Farmington 860

"ya TAY". More on this later. It's all good. While having breakfast in Winslow at the world famous falcon diner we had a chance to chat with a few locals who seemed to materialize out of no where. I noticed one of the fellows had come back to look at the bikes several times. Once we got out there he was actually quite knowlegeable about old bikes. Drty gurl had him stumped however. H knew it was a 37 frame but the rest didn't compute. Little did he know how right he was. When I told him there were prices on the Nike from seven different decades he felt a lot better. Gve the man a poker chip! Twice we were cautioned about our route through the reservation. Tis should have been reason for anxiety but for some strange reason I was neither worried or anxious. As the day unfolded it became more clear to me. I will admit the day was very emotional for me. I will digress and fill in the details. Dirty gurl in my concept but she was constructed with the direct and indirect guidance of my good friend mark lafleur aka sharky. I brought a pile of parts to him in sisseton south Dakota. We sat In his basement and talked for hours talking about what I wanted the bike to be and do. Slowly over the next few weeks the bike took shape. After the bike was done but before it had been ridden sharky performed a lakota sage smudge pot ceremony blessing the bike. So from birth the bike has native American heritage. As I crossed the reservation today I felt nothing but peace and energy. The wind from the red hills and the endless canyons whispered in my ear about the heritage fo the land. As I rounded a corner I saw ,much to my dismay, a herd of wild mustangs out for their morning gallop. On the other side of the road an eagle soared over the bluff. I had nothing to fear from this land. This was my first emotional experience today. As we travelled the road we were also warned to watch for sheep on the road. As the fellow issued this warning I saw a wry smile cross kiwi's face. As ewe know the kiwi's have a soft spot for sheep. We did indeed have to stop a couple of times for small herds of sheep to get off the road. I swear I saw kiwi tip his cap to the ladies and one time I was sure I saw him snap a pic of a particularly cute ewe ambling away. He denied one but not the other. : ) we stopped for fuel in gadano. As we sat by the side of the station relaxing a bit I noticed an Indian couple by the side of the building. After kiwi went to get goodies I approached the couple as they were obviously admiring the bikes. They asked me where we were going. I told them d.c. And the man immediately said rolling thunder. I was surprised he knew about the event. As we talked, I began telling him our story and pulled out a poker chip to give to him. As I went through the military significance of our trip he was holding the chip in is hand very gingerly. As I kept talking, from under his sunglasses two tears rolled down his cheeks. I asked him why the story impacted him in such a way. He relayed how his nephew had been killed in Iraq several months ago and he was having a hard time getting through the aftermath. He also told me that In honor of his nephew 75 men from the reservation were leavingFrom gadano next Monday on their way to rolling thunder. In native fashion he and his wife were very uncomfortable about not having anything to give me ,since I had given them a chip. They obviously were of very limited means. Suddenly her face lit up and she wanted me to pronounce a word several times,making sure I had the pronunciation down perfectly. I asked her what the word meant. Her reply: "hello brother" in Navajo. The word? Ya TAY. she had nothing to give but some of herself. As we pulled away I yelled back to her" ya TAY "and she waved,never to be seen by me again. That is the rest of the story. Lunch was in crown pointe and consisted of a burrito and a pack of jerky from the saddlebag. As we turned north to Farmington a bank of ominous clouds darkened the horizon. Rain gear on early is a good sign that you may avoid drops and today was no exception. As we approached Farmington the wind picked up to 30-40 mph. If you have ever been to Farmington the last thing you need is that kind of wind blowing as there is nothing to stop the sand. As the thunderheads moved in we made an executive decision to abandon the budget and get under cover. So here we are in Farmington new Mexico living large and enjoying life. Hope your day was some where close to as fun as ours. Later mates.

Kingsman AZ

Saturday Kingman had a Route 66 car get together so we got to view many

 cool old rides and mix with a few of the car owners. 
Saturdays ride was 355 miles with almost all being 

on secondary roads. 
About 30-40 miles E of Kingman on Route 66 we stopped by an 

old time gas station and workshop setting in Hackberry for a photo op.
Our late lunch stop was at the RoadHouse Route 66 bar next 

to the Flagstaff (Belmont actually)Harley dealership.

 This place always has awesome food. The cool part 

is you pick out what u want to eat and then cook it

 yourself on the grill. Good time to socialize with other riders too.

