Featured Sturgis Trip On My (non) Triumph

You are most welcome, David! Glad you're enjoying my Sturgis adventure comments and photos.

 

Day #8: Lead, SD to Dillon, CO (435 miles)
Our 1st day heading back home to Tucson



Alas, our adventures at the Sturgis rally have come to an end and today is the first day of our journey back to Arizona. After much debating and changing of plans, our two buddies who are camping have decided to join Mr. Sandi, Larry, and me on our alternate return route. We've planned a route home that includes much more scenic and smaller two-lane roads including some through the Rockies of Colorado. We've allotted one more day to get home than getting to Sturgis but none of our remaining days (other than today) will be big mileage, interstate pounding like we did on the way to Sturgis.

Last night one of our ride buddies texted to confirm that they'd be joiningg us on the alternate route and that it was "kickstands up at 7:30am at the campground in the morning". So....Mr. Sandi, Larry, and I dutifully arrived at the campground at 7:25 only to find that not only were they not ready, they weren't even close and didn't seem to be in any hurry. It was certainly not "kickstands up at 7:30". We wound up in the saddle and on the road 45 minutes later at 8:15.

As we rode through the Black Hills out of South Dakota and into Wyoming, I tried to stave off my annoyance by singing The Beatles "Let It Be" in my head and just let it go. Riding certainly is therapy and soon I felt calm and relaxed again. But those 45 minutes came back to haunt us because we ended up in Denver on major freeways AT RUSH HOUR ON A FRIDAY AFTERNOON! As I mentioned in a previous post, Denver drivers make Phoenix drivers seem positively lovely, patient, and kind (which they are not). Our Friday afternoon rush hour traffic included stretch on I-70 heading west out of Denver heading towards the Eisenhower Tunnel. That stretch--I'd say around 10 miles or so--was completely stop & go traffic and the tune in my head became AC/DC's "Highway to Hell". And the "going" part of stop & go was about 1-2 mph. On the side of a mountain. A VERY steep mountain. Filled with very aggravated and impatient motorists. All those things coupled with large touring bikes with clutches, it was, shall we just say, "challenging". On a positive note, it certainly was confidence-building! I'd say we dealt with that part of I-70 for about 45 minutes but to me (and my clutch hand) it felt like 4 or 5 hours. Once the traffic cleared, I-70 the rest of the way to Dillon was beautiful! Big views, gorgeous mountains, and a river running right along the freeway. Here are some interesting fun facts about the Eisenhower Tunnel which I didn't know until I did a bit of research for today's post. I really didn't know how long the tunnel is nor that it is one of the highest vehicle tunnels in the world. It was pretty amazing to ride through it! This info was on The Google.


Anyway, as with our travels on the way to Sturgis, we made more frequent and longer gas stops today than was prudent or necessary particularly considering our route and mileage for the day. So for multiple reasons, we got to Dillon a couple of hours later than initially planned. I had been hopeful that we'd arrive in Dillon fairly early for two reasons. First, there is a gorgeous reservoir and dam in Dillon just a 10 minute walk from our hotel that I wanted to see. By the time we arrived we were bone tired and I was the only one with any inclination or energy to go see it. I did walk up to the reservoir by myself and was glad I did. It was spectacular and so serene that I regained some semblance of sanity. Secondly, there is a famous local brewery--The Dillon Dam Brewery--that I was itching to go to for a well-earned beer. And it was about 100 yards from our hotel. The challenges of our day took a bit of the shine off that experience too. But, hey, a good IPA can shine things right back up. I didn't take a photo of my beer on this night but trust me, it was delicious. I paired it with a spinach salad with grilled shrimp. First real veggies (other than those in the Bloody Mary's) all week.







Here is a photo of the Dillion Reservoir. From where I took the photo at the end of it with the dam, there's a walking/bicycle path that runs the length of it which was being put to good use by pedestrians--both human and canine--as well as cyclists. Dillon is a town I could live in. It's situated at about 8000' so it would take a bit of acclimatization! And I don't ski. Hmmm, maybe I'll stick with Tucson.



One of the best things about arriving in Dillon was realizing that, with the exception of a bit of time on I-25 through New Mexico, our time on "the slab" was over. Whew! Tomorrow we head over Fremont Pass, down through central Colorado and into northern New Mexico with our next stop being Santa Fe.

