1st September 2007
This morning Johan, Lena, Nicklas and Jessica showed us around Kansas City and took us to the Farmers market where we bought provisions for a barbeque this evening. Once the goodies were loaded in to the car we moved on to the Kansas City Irish Festival, one of the many celebrations going on in the city this weekend (It’s the Labour day weekend with a public holiday on Monday). There were four different stages with a variety of bands playing, there were also plenty of food and craft stalls to be seen alongside the fountains which had all been turned a very fetching shade of green! After leaving the festival we did some more shopping before returning home for a barbeque of epic proportions.
2nd September 2007
Breakfast this morning turned in to an all morning chat during which we learned a huge amount about how it is to live in the USA and about the education system, which appears to be very different to the UK system. Once we’d got ourselves moving, we visited a massive sports outfitters and spent a happy hour or so looking at the specialist clothing, camping gear etc. before going on to ‘Famous Dave’s’ for a very large lunch that was served to us on two dustbin lids!! Unfortunately, Michael hadn’t been able to join us for lunch as he was working but there was plenty to take home for him to enjoy as a midnight feast. Our last stop of the day was a retail park where I was finally able to find some hi-tech t-shirts that I’d been looking for. A very pleasant evening followed, sat in proper comfortable chairs (something you don’t get in motel rooms) enjoying good conversation with great friends – thank you all.
3rd September 2007
We left the Ekstrom home this morning (it was very tempting to stay longer but we really needed to get moving again before we took root) and once again headed first south and then east through pretty countryside and in to Missouri. It had been hot and sunny all weekend and it was just that way when we left this morning. However, the further east we went the more overcast it became and it did finally rain this evening albeit not for long. The forecast for the rest of this week is decidedly unsettled so we’ll have to take that in to account as we plan our route for the next few days.
4th September 2007
We spent last night in Branson Missouri a real over the top tourist town with around 35 theatres featuring a range of musical shows (some of which look like they’d have made the Osmonds look like a heavy rock band !!). As none of the music on offer was to our taste, we decided to just get a quick meal at the restaurant across the road and then spend the evening catching up on some admin. (like updating the website), now I know I said we wanted a quick meal but this place gave fast food a whole new meaning – we were in, fed and out again in just over 20 minutes!! This morning dawned very grey, overcast and humid but as we made our way east across the state the sun came out and the temperature reached 95F. For the first 100 miles or so we were on minor roads that were reminiscent of a very big roller coaster with lots of blind summits and very deep, lose your stomach, dips but the scenery along the way was great. We then joined a rather bigger road which, although still surrounded by nice countryside, wasn’t quite so much fun. Our original plan for the day had been to stop close to the Missouri State line but, as we were making good progress and the only motel we could find had limited options for eating (McDonalds, which we don’t count as a restaurant or the café inside Boomerland, a huge the fireworks shop next-door to a gas station which surprisingly we didn’t fancy) we decided to go on and in to Kentucky – big mistake ! Within 10 miles or so we found ourselves out on a levee heading for the bridge over the Mississippi in really heavy rain and horribly strong winds, not nice at all; luckily we came across a gas station and took shelter there, as did a fellow motorcyclist who’d arrived from the other direction. It was just as well we did stop too as the winds picked up even more and I really wouldn’t have wanted to be out in that. Once the storm had passed we carried on and we are now 50 miles or so in to Kentucky and still heading for the east coast.
5th September 2007
It was 80F and raining when we left this morning but, as the rain was intermittent, we chose not to put on our waterproofs (they’re plastic so we’d probably have been just as wet on the inside if we’d worn them). Within 40 miles the rain had stopped and, eventually, the sun came out with temperatures reaching 97F this afternoon. As usual, we chose to travel on scenic byways which meant that we took a rather convoluted route to get us across to northeast Kentucky and arrived just outside of Lexington rather later than we’d expected, especially as we lost an hour by crossing in to the Eastern Time Zone (so we’re now just 5 hours behind the UK). We’ve been to Kentucky before and rather enjoyed it; we weren’t disappointed today either as the countryside is full of rolling hills, arable land and horse farms – very pretty.
