Riding with a Cop

Day 25 Wednesday 27^th April 2011

Mark had made contact with Mark Beadles last night. Mark B is a Phoenix motorbike cop and he very kindly took the day off work to ride with us from Penny’s house to Yuma on the border of Mexico and California.

 

Mark Beadles and his 2009 Harley

 We went the long way round and had a good few hours riding before we finally reached an Applebees restaurant in Yuma where, despite protests from us that we should collect the bill, he treated us to a meal and we said our goodbyes but not without a parting gift from Mark of a Phoenix cop badge which I will keep as a memory of today’s meeting with a really top bloke.

 

Long Arizona desert roads

 

My treasured Phoenix cop badge

Cousin Penny

Day 24 Tuesday 26^th April 2011

It was getting warm as we packed up the bikes and the cloudless sky gave us a clue that toiday was going to be a scorcher. We headed out of Safford on the US 70 and the long road led us towards the mountains and passed through the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation.  The whole area seemed to be one of deprivation and small huts made from corrugated steel littered the roadside along the main highway. We stopped for gas on the reservation and one of the native American guys in a car produced a bottle of Apache whisky and asked us if we would like a sip but we politely declined his rather generous offer.

The Arizona desert lands also brought with them the stereotypical cactus that is so often seen in desert cartoon pictures and it was strange to actually see them towering above the dusty surface of the barren landscape. In fact the licence plates of the cars in Arizona have the cactus as an emblem on them.

 

Arizona Desert Cactus

 We finally reached the town of Globe and a change of highway to the US 60 and a change of scenery as we started a climb up into the mountains on the road that would take us all the way to Gold Canyon, near Phoenix in Arizona to visit my cousin Penny.

 

Mark enjoying an unscheduled stop in the mountains

We found Penny’s house easily and spent the night boring Mark to death whilst we caught up on family things. We had a couple of drinks outside on the patio whilst Penny gave us an Arizona guide to the type of creatures that we may expect to find in the immediate vicinity including her own garden. These ranged from wild pigs called havolinas to several species of snake (including rattlesnakes), desert rats, bobcats, mountain lions, oh, and we must not forget the very venomous scorpions. We knew this to be true because we had seen a snake slither across the road near to Penny’s house whilst we were out in her car being given a tour of the neighbourhood.

 

Me, cousin Penny and Molly the lovable dog

We retreated to the comfort of the indoors away from all the potential nasties and Penny looked after us very well with a lovely meal, so well in fact that we were soon totally cream crackered and we took to our beds and slept like babies.

Getting Really West Now

Day 23 Easter Monday 25^th April 2011

Today doesn’t seem to be a holiday here in the States so everyone is back at work as normal, or not as the case may be. There are lots and lots of businesses that have closed down and we pass many every day in all the different states that we have visited. Let’s hope that the economy makes a upturn and breathe some life into some of the communities that seem to be struggling very hard at the moment.

Today has also started much cooler than yesterday at just below 60 degrees so loading up the bikes was comfortable for a change. I tried to contact Gina on my Ipod Facetime (better than Skype in my opinion) as it was now late afternoon back home but she must have been busy because there was no answer. I will try again tomorrow. But the good news is that cousin Penny who lives 60 or so miles east of Phoenix has replied to my email and is putting us up on Tuesday night – it will be good to catch up with her again, we haven’t seen each other for about eight years.

We left Alamogordo along the US 70 and soon met the White Sands for which it is “famous”. The desert area around White Sands was also the place where the first space rocket was launched and today there is a missile testing range testament to which is a missile set beside the road as it winds upwards into the mountains.

 

The long straight US 70 out of Alamogordo

 
The increase in altitude brought with it a decrease in temperature and it became decidedly chilly especially as I was riding gloveless to allow me easy access to my camera whilst on the move. It was also windy again and when we hit the Interstate 25 north the sidewinds were very strong and it was quite a struggle to keep the bike in a straight line. However, at Santa Clara we were able to take the US 15 west and a wonderful trip through the mountains was a reward for the not so nice beginning of the journey.

