LTP and Pinkytiffy's 2013 TAT tour of the USA.

[Losttheplot]

First crash of the trip.

Oklahoma, didn't seem to dissimilar to Arkansas on first impressions, only it had less dogs chasing us, along with less bridges and more "fords" to cross.

The roads also go longer and straighter:

With the occasional bend and a few cows

It was on one of the first "fords" that i had the fist proper crash of the trip (there had been a few moments when i'd had a few "legs aren't long enough" moments and ended up in a heap, buts that's another story ), crossing one of the fords, on approach it looked like all the others, a sinister trickle of water flowing over the top if it was more than quarter of an inch deep, what could be dangerous about this?.

And that was the thought that went through my head precisely before it wall went tits up. The aftermath..

OK, with hindsight maybe it was a little bit slippery. I'm not sure if it was luck, skill, or fate, but somehow dave managed to avoid me, stay on his bike, stay upright, and not end up in the river. Something we should drink to

Thankfully both bike and rider escaped without injury, though my Traverse jeans had some scuffing, and slimey mud had found it's way through the vents

 

[Sgt Bilco]

Those river crossings are feckin lethal. They all look lovely as you approach....... Did you see Bakermans cow in Oklahoma? It would be the one with the limp..........

Great pics Nathan and bringing back lots of memories........mostly good

 

[pinkytiff]

Captain Dave was one of the great characters that we met all along the trail, I won't steal Nathan's thunder by mentioning the rest but apart from the snakes, bears, big cats and many other things he wound us up with he also explained a bit about his Indian roots. Many sections of the route criss crossed other trails, the topical one in this neck of the woods was the Trail of Tears. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears

 

[Losttheplot]

Captain Dave was one of the great characters that we met all along the trail, I won't steal Nathan's thunder by mentioning the rest but apart from the snakes, bears, big cats and many other things he wound us up with he also explained a bit about his Indian roots. Many sections of the route criss crossed other trails, the topical one in this neck of the woods was the Trail of Tears. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears

By all means feel free to add anything relevant- i'm trying to write this RR, and there is so much "stuff" floating around in my head, i'm bound to forget something.

 

[Udders]

 

[Losttheplot]

Yeah yeah i know..next installment will be posted tomorrow

 

[Losttheplot]

Considering Oklahoma is a state full of nothing, most of the towns were really busy due to the drilling gangs operating there.

Every couple of miles there would be one of these monstrous drilling rigs...

It was hard to find accommodation despite trying to plan ahead using free wifi and Dave's Ipad.

One thing that i was totally un-prepared for was the wild life, or to be more exact, the crickets:

These guys were as big as 3 inches in length, and would jump as the bike as you were riding along, and hitting them at any sort of speed was very uncomfortable.

Cricket vs bike:

And Dave pretending to be a cricket:

As we headed west, the roads remained straight and dusty, but this dust would hide some really soft mud, which made things interesting when you weren't prepared for it and happened to be "making progress" at the time

The only sign we were on the right track:

 

[Losttheplot]

OK continued.

During the ride through Oklahoma, i picked up the first flat of the trip:

Thankfully we managed to get it fixed without drama. We'd taken a pair of spare tubes with us, as well as a slime pump. Essential considering the temperature must have been close to 40 degrees.

We had to spend a few evenings just over the border in Kansas. A few of the towns on route in OK had no rooms- taken by most of the oil workers.

On reflection this may have been a good thing- for one night we ended up in a little motel in a place called Kiowa.

Now the first impression of Kiowa, was that it was a one horse town, and that horse had probably died of bordom.

The motel was a small affair, having only a dozen rooms or so. It was run by an indian chap called Bobby. During the formalities of signing in for the night, Dave asked for a recommendation on a good place to eat, Bobby asked if we liked curry, and would we like to join him for a few beers .

At that point i thought i'd died and gone to heaven

it turns out Bobby's wife works late on a monday, so bobby invites all the other guests for a curry which he kindly knocks up.

