Featured Touring 15 Days, 11 States, & 3,660 Miles: Sturgis + A Wedding

I know a number of you are currently facing a long, bleak streak of winter (@Wessa, @Iceman, @Mrs Visor & @RevPaul, I'm talking to you!). And I promised that I'd bring a bit of sunshine and vicarious riding your way with a thread about our 2024 Sturgis road trip which included a family wedding. Albeit a "bit" late, here goes!

Our first major destination for this particular trip was to attend my nephew, Jake's, wedding in southern Minnesota. When Jake and Carla announced their wedding and the date, Steve's and my first inclination was to make airline reservations. But then Steve suggested we ride there and I (of course!) agreed wholeheartedly. Any excuse to ride, right?

Here's our outbound route from Arizona to Minnesota. As you can see, we took the shortest route we could other than riding on freeways (ugh). In this case, "short" was a relative term as the route was over 1,500 miles. The ride to our Minnesota destination took us through 9 the 11 states entered on this trip--many of which I'm fine with never riding through again.



Here's our return route. But we'll get to that part of our trip down the road a bit....




Day 1: Tucson to Quemado, New Mexico *293 miles

This morning our adventure began with five people and four bikes in our group. Russell, our "main man" travel buddy, had agreed to join us on this entire journey and was looking forward to meeting my Minnesota family and seeing where I'd grown up. We were joined by Chris & Cassie, a lovely couple who we became friends with when Chris was working at our local Harley dealership. They were riding two up and planned to stay and spend the night in Show Low, AZ then ride back home the following day.

Steve's and my touring bikes all loaded up and ready to roll. I added an additional rack and small-ish bag to my setup since I was bringing a dress, heels, and other "wedding attire" along this time, something I've never traveled with on the bike before.



Our route for Day #1 and #2. We stopped the first night in Quemado and then traveled from Quemado NM to Tucumcari NM on Day #2.



We always love to stop at this rest stop at the top of where you come out of the Salt River Canyon. I've posted about this beautiful canyon previously and I love it. It's like a mini Grand Canyon. I always lobby hard to make a quick stop here to take in the views.



A selfie of our first day "gang" taken by Cassie From left to right: Cassie, Russell, Chris, me, and Steve



From the Salt River Canyon we rode on to the town of Show Low, Arizona which is in the White Mountains. Our lunch stop destination was a place we've only come to know in the past couple of years but it's now a staple on our restaurant list if we're riding through or staying in Show Low.



From here to Quemado it was just Russell, Steve, and me. Cassie and Chris had rented a cabin for the night. What was adventurous about this next section of Day #1 was that IT RAINED LIKE CATS AND DOGS THE ENTIRE WAY! Yep, desert Arizona was not feeling like a desert on this day. And, ironically enough, it was the ONLY rain we had for the entire 15 days! (Thankfully.....) Even with rain gear on, by the time we arrived in the tiny town of Quemado at The Largo Motel, the three of us were pretty soggy. But at least we didn't get hailed on while we were riding--it started hailing like crazy about five minutes after we arrived and were checking in with our favorite hotel proprieties, Phyllis. We just missed it!!

After the rain (and hail) stopped and with some clean-up elbow grease



Phyllis and one of her cats.....



Our dinner spot for the evening which was a pretty big step down from The House, I have to say.



Tomorrow, Day #2 to Tucumcari, New Mexico!

 

Day #2: Quemado, New Mexico to Tucumcari, New Mexico: 330 miles (623 miles to date)

We awoke this morning to cool temperatures and low clouds so dressed ourselves pretty warmly. The first part of today's route is one of my favorites--between Quemado and the little town of Mountainaire is gorgeous with big New Mexican skies dotted with huge clouds overhead. We ride through little tiny towns such as Magdalena and stop for gas in the dusty town of Socorro which lies on Interstate 25.

During that gas stop we met Duke and his owner! They were heading to Wyoming to meet up with some friends and from their head over to the Black Hills for the Sturgis rally. Check out Duke's bed on the gas tank! And we were pretty stunned to see that this guy didn't even have a windshield on his bike! That's Russell's bike in the background.

BTW, we met the most interesting people during our travels on this trip! Stay tuned to meet more characters.....





We always make a stop in the little town of Mountainaire at a place called Alpine Alley. We gotten to know the owner, Faye, a delightful young woman who owns the restaurant with her husband. This time we got to meet their 11-year-old daughter, too, who helps out Mom when she's not at school.

Faye was working in the kitchen on this day since the cook was out.





Next stop--Tucumcari, New Mexico! Tucumcari is right on old Route 66 and sits between "new" Route 66 which is (rather boring old) Interstate 40. None of us had been to Tucumcari before this trip so were quite curious to see the place. Steve and I had made reservations at The Blue Swallow Motel, one of the original and oldest "motor court" hotels along Route 66. It was a delightful place with lots of period correct decor and touches. We even had a garage right next to our room in which to park our bikes!





Our garage was pretty basic but as I wandered around the property I noticed that all of the other garages were painted with unique and fun motifs. Here's just one of them......



Robert, 1/2 of the delightful proprietor couple that own The Blue Swallow. They are originally from Chicago and have embraced small town life on Route 66.





The town takes full advantage of being on old Route 66. In fact, I suspect that is its prime source of revenue and why it's still around.



More Day #2 Tucumcari in my next post

 

A few more photos from Tucumcari

I meant to post this in my previous post. Here's Day #2's route from Quemado to Tucumcari.



I knew this Route 66 monument was located on our way into town. Steve missed seeing it so I insisted we ride back for this photo op.



A few random photos of Tucumcari from our wanderings

Dinner at Del's the evening of our stay. I had a fabulous green chili cheeseburger. And, as if that wasn't enough, some fried ice cream for dessert. A girl gets hungry riding all day!











Our breakfast joint before hitting the road on Day #3: Kix on 66.





Tomorrow - Day #3 from Tucumcari to Dodge City, Kansas where we met another one of those characters I mentioned!

 

Thanks, Joe! For this trip, the best is yet to come.