Back to reality today; back to work.  But in my work, there’s usually something interesting happening. And today was no different.

Just as I took my seat and a staff meeting was starting this morning, my phone rang.  I whispered, “Hello” and the voice on the other end said, “Oh are you in the meeting? I was hoping you were still at the airport, there’s an emergency.”

Just then, as I got up from my seat to head for the door, Seth, who works at our assignment desk in the newsroom, listening to scanner traffic and tracking all that goes on in the region, walked into the room and said I needed to get the airport right away.

I had spent the entire morning there, covering security here locally, following the tragic, deadly bombing in Turkey.   So my photographer and I raced back to the airport.

An American Airlines plane had flames shooting out its tail while still on the taxi-way, prior to take off.  I chased down information from the airport and the airline.  Firefighters got it out fast and everyone got out safely.  I reported the details, live from the airport at 11:00 am.

Just another day in the life of a reporter.  Today, I could use a little pampering. After all, my feet have been sweating it out in motorcycle boots for more than 2 weeks and my hands in gloves, so I treated myself to a manicure/pedicure.  The massage on my calves and my sore, right forearm from holding the throttle on the bike day after day, felt great!

When I got home with groceries, my husband cooked it all up for dinner and then he showed me some of his handy work today.  He compressed the GoPro video he took with me riding in front of him, as we wound our way through California this week.  Enjoy!

Link to YouTube video of Denise riding

I did it!  I actually rode my motorcycle all the way from Seattle to Key West and back!  I always knew I could and would do it.  I rarely, if ever back away from a challenge.  This one came from my husband Terron, who put this trip on his bucket list years ago.  So we saddled up our matching Honda ST1300 motorcycles and hit the road!

On this last day, we are on a deadline like most other days of this trip.  We must make it home, because I have to be at work at 3am the next day!  But despite my urgency to start riding, there’s Terron, out in front of our hotel room, washing the bikes, with shampoo!  Now I understand that there is a purpose beyond vanity to this:  you don’t want your radiators full of bugs, so the initial excuse is to get those bugs all cleaned out.  But let’s be honest, he just likes to have clean things!

Given this delay to our departure, we still choose the back roads!  Getting into Redding last night, was spectacular, through forested roads that wind their way through the mountains.  All last evening, since we were rolling in at sunset, I really marveled at the little pink grasses along the roadside.  I figured the sunset was casting that pink hue, but now today, in bright sun, I see it’s just the color of that type of grass!  So pretty!   Does this only grow wild, or could I add this to my yard?

Now headed out of Redding, we pick up Highway 97 through Northern California and then Oregon.  Every single mountain is strutting her stuff today!

I’ve climbed many of these mountains and it’s always fun for me to stare at the summits and say to myself, “I’ve been there; at the top!”  I haven’t seen Mt. Shasta in a few years, since I reached that summit in 2012.  Just spectacular (especially since our Climb to Fight Cancer team just summited her over the weekend!).

Winding our way up north, we pass through one small town after another, with wide expansive meadows and forests, plus rivers, streams and lakes in between them.  The waterways we pass are just sparkling in the sunlight.  The lakes and Klamath River, near Klamath Falls, are just incredibly peaceful looking.

We rode through Bend a few years ago, on another epic motorcycle vacation, but today it looks very different, more touristy than I remember.  In each town we pass through, I see families and couples enjoying their vacations!

We veer off onto highway 26, which takes us right by Mt. Hood (I’ve stood on her summit 3 times) though this time I’m getting a slightly different view, since I’m coming at her from the opposite side I normally approach it.   The forest here is stunning.  I want to stop and check out every trail I see!  In some areas it’s super dense and dark.  And then in others, the sun is beaming through the trees.

Once we reach the outskirts of Portland, I can feel the end of this trip upon us.  It’s been an awesome adventure and hardly seems like we’ve been gone for 18 days now!  This is the longest vacation I’ve ever taken as an adult!

We reach home at 8:00pm.   And our odometers show we’ve traveled 8,556 miles to get back here!

Our dog  Buddy is beside himself to see us!  I spend time with him and Terron and I toast ourselves with a beer.  I think I’ll save the laundry and cleanup for tomorrow!  