During the first or second beer, one of the guys (a quiet, retiring type) suggested playing a few drinking games

Which consisted of a relay race. the plan being both teams would race each other, with each team member having to neck their beer, then place the plastic cup on the edge of the table and flip it so that it landed upside down, before the next person on the team could repeat.

The look of intense concentration:

If you were still trying to flip your cup when the other team finished, you have to take the forfeit of a shot of tequila.

i wasn't very good at flipping my cup.



During the proceedings, Dave set our fellow drinking partners a challenge:

The two top shot glasses are full of water. The challenge is to empty the top shot glass, into the third glass below without touching it

The only thing you have is a $10 bill, and this to mustn't touch the glass or the pencils. Not allowed to rock the table either.

A big texan by the name of kevin asked if he could shoot it off with his pistol.

During the evening we got to know Bobby a little better. He was the perfect gentleman, polite, generous and turns out he was a bit of a demon cricket player and was on the team for 3 of the surrounding states, and had plenty of silverware to show for his efforts.

To keep things interesting the "pick the chair up" challenge was also set:

sucess

Towards the end of the evening, when common sense suggested it was probably bed time, Kevin decides we should go for a whisky in the local bar. For some silly reason that i still don't understand, i suggested this was a good idea and we would join him

The "socialising" continued, and Dave acquired a hat:

And I met the local talent:

A boozy conversation followed with Susan (pictured on the right in the photo), and after a while she started to hint that she was interested in more than just "conversation".

The alarm bells started ringing. i was about to be devoured by a cougar . pictures of Kathy Bates performing the "hobbling" scene in the film "misery" popped into my head. This was not what i wanted for breakfast the following morning.

Being a decent (if very drunk) sort of chap, i made my excuses and bailed out back to motel, One eye constantly over my shoulder just in case there was a half cut lady carrying 4"x2" and a sledge hammer following me........

 

[Losttheplot]

The following morning we got back on the bikes and headed out of town.

I felt rough, really rough. Thankfully having the maps and route to concentrate on took my mind off more unpleasant issues.

The scenery helped considerably in my recovery:

And the road didn't offer much in the way of hazards:

And the route wasn't to taxing:

After Kiowa, we stopped off in Liberal (Kansas) and Boise city in Oklahoma, Both of these evenings were very conservative after the excess of Kiowa

Probably helped that Boise city was in a dry county. This in itself was enough to put Dave off the place.

The last few miles of Oklahoma the trail went from easy hard packed gravel, to soft sand:

normally i quite enjoy my sand riding, but this was bone dry, and with the extra weight of the luggage on the bike, riding become a challenge just to stay upright, and maintain direction.

The general scenery either side of the straight roads:

Some of the last photo's i took in Oklahoma:

 

[pinkytiff]

We didn't leave Kansas though without seeing the most famous state residents house, that Nathan to this day still says he'd never heard of!!

 

[Tinytim]

More good stuff thanks.
Ya night in Kiowa made me laff.

Look sharp with some more cos I'm really enjoying this ( as I probably do of ALL the RRs in this place).

Ta for taking the time to put it all together for us.

 

[Udders]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.............

 

[Losttheplot]

We didn't leave Kansas though without seeing the most famous state residents house, that Nathan to this day still says he'd never heard of!!

Just the product of an LSD fuelled imagination maybe?

 

[Losttheplot]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.............

ok, i get the hint, next installment on it's way

 

[Losttheplot]

Onward to New Mexico

Of all the states we had crossed into, the change from Oklahoma into New Mexico was the most impressive.

As with most of the state lines, this one is marked with a sign:

But on crossing this state line, all the perfectly straight roads and manicured field of Oklahoma end abruptly.

