Did I just do that?!

We headed out towards Memphis... Beautiful day and I was excited to get off the Oklahoma roads.  We stopped at the last rest area in Oklahoma and Blue was leaking like I had never seen.  Not sure what the mechanic did in Elk City.  I checked all the bolts on the primary and one of them broke off.  Yikes!

I luckily had cell phone service so I googled the closest motorcycle shop which was the Harley dealer in Fort Smith Arkansas... About 30 miles away.  I called and told them the situation and they said to come and they will take a look but had a rally they were preparing for so they most likely couldn't do anything until the following week.  They said all will be good to get there... Don't add any oil, just come.

So we headed off and made it there no problem.  The service manager came out and took a look.  He said the primary wasn't leaking and put a plug where the bolt broke and said I would be good to make it to my parent's house in Kentucky.  He said there was a definite leak behind the primary where the oring is from the back of the shifter lever and there is something obviously leaking from the front but he wasn't sure where.  My dad and I were going to take a look behind the primary when I got to their house because the shifter lever has quite a wiggle so that and the leak at the front wasn't a surprise.

I was really impressed by the ease of help and it brought back a bit of what Harley dealerships use to be like.  The service manager was awesome and we chatted a bit about traveling and he didn't charge me for his time and the plug. A big shout out to them!

That made me feel much better about Blue and the rest of the way to my parent's house.  It was a long riding day and we made it all the way to West Memphis.  One more stop before getting to my parent's house for a few days in Kentucky... Graceland. 

Ooooh-klahoma

Oklahoma is that state I try to spend as least amount of time as possible... It may be that I'm a Nebraska girl... Cornhuskers forever. Haha... Or it could be they always seem to have intense storms.

Michelle hadn't spent any time in Oklahoma so we planned to spend at least one night in Oklahoma.  We stopped in Elk City to get a rear tire change.  Another... Should of taken an hour but took 3 hours thing.  The mechanic said he had to put a whole quart of oil in the primary... then started lecturing me on how horrible that is for the bike and I had a major leak in my primary.  I told him how I just worked on the primary and maybe the bolts came loose.  After finally being done and now being completely paranoid that the primary is leaking... A quart of oil low in the primary is all the oil in the primary... I checked all of the bolts when we stopped for the night.

Elk City has a city park with 5 sites with electric and water... And free.  So we got a spot there for the night.

We met some nice RVers who let us fill up our water bottles since the water spicket is under ground.  We relaxed and Michelle made some cornbread on the hiker burner.  Then the storms came.  We stopped at the perfect spot.  Not much further down the road they had tornados.  We just had a few sprinkles and some cool clouds.

Some locals walking the park told us where the local shelter is in town if the weather got bad... I couldn't imagine riding Blue thru a storm to shelter.  All ended up being good for us.

The next day we headed out and the wind was a little harsh so I wanted to take back roads... We ended up on this detour to no where, stopped in a town and almost got run over by a car who didn't stop at a stop sign while we were walking around and the roads in Oklahoma are atrocious.  I was not a happy camper and ended up making a short day of it and wandered around El Reno OK which was on the list of cute downtowns.  

We ended up eating at SID's Diner which was on Man vs Food or one of those shows.  We had their special burger... Wasn't bad.  We enjoyed the burger with a milk shake and then spent the night at the Walmart in town. 

I, of course, checked all the bolts and the oil in the primary.  All seemed good so I was still confused as to what this guy was talking about.  After much thought I realize the guy meant the engine oil not the primary oil, which is always close to a quart low... Blue spits out that last quart as soon as I put it in the engine oil.  So it wasn't new to me but it took days for me to realize what the mechanic was talking about... More on that later...

Heading East

While wandering thru Walmart while in Edgewood NM we saw this when we came back outl

The entire parking lot was empty and this jerk chooses to park here.  To me that is a threat.  Not only inches from us this person also parked thru the lane to drive in.  So no one could see us parked there while coming out of the parking lot or coming around this obnoxious monstrosity.  I was not impressed.  I took down all the information and called the trucking company but never heard back.  This could of been a dangerous situation for us being so small and there was no reason for this truck to park this close.  No excuse for this.  We were quite ready to get out of there... If you remember the winter before and the bad haircut experience... That happened at this Walmart.  

