Apologies in advance if I ramble on a bit, even by my standards... But here's a report of Kali and my trip to Inzane 2019:
Kali had been riding the Valkyrie for a month or so when she laid it down twice on one ride (Both zero speed put downs on sharp turns, too much front brake leaned over at low speed and over she goes) and lost her confidence. She'd walked away from the Valkyrie, and we were pretty sure that was that.
Two days before departure date, she asked for one more chance, so I took her for a ride, intentionally going to the worst sharp corners, stop signs at the bottom of hills, stop signs at the top of hills, etc that I could find around home. I figured if she was going to freak out, park the bike and walk away refusing to ride again I wanted that to happen 5 miles form home, not 500.
She passed that test with flying colors, when told that we were planning on taking two Valkyries to Taos, The Spousal Unit had a bit of a freak out and gave a veto. I privately inquired as to if that was a hard veto or a soft veto, we had some discussions, and it was agreed that it was a soft veto that I could override, which I did.
One last picture before we rolled out.
Not wanting to break her quite yet, I split our short 750 mile ride to Taos into three roughly 250 mile days, we left on Friday late morning and made it to Childress, TX for the night.
Not long after settling in someone was pounding on the door of our cheap hotel; not expecting visitors I had my "little friend" held in my hand just to the side and answered it to someone excitedly proclaiming that my dirty bikes had gotten dirt on their clean bike.
It took me a minute to put things together, it was Brew1Brew, totally coincidentally had chosen the same little hotel in the same little town to spend his first night on the road.
(His shiny clean MKII Valk does make mine look rather dirty, I'll admit!)
After some lies were swapped, Kali and I headed to dinner at one of the most unique places I've ever had the pleasure of eating at - A place called Daddy's, in Childres, Texas.
A combination fried chicken, fried catfish, gun store, tire shop, general mechanic, onsite welder, butcher shop all under one roof...
Saturday we got up and continued our trek. I've often gone by The Big Texan (The place with the "free" 72 oz steak) but have never stopped. I decided with our short little 250 mile days we could afford to stop this time.
Knowing the general quality of tourist trap type places, I went in with very low expectations.
However, I was very pleasantly surprised, it turned out to be one of the better steaks I've ever had, and being a rather rotund Texan boy, I've had more than my share of decent steaks!
Seeing as we still had plenty of time, the GPS had us arriving to our motel in Tucumcari several hours before check in, I decided to take her to see the 2nd largest canyon in the USA - Palo Duro Canyon.
Kids today... Surrounded by some of the most gorgeous scenery The Republic of Texas has to offer, and she's playing with her phone and taking selfies...
Okay, so maybe Daddy took a selfie or two as well...
After that we headed to I-40 and were just droning it out westward. At a gas stop in somewhere far west Texas, just as we were getting ready to leave, 2 men from a van full of Japanese people came over to me, and in very halting English said/asked "Valkyrie? Honda?"
Yes, Honda, Valkyrie, two of them. I spoke no Japanese, they spoke very little English, but one of them pulled out his iPad, and was proudly showing me pictures of his bike back home in Japan - A gorgeous Valkyrie Rune! They were very excited to see the Valks here, and were going over all the mods, accessories, etc, asking about things as best they could. Damn the language barrier, I woulda loved to have chatted with these Japanese Valkyrie enthusiasts more than we could!
After that we had a nice boring uneventful ride to our motel, The Safari Motel, in Tucumcari, where these disreputable fellows showed up:
Lies were swapped, yarns were told, food was eaten, typical events when good Valk people get together...
The next day was our final push into Taos and the rest of the Inzanity... Not too much eventful on this ride, Kali did get her first taste of mildly twisty mountains and elevation changes:
Get to Taos, get checked in, make a grocery store run, the usual stuff... Kali did get the honor of getting to wash Ali. She said she actually felt a little guilty, knowing how many thousands of miles of history she was washing away...
The next few days were a blur of great bikes, great rides, great friends, great camaraderie, etc. etc. so etc. so please forgive me if I mess up the timeline.
Just some random pics of ground zero:
(The sunsets were incredible!)