 

I suspect you are right, Dilli. It was interesting to see some of the bikes around Sturgis that haven't officially been released yet or are just out. I saw these two Indian FTR 1200's outside a cool coffee shop/glass blowing studio in Deadwood. Got a chance to speak with a guy who was getting on one of them. He works for Indian and had nabbed one of the FTR's early that morning to run out for coffee. Said he likes the bike but it feels too much like "an appliance" currently without much soul. Evidently they are working on infusing some soul into the model.

I've also posted a photo of the coffee shop itself (an old gas station) and a pic of the glass blowing action.





Looks like in addition to buying lattes and blown glass, one can also purchase warm (or maybe arm?!) lubricants here.

 

You're welcome, OsteKuste! The more epic rides I do, the more inspiration I give myself! My travel bucket list revolved primarily around epic places to scuba dive until I started riding motorcycles. And most of those places were not in the United States. Now that I ride there are SO many places in my own home country that I've not yet seen that I now want to--by bike! I'm also inspired to travel internationally to ride, too, and not just to scuba dive. Spain and the UK are high on that list. That costs a bit more than riding from home, though. Now go get out there and do those epic rides!!!

 

Day #9: Dillon, Colorado to Santa Fe, New Mexico (310 miles)
After yesterday's mileage and a couple of our travel days on the way to Sturgis, 310 miles (325 to our hotel) seemed absolutely leisurely).

Today was the 2nd day of our ride back home to Tucson from Sturgis. Mr. Sandi took over ride captain duties as of today because he has lived in Colorado and knows these roads. I was really happy that he was at the front because he's a good group rider and knows how to ride when there are four other people in the group behind him! At this point there were still five of us (this is called "foreshadowing" in the world of writing, so I'm told). Anyway, every day is an adventure, right?! Here's today's route. It looks simple and flat but was mountainous with big sweeping turns. Positively beautiful! For me, today's ride was the best single day ride of our entire 11-day trip.



This is what the skies looked like as we were prepping to depart Dillon this morning. We started out with rain gear but it only spat on us briefly as we rode over the Fremont Pass. Thankfully! Fremont pass is over 11,000 feet with few guard rails.





I have fewer photos of my own today since we didn't stop much on this ride except a couple of times for gas. But I'll include some fun info about where we were. Here's some fun facts about Fremont Pass and the town of Leadville which was the first town we rode through after leaving Dillon and riding over the pass. Here's a fun fact about Leadville. It's the place in the U.S. where you can see the most 14,000' peaks! Locals call those peaks "Fourteeners". I guess climbers try to bag them all. I'll stick with riding over them--or near them.






We'll have to go back to ride in this area again as we didn't actually do what's called The Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway. Mr. Sandi has driven all these roads in a car back when he lived here. And we've both ridden over Independence Pass, which is over 12,000', to Aspen. But we've not done the stretch between I-70 and Leadville. Hmmm, seems like a good excuse to go back.



We rode along the Arkansas River for miles. This is a gorgeous river valley with sheer cliffs along one side. It is known for kayaking and the U.S. Olympic Trials for that sport have been held here. There's a very cool town right on the river called Buena Vista. We stayed there during the trip where we went over Independence Pass into Aspen. Here's a photo from Google Images that shows basically what we saw as we road through. There was a bit less snow when we were there--but not much less! These peaks are called the Ivy League Peaks and are all over 14,000'.



Our next gas stop was in a town called Alamosa. It's a small-ish college town and nothing too exciting. But....as we were leaving town, a doe and her fawn trotted across the street right in front of us. It was incredible and a memory I will not forget. The funny thing is, we took a wrong turn and were on 285 North when we needed to be on 285 South. Had we gotten it "right" initially, we'd have missed this touching and amazing sight. I don't believe in coincidence.

So, we arrived in Santa Fe right about check-in time. I love Santa Fe and it's one of the few places that could lure me away from Tucson. In fact, Mr. Sandi and I rode our motorcycles there (along with riding buddies) to get married about five years ago! Our families and other friends met us there. Anyway, there's a Harley-Davidson dealership right around the corner from the Best Western so the five of us agreed to check-in then meet back up in the parking lot to ride over. I needed a rear turn signal lens cap because I hit a BIG bump on I-70 riding to Dillon and Larry saw it go flying off.