After 2 days of being at the Walmart with not much to do because of wind we were excited to be back on the road heading east.  Not many more stops until we get to my parents in Kentucky ... The only issue is the wind.

We headed out on the interstate to Amarillo.  We first stopped at Adrian TX for the midpoint of Route 66.

We met the woman who Flo in Cars was created after.  She owned this store below.

She gave us a signed postcard with Flo on it.  Pretty cool.

We had some dessert at the diner and headed out.

In Amarillo I found a RV museum.  It was a must stop.  Jack Sisemore Traveland RV Museum.

They also had a lot of old motorcycles... For those of you who are more the motorcycle enthusiast than RV enthusiast.

This bus is from the movie RV with Robin Williams.

We ended up spending the night in Amarillo at the truck stop.  No rain and no wind but quite the hot day.  With Michelle traveling with us we try to do around 200-250 miles a day.  It isn't so comfortable for her on the back of Blue.  We don't have a full touring seat so she has as large of a seat I could find to go behind my solo seat.  It works out well... We stop more often to see things, I don't get so tired and Yoska gets a few strolls during the ride when we stop.

Off to Oklahoma next.

Mesa Verde

Mesa Verde is the coolest National Park.  It is the only National Park preserving human heritage.  I saw photos of places like this but never really looked in to where to find them.  We came across Mesa Verde from a deck of cards we got at the Grand Canyon that had different National Parks.  We decided we had to make the quick trip thru Colorado to check it out.

We wanted to ride across Colorado but there was snow forecasted during that time and wind was coming yet again.  That is spring out west... Lots and lots of wind.  So we headed to Mesa Verde, which was a little over an hour from where we spent the night.

They give tours of the dwellings but you have to climb 60 feet of ladders and go thru this tiny tunnel.  Not quite my thing but Michelle would of loved to do it.  We didn't get there early enough to get on the tour before we had to head to our overnight destination... Might have to go back and gain the courage to do so.... Would be awesome!

The cool thing about this park is you can't bring a trailer in... You have to detach and leave it in the parking lot close to the entrance gate.  So we dropped off TicTac and made the, what seemed to me, forever ride up the mountain.  Again, I have a thing with heights... Then you add wind and a lot of switchbacks and I get a wee nervous. Haha... We did make it and it was a beautiful ride.

These dwellings are so cool!

It was a very scenic ride.  The history of the dwellings and the people who lived there for the short period of time is very interesting.  I totally recommend making a stop at Mesa Verde.

After Mesa Verde we headed to the Walmart in Farmington New Mexico for the night.  We wanted to beat out the wind but it didn't happen.  We made it to Edgewood New Mexico and stayed at the Walmart there for 2 nights until the wind passed.... Then we headed to Texas.

Arches National Park

We headed out of the Bryce Canyon area on a most beautiful ride to Green River Utah for the night.  Next morning we got up early and headed to Arches National Park.  I have to say I am a bit scared of heights and riding thru some of these parks with TicTac in tow can get me quite anxious.  The entry into and out of Arches was this way but inside the park it wasn't bad at all.  Quite beautiful.

We had another beautiful day.  It got warm as the day went on but we enjoyed ourselves.

We did a couple short walks to see some arches but there is so much more to explore that we didn't have time for.  

We did the shorter/easier hike to take a look at this famous arch.  Again, being scared of heights, but working on it, lessens where we can hike.  Also, knowing I have to ride after hiking I try not to completely ware myself out.  I have, in the past, gotten too tired to get my bike up to ride... So I try to stay aware of those types of things.

After Arches we headed thru Moab, wandered around a bit and down to Monticello where there was suppose to be a free spot to camp with electric.  It was unfortunately closed so we spent the night at a gas station in town.  We were exhausted and had to be up and out early to beat out the wind.  It wasn't a bad evening and a quiet spot to sleep.

