Ship Rock
One hundred miles north is Taos, New Mexico, where the swimming scenes at the hippie commune locations were filmed. Stagecoach (Manby) Hot Springs north of Taos has three shallow sand-bottomed rock pools on the east bank of the Rio Grande with temperatures usually about 97 degrees. Dennis Hopper ended up living in Taos for 15 years and it's the burial place of D. H. Lawrence. It's a must for the hardcore easy riders, but after three days of inclement weather and bad motels, a nice room awaited in Santa Fe. The Best Western Sante Fe has an indoor pool, Jacuzzi, great rooms, and a killer complimentary breakfast. The Best Western Hotel chain offers every Captain America a 10 percent discount just by joining its free Rider Rewards Program and are very biker friendly. Most of us are regular workin' stiffs, and our adventures are well prepped and planned and that's OK because Captain America and Billy were chasing the American dream...we get to live it.
The jail from the Easy Rider movie in Las Vegas, New Mexico, today
Fire All of the Guns At Once and Explode Into Space
It's our last day riding with Katee and Tricia, and we all face 40- to 50-mph wind gusts. Quite honestly, my windscreen is flexing as if rubber, and the girls look like biker bobble heads. The big rigs are devouring three-foot tumbleweeds in Pac-Man-like pursuit, leaving us in a wake of shards. After several hours of this brutal beating, the girls remove the motorcycle trunks, reduce their footprint, and keep forging on. Believe me, the last four days have been no picnic looking at the pretty flowers, we've all been getting our asses kicked, and I truly commend these two women riders. Heath and I head toward the mountains for relief while the girls point south; they have another five days of riding through Texas to New Orleans. We easy riders have to get back to Los Angeles, and besides, everyone knows how this story ended for Captain America and Billy. Katee and Tricia went on to raise thousands of dollars for the Gulf Coast Restoration Project. "We are on a quest to do our part to protect the earth and all its inhabitants. We sought a way to marry our love of the open road with our love of humanity. Welcome to the Acting Outlaws," reads an excerpt from the Acting Outlaws website.
Welcome relief...a Corona, lime, and nachos please
Epilogue
The song remains the same, the plot's unchanged, and we're all players in the game. Whether it's Hollywood actors like Fonda and Hopper with roles in Easy Rider, Acting Outlaws Katee and Tricia actually riding 2,500 miles for a charity, or just average Americans spending their hard-earned money touring this wondrous country, Easy Rider captured a spirit, one that still inspires us today. Ultimately we're each writers of our own script defining the story of our lives, and as motorcycle riders it's not our nature to watch the passing parade. We live the adventure, demand a starring role, and yes, we actually do ride off in to the sunset.
Preparing for another day of wrestling Mother Nature
Special Thanks to MrZip66.com, the Acting Outlaws, Best Western Hotel Santa Fe, Daytona Helmets, Lucky 13, Badd Ass Chaps, Scorpion Sports, Dowco Luggage, Sonnet Technologies, Illusion Motorsports, Ron Sinoy.
Easy Rider is available at Netfix. Be sure to watch the bonus material.
Analogy A Similarity Between Like Features of Two Things, On Which a Comparison May Be Based
Metaphor A Figure of Speech In Which an Implied Comparison Is Made Between Two Unlike Things That Actually Have Something Important In Common
Onomatopoeia The Formation or Use of Words That Imitate the Sounds Associated With the Objects or Actions They Refer To