Turns out only three of us rode to H-D. Our two camping ride buddies hadn't made hotel reservations and there was no room at the inn. So they rode on down the road and made it home on their own terms.

A riding buddy of our has parents in Albuquerque so has been to Santa Fe a lot. He highly recommended a restaurant called "La Choza". We ubered there so we could eat--well, drink--with impunity. Terrific New Mexican food (lots of green chili and blue corn) and delicious margaritas! While we were eating a big thunderstorm rolled through. I caught a pic of the aftermath. Glorious!







It rained more during the night but we woke up to beautiful blue and sunny skies!!

 

One of my "sources" (not Google) said that patch is for "the guys who take care of business. You wouldn't want one knocking on your door". I think we know what that means--Enforcers. Is that right, DD?

 

Day #10: Santa Fe, New Mexico to Show Low, Arizona (340 miles)

And then there were three.... As I said in my Day #9 post, two of our ride buddies elected to depart Santa Fe yesterday and head back to Tucson ahead of us. Mr. Sandi, Larry, and I have traveled by motorcycle together multiple times before and we are a good "Three Musketeers" group. So though we were sort of bummed that the other two guys left early, we were also a little relieved and it did simplify our next two days.

Here's our Day #10 route map:



This is a familiar route to each of us as we've done other trips over the last half dozen years that have included this route. It is truly beautiful. Even though we were on an interstate (I-25) for a bit, it was a lovely sunny Sunday morning as we left Santa Fe and the vistas were spectacular. We had stopped for gas the day before prior to arriving at our Santa Fe hotel so didn't need to worry about that until the town of Soccorro, NM. From there we got off the freeway and took U.S. 60 west towards that evening's destination, Show Low, Arizona. But after turning onto US-60, our sights were set on Pie Town, New Mexico, which is home to the best pies I've ever had in my whole life! Typically we go to the Pie-O-Neer Cafe but they were closed as it was a Sunday. So we went to a place that was new to us, the Pie Town Cafe. Pie Town is on the Continental Divide at 8,000' and there are about four buildings/business there, two of which are pie-focused.

https://www.newmexico.org/places-to-visit/regions/southwest/pie-town/

On the way to Pie Town between there and Soccorro is a very strange place called the VLA--Very Large Array. If you've seen the movie "Contact" this is it.




The 27 radio antennas are moved around depending on, hmmm, what communications they are receiving from the nether-world?! Our buddy, Larry, hadn't seen these antennas before so we stopped to check them out from the road.





As we continued west on U.S. 60 after stopping at the VLA, which Mr. Steve refers to as the VLFA (Very Large Fecking Array), the clouds and weather became more and more ominous. Mr. Sandi and I have Sena communicators and, after conferring, decided that if we had two or three raindrops on our face shield before we reached Pie Town that we'd stop on the side of the road to put on our rain gear. Amazingly, we got to Pie Town without that happening and it started raining the moment we went into The Pie Town Cafe.



Safely inside the Pie Town Cafe, we were warm and dry and ordered coffee and yummy pie. I don't remember what flavor of pie Larry had but Mr. Sandi had apple and I had "New Mexico Pear" which translated to pear pie with green chili and piñon nuts. Sounds weird but it absolutely and amazingly delicious!! New Mexico is known for green chili--which I LOVE! But having it in pie--much less pear pie--was a first. But definitely not a last if they have it the next time we ride through Pie Town, New Mexico!


Alas, we couldn't escape the rain. As "desert rats" this is a big deal. I know that seems crazy to you from the UK where rain is common. It started to rain while we were still warm and dry inside the Pie Town Cafe which I count as a plus because more often than not we've wound up on the side of the road trying to get our rain gear on while it's raining and we're already wet. So being able to don our rain gear indoors and dry was "gravy". But we did end up riding to our next gas stop in Springerville, AZ in a steady, driving rain. Fortunately the lightening was far, far away and the wind was minimal. We just slowed down a bit and enjoyed the ride. Here's Larry getting into his "hi-viz" rain pants.



Once we gassed up in Springerville, AZ, it was smooth and dry sailing to our overnight destination, Show Low, AZ. Yes, Show Low is an odd name for a town. Here's the scoop.....



