Days FORTY SIX to forty eight, west toward the rockies

Its a tad over 1200 kilometers from Springdale, Arkansas to Santa Fe, New Mexico. I mention these two locations as Some good rides end in Arkansas and the remaining good rides start again in New Mexico, we have three days of pretty boring interstate to traverse in the middle to get into the Southern Rockies. Hence I am going to lump this boring stuff over three days into one blog post, fair enuff eh?

Leaving Springdale this morning, we were loading the bikes out the front and a couple came out and started chatting to us, a little older than ourselves, he was a pastor for a church in Missouri. We learnt he was from Michigan originally and his good wife hailed from Louisiana.

After chatting for 5 or more mins, the pastors wife learnt we were from New Zealand. A look of surprise came over her face, shock almost, and she then stated “ Goodness you speak very good English if you come from New Zealand”

This is fair dinkum, I shit you not, we told her we went to night school specially to learn American before we came over, hence we were able to communicate with the locals so well. The pastors wife was impressed. We bade our fairwells and hopped astride our sickles.

So we Mount the bikes about 0900 amid the sound of thunder and there was rain threatening to the North of SPringdale, we did not don our wet Weather apparel as sky’s were clear to the west and we were heading directly west. It was about 130 kms to Tulsa, Oklahoma, we were right on the cusp of the wet weather the whole way but miraculously did not ride into the rain, humidity was low and the temps stayed mid twenties, nice riding on the 412 west.

At Tulsa, we dropped in elevation and the temp went back up to 30 as did the humidity as we veered left on the I44/Route 66.

Old Route 66 is actually fully functional and complete between Tulsa and Oklahoma, but we stayed on the I44 just to make better time and arrived in Oklahoma City about check in time so all good. There was a servo right next door to enable us to uplift some suitable rehydration material and a Tandorri takeaway there as well to ensure a curry was on the menu for tea.

I hope that curry stays put tomorrow is all I can say, shall we say the state of the Tandorri takeaway gave us some suspicions as to whether or not the chicken was chicken if you catch my drift. Fingers crossed………pray for us.

I’ll add to this blog after tomorrow’s ride to Amarillo, Texas which has a couple scheduled stops for entertainment purposes and to keep as from falling asleep during 420 kilometers in a straight line………..

Pause for a breath here as a couple of days have Passed……………

Back again and having a catch up, we are in Santa Fe now and we have completed that 1200 odd kilometers since leaving Springdale. Despite being three days of tedious interstate, turned out to be an interesting three days with plenty to relieve the boredom.

Oklahoma city was nothing to rave about although we did have a nice Thai meal down the road from the Hotel, headed west in warm temps the next day but with strong winds which made the day hard work.

First stop was about 100 kms down the road in Clinton, Oklahoma where we stopped at a Route 66 museum, Ho hum, pretty average but it had to be done, posted a couple pics of it, the ones with the yellow truck and the Chevy Nova convertible.

Next pics are of the old Route 66 ( former) ghost town of Texola, right on the State line Oklahoma/Texas.

Now in 2012 when Marie and I came through here with Kieran and Cam, doing Route 66, the place was a ghost town, not a soul there, we took some cool pics of tumbledown houses and the like. This time, oh my god, hardly a ghost town, big new water tower, a brand new huge church built in the middle of town, population of 15 people now, and the local mayor/ sheriff is a lady called Marcel. Marcel runs a wee cafe in Texola right beside the old run down servo. The house across the road that had the roof collapsed in a V in 2012 is now fully restored and has a new roof. The pics we got in 2012 will be collectible now!!!!!

We got to chatting with Marcel, she has shot 5 rattlers in the last year and has one skinned and up on the wall, 18 rattles she tells us, means 18 years old. Marie asked if she had her own gun, Marcel’s said guns, plural, and yup, you guessed it, Marie wanted to see said guns, hence the pic with Marie posing with Marcel and her Smith and Wesson 38.

Chatted for a while with Marcel, this lady is a legend.

Right, day three on the road. Might mention here that our three days getting from Springdale to Santa Fe, is a similar distance in a straight line as riding across the Nullabor in Aussie, but waaaaaay different. Just a bit of useless trivia for you to soak up, since you have no doubt read our blog on the Nullabor road trip couple Easter’s back.

West of Amarillo, our first stop of course was the Cadillac graveyard, a must do on that section of road. There we were chatting to a couple from Austin, Texas who had just got back from a two week holiday in NZ, both islands, loved it, good to catch up with them.

Heading west from Amarillo, the Texans have filled the landscape with wind farms and there a propellers for Africa. They may as well I suppose, unlike the fertile cattle farm lands west of Oklahoma City, the land west of Amarillo is pretty desolate , no green grass and good for shag all except wind farms I guess. I am biased, I hate the bloody things they are a blot on the landscape.

A wee bit further down the road, we were just a minute or two behind a truck that had a brake/ shredded tire fire, setting the grass on the roadside on fire as well as his truck. We pulled in a few Km’s further along at Adrian , Texas , as the Police and fire tenders were screaming east to the scene…………for the midway photo shoot and a coffee and when we re entered the I-40 we had the entire west bound two lanes to ourselves for miles, clearly the truck fire had closed the westbound I-40.

Next stop after Adrian, Texas was Tucumcari to show the troops what a cool town it would have been in the Route 66 hey day but how desolate it is now. Stopped for a bite there as well.

Another hundy Kms Down the road we did the compulsory stop at the Route 66 car museum in Santa Rosa where they even have cars for sale, That gave us another break for half an hour before heading west for the last 100 kms to Clines Corner where we left the I40 to head north up the 285 toward Santa Fe.

Arriving in Santa Fe, into the pool for a swim then Uber,d up town to have a look around the plaza and had a great meal and a couple drinks at an upstairs authentic New Mexico cuisine out for to complete the day.

1240 kms from Springdale to Santa Fe over three days……. had been expecting tedium and boredom on the I-40, but turned out to be an interesting three days and the riding was all good, apart from the wind issue on Day two. Won,t miss those bloody trucks hounding us on the interstate though, playing stupid little cat and mouse and boxing in games. Those rigs are dead to us now though, along with some of their meat head psychopath drivers ( note some were polite and drove like a normal truck driver would) we have some great rides ahead of us over the next 3-4 weeks, keep an eye on the blog.

Has anyone made a psycho movie about interstate truckers? There is certainly a wealth of suitable material out there that could be gathered to put together such a movie………..the mind boggles. Red, Mark and myself could just about write a book on the last 1200 kms and I am confident it would be a best seller. Just saying…………