Apr 27 - Las Vegas NM to Albuquerque NM

Trip Adviser earned their keep. the hotel was pretty worn but very clean and the owners were extremely nice. All it takes is a smile sometimes..
The plan today was to 1.) do laundry somewhere so the person sitting next to me on the plane did not suffer, 2.) find a Suzuki shop so I can sit on one of those VStrom 650s that everyone keeps raving about, 3.) take Jake out to dinner one more time and 4.) get to the airport on time.
First lets go look for a castle. Deb & Hannah said that I had to stop at United World College near Las Vegas. It took a while to find but it is in Montezuma NM and when you approach it, it looks like well, a castle. Not much going on so the students must have been sleeping it off.
So back to Las Vegas from Montzuma and down Rt 25. It's back to rolling brown grassland but with mountains sprinkled in. I have been looking at these for a couple weeks but it is still interesting compared to back home.
Santa Fe is way too busy so I bypassed it again and stopped for coffee where the Turquoise Road starts (Rt14). A guy with a Harley (of course) chatted me up. He was from Norway and his English was ok. He flew to Los Angeles, bought a used Harley, and was taking 6 weeks to drive across the US. Then ship the Harley to Norway. He had beautiful leathers with all kinds of Norwegian embroidered on it. No mistaking where he was from, and very proud of his home land. As near as i could tell, he was trying to go to a couple Harley rallies.

I have taken the Turquoise Road before and it goes right through Madrid (not pronounced they way you think). They filmed a movie called "Wild Hogs" there and it has since turned into a tourist stop. It was busy today with people walking in the road so you had to obey the 25 mph speed limit for good reason.
Other than Madrid, it was pretty quiet on Rt14. I usually take Rt 40 to Albuquerque, but today I wanted to go down the east side of the mountains. This turned out to be surprisingly nice road. It is high enough on the mountainside so you get a view to the east of the plains and far enough down the mountain that you get a view of the mountain to the west. Lots of little tons with old Spanish history. This roas reminds me that there is a lot of years of Spanish influence here before the white men moved west in the 1800s.

I hit Mountainair, which I had been to before back in November but ran out of daylight. There is more town here than I say before, but not much. The hotel is for sale if anyone is interested. The ride off the mountain gave good views and at the bottom I took the shortcut to Belen and then back on Rt25 north to ABQ. I found the Suzuki shop and a not so knowledgeable sales guy showed me the VStom. Feels pretty nice sitting on it, but he made sure to hang onto the bike so I wouldn't tip it over. Jeez.
Every time I run into a guy riding one of these they gush over how great it is. Hmmm.
OK, laundry next. I found a nice not crowded laundromat and the lady running it was cleaning everything. It was spotless and she was obviously proud of it. She was very nice and treated everyone very nicely. Who wouldn't want to come back here to do their laundry..

So I still had plenty of time to kill before Jake got back from the lab so what better way to spend time than on top of a motorcycle. I headed south to get some good pics somewhere. Lots of interesting clouds rolling in. Got lost just enough times to burn the time I had and I made it back just as Jake was getting back. I unloaded everything from the bike and packed up the big bad with all the motorcycle stuff. Then we walked to a pizza place and had dinner. Nice walk back and a long chat with my son. Taxi picked me up at 10 for the 11:59 flight. Hopefully I can sleep on the plane...

362 miles today. Odometer at the beginning of vacation 90518. Odometer at the end 93675. Total miles this trip 3157 miles.

Apr 26 - Liberal KS to Las Vegas NM

A surprisingly non boring day today. I have always wanted to drive through the Oklahoma panhandle since this is where the dust bowl happened. It is actually very agricultural while most everything has some kind of irrigation, much of it seems un-irrigated. Much of it is just open land like New Mexico. There are still tell-tale signs of old abandoned buildings maybe from the dust bowl days. It's hard to imagine living out here back then. It must have been lonely. There are still a few folks who build houses dozens of miles from anywhere. I suppose these days with solar panels and cellular towers, you could live pretty comfortably.
I saw a lot of wildlife today. The little antelopes were everywhere and they are very skittish. I had 10 of them in the middle of the road at one point and had to almost stop for them to get out of the way. I also saw a couple of groups of deer. I assume they were mule deer since they were not white-tail. They seem more non-plussed by traffic.