6th September 2007
Another very pleasant day in all respects; hot & sunny weather (98F), pretty countryside and gentle, easy roads. One thing we hadn’t been aware of until today is that Kentucky is a tobacco growing area and that the crop is still dried in small, tatty, wooden barns which means that, unfortunately, you can sometimes smell it as you pass. We’ve left Kentucky and moved across in to Virginia – we’re now only 700 miles or so from where we started out three months ago and we’ll be going to see Jeff & Edith (Haus of Trikes) and Paul Zublionis (Honda of Crofton) whilst we’re over this way before starting back west towards our final destination, San Diego.
7th September 2007
Our route today took us in to the Appalachian Mountains and on to the Blue Ridge Parkway and it’s just as good as we remember. To get us to the parkway, we took a very nice twisty road that passed through part of the Jefferson National Forest and some rather nice small towns. The parkway itself has a 45-mile per hour speed limit all the way so you have little choice but to take a nice relaxed ride through, looking at the scenery and the local wildlife (there seem to be an awful lot of very big butterflies). Something else we spotted were lots of huge spiders webs which, in places, seemed to bend small branches from one tree to another, on closer inspection, however, there didn’t appear to be any spiders in them – very odd! We left the parkway at Roanoke and checked in to a motel close to a shopping mall so that we could both get a much needed haircut – what I want to know is why some ladies hairdressers insist on washing your hair and then putting half a gallon of gunk on it before blow drying to twice it’s size – it really isn’t me and I’ve had to come back to the motel and wash my hair again – I do wish they’d ask first!
8th September 2007
As usual we decided to stay off of the main roads and, as a result, found a really nice ‘gentle’ road; not much in the way of hills, bends etc just a nice easy ride in the sunshine through small towns and cotton fields. Bearing in mind it was a Saturday, it was also surprisingly quiet all the way across, hardly any traffic anywhere – it was great. It did get busier as we reached the east coast (yes, that’s right, we’ve now been coast to coast and back again with just one more crossing to go) but it was still a lot less busy than most small UK towns on a Saturday. Tomorrow we’ll be making our way across the bridge/tunnel to Ocean City, Maryland to see Jeff & Edith. It seems that, on this occasion, our timing isn’t too great as Jeff’s son is getting married on Wednesday so we’re hoping that Ed will be able to do the necessary with the Trike on Monday so that we can get out of their hair in time for the big day as they’re still very kindly putting us up (or is that putting up with us?) whilst we’re in town.
9th September 2007
When we arrived at the motel yesterday evening we found the parking lot pretty much full of sports bikes so naturally asked if there was an event on locally. It turned out that there was, indeed, an event on at the motel across the road but that it was ‘by invitation’ as it seems that it was for black bikers only but never mind, we still had a good chat with a number of them during our stay. The weather forecast for later this morning was slightly disturbing as we were right on the edge of a tropical storm warning and winds of 50 – 60 miles per hour were predicted. As we had to cross a 24 mile stretch of bridge/tunnel combination, it didn’t seem like a good idea to hang around so we left as early as we could and headed north and out of the storm warning area – luckily we made it in plenty of time and had a pretty good run up to Ocean City. Our early departure meant that we arrived rather earlier than expected so rang Jeff & Edith to see if it was okay to turn up early, they said it was and that they’d wait for us at home before heading to the new workshop/gallery to continue unpacking boxes as they’d only just moved in. Once we were settled in to Edith’s house (just around the corner from their own home) we went along to the shop to see if we could help out. We arrived to find both the Haus of Trikes showroom and workshop absolutely full of ‘stuff’, all sorts of stuff, some of which had apparently been tucked away in the old shop and hadn’t seen the light of day for some time. It was about this time that we discovered that the shop is one of the official venues for the Ocean City bike week that starts this Thursday - Arghhh! As you might expect, we got stuck in and started to help sort things out finally finishing at about 20:30 before heading out for something to eat.
