What started out as a Jud&Stv visit for a nice Thanksgiving meal turned into a whirlwind journey through 5 states and an overnight train ride. While Leslie and Steve were brainstorming over cellphone when Steve broke down in the desert along I-40, the seeds of this trip were sewn, mainly because the cheapest tow was about $350, and then you were at the mercy of some unknown shop in Bullhead City. The cheapest truck rental was $400 plus gas, and it would be a lot of gas. Enter the Dandy Hauler...
What started out as a Jud&Stv visit for a nice Thanksgiving meal turned into a whirlwind journey through 5 states and an overnight train ride. While Leslie and Steve were brainstorming over cellphone when Steve broke down in the desert along I-40, the seeds of this trip were sewn, mainly because the cheapest tow was about $350, and then you were at the mercy of some unknown shop in Bullhead City. The cheapest truck rental was $400 plus gas, and it would be a lot of gas. Enter the Dandy Hauler motorcycle tow, about $120 including shipping from Ebay, and the fact that Jud&Stv's truck has the correct 2" receiver for towing, and the plan was born. 5 states in 6 days, and Leslie didn't sleep in the same bed twice. Special thanks to Judy and Steve for doing this and putting up with all of it.
Thanksgiving -
Good food, good leftovers.
We brought out some old country music, Eagles, Creedence, and Elvis. Yahtzee one night. Watched a Chargers game at Robert's, and got in little hot tubbing. Emilie and her Thai friend Pao stopped by because she needed a WinXP install before her 4 month trip through Asia. Anniversary dinner at Kips - thanks Judy and Steve! A good pitcher at the PB where everyone met Emilie and we scarfed one of their frozen pizzas. Leslie made a super yummy ginger pie as well as a great veggie lasagna and mizitrha brown butter pasta. After much hoping, the Dandy Hauler arrived via UPS on Tuesday like it was supposed to so we all got up 7am Weds and departed the house by 8am on Dec. 2 - amazing!
Gallup, NM -
One stretching stop required a Chinese fire-drill by Leslie near DRO to coordinate. Luckily we got to see a small Native American parade walking down the street. Left Maxine in the parking lot and all headed off towards Laughlin. Good egg salad sandwiches along the way, and some more of Leslie's awesome muffins.
Laughlin, NV and Bullhead, AZ -
Arrived just after dark, beautiful sunset over the hills coming into the valley. Looked for vodka at the mini-mart but they only sell beer. Leslie booked us a comp'd room, and Steve&Jud's was $28, so we each pay $14. Nice room! Partial view of the river. Casino was smoky and full of old people. Big Ten beat ACC in the challenge after 10 straight years of losses! Booked all of Robert's 6 bets at the sportsbook. Dinner at McD's value menu, what a bargain! Few more drinks in the room then movies. All in all a very fun night. Muffins, etc for brekkie in the room, free jellyfish art on the TV. Walked down the river walk, the damn river
taxi is now $4, but the river looks nice and blue, and the Casinos are fun to walk through. We should do this place again, especially with Leslie's comps.
Essex, CA -
John and JR were super nice, helped hook up the bike. No sign of the red Marker jacket tho. Delivered Leslie's muffins but couldn't find any damn place near by to purchase miller beer, so slipped a 20 in with the muffins. Oh well,
this would be a great place to stop in next time and share a few beers with these guys. We took a bit longer than 30 minutes to hook up the bike and use the cheater pipe to bend the center stand. One broken bolt was replaced. So Judy and Leslie partake of the leftover vodka pint and then try to keep themselves from giggling during the rest of the ride.
Hemet, CA -
Arrived just after dusk, which was tough. Had to lift the back end of Veronica around parts of Hemet West due to the sharp curves and deep drainage trenches. Their driveway was the toughest but after a few pulls we were in, and then it was Survivor and pizza. Early 7am start in the morning because 9:30 Helmut & Elaine leave for Tijuana for her dentist appointment - 5 new teeth!
Jamul, CA -
Leslie did some errands (trim bangs, Shelly's, doctor, boots from Heather, and "a drink during happy hour")
while Steve had some time to look over Veronica. She seems not in too bad of shape cosmetically, just headlamp, speedo, clutch lever, foot peg, and hopefully the other scratches can be buffed out. The shop in El Cajon looked her over for one hour for $90. Said she only needs four parts, but one of them costs $1100 new! (the final drive assembly). And they want 3 hours labor at $90 to install, so the total would be close to $1500, way too much. Luckily Stockers salvage yard has the 4 parts used for $500, and said it would only take one hour at $60 for labor. We'll go with that. Helmut had some automotive bad luck as well - the clutch on his truck, the lift on his trailer, and the rear wheel on his Mercedes is making a noise. He cooked a wonderful meatloaf meal when Summer, David and Savannah came over. Just barely avoided a lumberjack tree mishap while cutting down their tree. We all got in trouble for putting our feet up on the table. All in all another great visit.
