Well, I missed a couple of days of posting but will make it up now. We left OKC and headed down historic Route 66 for most of the ride to Amarillo. Stopped in Arnett, Oklahoma and met one of the locals who gave us some good advice on getting to Amarillo and what to see there. We realized we were on a direct shot to Amarillo which would take us off Rt 66. Diane wanted to visit Shamrock, TX in order to see the "U Drop Inn" which was a historic saloon on the old 66 in Texas. We realized later that some of the old places either don't exist anymore or have a different name. We stopped at a Conoco station to find out where this place was. The lot wasn't well paved and when I stopped, my right leg went down much lower (depression in pavement) than expected which caused the bike to lean too hard. I knew it was a problem and started warning Diane by screaming "Di-- Di--Di". Most people probably thought I was killing someone. Unfortunately I had to lay the bike down which caused Diane to tumble off. With the help of one of the young female attendants, we uprighted the bike quickly, but Di was a little shaken. We decided at that point just to head to Amarillo and forget about the Inn. Only 100 mile diversion, but who cares, we were still having fun.
Went into the Big Texan restaurant (home of the 72 oz steak----if you can finish all of it in 60 minutes, it's free). There was actually a pretty big boy trying to down one. You need to sit at one of these tall tables and be watched the entire time. On the way back to the hotel, we caught a nice T-Storm. Fortunately it only lasted about 10 minutes again.
Next day on to Albuquerque. Nothing out of the ordinary on this ride. Very nice, clean town and the people there are very friendly. The trip from Albuquerque to Tucson was the most memorable. In New Mexico on I-10, a big rig caught fire and shut down the highway for 30 minutes. We were less than 1/4 mile from the rig and could still feel the heat. It also turned into a brush fire. Once we got through, it was clear riding at 75 mph until we got closer to Arizona. We were on a nice turn doing 75 when a huge wind gust almost pushed us off the road. That was a wake up call. From that moment on, we kept our speed at 65 and fought the dust storms and wind gusts all the way to Tucson.
Met up with family in Tucson and had a great birthday dinner for Mom. Took some great family pics. We were only missing my Steven who couldn't make it.
Tomorrow's ride takes us through the desert. Packed plenty of water and hope we can leave before the temps go above 100.
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