Friends to boot - time to go...
I left my friends in Mebane and headed for them hills, resuming my ride down the Blueridge Parkway which is a great stretch of road, my route had me heading for Deals Gap on the border of North Carolina and Tennesee. The area is one of the most popular motorcycle destinations and people come from all over the country (and the world) to ride the famous ‘Tail of the Dragon’ – a 20km stretch of road with around 300 corners.
During my stay I camped at the Ironhorse Motorcycle Lodge,
The 'Bikers' lodge - nice setup...
a purpose built accommodation facility catering to motorcyclists visiting the area. It was an excellent setup with lots of little quirky details that appealed to riders. The common area included an enormous video projection facility, games room and dining area, but at this stage they are fighting to get a liquor licence due to some inane county regulation – something I have encountered a lot across the USA & Canada. They are happy to sell you a gun, but not a beer ?
I rode the ‘Dragon’ three times, first time up and back with an unloaded bike and it was fun and required a lot of attention and concentration. There was even a photographic crowd who camp on certain bends and take photos of every bike that screams around the corner, I’ll check their website for my upcoming pics, see what prowess riding style I exhibited that day…
Oh Mammy !
The following week was pretty much a blur as I moved into the ‘south’, the terrain simply goes flat fromTennesee down to Alabama across Mississipi and into Arkansas. The temperatures were filthy hot and there was just lots and lots of farmland growing mostly cotton and the countryside was just plain boring and really nothing noteworthy of writing about… in search of such I found the Ozark
How flat... ?
Mountains in the top corner of Arkansas which had some fun twisty roads and the trees were starting to change colour and were real ‘preetty’.
I came across a town called Eureka Springs in an area just like the Blue Mountains and just like Katoomba and packed with tourists…next. Avoiding that trap I headed over the border just into Missouri to the Roaring River State Park to camp, but after a quick lap of the three packed campgrounds I didn’t want to stay there, so back out the way I came through the forest and wandered down some minor fire trails to find an idyllic site amongst the colourful trees to camp… put up tent, quick bite to eat and crash out….NOT !
Nice camp - noisy 'residents'...
Here is a tip, wherever you find Acorn trees never camp there as they are filled with Squirrels who ALL night chatter continuously ! The ‘din’ was just amazing but at around 3am they all went totally silent – how odd ?
Over the border into Oklahoma and the flatness
Flat as a pancake.
continued, I was surprised to see oil rig derries still pumping oil as I thought J.R. had gone broke years ago when Dallas went dry ? But there were far more dead derries than working ones… My token trip to Texas was a footprint I left on the border where Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico sort of meet, speaking of which New Mexico appears to look like REAL Mexico, if I thought the Quebec French experience was weird, well I might as well put on a somprero here seniore ! Is this a taste of things to come ?
The Brown Hotel... funny that ?
I overnighted in a pin prick town of Springer at a quirky little hotel with charm to boot, the owners had done a great period reno complete with tons of artifacts and furniture of years gone by, $48 for the night was a bargain and even came with full cooked breakfast off their cafe menu downstairs and speaking of cactus, I had my first enchilada for dinner that night, beef, beans, rice, wrapped in a soggy tortilla. I was so hungry I ate most of it and like a lot of ‘American’ meals it’s quantity over quality !
New Mexico
Next day it was up to the Sangre De Cristo Mountains and I did a lap of the countryside which was pretty much salt bush and trees and sand, again nothing noteworthy, so with plenty of daylight remaining I pushed on to Farmington in the corner of the state and the terrain started to take on desert qualities. The next day was quite long as I wanted to visit Monument Valley which eluded me earlier due to the extreme temperatures at the start of summer and WOW what a reward that place was !
Injun country.
This is Cowboy & Indian country where all them Hollywood classics were shot and the landscape is just stunning – you would easily recognise many of the desert monuments in many black & white John Wayne movies !
My destination was Moab Utah, a desert town set amongst a spectacular landscape of canyons, mesa’s, red clay and slabs of huge red granites in all shapes and sizes. Home to Arches and Canyonland National Parks, these really are national treasures. The sensory overload here is unbelievable, so many shapes, contours, colours, it really dazzles the eyeballs, highly recommended if you come this way.
Arches National Park - Moab, Utah.
Canyonland National Park, Moab - Utah.
Hi Geoff.
These are beautiful pictures, what an amazing place!
Your ‘night of the squirrels’ is v. cute – from this end! A bit like our possums here on a warm night.
Wanted to wish you HB for the 19th. Have a great day, wherever you are!
Love G & J.x
Pumps on oil wells do not pump continuously. They are on timers determined by the well operators to maximize production from that field. So, pumping jacks that are not pumping are still on productive wells, they’re just not being pumped at the moment.
Also, pumping is considered secondary production. Good wells flow by they’re own pressure.