Navajo Lake, New Mexico to Page, Arizona

About an hour before sunrise I woke up to zip up my sleeping bag all the way and pull it over my head. It was cold. We were sleeping at 6,000 feet in elevation. I really wanted to put on my fleece but I was too lazy to crawl out from the sleeping bag and put it on and I knew that I was getting up at sun rise anyway, which wasn’t too long. My alarm went off in the early morning but there was no sun yet so I re-set it for a later time and when it went off again still no sun, the last time it went off the sun was already at the horizon. I jetted out of the tent, grabbed the camera and headed for the lake to capture some pictures of the sun rise but the sun was way over the horizon by the time I climbed down to the water. The air was still chilly, but not for long, with each half hour it became warmer and warmer.



Sunrise at Navajo Lake



A beautiful morning at the camp site

When I got back to the camp site, Sandy informed me that when she got up she found a small praying mantis inside her tent, how bizarre. The camp bathroom had free warm showers, although there were only two showers in the woman’s bathroom and one of them didn’t work really well. We got cleaned up, packed up and left by 11AM. This setting up and tearing down of the camp site does take some time but camping is just so much fun.



See the car driving on the road that goes to the Navajo Dam? In the picture below, we're on that road



On the Navajo Dam road



One has to be very careful not too go over the cliff



Twisties near Navajo Dam



Navajo Dam



A washed out road



Looking down a the road that goes to the camp site

It was a magnificent day already. We rode up towards the Navajo Dam to take some pictures, but since we didn’t spend the night in Mesa Verde I had to look at the map and adjust the route, I wanted to make it easy and quick; we were still behind, so we took 64 out. There was a bit of traffic on this road through New Mexico, but once we got in to Arizona the roads opened up a bit. With the open roads our speed increased also. Sandy was running a radar detector and I was leading on this trip, so I was watching her in my mirrors, if she backed down, I did too. of course I had no idea Sandy didn’t have the radar detector on right now. I went to pass a SUV swiftly and got back in to my lane just to find out there was a police car approaching in the near distance, hiding behind some other cars. Then he put his lights on. Sandy just finished her pass when I looked in my mirror to watch him turn around, but he didn’t. We got lucky. Sandy did turn her radar detector on right away and just in time too, two more police cars were heading in the other direction 5 minutes later.



Under state under our belt



A thief stealing a granola bar at a gas stop



Cool rock formations along 160






An abandoned building - time to investigate



Yea, the place has a door, but what fun is that



I had to be careful, the floor had collapsed in a few places



Storm building outside the window in the distance

So the whole time we’re riding, we’re watching and admiring this storm in the distance. As the road turned, it would be to the left of us and then sometimes to the right and then it would be ahead of us. For about an hour we watched it dance in the distance, big menacing dark clouds and spectacular lightning. Once we turned on to 98 North we started to get close to it, so close you could see water falling in sheets to the ground from the dark clouds. Then we started to smell the rain, this was the smell of dry earth sucking up moisture, we knew then we couldn’t escape it. We rode right into it, it got gusty and cold right away, the rain drops were big and even painful at times as I felt them through my textile jacket. Then close to Page, AZ we rode out through the other side of the storm, and back in to the heat and sunshine. The closer we got to the city the hotter it got, in town it must have been in the upper80’s or low 90’s.

We wanted to call some of the campsites and get more information about them but none of the phone numbers we had worked so we just got on the bikes and rode toward the Wahweap marina and campsite, stopping at the Glen Canyon Dam for pictures. It cost us $7 to enter the Glen Canyon Recreational Area, this road used to be free back in the day when I used to come out here, now it was a national park. Back then there was no marina, and there wasn’t a lot of motorized boats here either, the lake was peaceful and serene. In the late 80’s and early 90’s I remembered camping at Lake Powel and not seeing another person for days. Those were the days. Now it’s all built up.



Glen Canyon Dam












Lake Powell

Camping at the Wahweap cost us $19 for one camp site. For dinner we bought some wood, salsa, tortilla chips, turkey franks and hot dog buns at the camp store, then schlepped all that stuff to our camp site on our bikes. The sun was low on the horizon so we needed to hurry and set up our tents but first we needed to park our bikes. Although the road to the camp site was paved, the parking spots were sand, both Sandy and I tried backing her bike in to the sand pit, but we were having a lot of difficulties, even with the both of us. Our neighbor next door was watching and came over to help. He used to race motocross and seemed familiar with motorbikes. He parked our bikes pretty quick, backing them in so we could ride right out tomorrow morning.



