Santa Fe and the Last Day on the Road

Our last night on the road was a stop in Santa Fe, NM. I like the historic district with all of the little artsy shops. You find a different breed of person wandering those kinds of areas - lot's of people bent on showing their "Individual Style". It's a nice break from the 'conform or be cast out' crowd found in most of the places I haunt.

We stayed at the Hotel St Francis which is a place I stayed before. The rooms are nice and comfy even though it's a "historic" boutique hotel.

After getting checked in and stuffing the bikes into a parking spot (which amazingly opened up just as we got there) we cleaned up and wandered around looking for place to eat. Eventually we found The San Francisco Street Bar & Grill. The food was very good and the beer wasn't bad either.

The Home Stretch

The last day of the ride is always sort of bittersweet. On the one hand I'm excited to get home and see the wife and dog so I want to get home as soon as I can. But coming to the end of a journey is always like reaching the end of a good book. There is a satisfaction and a sense of completion but I'm always wanting more. I suppose that's what keeps pushing me to get back out the road.

As any rider from this area knows there are three distinct stages to any motorcycle road trip:

1. Getting across Texas to get out
2. Riding all of the fun roads and seeing fun things
3. Getting across Texas to get back home

The goal of the first and last stage is to get through it as fast and painlessly as possible. This was a very painless ride across the state. The only drama was that we caught up with some nice storms just as we reached the Dallas area so the roads were a bit wet but that was a fair trade for a nice quiet day on the road.

Wrapping it up

This was a great trip, one of the best. John was an awesome riding buddy - both a super rider and just a great guy to be around. With plenty of places left to explore I'm looking forward to hitting the road with him again. 

The races were as fun as always and the added bonus of seeing my sister with Pam at my side was a recipe that can't be beat. I'm already planning my ride for next year and hoping to get in more than one!