Few pics from the Motorcycle Rodeo:
Did I mention, there were pies?!?!?!
And a fashion show!
And a light show!
Brief video clip of Kali spinning her poi at Inzane:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c1ILCVNtBwAnd dancing!
And more random ground zero pics:
All week Kali was TERRIFIED someone younger than her would ride in, but when it came time to hand out the award for Youngest Rider, it wasn't even close...
Evidently a new "If you win it, you must wear it" rule was implemented this year...
Some of the events and side trips from the event:
Kali and I rode up to Red River, my family used to vacation there every 2-3 years when I was a kid, but it'd been twenty or so years since I'd been. It'd changed a lot, but some things never change.
We rode the chair lifts up to the top, 10,350 feet!
It's funny, the spousal unit jumps out of airplanes for a hobby, but the thought of riding a chair lift utterly terrifies her... Go figure...
We rode out to the Rio Grande Gorge bridge, the 10th highest bridge in the USA and, of course.... That means the teenager needs to take more selfies...
It's funny, I had no problems riding across the bridge, but I had to force myself to get out to the edge so she could get a pic... Funny how we're all wired just a little differently...
I was laughing about the "Please don't kill yourself here" hotline box at the time, but felt guilty later when I found out a young lady had done just that just a few days prior.
There were multiple vendors set up at the bridge selling various wares, I was going to authorize Kali to get a dream catcher (One of the things she likes to collect) but got to talking to an actual ranger working at the place and he was not very fond of the vendors, to say the least, so we passed. (Also got to hear one vendor nearly come to blows with another for setting up his table too close.)
Many MANY thanks to the MSF instructors (I believe Valker was one of them? I don't recall the name of the other) for doing their "Dancing with the Fat Lady" course. Kali took it both times it was offered, and her confidence and skills with low speed maneuvering went WAY up afterwards. THANK YOU!
(Especially her skill at backing into a parking spot. I had to keep explaining the importance, especially for a less than hefty girl, of NEVER pulling an 800 pound motorcycle forward into a downhill parking spot...)
Kali got to ride in her first group ride as a rider instead of a passenger for the block party, full police escort and the downtown Taos square was blocked off for us...
It's a little known rule, calories consumed at Inzane don't count! (Love the tanline Daniel!)
Lining up for the Joe Boyd Memorial lunch run that our charity hosted:
Since Kali rode pillion for this one she was able to take pics along the way:
Dang where'd all that grey come from?!?!?!
Hungry Valk riders lined up for food:
Wonderful pork street tacos with all the fixings served up by our charity hosts... They raised the pig themselves (Said this one was named "Spot". Spot was delicious!)
Some of our lunch partners...
One of the charity volunteers came by and mentioned that have Llamas... Kali has decided her spirit animal is a Llama, so she was off to meet them...
There are few sights more pitiful than a freshly shorn Alpaca/Llama mix!
This one is half black and half white. The staff told us his name is "Barack Obama the Llama"
The next day on the poker run (We both had bad hands, but not bad enough to win low hand, c'est la vie) one of the stops was next to a playground... Kali couldn't resist the temptation...
I wish I still had that much energy and limberness!
All too soon, it was time to say our goodbyes and point the bikes back towards home. After making it through her first real twisties, as we pulled into Eagle's Nest there was a flock of hot air balloons taking off, so we had to stop and grab a few pics of that.
Just because we were so close anyway, while going through Raton, NM we made a brief detour into Colorado so she can add a 3rd state to the "States she's ridden in map"
One final fun stop before just hauling home, we went by the Capulin Volcano in New Mexico. The twisty road to the top with sheer drop offs scared Kali a bit, so she rode pillion. (Plus it was $15 per bike, so we saved a little money that way). I'd been there many times before, but had never seen it so green!
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaw! Back on the soil of The Republic!
And as we pulled into the driveway at home, we had a little welcoming committee waiting for us, had to get a few "We Made It!" pics!
For anyone that's actually followed along until the end of my magnum opus, thanks for coming along with us, hope I didn't get too long winded. It was definitely a trip for the ages, and I hope Kali and I can ride more together in the future, eventually adding her siblings into the mix as they get a wee bit older.
