BMW BMW Pursang $179 NEWS OWNERS WATERPROOF TEXTILE JACKET – A PUBLICATION OF THE BMW MOTORCYCLE OWNERS OF AMERICA OF OWNERS MOTORCYCLE BMW THE OF PUBLICATION A – Cappra $99 VENTED TEXTILE PANT NOVEMBER 2019 BMW OWNERS NEWS www.bmwmoa.org Alt Colors: NOVEMBER 2019 NOVEMBER www.motonation.commotonation.com 877.789.4940 Blue Swallow Motel Tucumcari, New Mexico. Rediscovering America’s Roadside Motels The Journey continues part 2 By Andrew Beattie #213041 54 BMW OWNERS NEWS | November 2019 rossing over the Texas/New Mexico state line, the landscape changes. I am in the desert, and immediately I feel like I’m in a spaghetti western. As I ride along the roads slicing through high ridged plateaus, I look up to see if I can spot men on horseback watching me travel. CThere is something magical about the desert. Despite its harsh landscape, it has an inexplicable beauty to it. I think about my mortality and how fragile life is, perhaps because the terrain around me is so arid and inhospitable. Yet I’m overcome with an adrenaline-rushed euphoric sense that I cheated death, gone toe-to-toe with Mother Nature and survived. It’s spellbinding. Loosely following Route 66 while jumping on and off the interstate, my first stop is Tucumcari, New Mexico. This small town of fewer than 5,000 people features four cool retro motels that I have to see. When I pull into my parking spot at the Motel Safari, there is a beautifully painted mural in the carport next to my room––a reproduction of a highway billboard that once adorned Route 66 to entice travellers to stay in Tucumcari by boasting the town has over 2,000 motel rooms to choose from. By my guess, today there are fewer than 200. Nonetheless the iconic motels including the Blue Swallow Motel and the Roadrunner Lodge make this a must stop destination. Top: Motel Safari sign found in Tucumcari, New Mexico. Above, A billboard reproduction found at the Motel Safari. Left: A brief stop at the New Mexico/Arizona state line. November 2019 | BMW OWNERS NEWS 55 Above, Dave Brenner owner of the RoadRunner Lodge in Tucumcari, New Mexico. Right, A Magic Fingers massager. Far right, Images of the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona. Wigwam Village Number 6 in Holbrook, Arizona, is my next stop. In 1946, Chester Lewis, a businessman from Holbrook, was on a missionary trip to Kentucky when he saw the first Wigwam Village. He loved the concept so much he put forward a deal to buy the construction plans to build his own Wigwam Village from the original owner, Mr. Redford. The deal he struck was for dimes. Opening in 1950, Chester Lewis collected the dimes from the radios in the rooms as payment. A dime would get you 30 minutes of listening pleasure. So, each week he would send the dimes to Mr. Redford, and the arrangement lasted for a few years. Today, three generations later, the same family continues to operate the motel, and it is now registered among the National Registry of Historic Places. 56 BMW OWNERS NEWS | November 2019 Wigwam Village Number 6 (3) Holbrook AZ. November 2019 | BMW OWNERS NEWS 57 Of course, no ride along Route 66 would be complete without mother, she did. Although Ash had a career as a teacher, she a stop in Winslow, Arizona. The Eagles immortalized the town in followed her mother’s advice and got a work visa in the U.S. A their hit song “Take it Easy,” and being a huge Eagles fan, I had to short time later, her mother died, and with a small inheritance, make a stop. After taking my obligatory photo at the Standin’ on her uncle suggested that she consider buying a motel and the Corner Park, buying the T-shirt and realizing there was no becoming an entrepreneur. “girl in a flatbed Ford slowing down to take a look at me,” I So, in 2012, Ash purchased the Harmony Motel. The irony here continue on across the desolate and lonely Mojave Desert toward is that the legendary rock band U2, whose music often became the Twenty-nine Palms, California, near Joshua Tree National social commentary for injustice and violence around the world, Park and the Harmony Motel where I met Ash, the motel’s owner. used the motel as a backdrop for their photo shoot of their 2007 Ash immigrated to the United States from her native South hit album The Joshua Tree. So perhaps it is fitting that Ash is now Africa to escape the violence, crime and civil unrest that became the steward of this peaceful oasis in the desert. prevalent following the end of apartheid. Her mother encouraged I had to get to Los Angeles in time to pick up