Day 9 – Chaco,NM to Tuba, Arizona

We made it to Tuba City, Arizona! At Chaco Park, a lady had recommended a camp site in Tuba. Finding the camp site was a bit of a trick, no real signs for it. Finally we find a parking lot with RV’s parked side by side with picnic tables next to them. Looking to our right we see what could be our camp site, it was a 15 square foot lot with a picnic table in the middle and a fence on the far side and road with traffic behind that. No Thanks! Talked to the Hotel lady, of course their all booked, drive around to the two other Hotels and their full too, the last guy suggests the only motel in town “Grey Hills INN”. Turns out its an old school dormitory that was converted in ’89. Its also a training ground for kids, to learn the profession. Plus, they have a special needs class that comes in and helps out. All the proceeds go to the program, which is great because it costs about $20 more than the last motel we stayed in and it’s a dorm that was build in the 70’s for a reservation school.

We woke up early at 5:30 to see the sunrise in this incredible canyon. Climbing up to a close by view point we sat back and waited. Amazing!

13miles of rough wash board roads on the way out, the Connie 10 (the motorbike) started to overheat. Years of driving old Honda trail 90’s on my dads farm really came in handy. But the Connie just isn’t made for dirt roads. I was in 2^nd gear most of the way going about 20 to 30 mph sometimes faster on the straight stretches (I know that because I taped the conversions to the speedometer), It was the first time the thermostat was showing almost in the red. We stopped, waited for a bit to cool down and continued on. Steadily the engine temperature climbed hotter and hotter and I began to worry that bumpy roads and the distance traveled was finally catching up to us. But the second we hit pavement it dropped back to normal and within a few minutes it was back to normal operation temperature. This bike just doesn’t like to do it in the dirt.

We did pay a small price though, the bike has been leaking small amounts of oil and anti freeze. We have a bottle of distilled water to top up the cooling system. The oil was slightly overfilled on the oil change I did just before we left, so I’m hopping that’s what the leaks about. Nothing to be alarmed about but will have to be addressed sooner or later.

The rest of the ride was long and windy. The fairing blocks a large amount of wind from pushing our heads around, the trade off is the bike gets pushed around the road more. I find the best way to cut through the wind is to slow down and lean. This is fine if we’re the only ones on the road. But when the posted speed is 70mph (120kmph) and we’re slowing down all the time, big trucks that are less affected by the wind come right up behind us. I can see them coming though and we just pull over and let them go by.

~Devin