We start today with tough decisions.  It is very hot!  After hitting 117 degrees yesterday, making our way through the Mojave Desert, I have to think about the heat more today.  I like to think I’m invincible, but the heat is really affecting me!  It’s already 95 when we wake up in Barstow, California.  After days and days and days and days and days…. (Ok you get the picture), of temperatures above 100 degrees, I just know that my body cannot handle too much more.  So, we choose our route today, to skirt Death Valley.  We take highway 395 north, which keeps us 100 miles west of Death Valley.

Still I can easily see how much sun there is here, when off on the horizon, I’m seeing something spectacular, that’s blue.  Once we get closer I see it’s a huge solar farm!

Down the road, we pass two cowboys on horseback, off in the pasture and one of them offers up a huge wave.  I’m really laughing now at the cowboys I’ve seen on this trip.  Just a few days ago in Arizona, Terron and I both grinned at seeing some ‘modern’ cowboys; a man on a 4×4 and another on a dirt bike, herding cattle that had gotten out of the fence line!  And today, I am rewarded with seeing the traditional kind, dressed head to toe in Western wear on horseback!

I keep seeing billboards for Gus’ Jerky, claiming to be the best in the west, so we pull in and there’s more than just jerky.  Inside Gus’ tiny little shop, there are olives, pickled vegetables and honey too!  While Terron asks the guy behind the counter if he’s Gus (he replies that he’s Gus’ helper), I start tasting olives and honey, while Gus’ helper offers Terron some samples of their jerky; venison, buffalo, beef, jalapeno, teriyaki and more.  We walk out 10 minutes later, with a bag full of different kinds of jerky for Terron, cactus honey for me and a jar of habanero stuffed olives we’ll both enjoy!  We also meet a couple of fellow travelers, who we passed a short time ago; two men in a truck, towing a camper and kayaks.  When we see them at a gas stop down the road, one of them jokes that they’re following us.  I ask where they’re headed and he tells me he and his brother are going to June Lake and then Reno for the week.

 

We hit the road again and I work hard at staying hydrated, drinking sports water from the water bladder I keep in my tank bag, since it is again 108 degrees.  But after just about 4 hours, I’m suffering.  We stop for gas and I tell Terron that I need to sit for a while and super hydrate.  At this point, we have to make a decision.  The turn for Yosemite is up the road, which I really want to take, but this will add a minimum of an hour to our ride today.  I am too afraid that I’m already too heat-stricken to tack on the extra time, so I reluctantly decide to skip the park.  I will just have to come back another time.  Today, I just don’t think my body can handle the heat much more than it already has to.

We are still rewarded with amazing vistas and views today!  Throughout the day, we ride through or along, the Sequoia, Inyo, Sierra, Eldorado and Lassen National Forests!  The mountains are incredibly beautiful.  At one point, I can see the layers of sediment on either side of me, where workers blasted their way through the rock to create this section of highway.

Before he hit the road this morning, like we have for several; days now, we check the wildfire map, to make sure we will not be going where there are fires burning.  Today, we should be in the clear, as long as nothing new comes up.  But then at a gas station, I spot the headline on a newspaper that says highway 395, the one we’re on, was shut down just 48 hours ago at Lee Vining, for a wildfire.  The photo on the front page of the paper shows large, orange flames and smoke!  Since we checked the maps this morning, we figure we’re good and continue North.  Before we even reach this area, large temporary signs say:  “Watch out for fire trucks”.

At the same time, I can see a spectacular lake, off in the distance.  It’s Mono Lake and there’s a scenic overlook, so we pull in.  Half of the parking lot here is cordoned off for firefighters.  Their tents fill many parking spaces and I spot a few resting in the shade, so I know that this fire is active here in the area.

We stop and marvel at Mono Lake, which is very large and very blue.  We stop to take a photo and I notice that wonderful smell of fresh grasses I’ve been enjoying, is now replaced by smoke.

We hit the road again, now skirting the shoreline of the lake and all of the land on either side of us, is scorched.   This area must get a lot of snow, because the highway is lined with those tall, orange poles that mark the roadway in winter.  These poles are now melted and leaning over.

I’m now also staring at burnt guardrail all along the highway and then I see the fire is still burning, just feet from the lane I’m riding in.  Firefighters are about 10’ off the road, still working on keeping small flare ups down.  I can see the red fire retardant all up on the hillside to the west of the highway, that air support obviously dropped in the last few days.

We make it through fine and I give the firefighters I see along the way a thumps up for their hard work.  (And now that I’m able to, I researched this fire.  It is called the Marina Fire and it burned more than 650 acres so far.  Right now it is 60% contained and firefighters are worried about storms and rain this week, since rain they say could cause rockslides, now that the hills are unstable from the fire.  The exact cause is still under investigation, but it’s listed as ‘human caused’.)

