Although we didn’t have a huge distance to our destination today, we had planned for a lot of interesting sights to see along the way. It was an incredible assault on the senses … in a good way. Had planned to visit the Garden of the Gods which is a series of incredible lumps of sandstone somewhat like the ridge on the back of a dinosaur but opted for a ride by only. It looked magnificent, Google it you will be amazed, we were wearing out and wanted to get to a hot shower.

Elevation above sea level.
Denver USA – 1,609m (Nicknamed the Mile-High City as it is exactly 1 mile above Sea level)
Mount Kosciusko Australia – 2,228m
Traralgon Australia (hometown) – 60m
Highest point on our way today – 3,576m (Pikes Peak)

Royal Gorge & Railway Bridge.

Royal Gorge Historic Railway Bridge, now a footbridge over an incredibly deep gorge. Built to pursue mining interests many years ago along with pretty rough feuding and fighting. No lives were lost, and ownership was ultimately decided by the courts and handed to the Rio Grande Rail Company who had to pay Santa Fe Rail 1.4 million dollars for the construction of the track they had already done.

Skyline Drive – one-way road along a ridge between the freeway and Canyon City. The pillion passengers were a little freaked out and we still haven’t seen the video Lyn took with eyes closed, and doubt the volume will be on %#**^”# when we do from what we have heard!

Pikes Peak known as America’s Mountain – what an experience, couldn’t make it to the top as the road was still blocked with snow, absolute top elevation is 4,302m. We were puffing where we were! First shot on the way to start climbing, then on the top, where we had lunch then on the descent.

Note the ice shelf at the top where the snow / ice is blown up and over the top and the snow below is now receding. The next shot is a closer view.  

Last night's Accommodation.

Best Western Plus Eagleridge Inn & Suites

Good facilities, comfortable bed, parking on site and breakfast included. Literally walked across the road to dinner. Forgot to take a photo.

Started the day after breakfast with a visit to the Post Office by all of us to post home unnecessary stuff to free up our luggage space. No one was exempt and all feeling very self-satisfied now.
We wound our way through wonderful countryside into Pueblo and didn’t spend a lot of time off the bikes other than for rest stops, fuel and food so the pictures will tell the story when I have some from Lyn who was free to shoot them from the pillion seat. The views were spectacular with a lot of the time surrounded by snow covered mountains and either climbing up passes or sweeping down great winding roads to plains still way above 2,300m. Incredible!

Some interesting facts: Elevation above sea level.

Pueblo USA – 1,430m
Mount Kosciusko Australia – 2,228m
Traralgon Australia (hometown) – 60m
Highest point on our way in today – 2,800m but majority of trip between 2,200 to 2,300m.

Cute little church as we headed out of Sante e. Love the NM structures and lots of artistic stuff on public roadways.

Bikes parked up for lunch at a Dutch Restaurant with a very Mexican menu.

Fuel after lunch at a Sinclair Servo, hence the dinosaur.

Lots of old trains here and two stations we could see. This was the larger of the two.

Last night’s Accommodation.

Best Western Inn of Santa Fe.

Lovely New Mexican inspired building. Comfortable and includes breakfast and parking and literally dinner across the road. Worked for all of us.

Headed off and checked out the Cadillac Ranch before we had breakfast. From there the day was spent weaving under over and beside the Interstate and sometimes on it to follow Route 66, it was a challenge, but we got lots of photo ops for everyone. A shame to see how much deterioration there has been since 2015 when we were last here and of course that was also pre COVID. In any case we are finally in and will be heading out to dinner soon. Another big day of riding and we will have another tomorrow.

Some interesting facts: Elevation above sea level.
South Santa Fe USA – 2,199m
Mount Kosciusko Australia – 2,228m (only 34m higher)
Traralgon Australia (hometown) – 60m
Highest point through the pass on our way in today – 3,000m

A reminder that the Cadillac Ranch is in fact a working ranch. Was pleased to see there weren't any spray cans spread about this time, so people are using the bins provided, mind you the 2 skips at the gate mainly had rubbish bags in them, I assume from vans. Grr.

Midpoint on Route 66. Literally 1,139miles (1,833kms) from Chicago and 1,139miles (1,833kms) from Los Angeles.

And a cute little diner beside the souvenir shop.

And took this one of a wall for our friend Adrian who couldn’t make it for the trip.

Tee Pee Curios in Tucumcari NM.