I followed Rt 412 all the way across Oklahoma New Mexico and just kissed the corner of Texas. Now this is a lonely road since the trucks don't use it much. So if you break down, you better have a blanket.
I have really started to enjoy riding around the small towns I ride through. Each is it's own little tribe of people and they are fairly self contained. If it is small enough, there are no chain stores, but if it is too small, there is not much but boarded up storefronts from "the good old days".
I even saw an old NRG TallTower and instruments way out in the middle of nowhere. Proudly made by Vermonters in little old Hinesburg VT. Does my heart good..

The temperature started dropping and some big ugly clouds came in with those black funnels under them (not tornadoes). I put my rain stuff on, which also warms me up a bit, but the wind also picked up. When I stopped to take a picture of the TallTower, the wind almost knocked my bike over. At first I had a straight-on headwind which made the beemer grunt, but then the road turned a bit and it hit me just off center which makes it very noisy and I have to ride with the full face shield down. It swung some more and an I had the treat of getting blown around the road quite a bit. Not as bad as a guy I passed with a big trailer behind his pickup.

Today's redneck moment was an old pickup truck pulling a tractor-trailer with a chain. Hoped that worked out for ya'.

I was thinking of heading over the mountains toward Taos and I started that way but as I climbed, the temp got even lower and clouds got uglier. I was feeling like I'd been in the ring all day with the cold and wind so I headed back toward the interstate and headed south. I passed a huge Boy Scout camp (Camp Philmont?) up near Cimarron NM but it looked like it had not opened yet.
So south to Las Vegas where I decide to end the day. My flight is tomorrow night late so I may be able to get one more long day in.

375 miles today

Apr 25 - Alamosa Co to Liberal KS (and Oz)

NOAA called out precipitation west of me toward Utah and above me in Colorado. I have seen enough New Mexico so the only choice left was east toward Kansas. I know the stereotype of Kansas is flat and boring, but being of an open mind, I said why not. First order of business was to get over the last pass and get to Pueblo. There is a wind turbine tower plant south of Pueblo I wanted to find.

 It was 37 degrees out so I put on the heavy bike pants and an extra layer on top and the heavy BMW gloves. It was perfect and I did not get too cold. East of Alamosa is a huge valley with snow capped mountains all around it. Beautiful. I went over the small pass and down onto the flat part of Colorado to Walsenburg. I hopped on Rt 25 and went north. Everything took longer today, not because of slow traffic or anything. The states out here are huge so what I would guess took and hour or two, takes twice that.
I found the Vestas tower plant, and they sure have a big operation there. They have one turbine (Vestas) at the plant you can see from everywhere. Ironically, it is right next to a coal power plant and the coal plant is right next to a huge solar project (single axis trackers).

 Cola plants have huge piles of coal that the train cars continuously feed. Half the trains I see are coal trains with 100+ cars. The other half of the trains are double decker ocean containers. They usually have 3-5 locomotives in front and many times they have one or two pushers behind the cars.
I wiggled through he power plant back yard until I hit Rt 50 that would take me east. Before the interstate system, there were coast to coast roads (10, 20, 30, etc) and I assume this was one of them. The nice thing is these roads are pretty old and many have been either by-passed by the newer interstate or replaced. You see a lot of old gas stations and junkyards with old cars in them from all those years.

 I was surprised at how much crop growing there is in eastern Colorado. Seems like mostly melons, beans, and other "people food". It almost all needs some kind of irrigation and those huge tractors. I stopped by one that I could drive my motorcycle under (It could go even higher with hydraulic cylinders at each wheel to raise and lower it.
Rt50 goes forever so I thought a good target would be Dodge City, KS. Traffic was light and it was clear and sunny all day. Today I made it a point to not just blow through the small towns, but to investigate any that looked to have a downtown. This road was built next to the rail road tracks which were built in the late 1880s next to the Santa Fe trail that went from Independence MO to Santa Fe NM. They used to drive cattle up from Texas, eventually to the trains to get the beef to the coasts. There is still a lot of stockyards here and the crop is Milo, which they feed to the cattle. I stopped and asked someone what the crops I kept seeing were. He said people like it so much to look at that they use it for their lawns.

In Garden City KS I found a wind turbine factory where they had hundreds of blades, nacelles, hubs and towers for turbines. And I saw a lot of turbines out here.
So Milo to feed to the cattle to make hamburgers, lots of trucks moving cattle around and I found the giant hamburger factor in Liberal KS.
I was pretty disgusted with Dodge City (Boot Hill Casino, yuck) and I had enough light to ride another hour and a half so I kept going south west to Liberal KS, right on the Oklahoma border. Nice long walk to a non-existent restaurant (thanks Trip Advisor), and then another walk to an actual existing one. 499 miles today so really beat.

