Home again

Saturday August 22 Sabato 22 Agosto

We arrived at the house yesterday afternoon about 4 PM. We had a leisurely trip from Portales taking back roads across New Mexico. We did stop in Fort Sumner to see both the Billy the Kid Museum and also his gravesite. The museum in town, not the one by the gravesite which we didn't visit, had a lot of memorabilia and even had some old cars that had belonged to some of the local residents. It was an interesting visit and unfortunately the last sightseeing stop of our trip. Later we stopped at a cafe in Willard and had a bowl of chili to re-acclimate ourselves to New Mexico food. Then it was the last hour or so on the road and we arrived safely back at the house. My mileage for the trip was between 17-18000 and Clint's was 21000. No real close incidents with other vehicles, slightly close a couple of times but nothing notable. One ruined tire and one broken trailer wheel which are the only problems I have encountered in over 80,000 miles. All in all it was a very good trip made especially so as Clint and Charleen are extremely agreeable people and we share common interests and riding styles. This morning we had pancakes for breakfast covered with the Vermont maple syrup that we brought back with us. Linda quickly reminded me that she was ready for her morning cappuccinos and so I had to relearn the skills. Today we will air out tents, sleeping bags and clean the road grime from the bikes. Then I will reread all of the blog posts as a sort of instant replay. 275 miles yesterday.

Siamo a casa ancora. Siamo ritornati ieri alle 16:00. Siamo fermati alla citta di Fort Sumner per vedere la tomba di Billy the Kid, un fuorilegge famoso nella storia di New Mexico. E poi siamo guidati la strade piccole per l'ultima parte della nostra gita. E triste a finire ma felice a arrivare a casa. Era una buona gita con amici gentile. Addeso e il tempo per fare un programma per la gita prossima e pulire le moto. 275 miglia ieri. Totale per tutta la gita ~17500


The morning New Mexico sky
Il cielo di New Mexico nella mattina


The grave of Billy the Kid
La tomba di Billy the Kid


Our triumphant return
Il nostro ritorno trionfomente

Last Border

Thursday August 20 Giovedi 20 Agosto

Just 316 miles to New Mexico, one more state border, one more motel room and our trip is complete. CnC lead the way with their trusty? GPS guiding the way. I was really impressed with the interesting roads we were taking and thought Clint had worked overtime planning the route. But the same route was in my GPS and I should have seen some checkpoints and did not. It turns out that his GPS was just throwing in these interesting side roads. Good job! We can tell that school is starting soon as every little town has football signs posted. Go Panthers, Go Bulldogs, yes even Go Mules was seen as was an advertisement seeking wood donations for the pep rally bonfire. Texas is very big on high school football. We also saw lots of farm country, cotton, corn, sunflowers and of course cattle. We also saw a group of camels but the camera was too slow for a picture and we are homeward bound so there are no u-turns allowed. The terrain is very different from east Texas but then again it is 500 miles west so it should change. The weather prediction was for 90 degree heat and lots of rain. At 10:15 the temperature reached 90 degrees but there were no clouds in front of us. At noon it was a pleasant 82 degrees and low humidity, at least compared to Louisiana. All in all it was a great day for riding.

Oggi era un bel giorno per le moto, non troppo caldo e senza pioggia e venti da indietro. I campi qui are molti diversi dal est Texas ma quel'area e' 500 miglia lontano. Quest'area e' un area agricola. Molti campi grande e verde. Scuola comincera' presto e tutte le citta piccole hanno avuto cartelli entusiasmi per le squadre. La gente di Texas piace molto il sport liceo football (Americano). Finalmente abbiamo visto il cartello "Benvenuto in New Mexico". Abbiamo trovato un albergo economico per la notte e domani saremo a casa. 316 miglia


Long, straight road
Strada lunga e dritta e tipica


Cages for veal calves
Gabbie per carne di vitello


Sunflower field
Anche qui ci sono campi di fiori del sole
ma i fiori sono piu' piccoli che quelli di Toscana