It’s not too far up the road, that the smell of wildfire is now replaced with the fantastic smell of fresh pine and all kinds of grasses!  So fresh and invigorating!

Terron and I hit a few good mountain passes, one that’s called Deadman’s!  Yikes.  I’m keeping my eye on the road!

Over the passes and back down on the lowland, we suddenly drive into a huge swarm of…?  We don’t really know what it is, but there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of something swarming right in front of us.  I see Terron duck down behind his windshield, trying to avoid getting plastered with whatever it is.  I am just stunned at what this could be.  I get a few splats on my windshield, boots and pant legs, but at least I’m spared any direct hits on my face mask, in my line of sight!

When we stop later for gas, we ask each other what it was.  Then Terron sees exactly what it was, since there’s one stuck in an air vent on my helmet.  They were crickets!

While I’m taking pictures of this little critter I pulled off my helmet, a little boy walks up to Terron and tells him he really likes his bike.  Then, pointing at the GoPro mounted on the bike, he asks, “Is that your stunt camera?”  Terron says, “Yes, so that when I jump a curb, I can record it.”  The boy seems satisfied with the answer and runs off.

We’ve been filling our water bladders with ice at each stop, to help us stay hydrated.  Terron goes into the store to buy a bag of ice and the clerk takes one look at him and says, “You have to be hot!”

Terron replies, “Yes I am!”  She decides that it’s just too hot to charge him for the bag of ice and says, “You deserve to get that for free!”  Thank you!

We’ve still got a few hours before us to reach Redding, but our drinks are now cold and the road ahead is full of curves and switchbacks!  It’s also got some shade!  I am concentrating hard on the road, but also seeing lots of little lakes and ponds along the way.  This area of the state is much more lush than we’ve seen all day.  We are also watching for wildlife and sure enough at least twice deer pop out at the side of the road.  Thankfully, they don’t dart out in front us, just watch us whiz by!

We make it to Redding and seek out some dinner.  I order my usual chicken and finally, literally for the first time this entire trip, I get a chicken breast that’s properly cooked!  The others have been either rubber, cardboard, plastic, or just all together inedible.

Terron and I are so excited about this, we make a point of telling our server.  As he walks to the next booth to check on them, one of the guys at the table says, “This chicken is terrible.  The worst I’ve had!”  Everyone gets a good laugh and when I start talking with him, I find out he’s a regular here and then he tells me which towns through Northern California and Oregon have good restaurants!

Another gentleman at the at the bar, just wants to know more about our trip, since we said we’ve been on the road now for 17 days and can’t get a good chicken breast!

This trip has been so much fun, not only seeing our American countryside, but meeting all the local, sweet, quirky, eccentric, down-to-earth people we’ve run into along the way.

There’s still one more day!  More than 600 miles to get home and of course we’re choosing the back roads, so stay tuned… 

Even though we’ve been planning this trip for some time and we knew exactly what days we would be in Phoenix, coordinating breakfast this morning turned out to be a little bit of a challenge.

My dad and stepmom live 45 minutes away from where we are and in the opposite direction of our trip out of town today.

So where to meet up for breakfast?  My brother-in-law Drew recommended a breakfast spot that he and his wife really enjoy, about halfway between us, so we all decide to meet there.  I called ahead for a table but they don’t take reservations.  We arrive to learn the wait is 45 minutes!  Too long for us, so I quickly call a restaurant a block away and she puts us on the list; just 10 minutes!

Terron walks in first and immediately one of the customers stares at him with a shocked look!   It’s my step-brother James!  He is as shocked to see us as we are to see him.  He and his buddy had just haphazardly wandered into this restaurant to have breakfast this morning, just like we did!  About 4.5 million people live in the Valley and none of us live within 15 miles of this particular restaurant, yet here we all are!  So maybe the new game is titled Where’s James?, instead of Where’s Waldo?!

We sit and share stories over breakfast.  It’s great that my dad can hear me!  He’s gotten hearing aids, since the last time I saw him!

Now that my hunger is satisfied and my heart is full after spending time with family, it’s time to hit the road.

We head northwest out of Phoenix hitting the back roads up to Prescott and through the mountains. For a short time the road was flat and full of round-abouts with great art in the middle.  My favorite are the giant spurs!