Apr 24 - ABQ to Alamosa CO

I checked the weather last night and it is warm and dry enough to go north and see some Rocky Mountain. I have enjoyed New Mexico and Arizona high plateau and mountains, and the stark open country, but after spending 4 days on the motorcycle, 5 days with Deb in the same terrain, and then 2 days with Jacob and Deb going to Silver City, it's time for my "fourth vacation". Deb's flight (first class again, jeez) was today at noon so we grabbed Jacob for a long walk to the waffle place and got her off to the airport. I packed the beemer up and said goodbye for the at least third time in a week, to Jacob and headed north. I just had the beemer in for a go-through and it made a huge difference. New rubber on the front and the engine is silky smooth. It was getting "chatty" which meant the valves were getting out a little loose, and the idle was a bit rough which means the throttle bodies needed syncing. They even wiped all the bugs off, so my mission was to put more on.

I went north on 25 until I ran into Rt 550, called the Million Dollar Highway and I have been on parts of it before, but today was partly new. It was the same high desert but the altitude kept going up and temperature kept going down. I added a layer in Bloomfield. As soon as you hit the Colorado border, the snow capped mountains appear whihc was a welcome visual after so long in the brown-lands. Don't get me wrong, I loved NM and AZ back roads but change is good. I originally though I would stay on Rt550, but it was getting colder, and the weather looked a bit better to the east, and there looks to be some good wiggly roads on the front range, so I turned right on Rt160 and followed it east. The mountains got bigger to the north and snowier. Traffic was very light so lots of stops for pictures and a couple coffee stops (inner warmth). It occurred to me that I had been on this road 40 years ago on my Suzuki GT550 2-stroke with Pete Brewer. We went over Wolf Creek Pass and through Pagosa Springs, and the song starting drifting through my head.

Check out the YouTube video of the song and the road. That was an epic trip, 6 weeks and 10K miles. After the pass you travel a long ways across more high plains, a lot like New Mexico. For some reason there are hundreds of rail cars parked down here. Not sure if they are ore or coal cars, but they seem fairly new and there must be 500 of them. Also tanker cars. Must be storage. I got to Alamosa around 6 and since there isn't much hotel wise after Alamosa, I decided to stop here. Another perfect motorcycle day. 370 miles today.

Apr 16 - Slow Low AZ to Abuquerque NM

I went to bed last night with visions of another glorious day travelling the back roads, maybe a quick stop in Pie Town for pie, but when I slid the curtain open, I saw snowflakes. I got dressed and checkout the bike and it was beginning to collect snow. Coffee and a quick check with NOAA and it looked like the storm was "breeding" just north of me. It was just about freezing so I thought it might warm up and turn to rain soon. So another leisurely cup of joe and another check and even more snow had collected. The road was sill warm enough that it was wet so I could ride, but what to do. If I wait and any more collects, I am stuck here. The only road south is Rt 191 which would take me 4 hours to get through and I had to be back in ABQ before the beemer shop closed so I can get it in to be worked on next week. The only option was to go for it and hop the snow stopped further east and/or later in the morning (temperature should go up right?). I put all the layers I had on (think Michelin Man), checked out, scraped the fast accumulating snow off the bike, strapped the bag on and headed east.
The road was wet and no sign of freezing yet. I got the usual @#$% looks from folks as I cruised through Slow Low and remembered that I had to climb up to the Continental Divide, which means higher which means colder. Crap.

Well the snow just got worst so I kept going as long as the road was only wet, not icy. I went slow enough that the pickups were passing me and the resulting spray did not help matters. I got a frozen windshield and foggy glasses and a frozen visor so I let my face hang out so I could see.Nice rosy cheeks tonight. I made it to the top of the divide and now it was really snowing, but no buildup on the road, so down the other side hoping the temperature would rise as I went down and it would turn to rain. I had the heated grips on full blast which helped a lot and I was too lazy to stop and turn the hot air vents from the oil cooler to shoot hot air onto my hands (which helps only marginally anyway.
I have ridden a lot in snow at home, but usually with something with knobbies, and as some of you know, not always successfully (think broken leg 3 Januaries ago, heh they were studded knobbies ok).
I got to Springerville which is about an hour east and still snow. I stopped for gas because the next stretch was pretty long and nothing resembling a town big enough to have any. A guy was filling up and I asked if he had any idea what I could expect east of there and he though it might get a bit warmer but not much. The storm was the same one hammering Denver so it might reach all the way down to ABQ.