Bryce Canyon

I LOVE Southern Utah.  What an amazing place.  We decided to spend a couple days riding around to catch just a few of the sites.  We headed out of Page Arizon and stopped at the dam at Lake Powell.  I was there last year and was happy to stop and see it with Michelle.  We walked around inside the visitor center and walked across the bridge.

Our goal was to make it to Bryce Canyon so we headed off... Beauty where ever you look.

We stopped in Kanab for lunch at their city park.

Here is Michelle making lunch.  She does a great job coming up with food options on the road.

We got to go thru a couple of these on our way to Bryce Canyon.

It was a beautiful day for a ride.  A bit chilly the higher in elevation we went.  There was even a bit of snow on the side of the road in places.

Quite a difference in temp from earlier in the day.

Yoska was enjoying himself... Even if it doesn't look so in this picture. :)

The views are amazing.

We ended up finding a hotel for the night.  We were going to boondock not far from the park but it wasn't clear where and what we found we would of not been able to get into.  So we got a hotel and had a "date night" of dinner of elk and buffalo burgers and relaxed watching MeTV.  Also, we were excited to have a nice hot shower all to ourselves.  It's the little things. :)

Grand Canyon

Finally after over 3 years on the road I made it to the Grand Canyon!  We rode all the way thru for a quick visit for the day.

We have been doing travel journals, which are in my hands, and this was right after getting out National Park stamp for the journals and the National Park Passport.

Pictures never do this place justice but Michelle did a great job taking photos.

Yoska had a great time... here he looks like he just wants to be let go to explore more.

Michelle making us some lunch.

After spending the day we rode to Page Arizona to spend the night at the Walmart there so we had a good start for the next day to Bryce Canyon.

Heading to Kingman

We finally had a day with a little less wind to make the ride to Vegas.  We stopped in Vegas at a library to catch up on a few things.  Vegas has awful roads and their signing is atrocious.  We headed down this side road with road construction and the pavement just ended... No sign or anything... And not a straight across road ending but a gradual into the gravel so each tire would have to drop off about an inch or so into the gravel.  I decided not to do that with the trailer attached and wanted to turn down the other street.  Cones and barrels everywhere and I got TicTac stuck on a barbell and dropped Blue while still standing... Even Michelle walked right off the bike.  Cool thing with two of us is that we can get the bike right back up again, move the barbell and head on our way.

We spent the afternoon at the library.  When I went outside to check on Yoska we had this booklet, coupons and note attached to Blue.

We headed to a Walmart we were going to stay at for the night before heading out to Hoover Dam and Kingman the next day.

I'm not a fan of crowds and traffic so a drive by of the strip was good enough for me.

Across the street from Walmart was a casino with a buffet.  So we headed over, made pigs of ourselves and then each spent $5 in the penny slots.  

Michelle's first time with a slot machine.  She was disappointed it was all buttons and she didn't get to pull down the lever.  We didn't win anything just played til the money was gone.  Then headed back to rest up for the ride the next day.

The casino was called Sam's Town and across the street from Walmart.  Walton related or just a coincidence?

Michelle is an organizer... If you need your house or office organized hire Michelle.  She gets TicTac prepared to sleep in every night... Here she is organizing our things and purchases before heading out to dinner at the casino.

The next day we were still having a bit of wind but headed off anyways.  We stopped in Boulder City to get out of the wind for a bit and they had an art show that day.  So we wandered around for a little bit and had lunch.

We enjoyed making Yoska pose with statues. Haha

He is such a good boy. :)

After wandering we got back on the bike and headed to Hoover Dam.

We cracked up at this sign because Yoska was on the bike with us so he was on the dam.  Such a rebel.

Then it was off to Arizona!

We saw this great view on our way to Kingman.

In Kingman we stopped at a Route 66 museum that was free.  We parked right by this teardrop.

We found a dog park in town. Yoska had a blast and made a couple new friends.  It was his first dog park experience.

We made dinner in the park and then headed 10 or so miles east of town on I-40 to a Love's Travel Center to spend the night.  Headed to the Grand Canyon the next morning.