Getting supplies at the camp store



Wahweap camp site

It was another great night for camping, clear skies, mid 70’s all night. The only thing bad about this camp site was the sand, it was everywhere, in our tents and in our sleeping bags, but it was so beautiful here that I didn’t even care, we could see the lake in the distance from our camp site, the moon hung above us like a giant lamp. The bathroom was near by also but the showers were a short walk near the camp store, and they were $2 for 15 minutes.



Dinner

Sandy got the fire going, I looked for sticks that I could cut and make skewers out off. Yea, you can’t get this close to nature at a Super 8, camping was awesome. After dinner we were beat and went to bed. I set the alarm clock again, knowing now when exactly the sun would come up, I was going to be ready to watch the sun rise tomorrow morning.

Albuquerque to Lake Navajo, New Mexico

The day started out with New Mexico style home made breakfast burritos and coffee. We hung out and relaxed a bit, did some laundry. Yea, we actually had some dirty clothes to wash already. Sandy likes to keep her Duc clean so she washed her bike. We didn’t leave until 2PM since Mary Ann and Sandy had some catching up to do. Then it was time to leave and that was stressful for us shorty girls on the heavy bikes. Al monitored the traffic on the road since there was no way I was going to stop at the top of the gravel hill to see if anything as coming. The coast was clear I pulled out of the gravel pit and on to the road. It was easier then I though. A few minutes later Sandy was behind me and we were heading for the northwest corner of New Mexico.





We spent the night in a 100 year old adobe house



There was a bit of traffic on the interstate and we left later then anticipated so we decided to skip the twisty roads and just took 550 North still trying to make it to Mesa Verde by nightfall. 550 is designated as a scenic route on my map but I didn’t think it was all that scenic and it was a pretty straight road. I’d avoid it next time. We ran in to a small rain storm that lasted just a few minutes and arrived in Aztec, NM in the late afternoon. It was pretty hot here and we were sweating while trying to figure out what we should do next.

We looked at the map and realized that Mesa Verde was still very far away, so we headed east where we knew of a State Park that we could camp at. The road getting to the park was cool, it went up and down like a rollercoaster and had some great scenery. Confusion set in when we passed an entrance to a camp site, the road leading there was a beat up dirt road. We stopped down the road at a gas station to get more info. Then we fund out that wasn’t the park I saw on the map, the other park was further down and the road to it was paved. Paved was good, gravel/dirt was bad on a loaded up ST bike when you can’t even flat foot.

We arrived at the Navajo Dam and then Lake Navajo Sate Park. Navajo Lake is New Mexico’s second largest lake. The entrance booth was closed already since it was after 6PM so we continued in to the camping area where we could self check in. The guy at the gas station told us the camp site was full this morning, but we were hoping some people left already since the three day holiday weekend was over. As we headed to the park, we saw a lot of cars coming form the park heading the opposite direction. When we got to the camp site more then half of the camp sites were empty. We rode around the steep and narrow but paved roads and found a camp site with some grass to set up our tents on. Not all sites were good for tents, most looked like RV sites and there were many RV’s still here. Our site was a RV site too but, we parked our bikes in the spot where the RV would park. The price was $14 for the camp site, we put the money in to the self-pay envelope and dropped it in to the box.





Navajo Lake



Navajo Lake State Park



Dinner



Our camp site



It was a delightful night for camping. The air was cool but not cold and the sky was clear. The moon was almost full tonight and there were so many starts in the sky. Our camp site was pretty close to the bathrooms, so we didn’t have to walk too far. At around 10PM we called it a night and zipped ourselves in to our tents. My spot was a bit slopped and every time I turned to the other side I’d slide down on since my sleeping pad, and pillow and sleeping bag were made out of slippery type materials. This was my first time camping on a motorcycle trip, so all my gear was new, just tested out for a few nights in my back yard a week before this trip.

Hays, Kansas to Albuquerque, New Mexico

We were out on the road by 8AM, no interstates for us this morning; we took a bunch of back roads that cut through Kansas in to Oklahoma and in to New Mexico. This way was just as fast as the interstate, the roads were empty and we kept our speeds up. In the early afternoon we reached Clayton, NM where we were originally planning on camping last night before Sandy’s bike broke down. I made a few short cuts in today’s route so we could still try to make today’s destination; Albuquerque, NM where we were going to spend the night with Sandy’s cousins family.