On a long, flat stretch, I now see a huge mountain range in front of us and as I stare ahead it, I’m wondering exactly how we were going to get around it since I am sure there’s no tunnel through it. As we get closer I can see other cars snaking their way up and down the mountainside and we do the same on a winding, curvy road all the way up and over this mountain.

On the other side I giggle at the prairie dogs off in the shoulder that suddenly stand up on their back legs peering out at us.  They’re so inquisitive, wanting to know what’s whizzing by.

After Prescott, we pick up parts of the old Route 66 again.  Seligman is an awesome little spot, with quite a few old buildings still remaining and lots of after-market kind of decorations!   It has, like so many other vintage Route 66 towns, nostalgic touches added in. There are a lot of old cars positioned as attractions on the side of the road. There are also mannequin of what people may have looked like, dressed like and what they were doing back in the day scattered across the rooftop of at least one building.

Peach Springs is another Route 66 town with a bit of a western flair and then we reach the town of Kingman.   We stopped here for gas before we end our Route 66 travels for the day and get back on the expressway. This is a small convenience store/truck stop that actually has 18 taps so you can grab a pint or fill a growler and hopefully not get back on the road!  We opt for ice water!

Even though we’re back on the expressway, and dang it we missed Oatman (where readers of this blog suggested we go with carrots in hand for the wild burrows! Next time!), we are treated to a beautiful sunset as we end yet another day of fun travels on the Mother Road.  We cross into California where I notice that the temperature reading on my dash says 117 degrees!

And guess what?  Monday, we are skirting Death Valley!  I better really fill up on ice water!  Yosemite is also on the agenda!

 

All the way through Florida I kept seeing so many cars on the side of the road with flat tires.  I don’t know what it is about that state’s roads or drivers, but man there were a lot of flat tires!  So today, we start the day out with a tire issue!  Not a huge issue on the surface; the back tire on Terron’s motorcycle is low so we seek air.  Simple enough right?  Well, not so fast!  So apparently a motorcycle tire needs a different kind of inflator nozzle.  Terron figures this out at the first gas station, actually deflating his tire more than it was!  Yikes.  So we try two more gas stations.  No good.  Then we seek a tire store and we find a great little shop where Terron successfully adds air to his tires!

We hit the back roads, at first, cruising through the Cibola National Forest.  We’re on a spectacular, middle of the nowhere kind of little 2 lane .   The rock we’re surrounded by is very red and pink and full of trees.

After a few miles, Terron is slowing down and pulling over.  Oh no, is there something else wrong with his bike? Nope, he said he just wanted to stop and take pictures of the wild flowers for me! They are very pretty!

Every once in a while, we come across a small town.  The first one is called Magdalena.  It’s quaint, maybe 5-7 buildings. The next one is Datil, followed by Pie Town.  I scan left and right like I’m watching a tennis match as we drive through town, with the businesses, playing off the name, Pie Town!

We also cross the Continental Divide, again!  (We crossed it on our way east, up north!)

Before long we’re in Arizona.  For hours, through both states, the temperatures is awesome, anywhere from 75 to 84.

Springerville is next, the first town we spot in Arizona, followed an even larger little town, Show Low.

Down the road, we hit Heber-Overgaard.  This town is huge for what we think is the middle of the desert!  There are many resorts, golf courses and fancy cabins and homes here.  And this is all in the Tonto National Forest!

Then we hit Payson and the descent down to the desert!  The road is great; full of curves!  But it’s getting increasingly hot!  The temperature reading on my bike hits 110 degrees!

 

We make it into Phoenix, to our oasis for the night; Terron’s brother’s house!  Ahhh, nothing better than a cold one and pizza, delivered right to the door!

This is it, time to start getting our kicks on Route 66.  It is a day getting on and getting off, getting on and off, getting on and off Route 40, now the fast expressway, to see the old Route 66.

We start in Elk City, OK, at the National Route 66 Museum.  The museum is at the end of the town, which still contains some of the old, mid-century architecture that I just love!

The experience starts with a movie that reviews history, not just of Route 66, but the development of all transportation in our country; the bicycle, cars, rail, even flight!

I see all the pictures of those old bicycles people used to ride, but never really realized the significance of the bike.   I do now!  Especially since I now have a new favorite quote:

   “Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.” 
― Susan B. Anthony

I emerge from this movie with all kinds of new found information!  Route 66 was decommissioned in 1985, but this little museum contains history dating back at least 100 years from that time.  It’s set up like a little village that you can walk around (they relocated many original Route 66 buildings to this location).   There’s a one-room schoolhouse, a doctor, a funeral director, a church, caboose at the old train station and even a soda fountain and drugstore for us to play in!