Our hotel for the evening, the Best Western Paint Pony Lodge , is located on, yep, Deuce of Clubs. I love the American West!

After making an effort to clean our filthy bikes when we checked into our Show Low hotel, we decided to hit the neighboring Mexican restaurant for dinner. Fortunately, we were right next door to one of the best rated (TripAdvisor) restaurants in Show Low--Lucano's.And it was definitely worthy of the positive ratings. Here's my tamale and my taco. And, most importantly, my Stone IPA! We considered it a meal well-earned. Not to mention that since breakfast in Santa Fe, we'd only had pie.



Tomorrow is the last day of our epic Sturgis adventure and, relatively speaking, a short day in the saddle back home to Tucson.

 

Oh yes, the Sandia's most certainly count, OsteKuste! I'll bet that mountain bike trip was spectacular. Yes, I could go to Albuquerque and Santa Fe regularly and never tire of them, particularly Santa Fe. Taos is terrific, too. Check out "The High Road to Taos". Mr. Sandi and I, along with two of our friends, rode that loop the day after we got married in Santa Fe at the Loretto Chapel four years ago.

 

Day #11: Show Low, Arizona to Tucson, Arizona --- HOME! (188 miles)

Wow, here we are on our last day of an epic 11-day motorcycle adventure. We woke up to a beautiful, sunny, calm, cool morning--absolutely perfect for riding. After a delicious breakfast and lots of good coffee, it was kickstands up at 7:00AM.

This last leg of our trip was very familiar to the three of us as we've done this route numerous times before in both directions. Our starting location this morning was the town of Show Low which lies at an elevation of 6,345 feet. Show Low is within the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests in the White Mountains of Arizona. The first part of today's ride on U.S. 60 took us though dense forestland with huge stands of Ponderosa pines. We had to always be on the lookout for wildlife, particularly deer. The air quality was crisp and clean and the scent of pine trees filled our nostrils. We appreciated that all the more knowing we'd be riding into triple digit temperatures in a few hours.



As we came out of the pine forest, we entered the Fort Apache Reservation. Here the views became expansive and the roads made for spectacular riding--big sweepers and forever views. We had been delayed by some road work on a short trip to Payson AZ earlier this year but now that section of road was pristine pavement. In Motorcycle Heaven all roads are twisty, nicely cambered, and freshly paved!

About 50 miles out of Show Low we entered the Tonto National Forest which encompasses 2,873,000 acres and is the largest of the six national forests in Arizona and the fifth largest national forest in the U.S. (Thank you, Google.) Soon we began nearing the Salt River Canyon which is stunning and a very challenging section of today's ride. The two-lane road through the canyon has scores of hairpin turns coupled with huge vistas. You wind down into the bottom of the canyon, go across the bridge over the river itself, then immediately wind back up more hairpin turns and out of the canyon. We didn't stop for photos on this particular trip but here are some photos from previous trips through here. The black circle around a car on the second photo down is to try to give you an idea of the scale of the Salt River Canyon. It always seems sort of like a mini-Grand Canyon to me.









From the Salt River Canyon we continued on to Globe, a town that was established in 1875 as a mining camp. Initially the mines were silver mines and when the silver started running out, the mining companies turned to mining copper. We made our one gas stop of the day and each of us made a few work and other "real life" phone calls trying to start the "re-entry to real life" process.

With full gas tanks and starting to smell the barn, we started on the last 100 miles of our 2,800 mile journey. We arrived home in Tucson safe and sound around 11:00AM and were greeted with great delight by our boxer, Annie. As much joy and adventure that this Sturgis trip brought us, it was good to be home.





It has been great fun sharing my adventures with those of you following this thread. I hope you all enjoyed it! A big thanks to each of you who posted kind, encouraging, and appreciate comments and great feedback. As I said, I had many moments during my trip when I thought, "Hey, my Triumph Forum buddies would enjoy this!!"

Now we're on to planning our next motorcycle adventure, a ride to Las Vegas Bike Fest in early October. This will be the third year in a row that we've gone to that rally. It's a much shorter trip but is a great getaway and we, of course, take the long way there and back. Once again I'll be traveling on my (non)Triumph. But in the meantime I'll be zipping around town and up and down Mt. Lemmon on my beloved Speedy.

Always remember...........