Made it to Oklahoma






And we made it to New Mexico





We found us a cowboy in NM, but had to throw him back, too young



Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

The temperatures were cool today and as the clouds moved in it got a bit chilly. We got on it and headed for the mountains of New Mexico, wanting to ride through there before heading south to Albuquerque. The roads were nice and scenic, many twisties, also a bit of traffic. The cars were moving at a good pace, we didn’t even need to pass anyone, but then we caught up to a slow Harley cruiser riding two-up and that was it, we couldn’t pass him, we were stuck behind him for miles.



Many twisties on 64 Near Taos, NM





Taking a break on 68





Nice sweepers and scenery on 68

Near Taos we found some rain and the pace got even slower. The rain wasn’t bad at all though and it did amplify the already crisp and fresh mountain air. We also saw a bit of deer here in the forests, and many more crossing the main streets in towns. As the sun started to drop toward the horizon we started to head toward Santa Fe. In the dark we jumped on I-25 for the last section of our ride in to Albuquerque. The temperatures were still nice and the traffic was moving fast. Then all the sudden, the traffic came to a halt as we encountered some gaper’s delay. There was an accident in the northbound lanes, as I passed the emergency vehicles I took a peek at what was lying in the road. Oh my. It was big. It was brown. It was a freakin’ bear.

We arrived in Albuquerque at around 9PM. I found the road the house was on, the driveway was sloped and gravel and dark. The butterflies in my stomach instantly got agitated as I contemplated my decent to the house below, locating the path of least resistance. I don’t like gravel. I really don’t like slopped gravel and I really, really don’t like any gravel in the dark. It went well considering I couldn’t see much. We parked the bikes in front of the house on the patio and went in.

Mary Ann, Sandy’s cousin, and Al, her husband, had an amazing spread of food waiting for us. Home made cheese ball and some crackers, chicken fajitas a la New Mexico , good ‘ol American apple pie and good beer and local wine. Sandy and I sat outside in the back yard with Mary Ann and Al eating and drinking and talking as the fire burned in the outside fireplace near by. The night air was clean and cool and very pleasant. Sandy and I were beat. We laid out our sleeping bags in the living room next to the fire place and it was nighty-night.



Dinner is waiting for us



We're not very neat guests



Indoor camping

Knoxville, Iowa to Hays, Kansas

I slept in a bit and was out on the road by 9:30AM. I couldn’t contact Sandy on her cell phone before I left, I had a signal but when I dialed her number it wouldn’t even ring. I was heading toward Kansas City hoping her bike would be fixed today and we could resume our trip.



Taking a walk outside the motel in the morning



Spiders in the field near the motel

After some meandering back roads I arrived at I-35 and slabbed south. I was cruising at a conservative speed since Sandy’s bike was the one with the fuzz buster. Then, I got passed by a guy riding a Boss Hoss and I gave chase for a while, but just a while, he was really hauling. I ran in to him later at a gas station, not a young guy at all, but really nice, he was chatting with all the motorcyclists at the gas station. I was about an hour north of Kansas City now so I gave Sandy a call. Good news, her bike was already fixed. They were just finishing up now. The problem was water damage in the multi connector box located in the front left of the bike, we didn’t even check there yesterday. I guess this is a problem on the older Ducs, the connector box isn’t waterproofed and after a while water gets in there and does all sorts of damage.



Sandy's bike getting worked on at Letko by Mario

Sandy and I decided to meet up somewhere on I-70 west of Kansas City in a couple of hours. We were going to call each other around 2:30PM and see where we were at that time to figure out who would ride to meet up with whom. Three more stops and two more phone calls, we finally met up in Topeka about 4PM.



The bikes is fixed and the tour continues

Immediately past Topeka the weather turned to crap. It went from sunny and 80’s to rain and 60’s in about the span of thirty minutes. We stopped once to put on our rain liners on and stopped again to put on more warm layers, it was down right chilly and the sun was going down. At sundown we stopped for the night in Hays, KS at Motel 6, Sandy only had 5 hours of sleep last night so we decided not to push it today. We walked over to Whiskey Creek restaurant, which was recommended by the girl working the front counter at the motel. Good food and good beer.



Dinner at Whiskey Creek in Hays, KS

Chicago, Illinois to Knoxville, Iowa

I was still finishing my packing in the morning. I had to borrow a tail bag from a friend last night since I couldn’t fit in to my top case, tank bag and the two side cases, so this morning I was still re-arranging my things, that took forever also, it always does. We were almost ready to go, we pulled the bikes in to the driveway and Sandy’s bike had a problem starting. After she got it going, we rode straight to the Ducati dealer by my house which was on the way to the interstate anyway. We just wanted to make sure it wouldn't break down during the trip. Her bike was just there two days ago for some maintenance so if there was something wrong, they should have caught it.

