May 7, 2024 - Day 3 to Ontario

 May 7, 2024 - Day 3 to Ontario

Last year during the Run, there was a lot of talk about how the CBs were during the ride. Seems that there were a lot of issues. So, this year, we are going to try GMRS radios. Since they are set up using bluetooth, we needed to get a different set up on our bike. We were hard wired from our helmet to the bike. Now we needed to go bluetooth. Great!! no more wire to plug in.

Day 1, I could hear music but could barely hear Larry talking. He could hear me fine. So, I asked yes / no questions and those were easy for him to reply.

Day 2, ahhh we think we have it fixed. We tested before we got on the bike, all good, jumped on the bike and everything goes silent. UGH. Since we were on the road, I went for 2 hours with no music, could not talk to Larry, just wind noise. No big deal, we will get it fixed on the first stop. He reset everything; we are good to go. Volume is still low like day 1 but better. That is until we hit Kansas and all the wind. Made it impossible to talk.

Day 3, now we synced up the Sena between Larry and me, seem to be good to go. On the road, once I click to talk to him, we lose music. All Greek to me.😒 We go the music back. We have adjusted again tonight and will check tomorrow. We should get this all working by the time we get to California. Will let you know in next post if it worked.👍

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OK, so two words for the day: WINDY and FLAT

Ron checked out weather last night and Denver was getting snow today. Not going that way. He checked a path a little bit south and 20-30 degrees. Let's go further south. He found a route. Looks like good temps. Ok let's go that way.

I am for sure not Run ready yet.  When we talk to people like at our hotels, a lot of times we will ask if they are veterans.  If "yes", we always say "Thanks for your service".  Well today we met a couple that both served.  They met in Germany.  He was from Oregon, and she was from Illinois.  They were both in the air force.  He was a navigator on a C130.  No other info and no pics. I will do better going forward.  haha

Temps started at 49 and it was a beautiful day.

This is Ron.

We are out in the middle of nowhere and there is a roundabout.  Really?  Pretty funny

 

Larry pulled up weather radar about 30 minutes down the road and showed me that we picked the right way.  Snow on the left in the Denver area, and the front from last night stayed intact and was behind us. 

Way to go Ron.

Windy was an understatement.  Of course, we are still in Kansas.  

There were 2 huge windmill farms we passed.

Fun Fact:

Once called windmills, the technology used to harness the power of wind has advanced significantly over the past ten years, with the United States increasing its wind power capacity 30% year over year. Wind turbines, as they are now called, collect and convert the kinetic energy that wind produces into electricity to help power the grid.

This wind farm spans about 20 miles. Crazy how many there are in one place.  At one point, we see all these power lines.  I guess this distributes the power.  Makes you wonder, there must be all kinds of lines under the turbines.  Can you imagine the planning going into one of these farms?

Down the road a bit, there is a lovely smell.  Just kidding.  Cows everywhere.  1000s.

This makes sense as there is the National Beef plant down the road.

We stopped at the gas station right across from this plant.  Lots of cattle carrying semis in and out of the plans.  We also saw them miles after we left.

What a huge process.  We thought that the air was bad going past the big farms where the cows stayed.  Then we went down the road and to the smell of something worse. It was the "wash out truck" station.  How would you like that job?  I guess that makes sense.  Got to clean out the truck after you drop them off !!!

How many of you remember Gunsmoke?  Marshall Dillon, Miss Kitty, Festus, ...  Remember the town?

Still a beautiful day and WINDY.  This looks like someone took a paint brush of white to the sky.

Lunch time.  Stopped in Hugoton, KS.  

Hugoton, Kansas reportedly served as a temporary home for the infamous criminals Bonnie and Clyde. They lived in the unincorporated areas near Hugoton, assuming the aliases of Jewell and Blackie Underwood. 

Menu was a newspaper that give a little more on the history.

Here Larry and Ron looked for routes to get to Raton, NM.  

We stayed off the highways all day today and it was pretty nice.

 We left and saw the same thing FLAT, FLAT...... and an occasional farmer.

Miles and miles of nothing.  Here is what we saw in front and behind for most of the day.

 

                                     Remember bikes only have 4-6 gallons of gas. 

 Sometimes we could go 50 miles and not see anything, including a gas station.

So you need to be looking for something when you have a half tank left.  

Last stop is about 80 miles to Raton.

We thought the whole day so far was bad with the wind.  This last leg beat us up.

I looked at google maps before we left, and have never seen this. 

It says "High Wind Warning"

They were not kidding.  Ron and Larry had a heck of a day, especially the last 80 miles.  Everything was sore.  I had the easy part of just sitting but I had to hold my hermit several times to give my neck some relief.  Again, kind of hard to see but Ron is leaning a lot.

As we get into New Mexico, look in front of Ron.  It is not FLAT!!!  Finally getting into the mountains.

Destination: Raton, NM

Temps: 59-80

Route: US50, US56, US283, US160, US83, KS55, US56, US87

Total Miles: 427

From Dodge City, KS