Stockers -
What a cool store, friendly people, tons of supplies, and great prices. Their customers are interesting - met a guy who's been through 2 Vulcans, 2 Goldwings, and other bikes. He gives talks at Camp Pendleton because they were pissed off that for a while the Palomar Mountain ride was claiming more Marines than the Iraq war. Veronica's other part, a coupler, should come in Tuesday so hopefully she'll be ridable soon. Helmut agreed to ride her home and put her in is garage until we come get her.
SD Trolley, Greyhound to LA, Olvera Street & Union Station- Elaine dropped us off at the Spring Street La Mesa trolley stop. We were trying to pay when suddenly the train rolled into the station, so we rushed across the tracks and hopped on - lucky it wasn't a long train that covered the more length of the tracks. Lady collecting tickets let us slide and we met a really nice homeless couple who started singing and recommended the Beatles "Across the Universe" movie. Nice to ride thru the old hood downtown SD again, and thru Barrio Logan where Sum&Dave might have a new place. At the Greyhound station Steve grabbed 2 Wendys value-menu items but Leslie was strong and avoided the Pizza Hut. After the bus ride, we had a lovely 2 mile walk through Skid Row, warehouse district, and little Tokyo to Union Station including hypodermic needles and a guy walking right by with a gun stuffed in his pants!
Spent some time walking around Olvera St. etc. where the church bells were playing Christmas music. No Felipe's 9c cups of coffee this time - the lines were too long, but we did get our wine and beer at the nearby liquor store in China Town. Watched a couple Californications and drank the beer in Union Station while waiting for our train. We really couldn't wait to get into our Roomette, but guess the guy driving the cart only escorts elderly people, not all Roomette people like we were told, so we had to walk. Attendant Gwen, really sweet lady, let us on the train and would be our host for the ride.
Amtrak Southwest Chief -
Once again, the train ride was not long enough, but we enjoyed it as much as we could. Enjoyed wine in the room and a few shows on the computer. Over-ate during both dinner and brekkie, because the meals were included so we had to indulge, met a cool couple at dinner from Prescott, he has a nice Harley and she's a flight attendant for Western/Delta like Steve was. Met a gospel singer from Chicago at brekkie. After deboarding at around 9 am, Maxine was nice and ready when we arrived at the Gallup train station. Weather was cold but just a few snow flurries so we headed north towards CO.
Farmington, NM -
The drive was going pretty good, smooth sailing and good music. Stopped by the salvage yard for Maxine but they have no computers, we didn't feel like backtracking so we'll just call. Started snowing pretty heavily in Farmington and the roads got white outside of Aztec. Saw a big truck spin off into the median just in front of us so turned around, pulled into the gas station to decide what to do. This was about 2pm, they didn't sell chains, so went back to Aztec hardware store. They didn't have any and the guy called 2 other places - also out. So went all the way back to Farmington. The beloved Wal-Mart had chains, gloves, a winter coat for $7, and also many interesting frozen pasta meals for $1 each. We bought 4, a double bottle of wine, and checked into neighboring Super-8 which has the necessary microwave, fridge, and Wifi. Drank half the wine then ventured out for a walk in the crisp night air. The Farmington mall (across the street) was good to us as usual - Leslie got a super-cute poofy tutu mini skirt at Hot Topic and Steve got Cheetos, beef jerkey, and a container for little Fuze at the dollar store. Then on to Target for buttered popcorn and Ding Dongs - yes that with the Cheetos and wine made for a very decadent dinner, and along with some Kill Bill on TV we topped off our big night in Farmington.
Pagosa Springs, CO - Dec 8, had their contl "superstart" brekkie and then braved the cold drive north. Didn't need the chains for about the first hour but finally did and they actually worked great after a couple minor adjustments. Checked them every so often but basically Maxine was raring to go, keeping up with all the big trucks and semis, even passing a few. The only problem was just 2 miles from home she started wobbling with an up and down waving motion. Couldn't figure it out but finally pulled over and saw her rear wheel well was packed with snow.
Embarrassingly enough, Robert and Doug drove by right at this time to give us some shit for driving a CA car in the snow. Back home in the hood, there was no way we were getting Maxine into the driveway, so parked her in the street near the Little Beaver sign.
Then luckily Doug H came by with his skid and plowed the driveway enough to pull out the other Toy. Home finally, and boy is it nice. After a little shoveling on the back deck made a path, we enjoyed the hot tub at dusk, just after some of Leslie's famous butter soy tortellini. Totally yummy and her brand new tutu skirt with vinyl boots and stockings looks pretty damn nice as well.
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