Full tank and no turning back, I climbed the next hill and then it started accumulating on the road. I passed the ever present Elk crossing signs (that would be timely) and a possibly uplifting "Jesus" sign, and just kept everything smooth and hoped the big gyroscopes under me would keep me going straight. And of course the bridge that was definitely frozen solid added to the mix.
But alas, the road accumulation ended so I got back to just wet pavement and just about when Pie Town came up, it seemed to have tapered off. The Pie-O-Neer was closed (famous Pie Lady place) but there was a little hole in the wall cafe next to it with lots of trucks parked outside (always a good sign), so I decided to stop for coffee, first to just hold in my hands and thaw them out, and then to drink so I could thaw out from the inside. The place was packed with real cowboy looking old guys. Big hats (they stay on your head by the way, never take them off) and those big heavy soiled jackets (they stay on too). The place had 3 big tables that everyone shared so I sat next to a couple of the old guys and started taking layers off. Now everyone in there must have gotten a boost, knowing for certain, there was someone dumber than them, and here he was, right in their own coffee shop. The nice lady running the joint said the coffee was no charge, and offered a small pie (she did charge for those). It was a little early for pie so I asked about eggs, which someone out back whipped up with hash browns, toast and bacon of course. I used the bathroom while the eggs were made and they had a heater in there that kept the temperature at least 80, which was wonderful, and I took my time so I could soak it in.
I sat back next to "Paul" who was 80 and was born across the street. He loved to talk so this turned into a long, very pleasant stop. His father moved there in 1926 with 2 wagons and a Model T. He was one of 12 kids, 5 are dead and 7 still living, and they raised beans and cattle (beef). My table was all seniors and every knew everybody. The owner was born here in 1957 and she had just moved back after moving all around the country with "Mr Wrong" and came back to settle in Pie Town and I assume start his gift shop / cafe. Looked like a New Mexico version of the old farts club and the free coffee probably got them in a lot.

I looked out the window at one point and it was snowing again, so i settled up and bundled back up, said goodbye (it takes a while) and got back on the bike and headed east again. It did eventually stop snowing as I descended down to Rt 25 in Socorro, and even sprinkled a bit.
Everything stopped as I headed north to ABQ with plenty of time to get to the bike shop before it closed. At the shop we made a list of what needed to be done (front tire, valves, oil, filters, high beam switch (the bike is too old, they would have to $pecial order it, no thank$, squirt contact cleaner in thank you). They drove me to Jacobs in a big old BMW car (for what the service was going to cost they should) and Deb arrived 30 minutes later. Dinner out with our favorite son, then off to the hotel and sleep. Tomorrow we take the car and head south. 294 miles today.

Apr 15 - Las Cruces NM to Show Low AZ

What a perfect day! I really was at a loss as to where to go today. I was just here last November and picked off a lot of the NM stuff, and Deb is coming out Saturday to hit the other interesting stuff with me and Jacob, so where to go. I poked around over my crappy motel coffee (with real dried coffee creamer, yum), and I saw it. A weird little road in what turned out to be Arizona, that was long and really, really wiggly. I pulled the little yellow guy on Google Maps and dropped him on the road, and it was love at first site. And it has a tunnel!! Now I need a town big enough on the other side to have a hotel, which turned out to be Show Low, and bingo, away we go.
Rt 10 (deja vu all over again from last November) to Lordsburg with the mandatory stop for security ("Are you a US citizen?") and then the back streets of Lordsburg ("Lordsburg, because Hell was full!") and then Rt 70 to Duncan, which I had been on before. Meanwhile, my fancy schmancy iPhone decided to do it's "lets burn a hole in Millers pocket and drain the battery" trick on Rt 10, so I had to cobble up some wires to re-charge. Since I don't have any real maps, I need the phone to work..
Rt 10 is either an opportunity to meditate and catch your brain up, or really boring, depending on your headset. I have taken to liking interstates (for a while), and today it was ok.
Rt 70 is a straight 2 laner (they bulldozed the other 2 lanes but never finished it so there is a dirt strip next to the 2-laner). At Duncan you turn onto Rt 75 and go through Three Way (and how did they get that name?) and then Rt 191, which is a magical road.

