Colorado Ride Report Day #1

June 12 – Day #1 McKinney Texas – Raton New Mexico Miles 574

The day had finally arrived. Jamie and I had decided to get to bed early. We hit the sack around 10PM. We were both so excited that I don’t think either one of us really slept until after 11PM. The alarm went off Saturday morning at 4AM. We were meeting Pete & Kim Russo at the Home Depot in McKinney at 5AM. It was supposed to be a warm day and we wanted to beat the heat. We we both excited and had no issue getting to the starting point at the correct time. Pete & Kim were already on site. Everyone had huge smiles on their face. We had been planning this trip for weeks. we were ready to roll.

There was a little event that almost happened that I would have never been able to live down. Jamie asked if we should get gas in Amarillo. I said that we could fuel up later as there would be many places to fuel up.. well I was not really correct in that statement. We took US 385 from Amarillo up thru Channing, Hartley and Dalhart. I figured that we could get gas in Channing.. WRONG! So now I have been on reserve for a few miles. We roll into Hartley and there is only a coop station, with no one working and only 87 grade fuel. I had to put in a gallon as I was almost empty. Jamie just looked at me and smiled, she never said it, but I know the words I told you so were on her lips.

We headed to dinner at the Oasis in Raton. We pulled into the lot and the ground was very wet. I was putting the C-14 on the center stand when we almost had our first disaster of the trip. My foot slipped off the stand and the bike started to fall away from me. Jamie was standing on the other side of the bike and actually threw herself under the bike and kept it from falling. Super Jamie was AWESOME. Pete and Kim watched in amazement as we got the bike upright without any damage to the bike or to us. It was a great day!