10th September 2007
It was back to the shop this morning to continue with the sort out and to get the Trike looked at (we were hoping to get the electrical problem sorted out amongst other things). Whilst Ed & Steve worked on the Trike, we both got to work (along with others, of course) moving, sorting and cleaning and gradually, the showroom started to take shape. By the time we finished at around 20:00 the showroom looked pretty good with just the bike and sales displays to be finished off. The workshop was a different matter, that still needed to be tackled but at least there wasn’t any work scheduled for tomorrow so there should be time for that then, there would also be additional volunteers available as some of Jeff’s family had arrived ready for the wedding on Wednesday. By this time, Ed/Steve had managed to identify our electrical problem, as we had suspected, it was a trapped wire (under the handlebar) that had been shorting out so, with a bit of luck, all should be well now.
11th September 2007
Our plan for today was to spend this morning helping out at the shop before heading up to Crofton so that the Trike can get it’s 24000 mile service, new front tyre and replacement windshield tomorrow. Sorting out the workshop proved to be quite a challenge as Ed had had to go out to run a number of errands and wasn’t available to tell us what was ‘good’ and what was trash. There was also a small issue of trying to move a rather large compressor from its current position in the middle of the floor in to a loft space. By the time mid afternoon had arrived we’d made quite a lot of progress but there was still plenty to do so, as it had started to rain real heavily, we stayed a while longer eventually leaving at 17:30 before riding up across the bay bridge and a fabulous sunset, to a motel a few miles from Honda of Crofton. (The compressor still hadn’t been moved by the time we left but they were waiting on some extra muscle to arrive before attempting the manoeuvre).
12th September 2007
We arrived at Honda of Crofton just after 09:00 and settled in to wait (the 24000 mile service is supposed to take around 6.5 hours). The shop owner, Paul Zublionis and his wife Lorraine very kindly took us out to lunch so that we didn’t take root, we then returned to the shop to wait some more. The Trike was returned to us at around 16:15 so we decided that we still had time to make it to Bob’s BMW to get Graham’s riding pants repaired (one of the press studs had come off). Unfortunately, by the time we reached Bob’s, it had become obvious that all was not well with the front end of the Trike and closer inspection revealed that the front wheel was not properly aligned so we telephoned Paul to tell him that we were on our way back. After a very careful run back (approximately 12 miles) a very apologetic Paul made sure that the job was finished off properly before we headed back to our motel.
13th September 2007
Our first port of call this morning was the Bass Pro shop at the Arundel Mills shopping mall, a very large sporting goods shop that sells a good range of hi-tech clothing (it’s all Brian Downing’s fault, he introduced us to Bass Pro last time we were over and it’s been costing us a fortune ever since!). By the time we left there it was close on 11:00 and there was quite a bit of traffic around – there was even more around by the time we reached the Bay Bridge which, in this direction, is a toll bridge; it took us an absolute age to get through the toll booths. Today being the first day of the Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) bike week there were an awful lot of bikes on the road so we knew we needed to get a move on as we had volunteered to help out at Haus of Trikes over the coming few days. We arrived shortly after lunch and set to work manning the cash register and helping with general customer queries and, although not terrifically busy, we were kept occupied until well in to the evening. As well as everything else that’s been going on, Jeff & Edith also had more guests arrive today i.e. Edith’s cousin and her husband so, once we’d shut up shop, we all went out to eat together which was really great if a little raucous!
14th September 2007
Our first task of the day was to go to the main show area at the Ocean Downs horse racing track and pass on some flyers giving details of the new Haus of Trikes venue. Once we’d done that we spent an hour or so wandering around looking at the goodies on offer – it is very much like the BMF show vendors area only none of the goods are ‘seconds’ and there are a lot more custom bikes on show. We then went on to the shop and spent the rest of the day busying ourselves with a variety of tasks (including Graham spending quite a lot of time talking to a young man in a wheelchair (Rocky) who has never ridden a motorcycle but who is extremely keen to do so – following a long conversation with Jeff, it looks as though they will be able to help him achieve this ambition which is great).