my partner her to go stay with her uncle in California. So, at the behest of her Amanda from LAX. She was flying in to join me on the Harmony Motel Twentnine Palms, CA.JPG 58 BMW OWNERS NEWS | November 2019 California leg of my adventure. First, I needed some reassurance you to ride south because the views are better. But with that comes on my rear tire. Even though Tim’s mechanic told him the tire the slow steady stream of tourists in their rented Ford Mustangs, would be good, I needed to get confirmation for myself. While I which detracts from the ride. By going north, you’ll still get great didn’t experience any handling issues, I didn’t want to get stuck views, and there is far less traffic. again. So, I contacted the guys at BMW Motorcycles of Riverside Saying goodbye to Amanda in Sacramento was tough, but I to get their opinion. Much to my relief, the BMW technician would see her again in 15 days. I continued my ride through the confirmed to me what I was hoping—the tire would work. northern Nevada desert with overnight stops at the Scott Shady After three nights in LALA Land, sleeping at the Vibe Hotel, Court Motel in Winnemucca, and the Thunderbird Motel in Elko, which originally opened in 1958 as the MovieTowne Motel, but not without making a stop to visit a ghost town named Amanda and I traveled north along the Pacific Coast Highway to Metropolis. Founded in 1910, the town grew quickly to nearly 700 enjoy nine more destinations. The PCH is one of the most scenic people with a school, luxury hotel and post office. But the town and fun highways in the world. The views are breathtaking, and failed to negotiate water rights and following a typhoid epidemic the twists and turns too many to count. Now everyone will tell and the closing of the post office in 1941, the few remaining Harmony Motel in Twentynine Palms, California. November 2019 | BMW OWNERS NEWS 59 residents left the town. By 1950, it was completely abandoned. Today, the remains stand as an eerie reminder of just how fragile life can be in the desert. Heading north to Boise, Idaho, I am eager check out the Modern Hotel and Bar to see what happens when an old Travelodge gets a makeover. When I announced I was taking this trip and asked for reader recommendations, this property was one of the first suggestions I received. When Elizabeth Tullis bought the property and made extensive renovations, she renamed it the Modern Hotel and Bar. Because Tullis’s grandmother had owned a guesthouse in nearby Nampa, Idaho, called the Modern Hotel, it was an ode to her grandma when Tullis renamed the property in her honor. Today it stands among the finest motels I’ve experienced along my journey. Continuing east, I stop in Idaho Falls before going through to Yellowstone National Park. I would love to return to Yellow- stone again once the tourists have all evaporated, because it truly is a national treasure, but the steady stream of RVs and road construction make the riding tedious at best. While there Modern Hotel and Bar, Boise, Idaho. are signs posted to watch for wildlife, there are no signs to warn you of soft gravel! It was when I tried to pull over that I Early morning in Sturgis. 60 BMW OWNERS NEWS | November 2019 Above, the Field of Dreams Movie Site in Dyersville, Iowa. Right, Colonial Inn, Dyersville Iowa. discovered that the shoulder looks identical to the concrete roadway, but it isn’t! That’s what I blame for going down in Yellowstone. It happened as I approached a long line of stopped you get within 100 miles of Sturgis, motorcycles are everywhere. cars and noticed a herd of buffalo grazing next to the road. When There are so many that you don’t even wave because if you did, you I pulled over to the shoulder to park so I could get a picture, my would be riding constantly with only one hand. front tire dug into the soft gravel, and my bike and I descended In addition to the sights and sounds of the rally, the Black Hills into a gully. offers incredible riding and no visit to the area would be complete Fortunately, and thanks to all the gear I wear, I wasn’t hurt and with seeing Mount Rushmore. I’m happy I included this experi- a bystander helped me right the motorcycle. Aside from the ence. It was impressive to see once. cosmetic damage, the motorcycle was fine, the only damage done When it was time to leave, I joined the mass exodus of RVs and to my pride. That photograph of the buffalo will always remind trailers hauling their motorcycles leaving the rally to continue on me of my misjudgment.