of the monuments in Monument Valley.

As I rode along all morning on the left side of the road was snow and overcast. On the right, crystal blue skies.

In Teec Nos Pos US-64 begins. If I stayed on this road it would take me to my Mom and Dad's house in North Carolina and on down to the Atlantic Coast.

About 30 minutes out of Farmington, NM the overcast caught me and it got real cold. I pulled into AJ's Diner and parked out front. When I walked in you would have thought I had lived there all my life. Almost everyone spoke and the waitresses came over and we immediately started talking about my ride and they knew I was cold and bought coffee. I lingered for a long time warming up and feeling right at home. Everyone that came in Barbie, my waitress, and the other waitress, told them I had ridden across country. Barbie came out to say good bye and Scoot and I headed out of town.

For the next hundred miles or so, again there was nothing but beautiful vistas. The skies had also cleared and though it was cold, it was a lot better than when the clouds had caught up to me. There was very little traffic in my direction but in the opposite direction there was a constant flow of large trucks and dozens of white pickup trucks. This is gas and oil country and I think most of them were related to this business. I later learned the traffic was because of a wreck that had closed the road for 4 hours.

We entered the Apache reservation and eventually rolled into Dolce. It has nothing but a few small casinos and the headquarters for the Apache reservation. It is in the middle of nowhere but a very lovely location. I just cannot figure out where the people come from to gamble.

I stopped at the continental divide at over 7,000 feet. This area is in the high plains with lots of green in the valleys.

I pulled into the visitors center in Chama to inquire about accommodations. The girl there told me that there were several in town, but if I went across the street to the hotel I could walk to the restaurant. I decided that was a good idea, but first I would ride into the town to see if anything was there. I was pleasantly surprised to find a small down town area with old restored buildings. The main attraction is a restored small gauge railroad that runs up to Colorado and back over a 6 hour period. The place felt good so I checked into the Chama Inn for the evening.

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