Just the country for dead men

It looks silly but it was fun

The Dead Man himself. The Congenial Undead.

Decrepit

Non-decrepit

Christopher the natural

Tanya the nymph

Mr Everything

Shiprock

A thousand-yard stare

Manuel and the mounts

Paul choking.

Pacifiers




I'm writing this from Shiprock, New Mexico. I will try to find a picture to explain why it carries that moniker (there, got it). The landscape I'm travelling through is mind-bending, and I've only started to see the good stuff.

I spent two nights in beautiful Santa Fe (look it up) and managed to repair the camel, change the oil and give it a facial. I also replaced a dud tyre which was lowering my re-uptake of dopamine.

The first night was, with the five guys pictured. I had a great time in a good bar, playing pool (quite well actually) and generally having a lad's night out. The Guinness was flowing freely and everyone got a trun to be head-chicken, The find of the night was Mr Everything. A shameless self-publiciser with a thick-skin to match. He was one wild critter, and surprisingly good company (Hi Christopher).

We managed to get back to the hotel and Paul and Dennis continued their trip to Phoenix the next day. They invited me along for a good time and so it was. The funny thing that night was the degree of crotch-heated weaponry that seems to be de rigeur in New Mexico/Colorado (and counting). See picture of artillery.

The next day saw me a bit desperate as I needed to get the old girl a new exhaust gasket, she was coughing up blood from the left nostril and wouldn't pull the sled. I was blundering about Santa Fe with vague ideas of who to see, how to get to them and how to utilize them to good effect.

I ended up at Mika's (Short for Miguel?) and a different (very different) Christopher dive into the problem with sushi gusto (Hi Danny). He was terrific and he was able to come up with a permanent solution to the desperate wheezing of my asthmatic camel. I got him to throw a better tyre on the front end and I did some maintenance while it was up on the hoist. I was deeply relieved to have my dromedary rejuvenated. Goes without saying really.

The next bit has me meet the dead man from the 'No Country For Old Men'; Manuel Chavez. He happened to be at the bike shop that morning. I only found this out at the end of a big night . He dropped this on me as I was staggering off to bed. He put the DVD on and there he was, lifeless and covered with sugarless fake blood (to avoid attracting ants; very practical).

He's done quite a few movies and is a well known character around Santa Fe. He and I started chatting at the bike-shop and we figured thatwe should make a day of it. He invited me to stay over and there you go.

We had spent the day cruising around the Santa Fe district taking in the incredible scenery (again, see pictures). It was a beautiful day and Manuel has put 150 000 m iles on his Harley doing this sort of thing over the last 15 years. We wound our way through hilly, juniper-covered desert, through Latino villages and stopped when the mood took us to take it all in.

We went out that night, yes again, and got a little plastered to an odd-ball band which featured an accordion (better than it sounds). Manuel put in a great performance and his friend Suzanne was whooping it up with him. It was very funny. I had a D & M with a guy called Cas (the wild-card of the night) who seemed to be suffering from a severe IQ surfeit. He will be reading this, so suffice to say that he was a force to be reckoned with, a master codifier on natural Benzedrine. But surprisingly easy to talk to, despite the tsunami of verbalised thought-processes that inundate any hapless listener. Wow...

Today I have covered 250 miles to Shiprock, NM over some very high roads. The fat lady was wheezing up some of the grades and I had to keep it at half-throttle to avoid pinging and fuel starvation. I put some octane-booster in at Chama and this cured the asthma. She picked her skirts up and galloped after that. I managed to slip between some huge rainstorms with only a minor hailstorm to deal with for a while I was travelling at 8000 ft (still earth-bound mind) and I'm encouraged to go higher as I take the big arc through the bottom of Utah. I ended up at Cortez after passing through some fantastic scenery in reminiscent of Monument Valley. I checked and it wasn't.

Not sure where I'm staying tonight. Just glad to have some momentum again after the longest break so far. The weather is a bit dicey but I'm running lucky.