Saturday, August 15, 2015

Cadillacs, bug-guts and dinosaurs!


Up and at ‘em rather early today!  On the road at 7am!  For me, that’s early!  When I’m on vacation, I have no desire to rise early!  Mark on the other hand is an early riser.  It’s a defect but, you have to be tolerant of the handicapped.

We stopped at a Route 66 museum which was fairly nice.  As we were paying for our tickets, the lady asked if we wanted her to put our helmets behind the counter until we finished the tour.  Why yes, we do!  Rather nice of her!  She took our helmets and as I was putting my money back in my wallet, I heard Mark excitedly saying HEY!HEY!HEY!  I had no idea what had gotten into him until I looked up.  I saw my helmet falling to the floor!  The lady had placed our helmets upside-down on the counter and of course, they rolled!  Mine just happened to be the one to make it to the edge and consequently to the ground!  She turned around and said “Oh.”.  No “Sorry!” or any other apology!  She picked it up and put them both right-side down and said nothing more!  I guess non-riders just have no concept of how expensive helmets are and furthermore, how vitally important they are to my life!  It only fell less than 3 feet so, I wasn’t concerned about the innards being damaged.  It didn’t even mark it in any way.  Still pissed me off!

We wandered through the museum and checked out the exhibits.  It was interesting with several life-sized displays of old vehicles and gas pumps, etc.  Some interactive items were there as well and lots of reading material.  We finished and exited back into the lobby where we came in and retrieved our helmets from Gertie Gravity!  As we were heading out to the bikes, we heard a voice say “Damn biker trash!”!  I turned around ready for a discussion with whoever was crazy enough to make that comment and there was the biker from hell we had met earlier!  He was passing by and saw our bikes and stopped in to say hello again!  So, we chatted for a bit and parted ways again.  Nice guy!

We crossed into Texas and got to see all the stereotypical sights you equate with Texas;  longhorns, oil wells, pipelines and cattle ranches.  We came across the Shamrock Gas Station!  It’s an original Route 66 Conoco gas station that has been restored and now acts as a tourist attraction.  We got there after it was closed so we didn’t get to go inside but, we could see most everything through the windows.  Of course, we took several pics!

Somehow, my navigation got a bit wonky and the street signs were very confusing in this area so, we ended-up travelling about 25 miles or more on the wrong road!  So, we backtracked and figured out where we went wrong and decided to stop in at a Dairy Queen for a bite to eat.  The skies were looking a bit ominous and while we were inside, we heard a loud siren which I recognized as a tornado siren!  I asked the ladies working there if we needed to be concerned and they said it was just a test and if it was an actual tornado it would have kept screaming.  By the way, as with every single day past Missouri, we had side-winds the entire time we were riding!

As we were riding, I saw my first live Roadrunner!  He ran across the road in front of me and off into the brush.  I suddenly became aware of the danger of falling anvils but, none were to be seen!  Whew!  I also saw a couple of hawks directly above the right-side of the road about 150 feet up and something struck me as odd about it.  Then I realized they were stationary!  Now, it’s normal to see birds riding the thermals and winds and just hovering in place but, that’s not what was going on here!  Remember those winds I mentioned?  These hawks were flapping their wings furiously and were ever so slightly moving forward!  I would bet it would take them fifteen minutes or more just to cross the road at that rate!  Fascinating!

The KLR by this time had decided it preferred to live off oil rather than gas.  This would be an issue for the rest of the trip.  I should give a little history on the bike so as not to dissuade anyone from ever purchasing a KLR!  I bought the bike from a friend and also got an entire second KLR minus the frame and wheels!  So, I’ve never been concerned about abusing the bike.  I’ve beaten the hell out of it off-road and jumped it.  I’ve run it at redline for 80 miles non-stop.  I regularly ride with the sportbike crowd in the twisties and I’m never at the back of the pack!  That being said, the bike has never let me down and has run pretty fantastic until this trip.  Before the trip, I bought the Tiger for Mark and rode it most days for about 3 months to make sure everything was proper for the trip.  I never gave thought to the KLR getting jealous during this time.  It had never gone more than a couple of weeks without being run prior to me getting the Tiger.  The 3 months did it’s damage with the carb getting clogged and other minor issues.  It had always used a little bit of oil but, never more than any of the other bikes I’ve owned except for the extended redline run.  The many miles of higher-speed travelling took its’ toll on the years of abuse I’d already put it through and it started using oil at an alarming rate!  At this point, there was nothing to be done but, keep feeding the beast.  I had to switch from fully-synthetic oil to the cheap stuff as I couldn’t afford the cost anymore.  Still, she held together for the entire trip and I would easily and highly recommend a KLR for any trip!  Just make sure you have a good aftermarket seat and I cannot say enough about the Airhawk seatpad I used for the entire trip!  Once I got the air-pressure adjusted to my liking, I never had any issues!

Back to the trip!  As we were getting ready to turn off to go to a Yamaha shop to get some oil we were passed by the biker from hell!  I motioned for him to follow us as we had already decided if we ran into him again we would grubstake him a decent amount of cash to help with his trip but, apparently he misunderstood me and kept going after I turned off.  I hope his journey went well and all his reasons for making the trip were fruitful!