15th September 2007
We had promised Paul that we would go back to Crofton today to support their charity ‘Goldwing giveaway’ where a brand new Goldwing was being given away in a reverse raffle (all of the tickets are pulled, with prizes given away at specified points and with the last ticket left winning the bike) but before doing so we had to return to Jeff’s shop to say our goodbyes. As a number of groups had arranged to ride out to the shop this morning and as Jeff had arranged some Tricycle racing (yes, that’s right, the pedal type) it took us quite a while to get away. We were also sad to see the end of a real fun few days spent with Jeff’s family i.e his Mum Ann, her partner Ted, his sister Corrina, son Garry, his new wife Kirstin and, of course Uncle Russ (not forgetting Ed who might as well be family) and Steve the other mechanic, we had been made to feel extremely welcome and it really was quite a wrench to leave but leave we must. Once we finally got away, we made our way back north and over the Bay Bridge (again) back to Paul’s where we discovered that our number had already been drawn so we’d not won the bike (drat). From there we headed west around Washington D.C. where the traffic was absolutely awful despite it being a Saturday but at least we’re now on the right side of the City to be able to get to Skyline Drive (a 105 mile scenic parkway) tomorrow.
16th September 2007
We woke to find sunshine and a new record low temperature for this time of year, just 41F – great! Once we’d left our motel, we made our way across country (on a circuitous route once again) to Front Royal and the start of Skyline Drive. The entire 105 mile ride takes you along the top of a ridge running through the Shenandoah valley, there are 75 scenic overlooks en-route and the views are great at every one of them, there is also a 35-mile per hour speed limit so, what with the speed limit, the abundant overlooks and the longer than usual lunch break that enabled us to thaw out (the temperature for the majority of the run hovered around 50F), the ride took us most of the day. Once we’d left Skyline we headed for the nearest town and booked in to a motel which, if you’re feeling energetic has a restaurant in walking distance but, as we’re not, we’ve ordered a pizza and we’re going to slob out in front of the TV (there’s drag racing on).
17th September 2007
It seems that a cold, sunny Monday morning is a good time to take the Blue Ridge Parkway; we started at the most northerly point of the parkway and gradually made our way almost 200 miles south meeting very little traffic for the entire journey. It felt quite autumnal first thing and the cold overnight temperatures seem to have just started to turn the leaves various shades of red – a few more weeks and the colours will be stunning but the crowds will also be out in force so it’s good that we’re here now. With the blue skies and sunshine the views from the ridge were fabulous we also saw a number of deer (5), two wild turkeys and far too many squirrels to be able to count. All in all it was a very pleasant day. Tonight we’re staying at a motel around 10 miles off of the parkway and it hasn’t cost us a bean as we’ve ‘cashed in’ some of our reward points. Tomorrow we’ll be heading back to the parkway and in to North Carolina.
18th September 2007
A cold, sunny Tuesday morning on the parkway is pretty good too! There was a little more traffic around today but much of it was two-wheeled so no problem there (except perhaps the group of 7/8 who decided that they wanted to travel at 30 miles per hour), there was also a little more evidence of the colours changing too. In general the road is made up of very gentle curves but there are one or two that are a little tighter (nothing like alpine roads though) – the reason I mention this is that we saw a road sign we’ve not seen before and it was aimed specifically at motorcyclists, presumably, motorcyclists who aren’t used to curves (see ‘photos)!!!! We’ve just found out that there is a Goldwing Road Riders Association event on in this area this weekend so we’re trying to find out if we’re okay to go along. If so we’ll be changing the plan yet again – hey ho.
19th September 2007
Well, we’ve now completed all 469 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway and thoroughly enjoyed every one of them (except perhaps the ones where we were being held up by a women driving a nice V8 SUV who apparently didn’t know what the throttle was for or how to drive around a curve – why she needed a V8 I’ll never know). Once we’d left the parkway we called in to Cherokee, somewhere we’ve been before, and had lunch. Whilst we were eating a Harley rider we’d spoken to yesterday arrived and we naturally got chatting about the roads. He very kindly gave us a really good map of the Smoky Mountains that highlights all of the scenic byways and he also told us of some other good roads to ride whilst we’re in the area. We’re now staying in Gatlinburg, a real over the top tourist town that, because it is a tourist town, has plenty of motels all vying for trade so we’ve got a room at a pretty good rate which is very close to the town and, apparently, to the brew pub. Tomorrow we’ll be heading for some of the roads we’ve been told about and to Deals Gap, which, if memory serves me correctly, is supposed to have 318 curves in 11 Miles!!!!
