Day 4 - Tuesday May 17, 2005

This day would continue to be really windy. It wasn't as cold as the previous day, but it was chilly enough to warrant extra layers.

Gas stop somewhere near Albuquerque, NM. I wasn't trying to rob the place. Really.

 

Yep, they know it's windy around there. Nice of them to warn us.



We started to see some snow-capped mountains in New Mexico. These are from a random stop just before lunch:



The next shots are from our lunch stop in Gallup, NM. The reason we're off center in the picture is because I wanted to get the terrain in the background and there were trucks parked to the side of us that would have obscured the view. Hey, I'm not a photographer.

It so happens that at this stop I overfilled my gas tank and it started to leak from the overflow. Just to be sure, I got down and checked. While I was on the ground, I noticed a long slash across my back tire. It looked superficial so I didn't think much of it. At the next stop in Winslow, AZ, I discussed my concern with the crew after warding off guys trying to sell us "pizza". I guess that's a code word for something illegal... or probably just a way to grub some change for their own substances. Anyway, Jeff and Dave looked at the slash in the tire and thought it was minor, but we decided to stop at the next H-D shop to get a second opinion.

Here we are coming into Arizona.



I figured there was a dealer in the Flagstaff area and sure enough, a billboard pointed us to Grand Canyon Harley-Davidson in Bellemont. These guys were nice enough to take me in even though they were backed up and closing in a few hours. They didn't think the slash was bad but my tire was marginal as far as being worn. I had Metzlers on the bike but decided to go with the harder compound Dunlops after a discussion with the guys about how quickly the Metzlers wear (they both switched to Dunlops on their Wings). I had both replaced to avoid having two different types of tires and they had me out of there in a few hours. (Cha-ching #1 for Harley-David$on)

Here's the dealer and my bike on the lift:



Fortunately, this didn't really delay our trip since our final stop was the Grand Canyon anyway. It took quite a few phone calls to get a hotel room at the South Rim. Apparently we hit there just in time for some kind of convention and many places were booked. We rolled in just after sunset.