Hello from Barstow-updated

It was a lovely riding day yesterday.  400 miles of sun, low wind, and scenic views...well mostly scenic. Here are a few photos.   Today we join the group of vintage Japanese motorcycle club riders, should be 30 bikes once we get through the park.  Tonight we stay at the Atomic Inn in Beatty, Nevada.

Death Valley here we come

Please stay tuned, we are getting ready for our trip!  And we will be on a different bike!

Home for two weeks and the Aprilia is all repaired

It took two weeks for Stu to do the archeological dig to find parts for a 15 year old Italian motorcycle...  but he succeeded!   And working with Allstate was a really pleasant experience, quite amazing.  No arguments, disputes or lawyers at all. ;)
As with our other posts, click on the picture for a bigger view.

Final day of vacation-Deming to Scottsdale

The last day brings much cooler am temps.  At 7 am, Deming is 54 and Lordsburg 48 so I will get the jacket liner out!

Last day of packing....if all goes according to plan, we should be home this afternoon and get Lucy from the spa either later today or tomorrow am.

So, we got home at 2:30 without incident or drama. Picked Lucy up from the kennel and took her immediately into  the shower. I never saw a dog so happy to see her peeps...even after the shower. After 14 days and over 3200 miles of wear, the riding suits were super grungy, but they did their jobs. We needed very little additional clothing, aside from underwear, shorts, socks, t-shirts. I may run the washer empty afterwards to flush out the bug jerky.

Anyhow, all's well that ends well. Now starts the long fight with Allstate over the damage caused by that imbecile driver in Hobbs, New Mexico

Stu

And a final final photo.  Lucy had an exhausting two weeks at the spa, and has spent all today resting ;)

Another 338 miles takes us to Deming New Mexico

Greetings and salutations from Deming.  Hopefully this is our final night on our trip home.   The temperatures were better today, 93 was the highest I saw, but we had a 25 mph headwind so that was quite entertaining.

We are at a hotel that looks like it was a Howard Johnsons in a prior life.  We have hopes of a visit to the pool shortly.  The hotel even has an okay restaurant.  Then again, last night our dinner was granola bars (after a hard day of riding almost nothing can lure us back onto the bike) ;)

Turns out the pool is lovely looking but only 65 degrees so we won't be floating here today.  After 14 nights in hotels, we have packing and unpacking down to a science but we can't control the quality of the beds or showers...so we are full of zeal to see our home tomorrow.   🏠    And even more zeal to see Lucy. 🐩

Motorcycle maintenance update:   Arkansas chrome held with only one small piece flapping in the wind and most of it still clinging to the fairing.  Chain was adjusted tonight, clearance should be 15 mm and it had grown to 19.  Per Stu, amazingly little wear on the chain so he is happy.

Highest temperature seen on today's 350 mile ride: 101

It certainly was hot.  We rode from Seguin to Fort Stockton.  101 on the bike thermometer for the last two hours.  So it was a bit short of wonderful.  But we made it safe and sound, albeit a tad wilted.

We are now planted in front of the air conditioning, drinking water and watching the news.

I forgot to take a photo of the bike showing 101 but I took a few others.

Stu ordered a new motorcycle subframe (it is the part that holds the fairing onto the front of the bike) while we were traveling.  He found a new one on EBay England for half the US price, and it arrived today at home. Our wonderful neighbors intercepted it and wrestled it away from the UPS guy, thereby avoiding the potential fate of it being shipped back to England.

Las Cruces tomorrow, fallback plan is El Paso.   Gees, we just checked the weather and we have a big front coming through the west on Thursday, 23-25 mph winds.  To avoid such a fun filled final day, we will make sure we are home Weds night ;)

Edit from Stu: I called Sena tonight and got instructions for a factory reset of Hilo's headset...which has apparently worked to resolve the dead headset issue.

Bonus photos from our Tabasco tour

I just noticed I had taken this picture in the greenhouse.
It is a Tabasco plant and the interesting thing to note is that the peppers grow towards the sun.

Here are the barrels of ground up peppers, vinegar and local salt, marinating away for three years.