I'm opening this evening with these pictures. Back in September, we got on the Gold Wing the day after Labor Day and rode to Pahrump, Nevada. Almost 2 years ago, I got a membership to the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute, located near Pahrump. As part of my membership, there are several courses I can take for free as many times I want to. After attending in 2018, I got Jan a membership and after a lot of coaxing, I convinced her to take the 4 day defensive handgun course with me.
Part of the adventure of attending is getting there. We try to take at least one trip every summer on the Gold Wing and this was our 2nd trip. The first was when we went to the St Louis area in June for a Blue Knights Conference.
I like to get an early start so we can get to our overnight stop before it's too late. By early, I'm talking 7 to 7:30 AM. For us that's early. Kind of hard to imagine being on vacation and starting out that early, but c'mon, we're burnin' daylight, boys!! We try for about 500 miles a day, but after this trip we decided we are going to try to cat back to about 450 miles a day.
Our goal that Tuesday was Dalhart, Texas. In 2018 I got to Dalhart about 6 PM after riding through rain until after I was past Hutchison, Kansas. I figured that even though we were doubled up we'd be at Dalhart by 6 PM.
I had looked at the forecast in advance, but it ended up being a lot warmer than what the forecast called for. We made a couple of extra stops and took more time than usual. We ended up stopping for supper about 75 miles from Dalhart and by the time we were on the road again it was close to sundown. Temperature cooled down to under 90 and except for killing a lot of bugs with the windshield, it was more pleasant than the earlier heat.
Getting started in the morning, it had cooled off enough to put on the leather jackets. Topped off with gas and headed out. People say I-80 in Nebraska is boring; so is Hwy 54 from Dalhart to Tucumcari, New Mexico. The Flying J was our first stop where we topped off with gas and grabbed some coffee. Jan also tried on a new hat....
Back on the road with a goal of stopping in Tucumcari for lunch. Daniel Herrerra, who was a catcher with the Lincoln Salt Dogs, is from Albuquerque. While traveling with the Salt Dogs during the summer I talked to Daniel quite a bit. I told him we would be going through Albuquerque about lunch time and asked him for his recommendations for lunch. He told me about a Mexican place called Annie's, so that was our lunchtime destination.
We stopped at Cline's Corner to top off with gas and look around the huge souvenir shop but didn't buy anything. After a cold drink from our cooler we were back on the road. I liked this but didn't buy it....
We got to Annie's in time for the noon rush. The place was almost full but we didn't have long to wait. Daniel was right, the food there is great. I recommend it if you're in Albuquerque looking for somewhere to eat.
Back on the road, we topped off with gas at the new Love's Travel Stop on the west edge of Albuquerque. Every time we go through Albuquerque there's new stuff being built on that side of town. I didn't mention it, but I-40 roughly follows the path of the old Route 66, the Mother Road. It's sad because all the little souvenir places, cafes, motels, etc are all gone now, victims of the interstate highway system. There are places that some of the ruins are still visible, and there are places you can still get off I-40 and ride/drive parts of Route 66.
Before getting to Albuquerque, we stopped to take a break at the Continental divide. Some great scenery there, I made sure I got a couple of pictures. If you look closely at the pictures, the altitude is over 7,000 feet; higher than the "Mile High City," Denver, Colorado.
Got to Holbrook, Arizona in good time, having made a reservation at the Days Inn earlier in the day. Got the Gold Wing parked and suitcases out of the trailer. Hot shower sure felt great after 499 miles this day. After showering, we walked around the parking lot and got a few pictures. Also saw a pickup that was pulling an enclosed trailer in the parking lot. Had license plates from Wahoo, Nebraska. At breakfast the next morning we talked to the couple that it belonged to. The 3rd day would be a bit shorter, just 397 miles. The only heavy traffic we should hit would be around Las Vegas.
Got a decent start on Thursday morning and stopped at Flagstaff for gas and coffee. It wasn't real hot yet what with we were in a higher elevation. I was sure that we wouldn't stop for gas before we got to Kingman. I stopped at the Shell on the north side of I-40 at Seligman in 2018 and both gas and diesel were $4 a gallon. No different this year; We used the restrooms and grabbed drinks out of the cooler on the trailer and away we went.
Before we got to Kingman, the DOT road signs were saying that our exit was closed due to an accident. Sure enough, the exit was shut down, and that was the way we wanted to go without going 75 miles out of our way. I got to the next exit and turned around, going back to the exit I wanted. It was open to eastbound traffic. However, northbound traffic on Hwy 93 out of Kingman was closed due to a bad accident on the north edge of Kingman. The trooper we talked to didn't know for sure when the highway would open up again.
Being lunchtime, we decided to look around for food. We started south into town but stopped at a small shop that had motorcycle paraphernalia. Looked around there for a while and ended up buying a big furry seat cover that covered the entire seat of the bike, both driver and passenger. By the time we were done there, traffic was moving slowly. We topped off with gas and grabbed Subway at the same place. Once we got back on the highway, traffic was moving almost normally, except near the crash sight. Wreckers were getting ready to move the involved vehicles away. As we went by, we could see that an ambulance ran into the back of a flatbed trailer. Always makes a person think about how it may have happened - the highway there is 2 lanes in each direction....
No more incidents and we made it into Las Vegas through what they call "normal" traffic. Topped off with gas and headed for Pahrump, 50 miles away on Hwy 160. There had been road construction in 2018 and this was still going on now. We got to our room just outside of Pahrump, unloaded the luggage and showered, then off to look for supper. The next day we were supposed to be at Front Sight at 6:30 AM to check in and have our weapons inspected. The next 4 days would be pretty intense as we would shoot 700 rounds in that time.