20th September 2007
Although it’s a tourist town, Gatlinburg turned out to be a very pleasant place to spend an evening. We had one of the nicest meals we’ve had in weeks at the brew house that turned out to be just a few hundred yards from our motel, we then took a walk in to town where we found a bluegrass band playing in one of the small squares – all very enjoyable. This morning we followed the directions given to us by one of the guys we spoke to yesterday and started out on the Little River Road which, as the name suggests, follows the path of a very pretty river. We then took the Foothills Scenic Byway through to Deals Gap, which as I said yesterday, is supposed to have 318 curves in 11 miles, well, we didn’t count them but it certainly didn’t seem like 318 curves. They call this portion of the road the Dragon’s tail and, yes, it is twisty but it is also quite wide, has a 30 mile per hour speed limit and, today at least, had one Sheriff parked at the start of the road and another positioned about halfway across so it really wasn’t a difficult ride (despite the T-shirts you can buy saying ‘I survived the Dragon’s tail’). After a coffee stop at the Motorcycle resort at the end of the ‘tail’ we headed south and then west on to the Cherohala Skyway, an extremely pretty gently curving road through the mountains. From there is was further south and then east on to the Ocoee scenic byway (we discovered part way through that we’ve done this one before in a rental car!!) then slightly north and east on the Mountain Waters Byway. This turned out to be much more demanding than Deals Gap as it is narrower and entails a number of hairpin bends and steep grades. All tolled, we were in the saddle for around 9 hours today so we’re going to take it easy tomorrow and head over to the ‘Wings over the Smokies’ an event run by the GWRRA which is only around 80 miles away. Mileage to date 20564.
21st September 2007
I need to start today’s update with an apology to any GWRRA members out there – I apologise now if I offend any of you with my opinions of the event we attended today but I can honestly say it is the most bizarre motorcycle rally I have ever been to. We arrived at the rally site this morning having had a reasonable run through the mountains (despite the fog and getting stuck behind a truck that was really too big for the road) and asked for some information about the rally. We were told that we could either pay $13 each for a day pass that would give us access to the 100 or so vendors who were on site during the day but would not give us evening access. Alternatively, we could pay $30 each for a full weekend pass that would give us a rally pin (badge), access to the vendors all weekend, entry to the Goldwing raffle plus access to the evening entertainment. As it sounded like better value, we went for the latter option. We spent an hour or two this afternoon looking around the various stalls and chatting to a few people before going to our motel to check in. As the evening entertainment was scheduled to start at 18:00 we ate early and made our way back to the site for the opening ceremonies which started out pretty much as we expected with the National Anthem being sung as the flag was carried in, there was then a prayer which wasn’t necessarily something we’d expected but wasn’t a problem for us either. From there things became progressively more and more odd. There were the finals of the North Carolina ‘couple of the year contest’ (not sure what that was all about but it took half an hour to get through) before the highlight of the evening i.e. the talent contest!!!! There were, apparently three categories, ‘Hawaiian’, ‘Serious’ and ‘Comedy’ – there were only two entries for the first category (thankfully as they were both painful to watch) and there were said to be four entries for the ‘serious’ category (which turned out to be more of a bad karaoke contest) – we managed to sit through two of them before admitting defeat and leaving at just before 20:00. We did check with one of the organisers who confirmed that there was no other entertainment this evening and that there was nothing at all arranged for after the closing ceremony which was scheduled for 17:30 tomorrow evening. There was nowhere on site for people to gather and socialise, there was no alcohol allowed on site which is fair enough if you know the rules but the concession selling soft drinks also shut at 20:00. When we asked what people do of an evening we got something of a blank look (when we got back to our motel there were four people sitting in the foyer playing a card game reminiscent of ‘snap’ and others, apparently already tucked up in their rooms). Despite having paid for the full weekend we have cancelled our accommodation for tomorrow night and will be moving on in the morning.
