Day 7 - Santa Rosa to Acoma, NM

Sorry for the delays in posting - all is well - I'll try to fill in the details of the last 3 days.  This was an interesting day in many ways - one that I took the award for the "Largest Route 66 Souvenir, Ever".

It started early - I left Melinda in Santa Rosa, New Mexico at 6:45 AM and left with Bobby Taylor and Jim Roberts for Portales, New Mexico - about 120 miles to the southeast (the opposite direction from the group's travel).  Why?  Well Melinda just was not really comfortable on the Valkyrie Trike.  There is very little wind protection, the seats are not so large, we had a rough time keeping up at highway speeds (75 MPH+) and our gas tank range was only 84 miles - really short.

So, the night before, I worked with our friends to find a replacement motorcycle on the Internet and then headed south to buy it.  In Portales we met Bill and Beverly Roberts - some truly exceptional people that are also RoadSmith trike dealers.  They had  2006 Honda Goldwing (White) that they had just done a trike conversion on, so I negotiated a deal and traded in the Hot Rod Valkyrie (small sob at this point as  I really liked that bike).

Here is a photo of Melinda and the new Trike:

She is MUCH more comfortable now.  But that's not the whole story.  Bobby, Jim and I rode 454 miles that day to get the bike and catch up - it was a LONG day.  Melinda rode in the chase car in the morning and on the back of another trike in the afternoon.  She also got to meet Bobby Unser (the Indy 500 winner - I missed that!).

The group went to New Madrid where much of the movie "The Wild Hogs" was filmed.

The group watched over Melinda really well.  She is fatigued and starting to get a sore throat - I'm watching her closely.

And Rodger Fox says I am the Recipient of the largest souvenir award - I guess not too many people actually buy an entire motorcycle while on this trip!

All in all it was a really good day!

God is good!  All the time!

Stephen and Melinda