Taos, Kiwi Mike

Waking up today to a beautiful day is quite a welcomed sight compared to the threatening storm upon us last night. Clear blue skies towards Taos, that's a good sign.


Leaving Farmington/Bloomfield heading East on Hwy 64 is a nice ride mostly along the bottom of a canyon with rocky tree lined cliffs on either side of us, quite contrary to what the scenery was yesterday. Gas stops are far and few between once again but we like the adventure. At Chama we could see all the snow on the mountains that we have to cross over. We are already cold at this point with all of our goodies on.

Gas and lunch was at Tierra Amarilla NM, its a combo town where a couple of stores cover everything. The only gas that was available was premium and he was only taking cash as his credit card machine was down. No worries as we have cash for gas. Lunch was at a tiny Mexican joint across the street which had awesome deep fried home made Taco's. The warm Taco's hit the spot as we were cold.

The next 50 miles was awesome riding but even colder as we hit snow. We climbed over the mountain and pretty much ran hammer down. It was freezing ass cold and taking 1 glove off briefly to operate the camera/video certainly did not help at all. My hands spent a bit of time on the engine cylinders and heads to warm back up. That's one of the nice things about an Indian is the built in heater. The only down side is I still have to navigate the twisty up hill roads with one hand on the handlebars.

We plowed our way up the mountain with power to spare and with no one else in front of us, not 1 single vehicle. It was an awesome ride.

About 15 miles before Taos are a whole bunch of derelict ramshackle shacks with old hippy buses parked around them that haven't run for years. I would venture to say this is a community of still believing in the hippy flower power way. WOW!!!

About 10 miles before Taos is a development of Earthen homes built beneath the ground. And what was exposed above ground looked like the martians built it. We took a ride around on their dirt streets to check them out. This is living proof that the battle ship Gallactica landed on earth here. Even the street names were weird like Earthship Way.

Then just up the road a couple of miles as if that wasn't enough, there is another development of Middle Eastern/Mosque type castle homes. WOW, this is la la land. Welcome to New Mexico!!!

There are some WEIRD folks up here. Time to bail and get into Taos and find a motel to thaw out in.

About 5 miles before Taos is a deep gorge as though the earth just split right there. It was only about 1000 ft wide but gosh it was deep and looked like a mini grand Canyon, quite breath taking.

I'm really loving the 45 Chief and it pulled in an honest 43 mpg through the mountains. It handles so bitchin awesome through the twisties, up the mountains, rough roads and anything else I throw at it. I didn't have to drop down out of top gear once even up the steep curvy parts, it was hammer down all the way. I'm just so in ore with this bike. I also have a 1944 Chief which is exactly the same bike that is my tatty looking Death Valley off road bike. I'm going to give it a full restoration birthday and make it my upcoming around the world adventure bike. These are the perfect Indians for this sort of stuff. The US Government really screwed up in WWII selecting the Harley 45 as their main service motorcycle. The 1940-45 Chiefs would piss all over them hands down and that's a fact. If anyone should dispute it, bring it on.

Heather's Leathers seat is as comfy as it gets. Not even an inkling of a sore ass after hitting all the bumps on each days ride. Saddlebags are awesome too. Deep with plenty of storage space. Great job Wayne.
Wednesdays ride overnight will be pushed from Dalhart TX to Pampa TX. It's another 100 miles which will allow us to get into Brass Balls Bobbers 1st thing Fri morning to check in with Dar and his Navy bike.