And the Blue Swallow Motel also in Tucumcari NM.

Santa Fe turnoff where we pulled up for a break and stretch. Note the geography and vegetation behind, it could easily be heading north to the Pilbara at home. Very familiar.

An example of a total lack of respect. A traveler (me) needing to get the kinks out of my back and stretch the tendon which makes me walk like I have done a center bearing on the diff …. which was effective by the way, but I was still very glad to get off the bike when we got in. Glad I did so much resilience training before we came but it’s still a challenge.

Last night’s Accommodation:

Courtyard Amarillo Downtown.

A beautiful building and spacious room. Restaurant on site but cash only so we lodged our complaint and went to the Mexican across the road for a cheap and delicious dinner, also had breakfast elsewhere for the same reason since it wasn’t included.

Headed off and checked out the Cadillac Ranch before we had breakfast. From there the day was spent weaving under over and beside the Interstate and sometimes on it to follow Route 66, it was a challenge, but we got lots of photo ops for everyone. A shame to see how much deterioration there has been since 2015 when we were last here and of course that was also pre COVID. In any case we are finally in and will be heading out to dinner soon. Another big day of riding and we will have another tomorrow.

Some interesting facts: Elevation above sea level.
South Santa Fe USA – 2,199m
Mount Kosciusko Australia – 2,228m (only 34m higher)
Traralgon Australia (hometown) – 60m
Highest point through the pass on our way in today – 3,000m

A reminder that the Cadillac Ranch is in fact a working ranch. Was pleased to see there weren't any spray cans spread about this time, so people are using the bins provided, mind you the 2 skips at the gate mainly had rubbish bags in them, I assume from vans. Grr.

Midpoint on Route 66. Literally ??miles from Chicago and ??miles from Los Angeles.

And a cute little diner beside the souvenir shop.

And took this one of the walls for our friend Adrian who couldn’t make it for the trip.

Santa Fe turnoff where we pulled up for a break and stretch. Note the geography and vegetation behind, it could easily be heading north to the Pilbara at home. Very familiar.

An example of a total lack of respect. A traveler (me) needing to get the kinks out of my back and stretch the tendon which makes me walk like I have done a center bearing on the diff …. which was effective by the way, but I was still very glad to get off the bike when we got in. Glad I did so much resilience training before we came but it’s still a challenge.

Last night’s Accommodation:

Courtyard Amarillo Downtown.

A beautiful building and spacious room. Restaurant on site but cash only so we lodged our complaint and went to the Mexican across the road for a cheap and delicious dinner, also gad breakfast elsewhere for the same reason since it wasn’t included.

Headed off hoping to beat a bit of the rain forecast and rode through ferocious winds skirting a storm and tornado warnings behind us. Stopped a bit early for lunch as the sky looked bad with potential of tails touching down but thankfully it turned around and headed away from us and we headed off again in calmer weather and towards clearer skies. The wind ramped up again as we entered Texas but remained clear. Overall, we managed to stay on Route 66 more than other days and that was also a bit slower pace so kinder on ourselves and bikes especially in the heavy winds.

El Reno, cute little main street. I hope it got on okay today because there were tornado warnings around there when we had lunch further along.

The stormy sky while we were having lunch. You can see three lines heading down. Was a relief it turned back on itself.

The Historic Conoco Servo at Shamrock plus bikes. This was the servo depicted in the 'Cars' video.

Conoco Servo Tow Truck.

Britten water tank. Quirky.

Street view in Amarillo.

Last 2 night’s Accommodation.

Country Inn & Suites by Radisson
A lovely spot for two nights. Comes with breakfast and parking. Nice and spacious, walk in shower, and capacity to self-cater if wanted. No restaurant but free shuttle to town and good value compared to last stay (which was heavy on quirky but low on value).

A warm and sunny day so got the washing done and dried and Norm tidied up the bikes after the drenching they got with filthy floodwater and road runoff yesterday and I had a kick back morning getting the blog up to date. The others did some exploring and checked out the Bricktown Canal tour and the OKV National Monument, a very moving experience as we previously found, then the Cowboys Museum and we joined them to do some more exploring and dinner before returning to our hotel. The pictures can tell the story.

A working shot from our hotel window. Train line, concrete batching plant with working trucks and another train line and locomotives.

Part of the OKV Memorial.

Horse carriage transport around Bricktown.

