Kyle quickly asks some guy if we can sit at his table with him as he's putting down his plate and wasn't going to take a "no" for an answer anyway...guy immediately gets up and leaves. While seated at the table and digging in, two older gentlemen sit down at the table with us and start asking us about our journey. Kyle is very loudly telling them about our missteps and "killing a dog." The old men are staring incredulously at us while the old ladies at the table across the small outcropping are often glancing in our direction...no doubt judging us. Fuck it...I don't care...let them judge. Turned out, they (a church group consisting of the old men and women) were returning from somewhere south where they had been rebuilding another church. I can only imagine how that went...
While the old ladies didn't say anything to us, many others saw us getting our bikes ready and wiping ICE off of our bikes. Well, really it was only Kyle's seat that had ice on it...mine was just wet. Several guys saw us and would wish us well and tell us, "safe ride!" It was reassuring to know that plenty people out there thought it was cool and their adventurous sides had some envy showing.
Now started the part of the trip a lot of people warned us about: a whole lot of nothing to look at. As we entered Oklahoma...the smells returned, but with a vengeance. Just when I thought it couldn't smell worse, I was proven horribly wrong. Cattle was everywhere...and lasted as far as the eye could see and the nose could smell. We passed through Indian land and discovered that there were tolls. Great. Tolls. It's no easy feat to get money out when you have gloves on, especially when on a motorcycle. While at one of the tolls, Kyle noticed a truckload of cattle next to us and loudly yelled to the cows, "MOOO! You're going to be in my belly later! MOOO! I'm wearing your cousin!" Way to go Kyle...karma has a way of coming back around...
We make it through Tulsa with no problems and end up in Oklahoma City. I hadn't realized it, but Kyle points out that we could easily go to the Oklahoma City bombing memorial. With this knowledge, we find the exit ramp and get off the interstate. While at a light, Kyle professes to me that he really, really has to pee. Well, remember Karma? Yeah, it was a bumpy ass road at higher speeds that made the bladder feel really, really uncomfortable. This is the same guy that chastised me for taking a bathroom break each time we stopped for fuel.
The memorial itself was very humbling. Such a large building...though it definitely pales in comparison to the trade center. I remember vividly as a kid in the 6th grade watching the news coverage. I didn't realize at that age the seriousness of what was occurring. In various classes, I've learned about the bombing, but never was I able to put picture to words prior to actually visiting the site. The most moving part were the chairs neatly arranged in a grassy area of the memorial. There were large chairs, but interspersed between the large chairs were the occasional small ones. These were the kids. This immediately brought back to memory of the photo of the fireman from Oklahoma City carrying out the dead, mangled child and the fact there was a daycare involved. The other part of the memorial that struck at the nerves was the chain link fence that still had memorial items on it. Tons of pictures of kids, families and various trinkets to commemorate the loss of loved ones. There was a museum we could have checked out, but we were kind of pressed for time and weren't about to shell out 12 bucks to take a quick look.
After the memorial, Kyle said we should find stop for lunch, he was sure there was somewhere to eat downtown, though both of us were very surprised at how different the DC downtown was from OKC. Traffic was very light and guess what? It was noon and the tornado siren went off for 3 minutes straight. It was loud, it was noticeable, and it was long. If someone who is able to hear can't hear that...there's issues. If you're in your car with the windows up and you don't hear/feel it...you need to not listen to your music so loud because that siren will override just about any other noise you can listen to. Holy crap...it was loud.
Well, who would have thought: there was nowhere Kyle could find for lunch. We ended up instead fueling up and going to a sonic across the street and right by the interstate. While fueling up, I went to zero out my "Trip A" on my bike...well...I accidentally zeroed out my "Trip B." I now had no idea exactly how many miles I had put on my bike because my dumbass forgot to record my starting mileage. Argh. Well, at sonic, we must have witnessed about 50-60 harleys at several different times ride past us. They were out for leisurely rides whereas ours wasn't all that leisurely, but we did have to get back on the road, it was still a long way to Albuquerque.
