Pampa 1386 miles

Been a long day and we lost an hour. Now on central time. Left Taos right on q this morning. Last night after posting on the blog kiwi and I went to a little Italian place for dinner. It came highly recommended by the motel staff but looks pretty bleak when we got there. Seating for about 25 people,floor done in early garage floor style,cooler on wheels, cooks cruising in and out of the kitchen to get stuff from the cooler. You get the idea. To make a long story short our misgivings were short lived. The place was packed at 5:30 for good reason. The food was magnificent! Kiwi said it was the best shrimp alphredo he has ever had. After dinner it was time to soak the old bones in the hot tub. As I enjoyed a macanudo gold label we sat and yakked scooter talk for 45 minutes. Thought we would sleep well but the altitude got to both of us and it was a restless night. The ride east out of Taos was spectacular. There was nothing but open road,mountain valleys and churning Indian flat heads. We did not see a car in our lane for over 50 miles. Kiwi did,however, have a close encounter with 2 bull elk. I will leave that for his blog. After we left the pristine mountain forest the day began to get more routine with the bikes settling in to a nice 55 mph pace and loping along with nothing disturbing the prairie silence but the pounding of the flatty valves. Once you have been mesmerized by that sound there is no other that can take it's place. Gas stops are always fun and today was no different. Our first stop in springer lead us to a fellow who had followed us on the freeway while we were on the frontage road. When we stopped for fuel he pulled in right behind us and leapt from his car. He ran over to CG1 and said "is that a 45?". We were pleasantly surprised he was that knowledgeable. Then he turned to dirty gurl and said "what is that?". Again good question. We chatted for a while and it turns out his uncle works at the pentagon and is involved in rolling thunder. We took several pics with him and trundled off down the road. Our next stop was dalhart Texas for lunch. What a slice of life that was. We ate at a BBQ place called hodies. It was without a doubt the best BBQ I have ever tasted. We got there at 2:30 and the place was busy. By 3 it was packed. Several folks stopped by to talk about the bikes and we handed out poker chips to a few folks. Texas has to be one of the friendliest places I have ever seen. As we were leaving there was a large group of 10 or guys that was obviously having a men's club meeting. Lots of testosterone and all armed. There were 3 sheriffs deputies among them. A couple of the guts started making comments after we told our story. One of them wanted to know if "obamma" was going to be at the pentagon presentation. I said I hoped not. The sheriff took out his taser,handed it to me and said " taser that stupid sumbitch." I told him I always wanted to do that and he smiled. I did not pull the trigger :) then the guy next to him says " do you have gps?" as you may know I wear an arm map holder that has our directions for the day written out. His buddy looks at my arm and says, "look at his arm. That there is red neck gps." all you can do is laugh and say "damn straight." we left a lot of smiles in that joint. We knew they were all at the window watching as we left so we gave a little extra throttle to the flatty so they barked real good. On our way to pampa kiwi damn near got decapitated by a frightened 25 lb turkey. He came up out of the ditch on a bee line but not climbing fast enough to avoid the collision. Luckily he had just enough evasive maneuver skills to avoid an early death. Kiwi had to check for stains as well. Pampa Texas is much bigger than we thought. You see a little dot on the map and you think it might be a town of 500 or so. Not in Texas. Every little dot we have come through so far has been between 15,000-18,000 population. No worries on gas or motels. When we finally settled on a hotel we pulled in to the parking lot and here are the guys from southern Texas that wanted to hook up and ride with us for a bit. Clyde Douglas and bob Lewis are seasoned scooter travelers. They have toured together for many years until bob fell in love with Bonneville. Bob has 2 speed records on his Indian. One is at 120mph and the other is at 126 mph. I don't care who you are that is hauling serious ass. Bob's rider is a 50's chief. They ran through a lot of construction on their 750 mile trip to see us. Dirty gurl took one look at bob's bike and was instantly in love. We had to separate her with CG1 in between or who knows what could have happened tonight. Bob and Clyde are great guys and we are looking forward to sharing more time with them tomorrow. Off to el Reno Oklahoma tomorrow. Who knows what adventures await.