And back to the Bricktown brewery for dinner. Awesome use of an old building. The atmosphere was great....and the food...and beer.

We started in rain and headed for sights on Route 66 under a tornado warning but after very wet shots for photos we were hit with a massive rainstorm and the cameras and phones stayed locked away for the rest of the day and instead of the sights, we had planned to track down we opted for getting in out of the weather. In that time, we encountered torrential rain, thunder and lightning (very very frightening), flood waters and incredible wind trying to blow us off or throw us over for the rest of the day. Were a bit concerned to see very dark clouds late in the afternoon forming a circle with a clear patch in the middle, so it wasn't really a surprise to hear a small tornado had touched down later in the day. The rain stopped from lunchtime on (murphy was obviously confused) so only got in wet instead of wet and dripping but we saw lots of lovely countryside and a progressing Spring with green buds well progressed to leaves so a happy outcome. Had lunch at the Buffalo Ranch Roadhouse where there were a couple of live buffalo in the yard but by the time Lyn had her gloves off, they’d gotten bored and lay down out of view, so she had to satisfy herself with a photo of the mounted one in the shop. If I can pinch the photo I will. It was good to get in and a hot shower revived us enough for a lovely dinner at the Bricktown Brewery.

Gary Parita Sinclair Servo Ashgrove.

And another old bridge, glad nothing came along while we were here.

A shot from our second last coffee and stretch stop from the security camera in store. Check out some very worn-out travelers.

And the last stop before we were in. I had enough oomph to ride forward but not enough to back up so was suitably rubbished by my fellow travelers, hence the photo. Note the faint hint of approaching blue skies!

Dinner at the Bricktown Brewery which was great, awesome atmosphere beer food and company.

Last night’s Accommodation.

Best Western Route 66 Rail Haven

A quirky little stop which has been here since the 30’s and has modernized without losing a touch of the Route 66 Main Street era including a mini diner look to the breakfast area. Comfortable bed and one row back from the road so quiet to sleep. A few bikes at the entry making it look even better.

A Goldilocks day for riding mainly warm and sunny and comfortable and very little traffic on Route 66 proper which we sought wherever we could, but haphazard signage was a challenge. We saw some of the countryside in both directions as a result. Saw heaps of trucks on the Interstate and they were close to two full lanes coming out of Springfield whereas we had a relatively clear run. Our first Mexican meal tonight. Beautiful and fresh and cheap so great for the budget. A bigger day coming up tomorrow.

Quirky Bar & Grill at Bourbon must be on the coach tour circuit as one was pulled in at lunchtime.

Wagon Wheel Motel next door, making an effort.

Coroners building in Cuba.

The bridge at Devil's Elbow.

Road Ranger Truck Stop where we stopped for a stretch and drink on our way into Springfield.

Some of the memorabilia at tonight's motel where Elvis Presley stayed once before he was famous in Suite 409 which is available to rent but it looks a lot like a shrine so a little creepy. We didn't stay in it.

A pretty specie car under the roof in the picnic area at the motel.

Last 2 night’s Accommodation.

Pear Street Inn

Another comfortable accommodation including a hotel breakfast as well as happy hour with nibble each night so very generous. Bed lovely and comfortable also. Undercover parking was good but oops we forgot to take a picture.

Everyone else went to check out the Arch and I stayed behind to figure out how to resize pics for the blog …. without success then walked down to the Union Station to join them for lunch and enjoy the beauty of the building. May try to keep working on the pic issue as we travel or if no success will do it when I get home, if I don’t throw the notebook away before then!

Sort of managed, but still not happy. Will keep working on it. Pics from phones downsize okay but I must need to change a setting on the camera as I don't get the option to get them right and they are out of whack!! Grr.

Norm and I walked back from lunch to our hotel amidst rain thunder and lightning, very very frightening so we decided to eat in again rather than heading out to an Irish Pub for dinner.

Red brick Greenway a walking path beside a huge stadium between our hotel and the Historic Union Station. If you look in the distance down the street, you can get a glimpse of the Arch.

A wet view of the St Louis Arch. Last year we took the lift to the top for the view which was awesome.

The Historic Union Station which is a magnificent building where Norm and I stayed when we were last here. We took the others to see it and have lunch and found a very obliging hotel employee who gave us a terrific tour on his break. It was great! So, the only photos I have are from there.