The Last Picture Show

Wednesday August 19 Mercoledi 19 Agosto

Today we drove about 30 miles to Archer City where the movie "The Last Picture Show" circa 1971 was filmed. It was based on a book by Larry McMurtry who was raised here and lives here again now. He also wrote the book "Lonesome Dove" (and several others)which was the basis for the television miniseries in ~1988. He also is a book collector and has a large used bookstore in town that is spread out among 4 different buildings. Only one store has someone in it. You can look through the stores and if you find a book you like you take it down the street to store 1 and pay for it. I did that and arrived less than one minute before Larry McMurtry left. I would not have known what to say to him anyway as I found his stories of life in Texas quite depressing. Linda and I love book stores and by the time we left it was a little late to drive on to New Mexico so we returned to Wichita Falls. Clint and Charleen arrived about an hour later so we are united again for the last 2 days of our trip. 60 miles

Oggi abbiamo visitato una citta 30 miglia lontano di Wichita Falls dove siamo stati ieri. Questa citta era usato nel film di 1971 "Last Picture Show". L'autore del libro stesso abita e era cresciuto qui. Lui ha una libreria grande qui che usa 4 edifici. Si cerca in uno e portare i libri al negozio 1 per comprare. Io e Linda piacciono le librerie e siamo stati ~3 ore. A questa volta era troppo tardi per guidare in New Mexico cosi siamo ritornati a Wichita Falls. Clint e Charleen sono arrivati un po' dopo cosi siamo insieme ancora per l'ultimo 2 giorni della gita. 60 miglia
Ho scritto l'italiano per il blog scorso.


West Texas plains
Pianura di Texas ovest


Horned toad sculpture
Scultura del rospo cornito


The theatre from the movie
Il teatro dal film


Bookstore 4, theatre on right
Libreria numero 4, teatro a destra

Deep in the heart of ??

Tuesday August 18 Martedi 18 Agosto

The stars at night,
Are big and bright,
clap clap, clap clap,
Deep in the heart of Texas
Yes, here we are. When we crossed the border I told Linda that the next state was our home. But I did not mention how far it was to New Mexico from the border by Shreveport. But we are taking the interstate so the miles fly by. Interstates are hopefully not too exciting so Linda reads instead of staying on alert for photo opportunities. Which means she missed the Russian Mig fighter in front of the antique store in Forney. I snagged the photo from the internet. I did not look for the price. I am not in the market for a jet plane, even if it has a red star. Going through one of the Dallas interchanges we notice that the supporting pillars have a star emblem on each of them for The Lone Star State. We finally arrive at the offramp where I will call Mark that manufactures the tire changer that I am interested in. We go to his garage and I give it a test on a GoldWing rear tire. Linda gets ready to plug her ears from vulgar words of language as she has heard me change these before. But this tool makes short work of the job. I have tried others but this is the best yet. So I order one and we leave for Wichita Falls where we will spend the night. CnC are to be there tomorrow so we have to arrange if and how we will meet as Linda and I are now a day ahead of them. Passing through Denton where I need to change highways I see a billboard for "Kolache Haven" at offramp 465 which is only 4 miles out of the way. Kolaches are a Czech pastry and were an important part of Linda's childhood life. The last one I bought her was over a year ago when I stopped in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and brought some back to Albuquerque. So naturally we went to Kolache Haven which had closed an hour earlier. But at the end of the day they take their unsold merchandise to the store next door. We got an assortment for 1/2 price and of course ate some in the parking lot. Then it was back on the road to Wichita Falls and the motel. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant just up the street. Linda showered and fell asleep early. I am still going but it is time for me to call it a night also. Just as soon as Clint Eastwood shoots all the bad guys. 380 miles