 

A dying breed - little gas stations in the country

We followed a route which took us past vast open cast mines just outside Silver City and we dipped south towards Lordsburg (awful place) and the took route 70 out of New Mexico and into Arizona to our final resting place for the day – the Best Western in Safford.

 

Thars bikes in them thar hills

m

What is Alamogordo Famous For ?

Day 22  Easter Sunday 24^th April 2011

I asked the girl at the check in desk at the hotel if Alamogordo was famous for anything in particular and she said “sand, white sand, I guess” – so there you are; You are just as wise as we now are about the city of Alamogordo. We did also find out that there are lots of Germans seconded here to train at nearby American Air Force base which is also home to the famed Stealth fighters.

Alamogordo was also very windy when we arrived but this had been the theme for the day since we said goodbye to Fort Stockton in Texas. The ride started out once again on a long boring straight road, thankfully not so hot as the previous day though, but we had chosen to connect to US 82 at the quite interesting town of Artesia a route which took us up through the mountains to over 8500 ft  into the Lincoln State Park before descending into Alamogordo.

 

Goodbye Nodding Donkeys of Texas

 
Up in the mountains the scenery was that of pine trees and winding roads but the higher we got the colder it became and once dipped to 18 degrees celcius which compared to around 30 degrees celcius when we came back down.  We must be getting too acclimatised to the warm weather – 18 degrees back home would seem very comfortable – today the same temperature felt very cold.

Video through the mountains

As we crossed the state line from Texas into New Mexico we also crossed into a new time zone – Mountain Time – which leaves us now 7 hours behind UK time. Tomorrow it gets very complicated. We are making our way to Safford which is in Arizona. Now Arizona is in the Mountain Standard Time Zone but it does not adjust its clocks for Daylight Saving (DST) so it is effectively in the same time zone as Pacific Time Zone – so in other words as we cross the Arizona State line tomorrow we will be a whole 8 hours behind the UK.

 

Mark at the State Line

 
We have also been busy trying to sort out shipping out of the States to Russia. We have decided to bite the bullet and pay around $5000 US dollars for a container to take the bikes to Vladivostock. We have spare room and we may be able to sell some space to reduce our cost but that will be a bonus. We have also been in touch with a Russian shipping agent, Yuri, who has agreed to assist our customs and port clearance of the bikes once in Russia – but, once again, this comes at quite a hefty price tag of around $1,000 US dollars. The bikes have to be on the port side in Seattle by 23^rd May and we have to have them serviced before then so we have about three and a half weeks riding lkeft in the States before we start the journey across the Pacific and the crossing of the International Date Line.

That’s where the real fun starts !

Sizzling in Texas

Day 21  Saturday 23^rd April 2011

We left the hotel and rode down to the Alamo again to take some more photos but when we got there a market complete with tents obscured the Alamo frontage so we gave up and headed out of the city on the US90.

The journey started across the Texas prairie, a long hot road with not much to see but fuel stops brought much interaction with the locals who were really interested in the trip and completely overawed with the scale of the undertaking.

A cute girl with her son talked to us for a while at one fuel stop until her dad (we presume) stuck his head out of the fuel station door and called her away – I think he must have thought that we were trying to chat her up but he was mistaken we were simply passing the time of day with her.

The further west we went the more arid and hilly the surrounding area became and we were soon crossing the Rio Grande at Del Rio and noticing the huge army of Border Patrols that remind you that you are only a stone’s throw from the Mexican border. We were stopped at one point and our passports checked but our visa stamps did the trick and we were left to carry on our journey westwards.   



By the time we reached Sanderson we were in semi desert, cactus country and most certainly cowboy land. Route 271 to Fort Stockton was blocked by police and we presumed that it had something to do with the wildfires raging through over a million square acres of Texas at the moment. Our detour took us to Marathon where, on the outskirts of town, we took the US385 taking directly into Stockton but over 50 additional miles.