Terron and I don aprons and some pretended like we were serving up fountain drinks. I also bought and later ate my first ever Moon Pie!  Yes I have never once in my life tasted a Moon Pie; that is until today.  (Not bad, not great, but now I’m set for life on my fill of Moon Pies!)

 

Clouds gave us a cooler start to the day, but it doesn’t last long, as we soon hit 108 degrees. We make our way through Oklahoma which I’ve been to so many times before, but never until today, did I realize just how red the dirt is here.

We’ve seen plenty of wind farms in many states across the past 2 weeks, but today we crest a hill and I see dozens of those giant wind towers, all still.  Not one of them is moving.  It’s really rather eerie.  I feel like I’m in a movie where civilization is lost and you’re wondering if you’re the only one left!  Okay, so I let my imagination go for a few seconds.  Then I see all the other cars on the highway and am brought back to reality!

Over another hill the wind turbines are moving and this time they’re literally right next to the highway, so close that I can see how maintenance workers enter these giant structures.  The staircase that leads up to a door at the base of it, looks miniature, since the turbines themselves are so huge!  Furthering the miniature appearance of things here, I see hundreds of cattle grazing beneath these turbines.  They too are so tiny in comparison!

Next, we spot the famous Cadillac Ranch!  We pull off the highway and walk out in the middle of a field to see it.  This is an art installation created in 1974 and over the years, people stole the tail fins and added their ‘art’ to it.  There are cans of spray paint everywhere!  People are adding their graffiti to the cars, half buried in the dirt.  Terron finds a can and adds his own mark for us.

When we walk away, we see a guy at the entrance selling something from the back of his pickup.  He takes pieces of the thick paint that falls of the cars and then sands them down to reveal all the paint colors people added over the years.  Some are raw shapes, but others, he carves into Cadillacs, complete with the tail fin!  Of course we buy one for $10 and get the story on how he started this.

He said he brought his nine-year-old daughter out here with some paint and they really enjoyed painting up a car.  Then his daughter noticed a piece of paint on the ground and asked if he could make it into something for her.  He did and then decided to try making and selling these little souvenirs.  He said it was slow winter for his business of paint less dent repair and he was looking for something else anyway.  Eureka!

We end up crossing into Texas, and it’s so interesting to me how it suddenly goes from flat to Hill Country.   Across one stretch of road, I’m looking down the road and I see something but I’m not sure what it is. I keep squinting in looking and as we draw closer I can see whatever it is, there are a lot of it. Finally I notice it’s cattle.   Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of cattle out on an open range, the sun beating down on them. I have to say I feel bad for these cows (Terron CB’s me, “Look at all that steak!!”)

Time to get off the interstate again and back onto the old Route 66, this time for the town of Vega.   Not many icons of the old ‘Mother Road’ here, but there is an old saloon that Terron told me he read about.  Dang, it’s shuttered and for sale.  We see a few other places that unfortunately make this town kind of look like a ghost town.

A few miles down the road we get off again this time for Tucumcari, TX. Terron tells me that his research shows this town may be the most well preserved of all Route 66.  It is! I really enjoy seeing all of the little motels, one after the other, still fully functioning and still painted like they were back in the 1950s and 1960s.  This is my favorite style of architecture and in this town, it’s still evident in the diners, shops and gas stations.

We cross into New Mexico and I celebrate!  I’ve now been to all 50 states!  We stop to take a quick picture at the border and then find a stop for gas and a snack.  This is where we meet a fellow biker checking a trip down the ‘Mother Road’ off his bucket list.  Pierre is from Montreal.  I love listening to his French accent!  He rode from Montreal, to Chicago, to beginning of Route 66.  He’s going to follow it to the end in Los Angeles, then ride up to Vancouver, BC, then drop back in to the US to go across the Northern states to get back home. 

He offers us a few pointers on the route from his guide book and we shared a few points of interest from our travels. Terron gave him his business card, and told him to stop by once in Seattle, and we’ll take him out on the boat to catch some fresh crab.  Pierre sounded excited and sincere when he said he would certainly contact us.