The mechanic didn’t see anything wrong with Sandy's bike. It started right up for him and he said it was probably the anti theft security thing. On these Ducati’s you can’t leave the key in the ignition in the 'on' position too long otherwise the bike won’t start. When that happens, you have to take the key out and put it in again to start the bike. At around 9:30AM we left the dealership and headed out toward the interstate. I-88 to I-80 was the plan. It’s bad enough the Midwest is so boring and flat, it also smelled like a sweaty arm pit this morning. With my iPod cranking out good tunes, making the slab portion was almost tolerable, we pointed our Ducs west and got on the throttle.



Sandy and I leaving my house

The day was sunny and pleasant. After a few hours of droning on the interstate, we needed a break from the monotony. I had a few back roads picked out that would allow us to go around Des Moines, IA and get us to I-35 to continue south. It was nothing exciting, no twisties here. By 3PM we were feeling a bit hungry since we hadn’t eaten anything yet today. We stopped in at a McDonalds in Knoxville, IA for some salads. About half an hour later we were ready to hit the road again but Sandy’s bike wouldn’t start. There was no power at all, the instrument panel didn’t even light up.



Broken down in Iowa seven hours after leaving home

Plan A

Sandy called the Ducati dealer, the same one we just visited a few hours ago. The mechanic walked her through a few things that she should check with him helping her on phone. Within minutes we had the side panel partially off the ST4s and we were both digging in there, turning this, pushing that, pulling and poking. This must have been some entertainment for the people waiting in the drive through line at the McDonalds. After an hour and a half, still no clue to why the bike wasn’t starting, the fuses and all the wires seemed fine. We gave up.

Plan B

At 5:30PM Sandy called Ducati road side assistance and we found out there was a Ducati dealer in Des Moines, IA, only 35 miles from where she was broken down. Of course had we stayed on the interstate, she probably would have broken down a block from the dealership, I digress. Sandy was going to have the bike towed there and hopefully they would have it fixed tomorrow so we could continue with our trip. We were so happy that today was Friday and not Saturday. With the tow truck on the way she called the dealership in Des Moines to make sure they were ready to work on the bike first thing tomorrow morning, then she was informed that the mechanic was on vacation and wouldn’tbe back until Tuesday.

Plan C

Sandy called back Ducati road assistance to find out where the next closest dealership was, unfortunately it was in Kansas City, KS and it would cost $700 to get the bike towed there so Sandy cancelled the tow truck. Ducati road assistance is nice, but what do you do when there is no place to tow the bike to get it fixed.

Plan D

We couldn’t think of anything else so Sandy was thinking of having one of her family members drive up here with the truck and trailer and take her and her bike home. The trip was over for her and I would continue by myself. The only thing that could save this trip is if the dealer in Kansas City could fix the bike tomorrow but she would have to get someone from her family to drive out here, pick her and the bike up and drive another four hours to Kansas City. We were desperate so she called Letko, the dealership in Kansas City just to see what they would say.

What happened next can only be described as a miracle. Mario, the service manager at Letko and his wife were going to drive out to IA, four hours away, and pick Sandy and her bike and bring them both to Kansas City and take a look at the bike in the morning. But Mario couldn’t leave for another hour or so.

So from 3:30PM to midnight Sandy and I hung out in the parking lot of the McDonalds. We put her bike back together, then had some ice cream, then got some Taco Bell for dinner from across the street. The it got dark and we noticed many big insects flying around us. Upon closer examination, we realized that they were the largest praying mantis we’ve ever seen. Not only were they big but they were feisty too. They treated us like we were trespassing on their turf. They would land at times really close to us and would stare at us with those big googley black eyes. And if you approached them too close they would grab your boot and hold on to it, attacking. They were scary monsters and seemed to enjoy the tree we were parked under. Their wing span must have been about 5-6 inches so once they took flight we had to run for cover. By 11PM they got bored with us and retired to the tree branches, we finally had some peace and quiet.



Monsters in Iowa

Mario and his wife showed up at midnight, he loaded the ST4s on to the trailer, then Sandy got in the truck and they were off to Kansas City. It would take them 4 hours to get there, I was too tired to follow them on my bike so I grabbed a motel room in town here at a Super 8.



Sandy's bike going to Kansas City, KS