A Little About Us

A Little About Us
INTRODUCTION: First, allow me to introduce the members of this group...I'm Mike riding my 2003 Heritage Softail Springer...my wife Juju is on her 2015 Freewheeler...and Ed and Nancy are on their 2009 Heritage Softail. For the purposes of this trip we are referring to ourselves as H.A.R.P. HARP is a made-up name and it simply stands for Hogs And Retired People...and all that means is that we are members of HOG (Harley Owners Group) and we are...you guessed it...retired! The name came about when seven of us made a trip out west, but just the four of us this time. I've done blogs before, and this one will be for the same reason...to refresh our memories in our "Golden Years" (they say the memory is the second thing to go...and I can't remember what the first thing was). What is different this time is the blog is being shared by THUNDER ROADS PENNSYLVANIA MAGAZINE...Truly, an honor. This journey will be a round trip from, and to our home town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The plan is to travel to the Atlantic coast at Ocean City, Maryland for the "Official" start on U.S. Route 50. We will follow U.S. 50 west for over 3,000 miles to its terminus in Sacramento, California. From Sacramento, we will head a bit further west to the Pacific Ocean before we begin to travel south. California Highway 1 and U.S. Route 101, better known as the Pacific Coast Highway, will be the route for about 500 miles to Santa Monica. At the world famous Santa Monica Pier, we hop on Route 66...The "Mother Road". Travelling about 2,500 miles to the north east, we'll arrive at the end of 66 in Chicago, Illinois. The "Official" end of our journey. From Chicago, it's just another 450 miles and we're back in Pittsburgh. We've made very few lodging reservations, thus eliminating the pressure of trying to get somewhere by some deadline. The whole purpose of this ride to see this country and whatever piques our interest along the way...and we will be looking for that giant ball of yarn! So we invite you to ride along with us. We hope you will find it both entertaining and informative. Please feel free to leave your comments and share this with anyone you feel would have an interest.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Day 27 Thursday August 20, 2015

Days without an incident - 3
Days without rain gear - 13

We made about a 100-mile detour (intentional) today.  About 50 miles northwest of Albuquerque is  Madrid, New Mexico.  To get there, we rode the Turquoise Trail, a National Scenic Byway that connects Albuquerque with Santa Fe in the Ortiz Mountains.   A beautiful ride up into the hills on sweeping roads that were edged in grasses and pine trees.  Today was cool, requiring jackets...a welcome change from the 100° plus temperatures we have been experiencing lately.

Madrid is a wide spot in the road that begs you to stop and explore.  Having been here before, we were looking forward to our return visit

Made famous by the 2007 movie "Wild Hogs", this town has been re-inventing itself for several years.  Once a mining community, it's 300 residents have become home to a variety of visual and musical artists.  Coffee shops, cafe's, museums and galleries fill the business district that extends about a half-mile.

At the south end is the Mine Shaft Saloon, with some pretty good eats.  Lunch today included the Green Chili Stew, which will light you up!

Near the north end of town is the famous Maggie's Main Street Diner, from the movie.  In true Hollywood fashion, it's not actually a diner and never was.  It is a store, that now sells Route 66, New Mexico and biker souvenirs along with Wild Hogs merchandise.

Back on 66, we went another 100 miles to our stop for the night in Santa Rosa.

Not a lot of miles today because of the late start.  We'll see what happens tomorrow.


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)