Last night Bill offered to change rooms with me as I was on the end, and therefore closest to the Railroad tracks. During our extended DustBuster session we noted frequent trains. After our long walk to the Taco Bell, and our visit to the Dollar General he renewed his offer, but I said no. When we retired for the evening I noted the trains were frequent, but it wasn't until lights out at 2300 that I determined the frquency was every 12 mintes!

I tried to do it the normal way for about 2 hours, but everytime just as I was starting to get to REM there would be the rumble and squeal of steel wheels on steel rails. I then put on my Bose noise cancelling ear buds I use for riding, conecting the charger cable and plugged it into the night table circuit.

I could hear the train, but it was over there, far away, very muffled, and low key, like it was miles away. At some poiint, in the middle of the night I pulled out the charging cable, but they lasted til the morn. I awoke at about 0600, set an alarm for 0715 and went back to sleep, only to be awoken by a train a few minutes later!

I kinda pokeyed around for abit cus I was feeling s***ty, then stated loading the bike about 0720, only to find out the clock was about 20 minutes slow. I was feeling very sleepy and moving accordingly so despite having agreed upon 0730 as our departure time, we were a bit past 0800 when we finally roared out of the mo'tel parking lot.

I do preface the day by telling Bill he was right, we should hasve exchanged rooms. He could have removed his hearing aids and slept in blissful oblivion of the Union Pacific traffic in the rail corridor outside my window.

Our first couple of stops were trying to find coolant for Bill, who was starting to overheat under certain circumstances, typically slow speed through a town with traffic lights. We had an opportunity to buy a 1 quart of coolant in the Dollar General last night but squandered it. Ultimately Bill buys a gallon jug of it and puts in maybe 2 cups.

It reminds me of our last days together in 2016 coming home from Prudhoe Bay. His bike was overheating during car passes, and we stopped for some coolant. He had to buy a 4L jug and we put in maybe an ounce! We ultimately found out is was mud from our drive across the Top of the World road that covered his rad fins with muck and eliminated the heat exchange process. A car wash in Prince George fixed that!

In this instance he buiys a gallon jug and puts in at least 2 cups, maybe three. Low coolant was indeed his issue! Having no need, nor the space for the gallon jug, it gets left behind. We are eastbound on I10 in minutes. We drive on AZ491 Northbound, a two lane divided road that is simply spec-f***in-tacular! Ahead in the distance, a shimmering neon light. No, not quite, but these huge rock formations standing solo in the desert. You can see them for miles before coming up on them. They look like huge medievel castles. The one outside of ShipRock, where we stop for gas, looks just like a ship, hence the name!

While Friday was 'Lou's Day' some people mistook that as Lou' Birthday, which it wasn't, that happens in late July. But it was Lou's Day as I got to do everything I wanted to do; Cold War Hardware, Jetter Fighters and Sushi. Today is Bill's Day; Aztec Ruins, Anastasi Cliff Dwellers and we don't know it at the time, but Mexican for dinner, Again!

Our first stop is in Aztec, NM where we walk around a settlement including Kiva's (meeting places) that dates about 1300 years ago. The doors between rooms are maybe 4' tall, I have to crawl through some of them. Don't think their size was indictive of their intelligence. The main Kiva had 4 windows per side that aligned with sunrise/sunset on each of the Solstices and Equinoxes (Solsti/Equini?) of the 4 seasons. Kept their crop planting/harvesting on time.

Ironically no actual Aztecs lived there, the true Aztecs were down in Mexico, They were actually an ancient Pueblo Society, but the had a great room for meetings; a Kiva, and dozens of rooms. They lived ion this area for about 200 years (older than Canada!) then when the weather changed, and their water supply changed, they moved on.

Crawling though 48" high doors in 100 degree heat was not working out for me, but we walked through the whole site with Bill reading from the walking guide, then headed for the movie theatre. The movie was actaully a 4:3 pan and scan of still images with a voice over shown on a 16:9 monitor. I lasted maybe 5 minutes before the head nod started. Bill poked me in the leg occasionally, but ultimately capitulated to my narcolepsy!

We departed at the conclusion of the movie, putting on our leathers in the air conditioned space and heading towards Mesa Verde, land of the Cliff Dwellers. It was about an hours drive, then the parks office charged us $5.00 for the tour. Wow, what a deal! Oh yeah, forgot to mention you have to drive yourself an hour up the mountainside and pay $15.00/head at the park gates!

The ride up is full of twists and turns and good for at least 1000 miles of normal clutch wear! At one point The Rocket is running like a cheap alarm clock, sputtering and choking. I use a vehicle pull-out, shut off the motor and immediately restart so as to load a new fuel injection map based on the revised elevation. The Rocket is smooth like butter after that!

We reach the summit and join our tour group. The Park Ranger fulfills every stereo type, cool, laidback, uses the word Gnarly, has a man bun, expertly lets it slip he drives a Prius. Man Bun is single handedly saving the planet!

We start off in our group, maybe 40 people, by descending into the valley via a rickety set of stairs partially dating to ancient times and partially a reproduction. We end up under an overhang while manbun (now one word) answers some questions while we wait for the group ahead of us to clear.

He answers the questions with what I call superficial minute, he answers in great detail, but his details have no detail! I ask a question about the geological formation of the structure the cliff dwellers are living under, and while I get an extremely long answer, he never really answers the root of the question.

There is burst of applause from the group ahead of us, then they move on and we take their place. We look around the area for a bit, but we ware not allowed to stray from the paths. There is a burst of applause from the group trailing us so we know it is time to move on, but no one feels like applauding for our guy. Manbun is a dud!

We start the ascent, it is period and manmade stairs, plus a couple of ladders. I may be almost 6 years smoke free, but I am, admittedly, no athlete. I make it 90% of the way, when Bill suggests a rest next to the final ladder. I wait 10 minutes while the sweat pours off me, then the final push to a bench. Another 5 minute rest and we are in the parking lot.

We leather up again, and head down the mountain, making it the most of the way without getting bunged up by slow traffic. Once on the highway we only have aboiut 30 minutues to the town of Cortez. We drive most of the way through until I see a mo'tel, with a paved lot and hanging basketsd, across the street from a liquor store and a block away from a BBQ joint. We take it!

There is already a sea of bikes there as there are 5 guys from Phoenix travelling together. I get some beer, ice and Coke Zero and we have DustBusters, Teqwila and R&C's on the Veranda talking to the other bikers. Well, motorcycle enthusiasts!

When it is suppertime we head for the BBQ joint. BBQ Colorado Style? Well, we'll see! Turns out they just got their liquor license, so recently they don't have any liquor! Sorry to be so superficial, but we move on. We end up, go figure, at a Mexican joint, where I foolishly have both Tequilla, and refried beans!

After dinner Bill wisely retires, but I have a nightcap with the Phoenix riders.

Day Sixteen

Gallup, NM to Cortez, CO

420 km