Il nostro posto oggi e' lo stato di Texas. Ho detto Linda che il prossimo stato sara' New Mexico ma non ho detto che bisogniamo 2 giorni per arrivare in New Mexico. E' lontano dal bordo est al bordo overst. C'e un uomo a Dallas che fa una machinetta per cambiare i pneumatici sulle moto e io ho voluto provarla. Siamo fermati a casa di lui e l'ho usata sulla ruota anteriore dalla stessa moto come mia. Ho provato qualche altri ma non mi piacciono. Questa era il piu' facile per usare cosi ho comprato uno. Si deve pagare $30 al concessionario qui per ruota e io cambio molti ogni anno. Anche abbiamo visto un negozio che vende un aero dalla Russia. Non ho spazio nel garage. Ho deciso a guidare sulla strada diversa per evitare il traffico nella citta. Buona decisione perche' ho visto un cartello con una pubblicita per una paneterria che fa i Kolache. Kolache e' un pasticcino dalla Repubblica Ceca come la nonna di Linda. Linda ha mangiato sempre quando era giovane. Cosi abbiamo comprato una dozzina. Veramente niente arriveranno in New Mexico! 380 miglia


Mig at antique store
E' possibile comprare ogni cosa negli
Stati Uniti


Lone Star emblems on the pillars


GL1800 rear tires made easy
Ho comprato perche' fa il lavoro facile


My favorite Czech girl with a scrumptious KOLACHE
but are they as good as Grandma made?
Mia amore con un Kolache di Texas ma i kolache dalla
sua nonna erano piu' buoni.

Natchez Trace, Vicksburg and Shreveport?

Monday August 17 Lunedi 17 Agosto
OK, not really Shreveport but the suburb to the east Bossier City. That is where we are spending the night tonight. We started out riding north from Natchez to the start of the Natchez Trace Parkway. The parkway roughly follows the original Natchez Trace which was an animal trail enlarged by the native Americans, then enlarged some more by the early US government to establish a route from Nashville to the Mississippi river. It was also where Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame died. Suicide or murder, nobody knows for sure. But today it is a beautiful road rivaling the Blue Ridge Parkway and with no commercial traffic. We could only see a small portion of it as it goes northeast and we are going west. After the trace we went to Vicksburg home of the famous civil war battle that turned the tide of the war. The battlefield is now a national park which we visited. There are monuments for each of the companies of both sides placed where the companies were positioned. There are a lot of monuments. It seems that Illinois provided the largest amount of soldiers for the Union side as the Illinois monuments outnumbered every other state. Illinois also had the biggest monument, almost a cathedral. Every so often we would arrive at a point where we could see enough of the battle area to envision how it must have been. It was interesting to stand where history was made but also depressing to think of all the personal tragedies. There is also a resurrected armored gunboat, the Cairo, located in the park. When in use it weighed 550 tons. It also seems that it was debatable whether gun battles or exploding steam drums was the most danger to the crew. We learned a lot of history today as we have also done at other stops on this trip. When we finally left we went west and Clint & Charleen went north. I want to stop in the Dallas area to look at a machine for changing tires. This will take a couple of hours and does not fit into the planned schedule. So we will meet up later in the week. I also want to stop by Archer City in Texas. This is the city where "The Last Picture Show" was filmed and is also the home town of Larry McMurtry who wrote the book the movie was based on as well as the book Lonesome Dove which was made into a 6 hour tv special. It was a rundown town in 1971 when the movie was made so it will be interesting to see if it looks the same. Surprising enough we encountered no real rain today. 275 miles.