We checked in at the motel and walked a few hundred yards to K-Bobs Steakhouse where we finally got to have a normal meal. The waitress told us that the 271 was closed, not for wildfires, but for road racing – apparently once a year the road is shut and a 50 mile race is held along its length – we obviously chose the wrong day. Over the meal we talked about the journey and both agreed that the most enjoyable part of the trip is interaction with other people along the way and the little chats we have with them.

A bit of excitement was had on the walk back to the hotel. Distant sirens got closer and a police car zoomed past bus and pulled into the lot of the factory one block away from us and opposite our hotel entrance. When we looked closer we could see smoke billowing from the air vents bin the factory roof – the place was on fire !

The excitement was short lived though as it was only a minor fire and it was soon extinguished so no You Tube video of an exploding factory.

Back at the motel we made good use of our internet connection and booked, not Roswell,  but a cheap motel in Alamogordo – yep, I’ve never heard of it either so I will let you know tomorrow.

Most Boring Day's Ride So Far !!

Day 20 Good Friday 22^nd April 2011

Switched on the television first thing this morning and we were swamped with Easter messages from competing churches. Although we have left the “Bible Belt” there is still a very strong church influence even here in Texas but the intensity and proliferation of churches is far less than that found in the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. I wasn’t in the mood to be God bothered so we hit the road in the humid heat of mid morning Beaumont.

The ride west was some 330 miles to San Antonio and it was probably one of the most boring bike journeys I have ever undertaken. Interstate 10 was pretty much the only choice of road and it had one hell of a side wind sweeping in from the south pretty much all the way.

Once in San Antonio we unloaded the bikes and took a trip downtown to the Alamo. We found it easy enough but parking was a nightmare so we gave up on the Riverwalk – maybe next time.

 

We avoided MacStuffing tonight and rode to a Pizza Hut where we duly stuffed ourselves on a filled crust pizza – not much else to report.  We are making our way to Roswell, New Mexico over the next couple of days with tomorrow night’s stop scheduled for Fort Stockton.

Click here to see the journey so far on Google maps 

Goodbye Louisiana Hello Texas

Day 19  Thursday 20^th April 2011

We decided to take the coast road and head for Beaumont in Texas but before leaving New Orleans we rode down to the French Quarter. 

French Quarter - New Orleans

 We stopped at the side of the road to take a couple of pictures and a guy walked up to me and introduced himself as an ink artist named Welmon Sharlhorne. He asked me if I had “one of dem fancy phones that lets get you Google”. As I had left my fancy phone at Thomas & Pia’s house I replied truthfully that I didn’t have such a phone as this. This did not deter Welmon. He gave me a pen and told me to write down his name and telephone number and to Google his artwork when I got connected. I did and he is well known – fancy that ! Check out Welmon Sharlhorne click here

Me and Welmon passing the time of day

It was hot and humid as we left the city and the open roads were long, not just long but very long. There was one point on highway 82 where we went 155 miles without seeing a fuel station – just miles of bayou and swamp. We saw the shrimping fishing boats that have suffered huge losses as a result of the BP spill not far off this coastline and we could see outline of oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico in the distance. We had a little bit of excitement on what was, for the most part, quite a boring road journey today – we caught a small ferry to cross from the land spur that we were on back to the mainland. As we left Louisiana over the bridge into Port Arthur in Texas the area became far more industrialised with huge petrochemical plants belching out plumes of smoke giving the whole area a sort of oily smell.

Arrival at the Texas State Line

The sat navs worked well again as we reached Beaumont and guided us gently to our La Quinta motel which was fine apart from the fact that the only restaurant was MacDonalds. We tried ordering a Dominos pizza for delivery but the phone line was constantly engaged so we gave up and got MacStuffed for the second day in a row.