Now it’s 108 degrees and I’m hot!  It’s so hot, the GoPro would not start!  Terron tells me it detects extreme heat conditions and says, “Ya, I’ll have none of this” and refuses to start.  But ahead, I see dark clouds!  Yes, again I’m excited to watch the lightning and hope that our paths cross!  Sure enough, we ride through a small shower, dropping the temperature on my bike to 75!  It only rises back to 88 as we roll into Albuquerque, NM.

My sister-in-law Crystal highly recommends we take the tram, so we head right the Sandia Tramway.  I quickly ask a few questions and learn that if we want to eat on top, there’s a restaurant called high Finance.  I quickly get on Open Table, secure a reservation, buy our tram tickets and we’re off!  We climb to 10,378’ gawking at the jagged rocks around us.  At the deepest point, while we are suspended on cables with 48 other people, the canyon below is 960’!  Just spectacular views everywhere.

We reach the restaurant and enjoy a wonderful dinner.  When it’s time to head back to the tram for our ride back down, the sun is perfectly setting on the other side of Albuquerque, spread out down below us.

This is an awesome way to end a spectacular day!

If I haven’t already said it, I will now:  I miss Jill and Robert Miller!  They have been awesome friends of ours now for at least 15 years.  This morning, Jill presented a wonderful breakfast for us:  Basil Quiche, Spinach Quiche, Venison Sausage, Eggs, Bacon and Fresh Fruit!  Oh and Jill and I had Key Lime Pie for breakfast too!   Our other Best Friend here Arkansas, Rod Dunn joined us for breakfast, arriving on his Harley Street Glide.

Rod came to ride part of the way with us today!  The first few points of interest we zoom by, take me back down memory lane.  We passed the turn off for Pinnacle Mountain, where I used to go trail running 2-3 times a week.  Then I spotted the sign for Wye Mountain.   This is where we went to the Daffodil Festival every spring!  So much fun.

Rod guided us through some backroads that I had completely forgotten about.  We then end up in Hot Springs, which Terron and I drove through every single summer weekend when we lived here, on our way to Lake Ouachita.  This lake is amazing!  Nobody’s allowed private homes on the lake, so it maintains its pristine beauty and wilderness setting!  We owned a total of 5 different boats when we lived there and spent nearly every weekend on the lake, water skiing, camping and hanging out with friends!  Terron gets on the CB and tells me, in addition to missing our friends here, he really does miss the lake.  I agree!

It’s almost time for Rod to for leave us, so we stop in Mt. Ida for a cold drink.  This is one of those cute little stops with cold pickles on the counter!  We chat about old times and discuss the 102 degree heat with the clerks.  They’ve never been to Washington so I tell them how great it is and how I really believe Arkansas is a miniature version of Washington, since it has two mountain ranges, the Ozark and the Ouachita Mountains, tons of hiking and fishing with so many lakes, rivers and streams.  I buy a few lottery tickets and I tell Rod that he’ll get a cut if he collects the winnings for me.  (He’s an AR State Trooper, Special Agent, and I’ve known him for years, so I trust him!)

Terron and I head off on our bikes to begin our way of picking up as much of Route 66 as possible.  We are still cruising through the Ouachita National Forest, from Arkansas, well into Oklahoma. (BTW Ouachita is pronounced:  Wash-eh-taw)

There are so many old cemeteries along these back roads and each one is so well groomed and neatly kept.  And there are so many flowers at almost all of the gravesites.

Terron and I are still chuckling today at the Dollar General store in every single town we pass!  And some of these towns are so cute!  Talihina, Oklahoma is full of buildings all made of rock or brick.  The whole way through town, I don’t think I saw a single structure with siding or wood on its exterior.  Down the road, another town had all brick streets through its downtown.

Oh and have I mentioned just how hot it is today?  It was soooooo hot, that even the cows were hot!  We rode past a large pond where we saw tons of cows in the water!  That’s how hot they were!  Most of the cows were wading up to their bellies, but one must have been really hot, because he was immersed all the way up to his neck!  Terron later told me he was laughing so hard, he couldn’t get the camera out fast enough to take a photo!

This makes us want to stop for ice water, so we pull into a gas station/convenience store literally at a crossroads; no town.  While pumping gas, a man rolls up in his pickup next to me for fuel and asks where we’re headed.  I tell him we’re now headed home to Seattle, after riding all the way down to Key West.  He’s absolutely flabbergasted!  He’s a true Oklahoma cowboy who just can’t believe what we’re telling him.  He asks a number of questions and gives us a few sights to see in Oklahoma and beyond, shakes his head again at this trek we’re on and wishes us well!

