I had slept well and was up and ready by dawn.  We loaded up and had a couple of cups of hotel coffee.  After we had the "conversations" we were off for Tulsa.  The "conversations" are daily and usually several times a day.  It usually starts with the desk clerk  "That your scooter?", "Yes mam", "I need one of those to ride to work, bet it gets great gas mileage", "Yes mam"
In the parking lot "That your scooter?""Yes sir", "Where you going?""Back to Florida""You rode that all the way from Florida""Yes sir, I rode it from Florida to California and I am headed home""You road that to California...Mable, Mable come here!! He road that all the way to California from Florida, can you believe that."  Etc, Etc.  It is always fun to see the expressions  on their faces.

I had almost booked a truck last night to take Scoot and me home, but could not hit the "done" button.  I am glad I did not as once we were on the road I knew we had to ride home.  And, it was warm.

We headed out of Blackwell on OK11 and turned on OK 177. The scenery changed for a little while with trees and scattered houses, but pretty soon went back to open rolling plains with almost no houses in sight.  It was a beautiful day and we were glad to be back on the road again.  Scoot was in great shape, (except one problem we will discuss later) and he was roaring along at 50 to 55 mph with no problem.

Around 9:30 we rolled into Barnsdale, OK on OK 60.  Downtown was closed off for a big holiday celebration called Big Heart day.  I parked Scoot and walked around for awhile.  All kinds of things where planned, parades, contestants and old cars.  I had seen a lot of turtles crossing the road and I could not figure out why.  Now I know. They were trying to get to town for the "turtle races".  There were boxes and buckets of turtles everywhere. I hung around waiting for the races as they were first up.  But as happens in many small town events, time is not important.  After waiting for 30 minutes and hearing them announce "turtle races in one minute" with no action about 10 times, I decided to head on down the road.

I rolled into Tulsa on OK11 and went to find the H&P Drilling Company world headquarters.  They have employed my good friend Gary Parkin in Ecuador for over 20 years.  I wanted to find Mr. H or Mr. P and tell them what a great employee he was.  Oddly enough, they were not there on a holiday weekend.  I must say, that for a large oil field company, their headquarters building was quite bland.  The building is not even named after them.

Having accomplished this task, I was after for the "Gucci Coffee" and the "crackberry" said it was just down the street and off we went.  I was surprised to find a fine street market starting right at the Cuba Coffee House.  Got a coffee and strolled the street.  Several nice conversations, especially with the owner of the most interesting tattoos I have seen in a while.  He was a Harley guy, of course, and the owner of a wiener dog.  We talked about getting blown around on the road and I took a few pictures.   Sadly only the tattoos turned out.

Now the rest of the Scoot story.  I had heard a rattling noise the last day we were on the road.  I looked and moved parts, but discovered nothing.  Today, on my preflight, I found an exhaust bolt missing and that was what was rattling.  Easy fix, just get another bolt. So, off I went, on down the same street as H&P and Cuba Coffee to Tulsa Scooters.  They looked at and but did not have a bolt to fit, but sent me to Lowes where I acquired the bolt but it did not fit and I went back to Tulsa Scooters.

Let me say here, that this is another one of the great finds and example of how everyone has tried to help me on this trip. They rolled Scoot right in the shop and discovered that the threads where stripped on both bolts due to unknown reasons. So, they pulled the exhaust, tapped the holes and reinstalled everything, for the embarrassing price of $15. But, it did not end there. The owner, Dave Wycoff, was there and we sat and talked for awhile. He was in the same location as me in Vietnam. When I told them I had spent a month there last year he was very interested as he had, like me, always wanted to go back. Other scooter people came and went and we all chatted. They sold a brand new Buddy while I was there. I got ready to go and he insisted I have lunch with him and the rest of his staff. We sat around a table in the showroom and ate pizza. When I got ready to go, they started laying on the gifts...tshirts, tire gauges, decal's and more. What another great group of people. Sadly, Dave does not ride as much as he used to. He and his wife were on separate scooters, stopped at an intersection, when a kid came up from behind, crossed about 3 lanes illegally and hit them both. They never saw the guy. He was hurt pretty bad, but his wife walked away almost "unscathed". I don't consider a concussion and a broke foot "unscathed". Every one there, Chad who fixed Scoot, Ray who helped, and Jonathon the salesman/pizza delivery guy are great people. Thank you all!!

Navigating out of Tulsa was easy.  Go on down the same street a few blocks and turn right and just keep going and it turns into US64.  That was the easy part.  The hard part was there is a gaggle of lights and they are all timed that you must stop for everyone of them no matter what speed you drive at.  Eventually, we where out in the country again.  It was totally different than the west side of Tulsa.  The west was rolling plains and on this side was rolling wooded hills and farms. We crossed the Arkansas river, the Arkansas Navigational waterway and the Illinois River.

I pulled into Sallisaw about 5 PM.  I probably could have made it to Ft Smith, Arkansas, but I had rode far enough the cold monkey still on my back. The lady at the front desk was very nice.  She gave me a room and then Chad walked in.  He already had a room, but his buddy was coming so the desk clerk took my key and gave it to him and gave me his key.  In the parking lot Chad gave me a greatly appreciated cold beer for the deal.  He is actually from near where this trip started in California, but travels all over the U.S. installing telephone equipment.  He had just came from St. Louis and was looking at a little ranch here to buy.
ps: the editor is off for the holidays. please forgive my errors

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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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