After oiling up again, we headed to the Cadillac Ranch!  For those not aware of this little piece of art/roadside attraction, it’s a bunch of classic Cadillacs buried nose-down in a field with the tail-ends sticking up in the air at about a 60 degree angle all in a row.  It’s one of those interactive living artworks in that anyone can stop by and paint graffiti on the cars.  The artwork changes daily and I’m sure what’s there today is gone in a few days.  There was a small shop just down the road that sold spray paint specifically for this purpose and I bought two cans for our graffiti!

Mark chose to write the name of his new grandchild which was sweet and touching!

I on the other hand decided to shamelessly promote myself just like I’m about to do now!  For those who don’t know, I am an actor.  I’ve been acting for over 20 years.  I’ve starred in a couple of movies that made their way to DVD’s, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.  I am currently starring in a web-series called The Stranger and you can watch it here.  https://www.youtube.com/user/whoisthestranger   It’s a murder-mystery in a small town with a supernatural twist.  I play the Chief of Police, Gabriel Tilson.  If you want to know more about my acting/directing/producing career, you can look me up here!  http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0022983/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 If you like fun zombie movies then you should check me out in this little gem I starred in a few years back!  http://www.amazon.com/101-Zombies-Teague-Quillen/dp/B00ALPONCU  Enough self-promotion now!  If you like what you watch, please do tell everyone you know!  If you don’t, keep your damn mouth shut! J

We both learned definitively our boots were 100% waterproof and mud proof!  It had rained recently and the area directly around the cars was a thick, boot-removing mud!  Luckily, for me I’m long-legged and could avoid the deepest stuff but, Mark had to struggle through to get to the cars!

Somewhere down the road we came to the halfway point of Route 66!  We were now equal distances from Chicago and L.A.!  Cool!

We rode on and crossed into New Mexico!  I have to say, New Mexico wins the award for best state-line border monument!  Unfortunately, since we were riding I didn’t get a pic.  The instant we crossed into New Mexico, we felt like we had stepped into the world’s largest paintball game and we were the only targets!!  There were literally millions if not billions of grasshoppers in the air splattering themselves all over the bikes and us!!  Mark had a windshield on the Tiger!  I did not!  I laid my head down as far as my helmet would allow and could only see through about a half an inch of the top of my visor peeking over the front fairing!  It was absolutely insane!  By the time we arrived in Tucumcari, New Mexico we were covered in bug guts and worn out from the tucked-in riding position we held for over 20 miles of that hell!

We stopped at another America’s Best Value Inn and got a room.  The lady told us we were at the end of the hall and she opened the fire-door for us to be able to bring our gear in more easily.  She told us not to let it close as it would lock back and she was leaving for the night.  I asked when check-out was and she said 11am but, not to worry about when we leave as no one was expected and no one would be there to check us out anyway at that time.  She said to just drop the cards off at the desk and everything would be fine!  Sweet!

We discovered grasshoppers weren’t the only things swarming in the area!  As soon as we got off the bikes at the back of the hotel, black clouds of mosquitos surrounded us!  We kept our helmets on during the transfer of gear and one of us would stand at the door keeping it almost closed while the other moved his gear into the room so we wouldn’t let too many of the bastards in!

After we got our room sorted, we rode out to eat dinner at a nice local restaurant.  As we rode through the town we discovered a huge amount of original Route 66 Motels!  I wish we had ridden in and looked around instead of just stopping at the usual hotel.  There were so many cool and unique motels and it would have been nice to have stayed in another original motel!

While in Tucumcari, I discovered the Mesalands Community College Dinosaur Museum.  I like dinosaur related stuff and I have a friend who is a huge fan so, I thought I would check it out and grab a souvenir while I was there!  Mark chose not to join me so, I toured solo.  It was a nice place with a lot of very nice fossils and several full-sized complete skeletons on display in active poses including a full-sized 40 foot long Torvosaurus which is similar to a T-Rex!  I grabbed a small figurine for my friend at the shop at the end and we headed back to the hotel.

 

In the museum.
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You are uh......somewhere!
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One of the museum displays.
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One of Route 66's historic spots. You can see the Glancy in the background. Sadly Pop's was no longer there due to a fire.
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Those were the days!
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Another state off the list!
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The Shamrock
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One of the famous muffler men at the shop where I bought spraypaint for the Cadillac Ranch.
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Cadillac Ranch!
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Halfway there!!
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Just a little feller. Didn't see any of the big boys.
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The not quite so grand, canyon.
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Mesas everywhere!
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Mark's visor! Keep in mind, this is what he had WITH a windshield! Not sure why we didn't get a shot of my encrusted lid!?
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Historic motels!
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Got another sign!
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Saturday, August 8, 2015

Tulsa, Rain and The Glancy



Well, we
woke to rain.  No problem.  All our gear is waterproof and it sure wasn’t
the first ride in the rain for either of us!
We went downstairs to the lobby for the promised breakfast buffet.  I’m not sure if they really didn’t want us to
eat any of the breakfast or if they were trying to protect us from eating too
much.  The only plates available (as seen
in the pic below) were little saucers slightly larger than a donut!  It was for the best as nothing there was very
good anyway so, it was a rather light breakfast.


