Florida is the same. Never wrapped my head around it… Military service members are not exempted, no matter what the State regulations are. Helmet is mandatory for them all around the US. They also have to take a mandatory motorcycle handling and safety course on top of their licence. As a foreign exchange member, it was mandatory for me too when we got there, and they explained the mandatory helmet federal regulation by the US Marine Corps loosing more Marines to bike accidents than enemy fire (Afghanistan) during fiscal year 2007. Which came up as « totally unacceptable ».
Common sense is to not restrict peoples choices. With a private health policy to cover any eventualities, there is no basis to force anyone to use a crash helmet.
Well, aside from the human tragedy, and in the context of quote: If that's going to effect the US military to that extent, who've spent significant sums and time training their soldiers, it makes sense for them to insist on helmet use for those in the forces who ride.
If the US miltary personnel agree not to ride without a helmet due to their job contract, that is -imo- fine.
There’s no agreement needed. It’s a direct order coming from the big boss. Disobey, and you’re fired. Plain and simple.
Forever Texas. We parked up in the attractive but touristy Fredericksburg which originally was a German town. We went into a coffee shop and had coffee with an almond croissant filled with raspberries. It was a delicious combination I’d never had before but I will try it again. In the coffee shop a young lady came over and struck up a conversation in German. She’d heard him talking with his Arnold Schwarzenegger accent. Apparently her grandmother was German and she wanted to practice. Saddling up again we headed for Brady. A couple of miles out there was a biker café on the left which I wished we’d dropped into. It would’ve been interesting to chat although all the clientele looked exactly the same. Who’d have thought the Catfish in a little shack near the motel would be so good. Better in fact than the fish at Galveston. No added gloop, just seasoned with spices, which is called blackened.We were the only tourists and Brady was a small genuine Texas town, I really enjoyed it. They didn’t serve any alcohol and had suggested, though if we wanted liiiibations we should get them from the supermarket opposite and it was fine to drink the cans of beer in there, which we did. Well Pedro and the laughing Cavalier did, all I seem to be able to stomach is 1/4 pint of beer without feeling completely bloated. Hmmmm, maybe I’ve got a gluten intolerance. By 8pm it was all over, not only did they stop serving they shut up Shop. Which is the norm here. Anyway it was excellent and all $47 dollars which was pretty much the same as the snack had cost us in the fashionable Fredericksburg. It had taken us three days to get across the state of Texas. I really enjoyed Texas. This whole thing is an experience. The restaurant shack. Brady
Road to Nowhere. As we headed towards the New Mexico border at last we saw some Nodding Donkeys that were actually working. As we took pictures we could actually smell the oil in the wind. As we pressed on to Seminole Pedro pulled up and announced his bike was showing it was totally out of gas. We decided to press on and see how it went. If it ran out, it ran out. We dropped to 40mph and fortunately eked out the 9 miles to the next nozzle, on vapour. This whole stretch and up to Hobbs looked like we’d expected Texas to look. Vast open plains, dry and windswept with wide dual carriageways heading straight to the horizon. Much of the day reminded me of the Fens, which I hate but I can forgive Texas. We are now in Hobbs, which is approximately 5 miles across the border into New Mexico or at least we were when I wrote this. We’re now in Nowheresville!
Breaking Bad. It has been very windy this morning. I knew this part would be boring and it hasn’t surprised me. Miles and miles of nothing, except Tumbleweed blew across the road in the wind. I don’t know why Captain James T Kirk felt that he had to go into space, there’s lots of space here with absolutely nothing! It’s Breaking bad country. The Harley Davidson shatnav is just appalling. It’s been driving us bonkers, keeps taking us to the wrong place, dropping out and it is so slow. It’s unbelievable. It takes four attempts to type in your destination every morning. They might have Starlink but really need to do some catching up with thus part of the link. It’s a good job there is nothing. We can’t go wrong. Can we? On the plus side the saddle is all day comfortable, genuinely I haven’t had any problems with it at all and the panniers kept out the rain perfectly, top marks for that. I won’t be buying one when I get back though.
A couple of people told us to avoid it, said it was dangerous. I didn’t take too much notice of that but Santa Fe won out, it was either or and it seemed more interesting.
The Santa Fe Trail. Santa Fe is the second oldest city in America. St Augustine in Florida being the oldest. It has a really Spanish feel, I like the architecture and the use of the local sand and soil to render the buildings, giving many of them a pale brown shade. Many have flat roofs with a little waterspouts that come out of the top to drain. It’s an elegant look combining old and modern. Downtown is sophisticated with elegant shops which is a huge contrast to the windswept bleak towns that we’ve come through on the way up here. It just makes me wonder what people do to make a living in those little towns in the middle of nowhere. I can understand how St Augustine originated on the coast but it must have been some mission to get to what became Santa Fe. It’s 2,000m above sea level. Ben Nevis is 1345m high for comparison. That’s a serious haul for the wagon trains. It was schlep on the motor-cicles. Suffice to say it’s cold at this altitude. You can see snow on the mountains to the west where you can ski. At one stage Santa Fe was part of The Republic of Texas but is now New Mexico. It was built at the crossroads of the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro from Mexico City and the Santa Fe Trail which came from Franklin Missouri. The trail was later incorporated into parts of Route 66. Which we should be doing part of today. Unfortunately it looks like we’ve got more challenging weather coming our way in a few days, so we’ve been planning for that.
Another thing about the Harley, on the first day I accidentally hit the kill switch four times. Since then I’d done it at least once a day except yesterday, I managed a full day without killing the engine accidentally. Same for laughing boy. It’s just too easy to knock it with your gloves on. Also when you hit the cruise control and roll off the throttle it isn’t a smooth takeover, it always drops the revs a little then picks back up. It makes you rock forward and backwards every time. A little thing but it drives me nuts.
