Eastern New Mexico tour

I slept like a baby in Jake's bed (thanks Jake, you are back in the will). Jake and I had more ponderings this morning over a leisurely breakfast which is a treat for me. It seems the physics world has the same personality types we do in the working world. Those that get the spec and do the work and those that connect all the dots. Both completely required and both drive each other nuts. By me a beer sometime and I will elaborate further.
The weather got worst (or the predictions) to the west so I decided this morning to head east and spend a day on the uncharted eastern New Mexico side of the state. I took Rt 25 north to Rt 40 and then east until I got to the road that goes all the way from Sante Fe to Roswell (and beyond to Texas I suppose). Temperature was warm enough not to wear bike pants so just a couple layers and those nice warm BMW leather gloves my lovely wife bought me many moons ago. Like my wife, they are hot!
Today I added music which makes a huge difference. My friend Jeff turned me onto listening to earbuds a few years back (thanks Jeff) and it is great listening to tunes while riding.
Many moons ago, they hired a teenager to sit on a bulldozer with a compass and make a road from Santa Fe to Roswell. The alternative explanation, only because it goes to Roswell is it is long and straight to land alien spacecraft, but the teenager explanation seems more plausible. It sure seems that way because Rt 285 is straight and unused pretty much and 4 lane. The added bonus today was a brutal cross wind that blew up my right nostril all day. Man that wears you out. There are a couple tiny towns in between but not not much. It was sunny and warm. Roswell is a pretty big town actually, I stopped for coffee and checked the map and the plan was to go to White Sands.

I took Rt 380 to Rt 70 and soon ran into rain. I rode 2 hours in the rain and the sky finally broke open around White Sands, but, the wind was blowing so hard that the sands were up in the air. My bike has a layer of white sand on top of the rain residue (gotta do a clean job in the morning). I had just enough time to make it to Las Cruces before sunset (5pm) and I pulled into the hotel tonight to watch the sun drop, so perfect timing.
Crappy dinner at the Cattleman's Steak House next door, but the beer was cold and welcome. About 3 people in the place.
So tomorrow I hope to actually head west toward Tucson, but final decision is in the morning.