22nd September 2007
Our latest re-route took us south & west through part of South Carolina and in to Georgia via the Chattahoochee National Forest. We encountered a mixture of roads ranging from mountain roads with steep grades and tight(ish) bends, to expanses of two-lane divided highway. We also passed a number of rivers en-route and, although we’d been hearing about the severe drought in the South East, we hadn’t realised just how bad it was. Some of the rivers have very little water in them and, although the locals are praying for rain, it was hot & mostly sunny all day with the same forecast for the next few days at least. We’re going to be continuing west tomorrow and have decided to make a stop off in Memphis on Monday so that we can take in a evening of live blues music on the famous Beale Street.
23rd September 2007
As usual we took a round-about route today leaving Georgia behind and heading in to Alabama passing backwards and forwards across the Tennessee river as we did so – that also appears to be low on water. The countryside is very much agricultural with large areas of cotton fields and what we believe to be Soya beans. The weather has been kind to us today; it was around 80F when we left this morning and has been hot & sunny all day. Tomorrow we’ll be heading in to Mississippi and taking in part of the Natchez Trace Parkway as we do so.
24th September 2007
It was real hot and muggy again as we left this morning and there were threats of some isolated thunderstorms to come over the next few days. Our chosen route this morning took us on to part of the Natchez Trace Parkway which is similar to the Blue Ridge Parkway in that it is maintained by the National Parks Service, has limited access points and is a nice, gentle winding road. Unlike the Blue Ridge, it doesn’t have the valley views but it does have Native American archaeological sites along the way. Once we’d left the Parkway (we’ll be going back on to it later on) we headed in to Tupelo where we made a brief stop at Elvis Presley’s birthplace before heading north to Memphis. We stopped for lunch at one of the many chain burger restaurants and were approached by a fellow Goldwing rider who had all the usual questions, how did we get the bike over here etc (Graham has taken to telling people we brought it as hand luggage!!!) but who came back over to us later on to let us know that the route we’d chosen to take to Memphis was one of the most popular truck routes and was very badly rutted in places. Having learned this we re-routed yet again and took a much less busy but fiddly route in, making use of the Gladys (our SatNav) to locate the motel. That was fine except she decided to take us right through the middle of the city which was interesting to say the least. Once we’d settled in to our room and cleaned ourselves up, we headed for Beale Street, which has changed quite a bit since we were here last. There’s a brand new entertainment arena, a Hard Rock Café and a number of other new buildings too. Having had a wander around, we went back to an old haunt, the Rum Boogie Café where we had a good meal and listened to some great live music.
25th September 2007
The skies were very overcast and threatening as we left this morning and it started to look as though we were going to get the threatened storms. After leaving Memphis we headed west and slightly north in to Arkansas through more cotton and soya bean fields. This finally gave way to prettier views as we reached the Ozark mountains, they’re not huge mountains but still pretty to look at. We encountered a number of mostly light showers as we made our way across but nothing heavy enough to make us stop and put our wet gear on (it probably wouldn’t have been worth it anyway as at 80F+ we’d have been melting) but shortly after we stopped at our motel and Graham had washed some of the grime off of the bike, it started to lash down – not for long but I’m still glad we were in a nice dry motel room (it’s all Graham’s fault for washing the bike!).
26th September 2007
It was very overcast again this morning and cooler too – we had one or two showers throughout to day but, once again, nothing too terrible. We had decided to follow one of Arkansas’s scenic roads that runs north/south for most of the length of the State. For the most part it was a pleasant enough ride on gentle curves on forested roads, nothing staggering but pleasant. Unfortunately, some of the towns along the route weren’t quite so pleasant – typically busy and industrial. As the road wasn’t quite as good as we’d hoped and the weather forecast for the next few days was showing more rain the further south and east we headed, we decided to cut our losses and stopped fairly early this afternoon. We’ve now had another re-think and won’t be going east but will head west towards Troup in Texas where the Motor Trike factory is. We were offered a tour of the factory when we met the owners in Daytona a few years ago so we’ll try to make contact with them in the morning to confirm that it’s okay to go along to see them.
