Day 11 - Barstow to Colton

We rolled out of Barstow this morning and went to the Route 66 Museum there - pretty cool.

We continued west to the Bottle Forest - Melinda really like this place!

Melinda with Elmer the Owner and Artist.

Then on to Colton, but first we stopped at the largest powersports store in the world - Chaparral Motorsports in San Bernardino - 160,000 square feet.  We bought some additional foot pegs to get more comfortable, a beverage holder for me (Steve) and a seat pad for Melinda.  We got to the hotel at 3 PM so Melinda could shower and rest while I gassed up the bike and installed the new accessories.

We enjoyed a great meal courtesy of the Hampton Inn and enjoyed visiting with everyone, some of the wives are getting a bit feisty!

A great day!  Tomorrow we head to Santa Monica Pier!

God is good, all the time!

Love to all,

Stephen and Melinda

Day 10 - Kingman to Barstow

Today began as always, with dedications - but there was only one today and it was to Melinda from me.   Our good friend Bruce got a bit emotional as he read it - many eyes were wet as he shared how Melinda was so terrified of this portion of the Ride (to Oatman through Sitgreaves Pass) in 2008, but when facing Stage 4 Cancer she became fearless and is continuing to remind all of us that no matter how her cancer turns out - "It's all good."  There were many hugs before we left - Melinda is a special part of this "family" and admired by all, but especially loved by me.

The road to Oatman was closed due to wash outs, but we went anyway!

Melinda made it all the way to the top without a problem.  Here is Melinda and me with our special friend Bruce - the person that does the dedications.

We rode down into Oatman and saw and fed the donkeys and ate ice cream!

The donkeys liked Melinda and followed her around.

The road out of Oatman was very bad - we had 3 bikes go down, but no injuries or damage.

This is actually the road in the picture below.

Here we are helping a rider get back up again.

It was really hot - this is a photo of the thermometer on our motorcycle showing 104 degrees!

Melinda was over heating so we broke off from the group and travelled down the Interstate to Barstow to get to the hotel so she could cool off.  She showered and then did some laundry.  We had a wonderful Mexican banquet tonight at the hotel - good food!  Back to the room to get this out and get organized for tomorrow.  This is a far as we made it in 2008  - everything from tomorrow on is new!

Overall Melinda is a trooper and doing well.  The new motorcycle is helping and the sore throat is not getting worse.

God is good, all the time!

Love to all,

Stephen  & Melinda

Day 9 - Winslow to Kingman, AZ

This morning the group split into two groups - one headed to the Grand Canyon and we headed with a smaller group to look at a large meteor impact site that is now a park.  We picked this as Melinda is still a bit under the weather and this was a much short trip.

The ride was beautiful and the crater was huge!  4000 feet across, 500 feet deep - you could fit 20 foot ball fields in the bottom and seat 2 million people around the walls!

Melinda was not up for the walking tour, but I went.  this is our small group for this tour.  Great people!

After this we headed directly to Flagstaff, Arizona (separated from the group) as Melinda needed to get a blood test done to check her blood thinner medication.  We found the hospital, got the blood draw and headed to meet the group at the Galaxy Diner in Flagstaff - cool place!

From Flagstaff we headed to Seligman, AZ for Ice Cream!

That's Melinda coming out of the rest room at SnowCap!

Downtown Seligman was busy with bikers.

This is Melinda in Angel Delgado's Barbershop chair - although she doesn't need a haircut.  I sat there for a picture in 2008.

We saw this incredible trike with a V8 engine (385 horsepower) and talked to the owner - pretty cool!

That gas tank must be at least 30" wide!  Huge!  But cool!  Lousy gas mileage though!  Our new Goldwing gets 35 MPG while our smaller and less powerful Valkyrie only got in the 20's.  Plus we have lots more room to pack (and buy stuff :( ).  Melinda says we are still going to get a trailer for when we travel with our friends the Braams next year on Route 66 - hey, you've got to keep having goals, right!

We left Seligman and drove straight to Kingman, Arizona allowing us some time for Melinda to do laundry and for me to update these posts.

I think that she is feeling a little better - we are staying in tonight to get some extra rest.  Tomorrow is the big day where we take Old 66 to Oatman - this is the part where Melinda got terrified in 2008 and was unable to continue all the way to Santa Monica Pier - I think (and pray) that this time will be better. Hey - if she can handle Cancer, I think she can do almost anything!

We have been so blessed to have gotten this far!  We continue to meet new friends and strengthen old friendships.  God really is good, all the time!

Love to all, 

Stephen and Melinda

Day 8 - Acoma, NM to Winslow, AZ (standing on a corner...)

This is the day where Melinda got to try the new bike - much better!  She's much more comfortable, so I am happy even though my Hot Rod is gone.  Her sore throat has gotten worse, but she does not complain.  I try to baby her, but she's not going to let me...

We rode to Gallup, New Mexico and stopped at the El Rancho Hotel - where many of the Hollywood movie stars stayed while filming Westerns.

Really cool inside:

We also crossed the Continental Divide:

We rode through the Petrified Forest National Park:

Melinda was tired by then so we separated from the group and headed to our hotel in Winslow, Arizona.  But there was a problem with our reservation, so we had no room!  Fortunately, Melinda's clever husband immediately got on the phone and reserved the very last room in the La Posada - a 1930's Railroad Hotel - originally the "Harvey House".  Wow!  This was a beautiful piece of history and we had a great room (the Harry Truman room).

Part of our room:

We took some pictures of the corner in Winslow, AZ with a flatbed Ford there - remember the song?

We had a great day and picked up another hour due to the change in time zone - we used this to get some more sleep!

All is good - especially God's Grace.

Love you!

Stephen & Melinda

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