Once again, going through Oklahoma, it was amazing at just how much nothingness there is. At one point, I was fighting falling asleep on the bike, which is never good. 5 hour energy drinks and sunflower seeds helped take care of that, but I'll reiterate that it sucks that it's very hard to drink anything while on a bike when there isn't a cup holder and no easily accessible bathroom.
Once we got to texas, there was still a whole lot of nothing going on, but the one noticeable thing was the fact that the bugs were HUGE! I must have hit so many bugs with my bike and body...every color imaginable was on my fairing and windshield as well as on my lower fairings. It was ridiculous. When we got to Amarillo, we saw the huge stockyards and many stores, but there still wasn't much going on. Past Amarillo was where we were elevated a few feet up off the rest of the county and could literally see for miles. There were tons of wind farms and really, really flat land. This stayed pretty constant as we approached New Mexico.
Upon reaching New Mexico, the landscape started to drastically change. Mountains and various other rock-filled formations were becoming visible in the distance with miles of straight, open road lay ahead. These roads were straight for probably upward of 30 miles with absolutely nothing along the edges. We also then encountered the sun. The sun had been above us or behind us for the majority of the day. Now...it was in front of us...and shining in our faces with ferocity that most wouldn't realize. In a car, at least you have a sun visor. On a bike...you have glasses. For the entire way to Albuquerque, the sun was beating down and making for a rough ride. The further west we went, the longer the sun was in the sky. Yes, we weren't necessarily chasing daylight, but we were following it at a good clip, so of course it stayed up in the sky longer.
Finally, as dusk was coming, we reached Albuquerque, but we still had a few more miles to go. Turns out, we were actually going to stay with a childhood friend of Kyle's who lives in Rio Rancho. The first thing I noticed was that as soon as the sun disappeared behind the mountains, it got cold...really cold. The problem was, since we were driving through mountains, the sun wasn't quite set, but there also weren't any real pull offs to put a coat on...and we just wanted to get to Alan's house. The other thing that I noticed was that the drivers there were absolutely horrible. We constantly got cut off and others would try and drive in the lane next to us...even more reason to rush to get to Alan's house.
Getting off the interstate, the sun had fully set behind some other mountains and it started getting dark quickly. Of course, I had my sunglasses on and no chance to change into clear ones. The journey from the interstate to Rio Rancho was another 15 or 20 minutes I think, but probably one of the longest 15-20 minutes I had experienced in quite awhile. I assure you, arriving at Alan's house was by far the best feeling on the trip thus far. I met Alan and his wife who were both really cool people, which once again asserted that Kyle is a dick...his friends and family seem to be the opposites.
Upon getting to Alan's house, I see a typical desert-style house, but it was absolutely gorgeous. I envied the open floor plan and started shaking my head at the thought of my own house. Upon getting settled in and getting the pleasantries done, it was time to get down to business: what the hell to eat for dinner. After some debate, Alan decided to go to a local pub that served typical american-style food but also served the desert southwest style food. Of course I had to get a local craft beer and a pizza that had a ton of crap on it, but most importantly green chile. The moment I bit into my pizza, my gastrointestinal tract immediately said, "Fuck you...you're gonna pay now." Oh well, the food was good and was great for my sinuses which have been plagued by the horrible allergy season this year.
After zero debate, it was decided that we were going to spend the next day (sunday) hanging out with Alan and his wife in Albuquerque and seeing the sights. I was all for it and Kyle was sure as hell glad to not to have to get on the bike for a day...both of us had the sound of motorcycle pipes embedded into our ears. Rest was definitely needed...and Alan and his wife were really cool and funny, so it was nice to not have to worry about getting on the road at any particular time the next day.
Turns out, Albuquerque is a pretty cool town and Santa Fe is full of hippies, but that's a story for later.
No flow, needs better transitions.
ReplyDeleteYeah, unfortunately, my writing is very choppy. Guess it's a good thing I don't rely on it as a career, huh?
ReplyDeleteSouthwestern food is awesome if your ready for it. I love the thought of miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles.
ReplyDeleteInitially, it IS pretty cool. When you get to about the 300th mile of it, it starts to become tedious. Gotta watch out for the tumbleweeds too.
ReplyDelete