 As we were finishing up a rider we met yesterday from Brazil walked

 in as we told him about this place. Good times. 
About 1/2 mile past this place is a little known spot

 where the Easyrider movie was shot. It was the scene 

in front of the motel where they were turned away. Its still there,

 cabins and all with the Easyrider movie poster still in the window. 
Our overnight stay is at Winslow Az so our 1st stop was 

"Sitting on the corner in Winslow Arizona" made famous

 by the Eagles. Next to the corner is the flatbed Ford and

 in the middle of the intersection is a nice

 big Route 66 painted on the roadway. The lady in the store

 hooked us up with a cool motel in town that came with home made muffins. 

This is way better than the Waldorf Astoria.  
Both bikes are running super sweet. 

Greg's bike is a 1937 Chief, rigid frame with a 1950 hydraulic front end,

 a Kiwi 84" engine from 2003, CV carburetor 

and a 4 speed overdrive transmission.

 Kiwi's bike is about as factory stock 1945 as you would get,

 74", stock cams and followers, Linkert carburetor

 and a stock 3 speed transmission with a 25T output sprocket. 

Both have been upgraded with Cycle Electric 12v generators. 
Both bikes get about the same 40 mpg.
One added nice feature Greg's bike has 

is a Kiwi electric start. This is a prototype

 made for rigid frame models. We've been making them

 for spring frame models for a while but this was a 

good test for rigid models. I'm kinda getting to like it.

 He just pushes the button once and she bursts into life.

 But me, well I still got about 3500 miles of kick starting left. 

Winslow 570

We started in Winslow this morning. Got a bit of a late start since we had to blog and do our daily maintenance before setting out. Two old Indians traveling route 66 with hardly another person in sight. Doesn't get much better than that. After the first 30 miles we stopped at the hackberry general store that was a leap back in time. Not only was the store a work of old time art but the owner had made an old time car museum outside. There were cars from model a's to old chevy's. The coolest part about the whole museum was that you could walk around and touch anything you wanted. They are all set outside in no particular order. One of the most interesting exhibits is a replica of an aged repair shop for model a's complete with old engines in various states of repair and a car waiting to be worked on. The manuals for the cars are displayed as well as whatever limited diagnostic tools they may have used in that era. A great way to start our day. We next cruised through seligman and made all the Harley boys jealous. : ) as they were sitting on the sidewalk we cruised through at snail speed just for effect. Oh well. We are bad. Stopped or lunch at the roadhouse grill next to the grand canyon harley shop. Before we stopped kiwi took me down to the place where easy rider was refused a hotel room. The building is still there with an old gas pump outside. We took multiple phots which will all be displayed on the kiwi Facebook page. Lunch was magnificent. At the roadhouse you do not dare complain about your meal. Reason being you cook it yourself. That's right you order a steak and they fire up the grill,hand you a raw piece of meat and tell you to go to it. Everyone is cooking their own meal whether it be chicken,sausage,steak,burgers,hot dogs etc. You get the idea. Kind of forces you to meet people while you are cooking. Meeting people is not our problem. You stop anywhere riding an antique Indian and you are going to attract attention. So we cooked our porterhouse steaks and beat the salad bar into submission. Kiwi did not tell me until later that he needs a nap after a big meal. Thus the stop at a rest area 20 miles from our destination. Ha ha. As we were leaving the roadhouse a young man from brazil that we had met yesterday in needles walked through the door. Kiwi had told him about the roadhouse and damned if he didn't show up. We all laughed about our good fortune of meeting again. On to Winslow. We spent a fair amount of time taking pics of the bikes on the corner by the flat bed ford. We also were fortunate enough to have a couple take pics of us so everyone will know we really are riding together. We were directed by the lady at the general store to a theme motel that was well within our kiwi budget. The example she used of one theme was Betty boop. I am happy to say we are in the manly "John Wayne" room. This is way better than the Walcott we were in last night. Internet works so the blog post goes out on time. Before I sat down to write I went next door to the sports bar (using the term loosely). I was looking to beg a couple of beers so we could wet our whistle in the room. No problem. 4 bottles of beer ummmmmm that will be,oh just make it $6. Love is place! One of the neat things that we do on our ride is give anyone who talks to us a commemorative poker chip with a pic of kiwi Indian on one side and the CG1 bike on the other. Peole seem to love this little piece of us that we can give them to make their day a bit more memorable. We have had grown men on the verge of tears when we give them the chip and tell them the story of our ride. What a great country we live in that brothers that meet so briefly can remember the time shared forever. Thanks for following our blog. We are having a blast.