I really do thank all of you reading this and wishing us well!  And please, let me know what ‘must-see’ points of interest are out there, along the old Route 66!  Tomorrow’s a big day for me!  By the end of the day, I should be able to say I’ve been to all 50 states!

Ahhh and a treat at the end of a hot day, we hit the convenience store across from our hotel and treat ourselves to ice cream and blueberry cheesecake fudge!

 

Today’s ride is short, just from Jackson, MS to Little Rock, Arkansas.  The back roads are again glorious today, though it’s much hotter earlier in the day today than yesterday.  I love seeing all the little BBQ stands along the way and now for a second day in a row, Terron and I re laughing back and forth at all of the Dollar General stores.  I swear there’s one every 20 miles!  And between these landmark are fun little things, like a Tipi!  

I’ve seen others like it, just not this one.  The places we’ve already been to in our lives are later remembered for the memory there.  That restaurant where you had your first date; that campground where you met a new friend, the arena where you saw a favorite band in concert; and you are instantly transported back.

The same is true  in a journalist’s life but the memories are very different.  When we go back to someplace the job’s taken us, we remember the reason why, the story that led us there. The moment we crossed the bridge over the Mississippi River, into Arkansas, I see one familiar thing after another!  I spent ten years anchoring the news in Arkansas.  Today I instantly recalled how to pronounce all of the odd names of counties and cities.

And there are places I clearly remember driving to and the reasons why.  When I see a sign for Varner, I remember that this is where the Cummins unit is located at the state prison.  This was Arkansas’ death row.  And I remember being there to cover the executions of several men.

As we move up the road we are in construction.  Hmm I recall this very stretch of highway under construction when I lived here, more than ten years ago.  Do they re-do the roads that often  here?

Through Little Rock, I see the state Capitol and the station where I worked, the many hospitals where I interviewed doctors and patients for my health reports here.  And I see some new highways that have gone in for the many new restaurants and shopping that weren’t here when I lived here.
You know as I’m writing  this I am a little saddened that I did not go by my old house – never thought of that earlier.

Instead, we head right to a friend’s house where we’re staying tonight.  We have not seen Jill and Robert for almost 2 years and now their daughter is 5!  She is excited to see us and even created a beautiful welcome sign for us!  And Bella and Budreau greet us too.

We dump our bags and chat for a bit and head over to visit with Terron’s mentor Jim and his wife Libby.  I am very excited to see both of them!  They are just the sweetest, most positive force of life ever!
We really do have so many wonderful friends here in Little Rock and I will apologize right now for not seeing them all while we’re here.
Jill and Robert grill up a fantastic dinner for us! And Jill made a fresh Key Lime Pie!  Yum!  Leah and I play in her closet, hiding from the monsters and I reflect how life is so good, because it’s filled with wonderful people!

What a glorious day for riding!  The skies are blue, with broken clouds overhead and we literally exit our hotel parking lot onto Florida’s heritage trail.

In the parking lot, before we take off, I catch the eye of a senior gentleman staying at the hotel.  He tells me just how impressed he is with my packing!  Then a woman walks by after checking out and says, “What a great day to ride!  I’m jealous!”  I tell her I am excited for today’s ride!  Then she brags that she’s in the car with two kids and a dog and says, “You’re the jealous one now, aren’t’ you?”  We share a laugh and I wish her well!

But really, today will be a great riding day!  We are all about the back roads and the Gulf Coast!

Right away, I’m loving the sights!  I’m staring at all of the huge trees, with the hanging moss go by and then we ride through a full tree canopy/tunnel over the roadway.  I love it!  And right after we pass under the canopy and get back to the open road, we scare a huge buzzard off the roadkill it’s feasting on.  Its wingspan appeared to be as wide as the lane we’re travelling on!  He flies across the road in front of and lands way up in a tree.

Down the road, it’s just one little sleepy town after another!  I love all the little diners and shops and all of the homes!  Most are perched up high on stilts, to avoid being flooded during storm surges.  I really like the pale colors, from seafoam green to pale salmon, many with contrasting shutters and white railings.

A small cemetery catches my eye on the side of the road; so quaint and old.  The name of it is the best:  Isle of Rest.

Now totally along the coast, the pelicans really catch my eye.  They are everywhere!  As I pass people’s docks, I see that every single piling has a pelican sitting on it!  It’s so interesting to watch how they sit and how they move around.