Entering New Mexico is like crossing into a different world:

Some of the locals:

This sign bought back memories of the Johnny Cash museum:

After around 30 miles into New Mexico, the terrain changes, and we finally get some hills to ride up, down and around.

this climb is possibly the most entertaining trail of the TAT so far, ridges built across the track to divert storm water off the track also double up as good jumps

Compared to everything else we had ridden the previous 2 weeks, this climb represented a good challenge, and the view from the top was the reward:

After this point the roads straightened out as we made our way across the high plains into Colorado.....

 

[Timolgra]

After this point the roads straightened out as we made our way across the high plains into Colorado.....

And isn't that a brilliant ride?

 

[Losttheplot]

Colorado.

The first sign of civilisation that we encountered after crossing into Colorado was a small hamlet called "Branson".

We hadn't been their long before Dave was locked up for wearing a loud shirt and walking on the cracks in the pavement:

A little history about the place:

Leaving Branson, we carried onto a town called Trinidad which turns out to be a dry county, which is not good considering it was also July the 4th.

Due to the tinder dry conditions all the celebratory fireworks had been cancelled as well, so the experience was a very flat affair. The accommodation wasn't great either. Basically when a motel describes itself as down town, this can mean as little as being next to the local out of town shopping centre, as we found out on this occasion

A few photo's after Branson:

Breathtaking:

Nice trail to:

Nice spot for a weekend retreat:

After our night's stay in Trinidad we made the decision to turn off the TAT and head north to Pueblo for tyres. The AC10 that i had fitted to the front was almost down to "racing slick" profile in the centre, and needed replacing ASAP, the desert i had fitted to the rear was much better either.

Dave's $30"golden boy" that he had fitted in Tennessee was still lasting very well

Pueblo turned out to be a bit of a let down on the tyre front, we did manage to find an Irish style pub that had a few of the local brews on tap , which got used to wash down some spicy nachos. Unfortunately something consumed that evening really didn't agree with my stomach, and a rapid return to the motel ensued, with butt cheeks firmly clenched together

Struggling to find rubber, we continued north to Colorado springs, and found a place called "Apex sports". It was Saturday morning and they didn't have any workshop time available to sort the tyres for us, but were happy to fit them to loose wheels.

We scrounged a pair of milk crates and stripped the bikes in the carpark:

Removing my rear wheel i find another huge nail in the tyre, luckily it hadn't popped the tube.

While sorting the bikes a big F150 type truck pulls up, and a talll athletic looking chap wanders over, looks the bikes over and seeing the "ORS" skills stickers on dave's bike starts a conversation with "Don't suppose you know Simon Pavey?"

Turns out this chap is a dakar racer by the name of Bill Langford, and runs http://www.rawhyde-offroad.com/

During the conversation, Bill was full of suggestions for the trip, and if we were heading towards the Grand Canyon, that we should visit a place called "Toroweap", but more of this later in the trip

 

[Losttheplot]

And isn't that a brilliant ride?

 

[Losttheplot]

Colorado Springs.

New tyres fitted, and bellies filled at the Arby's opposite, we made the decision to stay in Colorado Springs for a day or 2.

Booking ourselves into the local Hilton, after dinner i turned in for the night while Dave stayed on for a few drinks in the bar. It was here he met an English couple, Nigel and Alison, who were doing a spot of sight seeing in the area.

The first i knew about it was the following morning when i woke up to be informed that this nice couple had spare seats in their car and had invited us along to go to Pike's Peak. Don't get me wrong, i love my bike, but the prospect of having a day off the bike was very welcome

On route from Colorado Springs to Pikes peak, we stopped off at the local cliff dwellings, these used to be where the ancient tribes would have lived, and are built from mud and rock:

Room with a view:

One for Bakerman:

A few random:

they weren't making gin then?

Onto Pikes peak:

There are 2 routes up this mountain, one is a 13 mile road, the other is the railway (which we took). the road is infamous for the Pike's Peak hill climb.

If we had been a week earlier we would have witnessed Sebastien Loeb smash the hill climb record in a time of 8 minutes 13 seconds. totally nuts.

The railway:

View looking out from the top, and a real struggle to get the effect and "feel" onto the camera:

 

[Udders]