Oggi e' cominciato a Natchez, Mississippi. C'e una strada chiamato Natchez Trace. Questa strada segue una strada storica con il stesso nome che era usata dagl'indiani e animali molti anni fa. Non si permettono i camion su questa strada cosi e' in condizione buona e anche e' piu' sicuro per le moto. Dopo abbiamo fermato al parco nazionale alla citta di Vicksburg. Qui c'era una battaglia famosa durante la guerra fra gli stati nel 1836. E' molto triste quando si pensa della gente perso nelle guerre. Mi sembra che gl'umani essendi non hanno imparato molto dopo tante mille anni. Dopo il campo da battaglia io e Linda andati ovest quando Clint e Charleen hanno guidato nord. Voglio vedere un'aparecchio per cambiare pneumatici in Dallas, Texas. Ci incontreremo ancora mercoledi. 270 miglia


Natchez Trace Parkway


A little of the old trace
Un po' della strada storica


A typical battle station
Una stazione tipica per i soldati


Cannon and monument pillar
Cannone e monumento


Illinois monument

Plantations and poverty

Sunday August 16

Having finished our stay in New Orleans we get on the freeway with the plan to cross the last bridge on the Mississippi River and then follow the river north to Natchez, MS hoping to see some plantation mansions along the way. Up on the freeway the police are investigating yet another accident by our motel. 3 serious accidents in 16 hours within 2 miles of each other? What does this say about the local drivers? We cross the last bridge and start following the Mississippi on small back roads. This is really the way to see the country and the various lifestyles. We definitely have seen a lot of poverty appearing areas both here and in South Carolina. Sugar cane seems to be the big crop here as we go through miles of fields. People are working today in the fields which is surprising as it appears that Baptist churches are the second biggest crop. They are everywhere we look. As are plantations. In the west every plot of ground is labeled as a ranch, here we see many signs of this or that plantation. But every so often the signs are accurate and we see a reminder of what the old south was like. Gigantic houses set back from the road and surrounded by gigantic oak trees. Or we see old slave cabins, all run down but still standing as a monument to one of our inglorious practices of the past. One of the plantations was Oak Alley which has been used in several movies. We thought about taking a tour but did not want to take the time. Clint had selected several back roads and they were really scenic as well as passing by some of the local residences and small towns. At one point we took a ferry across the river. While waiting in the line Clint got into a conversation with one of the local boys. They both learned a lot about dialects and accents. I don't know who had the harder time. Once again we had a brief but strong thunder shower with no place to stop. But then again the warm weather quickly dried us off. 250 miles


Last bridge across the Mississippi


Oak Alley plantation


Old slave cabin

Big Bridge, Big Meal

Saturday August 15

Low miles today, we will sightsee in town and also cross Lake Ponchartain on it's 24 mile long bridge, the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway. But wait, we can't leave yet. There has been an accident on the freeway and all of the traffic is being routed off in front of our motel. It looks like we will be in the traffic jam on the surface streets. But we get ready to go anyway and just as we leave they reopen the on ramp and we are the first ones back on the freeway. It turns out that there were 2 different accidents. We go over the bridge which is very impressive, it should be as it is the second longest in the world being beat out by one in Thailand. On the other side we are in Mandeville, LA and we pause at a boat launching area/park where we can view the lake. Then we have a coffee and go back over the bridge again as it is about 75-100 miles to get back without using the bridge. Now we can sightsee a little bit in the daylight with less noise but not much less people. It is much easier to see the fancy wrought iron balconies that New Orleans is noted for. After a walking tour we return to the motel for a rest. Then we return for dinner and just for fun we follow the new, strange directions that Clint's GPS has given us. We won't do that again!! Into a different area of town we search for parking places. Clint finds one that is questionable but decides to take it. We continue on a block and see a lady trying to get people into her restaurant. The restaurant appears to be what we are looking for so I motion her over and ask her about parking. She points me to a space that looks really illegal but I will be able to get to the bike quickly should there be a problem. Thankfully there wasn't. So we ate dinner there and listened to the live jazz band. Linda had alligator, we shared gumbo and also my red fish. It was quite good but too much for us to finish. Afterwards it was coffee and then we returned back to the motel full of New Orleans food and music.


New Orleans skyline


View from Lake Ponchartrain Causeway


New Orleans balconies


Your basic everyday voodoo store