High Plains Drifters…….

What a day.  Not for the feint hearted riding 360 miles is some really high winds.  But hey we just love to ride, that's why we came.  We took a taxi from our hotel at 8am this morning to Tripps the Harley dealer in Amarillo. We hadn't seen our bikes for 3 days so it was great to be re-united with them.  It's funny how on a epic road trip like this that if you stay in one place for too long, and in our case at hotel/motel you definitely get withdrawal systems and just can't wait to be riding again.

We are on our way to Tombstone, which is our next 'big' thing to see, but the distance in one day is even too much for Jon and I in these weather conditions.  One thing that we really didn't  give too much thought to when planning this tour was the weather patterns in America.  Well, we have now become almost qualified meteorologists, and we watch the 24/7 weather TV channels every night and every morning to see what's happening ahead of us!

Here's a map of the journey today.

After collecting the bikes we headed west on I-40 to have breakfast at a place recommended to us by the taxi driver and the finance director of Tripps Harley - Russells Truck Stop, Restaurant and Museum.  And we were not disappointed.   Check it out  http://www.russellsttc.com

Two eggs 'easy over' corn-beef hash and hash-browns and a side of crispy bacon and as much coffee as you can drink in one sitting!  

Look at the view….we really were high up on the Texas/New Mexico plains some 2165 metres, that's 7100 feet in 'old money'

"B1GH0GD0G" & "LULU" The High Plains Drifters….and the were all over the road!

The beard is coming on, and that's just after 3 weeks.  I'll look like Gandalf come 3 months and my arrival into New York City!

After breakfast we had a look around the free car museum.

Once suitably nutritionally satisfied and high on caffiene off we set again on the I-40 west, which this section of the interstate is also Route 66  we were heading for the Route 66 Auto Museum in Santa Rosa.  

They weren't to busy today…. 

Given the high winds we were surprised this car advertising the museum was still up there!

One of the owners favourite cars.

Jon was in heaven.  He's always loved American classic cars and use to own one - a 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle, this one is a 1967 very similar.

After filling our boots with beautiful American classic cars it was time to get going, and to 'slip our moorings and "sail out" once more onto the plains in force 6-8 gale!

The wind was blowing so hard, as you can see by this flag, that as Jon made his right turn when exiting onto the main road his bike was hit by a big gust and he couldn't hold it up and "LULU" kissed the tarmac!!! But to our amazement she was not even scratched.  Mind you it took all our joint strength to right her!    Still it's all part of the adventure - apparently!  Onwards to Tombstone.

The darn wind continued to blow out on I40 West and we continued to 'tack' our way across America.  We pulled in for fuel at Tucumcari and met up with some military veterans who were participating in the "Ride To Wall" which ends in Washington DC (Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall) having left their homes in Los Angeles on their Harley Davidson's several days before.

After a tiring day battling the winds out on the plain we pulled into a town called Socorro and another Best Western Hotel for the night.