Had a very nice run from Socorro to the Arizona border, passing through the quaintly named Pie Town. Unfortunately I was a bit early and the shops were closed. Pies I can understand, but the name of some of the other towns around here is more cryptic, such as Truth or Consequences. (?)
On the way, I also passed a VLA station, or Very Large Array radio telescope, probing space for signs of, well, anything. These umpteen individual dishes are set on rails, and can be repositioned at will, the principle being that the signals are combined to give the effect of having a much larger dish. It was quite deceptive in as much as when I first saw them they looked like mere mushrooms on the vast open plain, and as I peeled off the miles, they didn't seem to be getting any closer. Finally I reached the dishes that were nearest the road, and they are actually pretty massive, as I suspected they might be.
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE.
As soon as I hit the Arizona border, as if on cue, the scenery changed to the Old West, with red rocky outcrops, and I actually saw a few tumbleweeds rolling across the road. My musing didn't last long. I was about to get clobbered by the worst cross wind I have ever experienced in my entire riding lifetime. Even in Patagonia I never encountered wind of this strength, and although we were told we got off easy down there, I reckon it was very challenging. This was definitely worse. I felt that if I stopped, the bike would blow over, so I kept going. I was being blown around like a piece of paper, hanging off the bike and leaning into the wind like I was cornering hard, and more than once found myself just flicked back onto the edge of the bitumen as though someone picked me up and dropped me. I really though it was only a matter of time before I ended up crashing into the verge and doing serious damage. If we did get wind like this in Patagonia, I would still be in hospital, or worse.
By some miracle, I made it to civilisation in the form of a town called Show Low. I was advised that conditions were even worse on my planned route up through Winslow, and that the Intestate might be closed. It was too early to book into a motel, although that seemed the sensible thing to do, so I sought refuge in a burger joint to consider my options. There was a more southerly route along some backroads which would take me through hilly, forested areas which might provide some protection, so thats where I headed. Although still quite blustery, it worked, and I ended up having a pretty good ride up to Mormon Lake, just south of Flagstaff, and the site of the 3 day Overland Expo, where I had planned to meet Team Suzuki, my four fellow Ulyssians from Adelaide. Mormon Lake was a very large and flat depression in the earth that looked just like you would expect a lake to look, except in one major respect. It contained not a drop of water. Dry as a bone. Well, that figures, perhaps that's how it got the name in the first place.
The Expo was for adventure bikers and also for 4WD enthusiasts, and there were a lot of trade displays, a test track, riding school, and seminars and other presentations. It lived up to its promise, and was great fun. I was intrigued by some of the stuff in the 4WD area. Really, the kind of mechanical monsters on display were ludicrous in some cases. Talk about overdone, World War 3 maybe. Check some of this stuff. But everyone had fun, thats the main thing.
It was a veritable who's who in the adventure bikers department. Brian and Shirley Rix, of Two For The Road fame, Ken and Carol Duval, who are Horizons Unlimited legends. Touratech, Jesse Luggage, HappyTrails, Rawhide, were all there. Even a guy raising money to enter next years Dakar as a privateer.
But for me, the absolute highlight was meeting and talking to Ted Simon, author of Jupiter's Travels,and other titles. He spent 4 years riding on his own around the world in the early 1970's on a Triumph Tiger 100, and was the inspiration for a number of others to follow suit, including Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman to do their epic Long Way Round and later, Long Way Down adventures. A true adventure riding pioneer and a legend. And that's Brian Cullinan (aka Wombat, as if you couldn't tell) getting in on the act as well. Great stuff.
ME, TED and BRIAN
Our campsite and bike park, Mormon Lake.
Bjoerne and Sigrid Malessa from Adelaide, en route to South America, via Alaska of course.
On the way, I also passed a VLA station, or Very Large Array radio telescope, probing space for signs of, well, anything. These umpteen individual dishes are set on rails, and can be repositioned at will, the principle being that the signals are combined to give the effect of having a much larger dish. It was quite deceptive in as much as when I first saw them they looked like mere mushrooms on the vast open plain, and as I peeled off the miles, they didn't seem to be getting any closer. Finally I reached the dishes that were nearest the road, and they are actually pretty massive, as I suspected they might be.
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE.
As soon as I hit the Arizona border, as if on cue, the scenery changed to the Old West, with red rocky outcrops, and I actually saw a few tumbleweeds rolling across the road. My musing didn't last long. I was about to get clobbered by the worst cross wind I have ever experienced in my entire riding lifetime. Even in Patagonia I never encountered wind of this strength, and although we were told we got off easy down there, I reckon it was very challenging. This was definitely worse. I felt that if I stopped, the bike would blow over, so I kept going. I was being blown around like a piece of paper, hanging off the bike and leaning into the wind like I was cornering hard, and more than once found myself just flicked back onto the edge of the bitumen as though someone picked me up and dropped me. I really though it was only a matter of time before I ended up crashing into the verge and doing serious damage. If we did get wind like this in Patagonia, I would still be in hospital, or worse.
By some miracle, I made it to civilisation in the form of a town called Show Low. I was advised that conditions were even worse on my planned route up through Winslow, and that the Intestate might be closed. It was too early to book into a motel, although that seemed the sensible thing to do, so I sought refuge in a burger joint to consider my options. There was a more southerly route along some backroads which would take me through hilly, forested areas which might provide some protection, so thats where I headed. Although still quite blustery, it worked, and I ended up having a pretty good ride up to Mormon Lake, just south of Flagstaff, and the site of the 3 day Overland Expo, where I had planned to meet Team Suzuki, my four fellow Ulyssians from Adelaide. Mormon Lake was a very large and flat depression in the earth that looked just like you would expect a lake to look, except in one major respect. It contained not a drop of water. Dry as a bone. Well, that figures, perhaps that's how it got the name in the first place.
The Expo was for adventure bikers and also for 4WD enthusiasts, and there were a lot of trade displays, a test track, riding school, and seminars and other presentations. It lived up to its promise, and was great fun. I was intrigued by some of the stuff in the 4WD area. Really, the kind of mechanical monsters on display were ludicrous in some cases. Talk about overdone, World War 3 maybe. Check some of this stuff. But everyone had fun, thats the main thing.
It was a veritable who's who in the adventure bikers department. Brian and Shirley Rix, of Two For The Road fame, Ken and Carol Duval, who are Horizons Unlimited legends. Touratech, Jesse Luggage, HappyTrails, Rawhide, were all there. Even a guy raising money to enter next years Dakar as a privateer.
But for me, the absolute highlight was meeting and talking to Ted Simon, author of Jupiter's Travels,and other titles. He spent 4 years riding on his own around the world in the early 1970's on a Triumph Tiger 100, and was the inspiration for a number of others to follow suit, including Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman to do their epic Long Way Round and later, Long Way Down adventures. A true adventure riding pioneer and a legend. And that's Brian Cullinan (aka Wombat, as if you couldn't tell) getting in on the act as well. Great stuff.
ME, TED and BRIAN
Our campsite and bike park, Mormon Lake.
Bjoerne and Sigrid Malessa from Adelaide, en route to South America, via Alaska of course.
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