            We loaded up and headed through
downtown Tulsa, OK.  There were deep
rivers of rainwater flowing through the streets but, luckily we never had to
put our feet down in any of them!  Had we
more time and money, I would have liked to have stayed a while.  There were many shops with a certain retro
and artistic feel like a cultural and musical community had centered itself
there.  Unfortunately, due to the weather
I have no pics.


            We rode through quite a bit of
steady rain.  Nothing too heavy but, just
steady.  We stopped for fuel at an island
along the interstate and the rain stopped while we were there fueling our bikes
and bodies.


            We headed towards Oklahoma City and
crossed through several Native American territories.  I recall Fox and Sac and Iowa.  I know there were more but, my memory fails
me.  We came through a small town with an
old smokehouse rolling smoke beside the road.
We wanted to take pictures but, something about the town felt as if we
weren’t welcome.  We saw no one and no
signs of life other than the smokehouse but, something just didn’t feel right
and since we’ve both actually seen a few horror films, (Wrong turn,
Deliverance, The hills have eyes) we decided to move along post haste!


            The sun had come out and the sky
turned into the opening scene of The Simpsons with those perfect little clouds
covering the entire visible sky to the horizon.
We passed a huge waterpark which I believe was Water-Zoo park but, not
100% sure on that.


            We stopped at a Pilot truck stop for
a break and another biker pulled up.  If
you’ve ever seen Raising Arizona, then you know The Biker From Hell.  I think this guy was related.  He was riding a chopped Vulcan 500 ( I think)
that had definitely seen better days.  He
told us he was travelling from Georgia to California to meet up with an
Australian model he had met somehow and was now dating.  He said he left GA with $3 in his pocket and
was polishing chrome and aluminum and other shiny bits on big rigs to fund his
trip.  We were expecting the typical beg
for money but, he never did ask.  Very
nice guy and very interesting!  I can’t
remember if he left first or we did but, it was time to roll on again!


            We went through the Cherokee Nation
which really surprised me as I’m from Cherokee country and didn’t realize they
had a presence so far west.  Of course,
there were signs everywhere advertising the casinos and trading posts.  As we left Cherokee lands, we entered into
Cheyenne (sp?) territory.


            We rolled into Clinton and found one
of the original Route 66 motels.   The
Glancy Motel/Motor Hotel was in the process of being restored by a gentleman of
what appeared to me to be Pakistani descent.
Mark, being the Route 66 fanatic that he is desperately wanted to stay
here so, I checked to see if there were any rooms available.  There weren’t of course but, the owner said
he would work something out even if he had to give us his room!  He said he had a regular customer who had a
room reserved but, he usually calls in before now and figured he wasn’t going
to make it so, he gave us his room.  I
was a little uncomfortable with that situation but, took the room anyway. 


            The owner told us the Glancy was
scheduled to be torn down and he couldn’t let a piece of history like this
disappear so, he bought it.  The owner
was a really nice and attentive host but, I have to say we have different views
on what restored is.  I really don’t want
to speak badly of the guy because he was such a nice and cheerful fellow but,
as soon as we opened the door to the room, it smelled like old toilet
water!  I’m not sure how he passed
electrical inspections or plumbing!  The
bathroom still had the old in-wall electric heater but, it was
disconnected.  The shower had been
re-tiled and at first glance it looked very nice but, upon further/closer
inspection it was very shoddy work.  The
tub itself had been painted with some sort of plastic coating that was peeling
up and creating large bulges/bubbles in the floor of the tub!  All in all, it was a very poor quality
room.  However, that being said, for $50
it served our needs and I would probably stay there again.


            We rode to a local steakhouse and I
managed to get a burger with fries and they actually cooked the fries to my
satisfaction!  I can’t tell you how hard
it is to get restaurants to understand what “CRISPY” means!!  If they aren’t at least lightly brown with a
bit of a crunch to them, I don’t want them!
I ordered FRIES not mashed potatoes!
Mark had a strawberry chicken salad that according to him was very
good!  Not my type of food but, I’ll take
his word for it! 


            There were what appeared to be a
group of the workers who were restoring the motel grilling from the backs of
their trucks.  Although we had a good
meal, the smell of what they were cooking told me they were the winners in the
dinner competition this night!
The view of the bikes from the room during the rain after unloading.

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My "all you can eat" breakfast plate.

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Loaded and ready to go.
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Good time for a selfie.
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The Simpsons!
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Mileage shot.
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Obligatory sign pic. We tried to get one from each state we passed through.
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Mark loves everything train-related.
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The Glancy!
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Our room.
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Brick median through town.
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Mark basking in the nostalgia.
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You lookin' at me!?
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Now, THAT'S what fries should look like!
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Is it just me or does the Tiger look like Jimmy Neutron in this pic?
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Our fancy shower.
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