Great roads today! The roads were nice and curvey most of the day and there were very few people to spoil the experience. This morning we rode through forests and mountains and the afternoon we curved through Gila national forest. There were bikes going the opposite direction, a lot more we usually see. That’s a good indication you’ve found someplace special.
We ended the day in a town called Truth or Consequences. It’s hot here, hot like the sun. Both of us are tired from working the bikes through all those turns. When we got here we wanted to stay at this sweet motel we checked out last night, the guy said it would be an hour before we could check in. That was cool with us, out of the ordinary, but cool. They had chairs and some shady areas to sit so I figured we sit, chill, and I write. Nope, the guy wants us to come back in an hour. Our response, fuck him. We found a place down the road that’ll work and settled in to the routine. I’m a bit concerned about Logan at this place, there is high random traffic. We’ll see if I fold and bring him inside.
So, how do you think a town gets a name like Truth or Consequences?
I figured old westy type name, like deadwood or something like that.
Swampkat figured it was a bible type thing.
What do you think?

The town used to be called Hot Springs, because it has some. ToC comes from a game show. There was some sort of April fools thing back in 1950 and this town changed it’s name to the name of the show, Truth or Consequences. Sounds pretty desperate huh?

One really cool thing they have here is a space port, yes that space. It’s definitely on my list, but we’ve got shit to do. We have to get into Texas tomorrow for bike maintenance. There may be a post, maybe not.
Trip started his ride today, soon we will be three.

This morning’s ride was dominated by long straight roads and terrain that reminded me of the canyon lake area outside of San Antonio. I played the guess the distance game, where at the crest of hill I would attempt to guess the distance to a landmark or other random terrain feature. It was fun and about all you could do in such featureless landscape. We knew we were in for a lot of strait roads in the beginning of the day, but were excited about the the end. From the look of the map turny goodness awaited.
We drove through a cool little town called Zuni. Zuni is also the tribe’s name.  It was green and the houses were nice. We noticed that almost all of them had hand built stone ovens in their yard. Sometimes there were clusters of up to 5 of them. I don’t know if these were ovens or kilns, but I appreciated their craftsmanship.  As we’ve seen in other tribal lands the people were friendly and their smiles made us feel at home.
In the last 50 miles or so of the day we struck it rich. The roads were empty and the turns numerous and high speed. We were once again near a ski resort, Sun Valley I think and above 9000 feet. It was a bit chilly at times and of course the wind was ever present.  No matter though, the road was amazing so amazing. Sure we were doing almost double the speed limit, but the turns.. Oh man the turns. Big beautiful S curves and giant hairpins just kept coming. The treeless hilly terrain was awesome for visibility and was blanketed in light brown knee heigh grasses. This was a friggin perfect end to the day. Teeth cold from smiling for so long is always a good indicator.
Earlier today we saw more painted hills, these were a lot more colorful than one we’d seen before. The closest I can get you is, imaging the clouds on Jupiter and how their colors swirl. Now put that on gently rising hills and imagine green hills further in the distance. That solid green made the colorful swirls even more epic. When I saw that particular section there was nothing else in the world around me I was so fascinated.
Great day. Tomorrow promises even more.

We had one of those multi state get into position sort of days. Started in Utah, glanced off of Colorado, and landed in New Mexico. I can’t wait for real beer to touch my lips. Spending the last few days subverting Utah’s issues was starting to wear. Utah and it’s poor unfortunate souls (little mermaid) I’m sure will be happy they have been struck from the list. There is too much government control over too many aspects of their lives for it to make the list. What list you ask? Swampkat and I are making mental notes on where a good place to check out after Texas could be.
Trip, you may see Utah, but I’ve only got one day left in me for their shenanigans.
There were some fun roads this morning and the weather was ‘nice’. After lunch we headed into New Mexico and guess what was waiting there for us? You guessed it, the wind. This big ass front moving across the country is crazy. Four years ago when we were moving through this same area, at the same time of year we didn’t have to even think about the forecast. This time around it’s become part of the morning double check routine.
As we were driving through the wasteland known as northern New Mexico to some, we saw this giant rock in the distance. Friggin huge. Swampkat told me it was called shit rock, I mean Ship Rock. It was cool. Did it look like a ship?  Nope. It looked like a rock, a big rock.  The thing it did remind me of is the bad guys moving fortress in the movie Krull. We rode our fire steeds in it’s direction and beyond.  The wind deafened us with it’s noise. The headsets we communicate with were blaring each other’s wind noise, giving off a terrible stereo effect. The way it was moving I could feel my helmet strap flex against my jaw as the wind tried to pull my helmet off of my head. It blew. But at least the motorcycles weren’t as affected like they have been previous days.
Off for some great roads tomorrow. We’ll try to get a 360 for you guys.

Today was a relatively short day dominated by our ferry ride across lake Powell. The terrain around the area is more beautifully eroded red cliffs and vast wastelands. One second we’d be surrounded by cliffs and the next low scrub. This persisted throughout the day until literally the last few miles. The farm land just appeared out of now where. Anytime the ground was sort of flat, the wind would hammer us. It seems to come and go as it pleases and will surprise you just when you get comfortable.
It was a good day, but we haven’t eaten yet so I’m going to keep this short. That and I don’t want to drop any spoilers so that when Trip gets here he will get to see the special areas for the first time ‘live’. This area is just too good to leave out of his experience.

As a side note, after spending the day compensating for the wind, when standing still I’m getting the sensation I spent the day in the ocean or on a boat. I’m swaying around like a drunk sailor. Also, we just stocked up in a gas station that not only had an A&W but an 8 lane bowling alley as well. Curse your antiquated liquor laws Utah!