Day Six - Ouray to Hinton Oklahoma - 810 miles
We began our journey home. We left the campground and headed south on US550 - The Million Dollar Highway. I ranked this road as one of favorite rides off all time. Unfortunately the road has not been well maintained and we were left to simply enjoying the scenery rather than going all out. It is still a spectacular drive. We passed through the town of Silverton and gassed up after we toured around the town. On our way down the highway we passed the Durango-Silverton train on its way to Silverton. In Durango we stayed on US550 toward Aztec and Bloomfield NM. Once below Durango the scenery changes to that of the high desert. In Bloomfield the route changes to S44. Fifty miles before we reached I-25 we hit road construction and it was major construction. We probably lost a good hour on this road. Once on I-25 we headed south towards Albuquerque we caught I-40 east. New Mexico did not have much to offer on the roads we were on. The day was wearing on as we crossed into Oklahoma. This was a state I had not been in on my motorcycle. It was now well after dark and we felt our riding was becoming erratic, we found it difficult to maintain speed. We stopped short of Oklahoma City near the town of Hinton at mile marker 101. There was some new motel that we thought we be acceptable near the interstate but as we got closer we saw a older single story motel looking in need of some business. We rode down to the older motel and booked a room where the owner gave us a motorcyclist's rate. He happened to one himself and drank a couple of beers with us while he showed us his vintage collection of Ducatis.