When I lived in Arkansas, I remember so many friends taking their vacations along the Gulf Coast. I’ve driven through parts of this area before, but not really along the coast they way we are today.

The town of Mexico Beach is by far, my favorite!  There are many, many beautiful vacation homes, cottages and condos here.  It’s early in the day and the beach is already lined with colorful beach umbrellas and tents; families out wading in the water.

It seems much more quaint, quiet and enjoyable than the areas we hit just down the road, completely clogged with traffic and built up with more shopping, restaurants and commerce, than downtown Seattle!

We survive miles and miles of stop and go traffic through towns that just stretch from one to the next.   After passing about 8 car washes, Terron says, I need a car wash!  It takes us another town to find one and it’s rather interesting, unlike any I’ve seen before.  The driveway is guarded by a gate arm, like you’d see at a railroad crossing.  You pay $7 to get through that gate and then choose a bay.  Then you’ve got unlimited water and soap!  This is a good deal and a great way to run a car wash!  We get the bikes washed up, getting a bit wet along the way, a welcome relief from the 100 degree heat we’re riding in.  After the bikes are clean, Terron wipes all of the bugs off my face mask for me!

I never realized before, just how many rivers, creeks and lakes there are.  The sandbars are so inviting!  Where there’s not salt water, it seems there’s another waterway to enjoy.  And I’m noticing with passing cars and businesses, that people here, really like their toys!  There are many boats for sure, but also personal water craft and lots of 4x4s and dirt bikes, mountain bikes, kayaks, etc.

One thing on my list for this trip, is a nostalgic trip into a Stuckey’s!  As a kid, my family took road trips all the time and my brother and I would always scream from the back seat, “Stuckey’s! Stuckey’s! Stuckey’s!” whenever we saw a bill board for one; when my dad said we needed gas; when we needed to use the bathroom; or when we just wanted a snack!  Stuckey’s is a large roadside stop, where you find both gas and bathrooms, along with all kinds of souvenirs and stuff that you really don’t need!  Plus, there are boxes and boxes of candy!  I always liked the pecan patties and nut rolls.  My mom always liked the divinity.  And I remember the rock candy.  I can’t decide today, so I get a good sampling of things to enjoy later!  I walk away totally satisfied at this small revisiting of my childhood!

We finish our ride for the day with another stellar sunset, dinner and then clear skies to see the moon tonight!  (Darn it we missed that Strawberry moon last night.  Did you catch it?)

Tomorrow’s another day for backroads!  And to visit friends where we used to live in Arkansas.

I feel sadness and satisfaction, driving out of the Keys.  Certainly sadness that it’s time to leave and that we just couldn’t do everything there is to do here.  But plenty of satisfaction that we made it all the way here on schedule and we enjoyed a full day of fantastic sightseeing.

Today, the water is much more turquoise than it was on the way down.  It’s a spectacular splash of greens and blues.  And now without the high anticipation I felt Saturday of getting all the way south, it’s much easier to take in all the scenery on my ride north.   Right at Torch Key Channel, Terron and I both spotted a dolphin jumping in the water!

There’s a seaplane sightseeing overhead and though I noticed the birds on the way down, I seem to see more of them today.  They are so entertaining, the way they stick their necks out or stand so statuesque.  At one point, seeing roosters here, I am taken back to Kauai!

Out of the Keys, we’re back on the turnpike!  At our first gas stop, a woman in the ladies’ room asks me if I was down in Key West.  When I say yes, she let me know that they’ve been following us all the way up.

At our next gas stop a man walks up to us and eagerly asks, “Are you riding cross country?”  Yes, we explain our trip and he’s so excited, he starts asking all kinds of questions.  He let us know that he really, really, really wants to ride cross country.  He repeats that several times, but then says, “The wife just wouldn’t go for it!”  He said his wife can only tolerate about 90 minutes at a time, on the back of his bike.  I told him she needs her own bike!  Then she might like it.  Trust me, it’s not fun staring at the back of your husband’s helmet!  It’s why I ride my own bike now!

The sun is now setting on our ride for the day.  And what a beautiful sunset it is on this first day of summer!  The entire sky is a deep crimson, almost as if it’s on fire, back-lighting the trees.   Just then I smell rain!  I mean, it smells really good, so fresh.  I look around and don’t see any rain clouds at all.  But then about 2 minutes down the road, I feel a few drops.  Literally, just a few drops. A great ending to another full day of riding.