27th September 2007
We managed to speak to Tonya at Motor Trike first thing this morning, someone Graham has been speaking to on and off for 3 or 4 years now, and she confirmed that it was okay to visit. Unfortunately, we’d woken to find a thick fog outside so we had to delay our getaway for a short while. Once we got underway the weather initially improved and it got real hot, sunny and humid, it then came over very overcast, then sunny, then the sky turned real black and we had a few showers, then sunny….. You get the idea! Our route took in a variety of roads some small & quiet, others not. We eventually found our way out to Motor Trike (Tonya was right, they really are out in the middle of nowhere) by around 15:30 and spent an interesting hour in Tonya’s company having a tour of the facility – very enlightening, thank you Tonya. Tomorrow we’ll be heading north in to Oklahoma as we found some details of a motorcycle rally and rodeo (yes – a real rodeo with horses/bulls etc., not a motorcycle rodeo) this weekend and have confirmed that it’s okay for us to go along and register on the gate – sounds like it should be interesting. As it’s going to take us more than a day to get there we’ve booked a motel for tomorrow that will leave us just 100 miles or so to do on Saturday.
28th September 2007
Some of the individual States over here really do have some odd ideas. Yesterday evening, we walked to a nearby restaurant and, along with our food, ordered a beer each. It was at this point that we were asked if we were members; as we hadn’t been there before and obviously weren’t already members (of what I’m not really sure) we were given an application form and asked to complete it – we did as we were asked using our own names, Brian & Barbara’s address in San Diego and a fictitious drivers licence number (as we didn’t know our own off by heart), the application was duly accepted and we were served our beers!!!! This morning, we started out by making slight detour via the local FedEx office, as we had to send off the necessary documents to book the return journey for the Trike. Once that was done, we had a fairly ordinary run north through Oklahoma – nothing wrong with it but it was just ordinary – ordinary roads through fairly ordinary farmlands.
29th September 2007
We only had 80 or so miles to cover this morning so didn’t rush away. As it was, we reached Tahlequah late morning and found the rodeo grounds after just one slight wrong turn. We were greeted at the gate by a very friendly gentleman who gave us registration forms to fill in and gave us the usual wristbands to wear. We were also given an events schedule which included a bike show, on-bike rally games, Mutton Bustin’ (whatever that is) a professional rodeo and a concert following that. The amazing thing about that is it’s all free – the only thing you have to pay for is your food/drink (once again, there’s no alcohol allowed but that’s not going to worry us too much). We’re now back at our motel, which is only a few miles away, getting cleaned up so that we can get back in time for the Mutton Bustin’ – I just have to know what it is!!!
30th September 2007
Well, now we know. Mutton Bustin’ is rodeo riding for real youngsters – kids of as young as four rodeo riding a sheep that doesn’t want to be ridden – quite amusing really (although I’m not generally in favour of a rodeo). A group of professional rodeo riders followed the youngsters riding (no not sheep) in three classes, bareback horse riding, riding horses with some sort of saddle (apologies for any rodeo fans amongst you – I never really did get the gist of the whole thing) and bull riding; there were also some display riders. The horsemanship etc. was very good but, having now been to two rodeos, I still can’t quite see how they say this isn’t unfair to the poor creatures who have their private parts wrapped in a rope to make them buck!! Following the rodeo there was a free concert given by a well-known (in the USA at least) country & western singer. We stayed for a while but as it started to get quite chilly sitting out on metal ‘grandstands’ we called it a night at about 22:00. Just a mile or two from the rodeo grounds is the Cherokee heritage centre and we had originally planned to go there this morning – that idea was scuppered when we discovered it didn’t open until 13:00. Plan B was to visit the rally site for an hour or so before going to the centre for a look around. We arrived at the rally site at around 11:00 to find that the church service was still going on (the event was run by a Christian group) so we sat outside chatting to one or two people before the weather started to close in (there had been threats of some thunderstorms but not until later in the day). As a result of the ever-blackening cloud, we decided not to wait around and, instead, made a hasty departure towards Broken Arrow on the outskirts of Tulsa. We had also learned, this morning, that the ‘moving wall’ (a mobile ‘copy’ of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall that is in Washington DC which visits various States/Towns around the USA) was currently in Broken Arrow so we made a brief stop to look and pay our respects before searching out a suitable motel. Mileage to date 22440.