There are lots of things I haven't mentioned like the fact that the first day the group rode to Springfield then on to St Louis but we rode all the way to St Louis that first day so we could visit with Aaron & Kristen and Ben & Denae & family. We arrived Saturday evening and spent all of Sunday with them, it was wonderful. The only negative was that we left with all the small gifts we have for them still packed lovingly in our bike. Early monday morning we set off to meet with the group at their motel, co-ordinates in the GPS and off we went. At the exit from the motorway Kent thought the GPS was wrong so we travelled on and suffice it to say that we missed meeting the group and nearly ended up in the divorce court but finally we met them at the first stopping point for the day. And so started the trip, not the best intro but from there is has only gotten better.
Today (Thursday in USA) we rode up Sandia Crest near Albuqueque, at a height of 10,678 ft we had a wonderful 150 mile view of the countryside. We then got lost trying to find the local restaurant but had lots of laughs along the way following Detour Doug, another time Charlottes phone flew out of her unzipped bag and disintegrated on the road!
Tonight we are in a motel in Gallup, it's a big fancy one but the motorway has moved and it's seen it's glory days. The other kiwi couples have gone on ahead as tomorrow they visit the Grand Canyon and we will meet up after that. So we are rattling in an unshared room, Kent is already zzzing, he is doing all the driving(?) the bike is too big for me and I haven't had the nerve to ride it yet. He is doing a great job as it is very heavy especially two up and carrying all our gear. We have done more than 2500 miles so far on it.
Things of interest – fireworks are for sale everywhere, all year – we visited the 'continental divide today – petrol is around US$3.60 a US gallon – N & C saw a car with the front grill gone and the legs of a deer sticking out, the lights were still fine – there are old car graveyards all over the desert here, spare parts by the million – the dry wind is bothering my nose at the moment and I have to ride with cottonwool stuffed up it and a scarf over my face – we have had beautiful and cooler than expected weather all of our trip thus far, fingers crossed for this to continue.
Hasta pronto
