Last Post for this trip

 Well, I have been back home for over a week and have had time to reflect on this year’s very interesting trip. I think that one way to appreciate the scope of this trip is to examine the following picture (the details are somewhat easier to see when it is expanded).

The Postits indicate the places where I stayed overnight. 

Here is some summary information:

Days away: from June 3 to July 3, 31 days

Total kilometres travelled: 9,357 (the 6th longest Retirement Ride since the first such ride in 2010

Longest day’s ride: 562 km on June 9th from Sioux Falls SD to Valentine NE

18 States, or portions thereof, visited during the trip

Gas: 451.6 Litres; 4.83L/100 Km

Accommodations: 22 hotels/Inn/motels, 2 private residences. 

Best: Patterson Inn, Denver; second best: Pueblo Bonito, Santa Fe; third: Cotton Court, Lubbock

Worst: St James Hotel, Selma

Best breakfasts: Patterson Inn, Denver

Best breakfast buffet spread: Holiday Inn Express and Suites, Webster NY

Great Meals:  Denver, Santa Fe, Birmingham

Best attractions and sights: Rocky Mountain Park, CO; Puye Cliff Dwellings, NM; everything in Denver and Santa Fe; White Sands National Park, NM;  Contemporary Art Museum, Roswell NM; National Military Park, Vicksburg, MS; and the River Festival in Charleston, WV.

Interesting encounters/events:  a guy sitting at a table with his buddies with a holstered gun at breakfast in a small dinner in Gordon NE; the amusing incident of the young boy and the pancake conveyor machine in Roswell NM; my free ´paid forward’ lunch in Lubbock TX, and my free gas fill-up in Knoxville TN

And finally the weather, WET, sometimes very, in the North;  and quite, record breaking even, HOT in the South.

So, I leave you with a picture that Jane took from the chase car as we headed south to Santa Fe; just this guy on a retirement ride.

Hopefully we can do this again next year! Take care!