A stained-glass mural above the original entrance on ground level. It depicts New York, Saint Louis and Los Angeles which the rail line represents. There were 42 lines in and out of the station, and this was where the change from East to West took place. It's supposed to be long, sorry. Around the edges are all the fruits each area produced.

The Lobby on the mezzanine level. There is also a bar here and a light show over the doe takes place each night from 5 - 11pm. Very speccie.

The reception area at the end of the Lobby. Note the mural above, it was unearthed and restored during reclamation of the station after it had been abandoned for many years.

Going upstairs these are a quirky bench top in the alcove. Very well done. A couple of tourists taking a pic also!

The Lobby from above. Stairs down to the ticketing level to the left and bar to the right and reception straight ahead. Through the end arch Railroad head offices for all the companies who operated through the station. The railroad offices now suites have retained the doors as it is a listed building. There were originally around 50 guest suites in the hotel, now over 600 as there are the originals, the railroad offices now suites and a whole lot more built out over the area where the trains used to reverse into the platforms.

An example of the magnificent arch work detailing.

And a schedule of the one days of trains Sunday November 2nd 1930.

Started out walking past the Old Capitol Building then a tour of the new one finished in 1888. Just beautiful. We were guided by a young tour guide through the Parliament and also what was the original Supreme Court. The photos don’t do it justice. After that we rode by Abraham Lincolns home (not open until May) then got onto the road proper and pretty much stuck to the old Route 66 with an occasional diversion through vast harvested cornfields. The scale of farming reminiscent of through the wheatbelt at home. Lots of road maintenance visible in both Springfield and St Louis.

Truckstop for coffee complete with Blues Brothers and Route 66 themes.

And some quirky signs to the Loo's and stating the obvious that women are always right ..... just saying

Some Aussies visiting the Capitol Building (Where Government is enacted for the State of Illinois). I love that they are all reminiscent of the White House in Washington

In the building one of the halls around the center dome.

Looking directly up at the dome. Several Storeys

Part of the original brick road (about 2kms)

Old Chain of Rocks Bridge over the mighty Mississippi River

And again

And again with the new one we travelled over still being improved in view

And a very picturesque farmhouse we saw on the way into St Louis

Last night’s accommodation

Carpenter Street Hotel

Comfortable stay. Lovely comfortable beds again and good facilities. USA Hotel breakfast included and a short ride to some sites before departure...and thankfully pulling up a lot better than the citizen on the left!

The bikes parked up at the front of the hotel, also one being ridden by a German guy doing a Route 66 tour.

A long day today weaving our way in and out of little communities trying to stick to what remains of Route 66, often only an old road beside the one we travelled on visible and many tired towns trying to stay relevant followed by a frustrating night trying to get a home delivery dinner and being let down by IT a number of times finally having dinner after 11pm and walking to get it …. Bikes parked at front door of hotel which felt good until told they were best there under the cameras!

Also, a special thankyou to Chris Humphrey Office National at home in Traralgon who helped me with an IT issue supposedly from Russia!! Office Supplies, Stationery & Furniture - Chris Humphrey Office National

Old servo at Odell. Also had a lovely lunch in a local Cafe.

Pontiac Route 66 Museum in an old Fire and Police Station. Checked out the old cells and glad I wasn’t a guest.

Largest Mural depicting Route 66 behind the museum, brick roadway under bikes from the original road. 

Last 2 night’s accommodation

Hampton Inn Chicago-Carol Stream

A comfortable stay. Lovely comfortable beds and great facilities. USA Hotel breakfast included and handy to the bike shop. About to head off on the big trip. Nice to see signs of Spring everywhere.

After close on 20hours in the air and on land via Dallas Fort Worth we arrived in Chicago to dinner in a local pizza restaurant and a loong sleep then off to collect the bikes ready to start the trip tomorrow.

Celebrating with bubbles in the lounge at Tullamarine before departure. How decadent at 10am in the morning!

 Flying in over Lake Michigan and over the city complete with one of many other planes in the air if you look closely.

On the ground at O’Hare airport with hundreds more.

Bikes picked up from DuPage Honda Yamaha.

And with the rest of the crew, our 5th time and the 1st for the others.

We last did some exploring around the USA and Canada on our motorbikes in 2019 and our plan was to return the next year to do some more but then COVID hit and life took over but now it’s almost time to head back to do some more exploring so come along and join us for the ride and I’ll try and keep you up to date here as best I can. Grateful thanks to our housesitters in our absence.