First stop, Clifton / Morenci where there is a HUGE copper mine, look it up on Google Maps, it's huge. I was stopped by a nice Native American woman flag-person, and we chatted for 20 minutes or so while they were washing the road. It was her first day on the job and she was really curious about Vermont, snow, cold, etc. She lived up north on a reservation and came down here for the flagger job. The road was finally clean, and off I went. Rt 191 was either built on top of the copper tailings or they dug up everything to either side of Rt 191 because the first mile or 2 you are actually driving through the mine. I had to stop for three ginormous trucks hauling ore to cross the road. Once I cleared the mine, it was switchback after switchback to climb with absolutely no traffic. And there was that little sign that said "no services for 90 miles". 20 year old Beemer with 91K on the clock and here I go into no-mans-land to die. I did pack 2 liters of liquids just in case.
This road is wonderful. It's like they gave a summer supply of whiskey to a bulldozer operator and told him to have a good time. Twists and turns, no guard rails, and unpredictable turns. The pavement was not great but ok and you had to watch for gravel on some of the turns. It was slow going so I did not get out the other end for 3-4 hours. I saw maybe 6 motorcycles and maybe 6 cars or trucks the whole time, so no traffic. And it got really cold up high. At the north end I ran into another rider (BMW 800GS) from California and he said it was raining up north and I had seen the big ugly clouds up tahead for a while. It turned out to sprinkle once or twice, but I never got wet. But it did get even colder.
At one point way up high, I hit big mountain meadows and burned off areas from a forest fire they had 10 years or so. Mostly twisty tight turns with the occasional flat stretch you could get it into high gear for.
When I came down the other side to a sort-of town called Alpine, the landscape started to get really interesting. The road between Alpine and Springerville (nice little town) is drop dead gorgeous. Big open tree-less areas with white grass growing and big puffy clouds made it downright surreal, especially after being up in the Alpine forest the last 4 hours.
So it was a little early but there is no place the right amount of time away with hotels so I stopped in Show Low for the night (and I was still freezing and a hotel hot shower sounded great). The town was named after a card game between two guys and they decided who got to name the town when one asked to "Show Low" which meant the lowest card wins, and one of them had the 2 of Clubs. So the town was named Show Low and the main street is called "Deuce of Clubs". And there you have it. 383 miles today.

Apr 14 Lubbock TX to Las Cruces NM

The plan was to go to the American Wind Power Museum but they did not open until 10am. So a long walk to find coffee was the first order of business. The temperature, even first thing in the morning, was wonderful. I have to say, that this part of Texas has very wonderful folks, everyone very chatty. I would not, however try walking across a street, with or without the crosswalk lights. Pedestrians are not a priority.
I got to the museum 10 minutes before it opened and the nice lady let me walk around with her as she turned all the lights on. She has worked there for 13 years and knows everything there is to know about these windmills. A woman Home Economics professor at Texas Tech in the 1950's was making the rounds of the farms in Texas and noticed a lot of defunct windmills. She asked if she could have them hauled off and the answer was many times yes. She collected a lot of them and found another guy restoring them in Nebraska with a huge collection. A deal was struck with those two, the city of Lubbock, and Texas Tech to create a non-profit to start a museum. It is a real piece of Americana. They have two full time mechanics who restore these and keep the ones outside on the grounds (there are a lot) spinning. As a mechanical engineer it is really exciting to see how complex and different all the different designs were.

She walked me through the whole place and took me over to meet the guys building the new exhibit, which deals with trains. They point out that the trains all needed fuel and water every 30 to 50 miles and so there is a town every 30 to 50 miles and each town needed water for the trains, hence all the interest in water pumping windmills.They will have model trains running floor to ceiling in this new new space, and they have an army of volunteers to pull it off. One woman, who has built models of all the old western buildings, donated all of her last 30 years of work to the museum to go along with the trains. Nice community effort.
So sadly I said goodbye and told her I was going south to Midland. She advised against it since it is too boring and told me about a route to Clovis that was more interesting (but not much). Anyway, I put 420 miles in, even with the late start. I went to Clovis and then Rt 70 all the way to Las Cruces. I have been on some of these roads before, including San Dunes Park and the missile range, but it is still a nice ride with this warm 70-80 degree weather.
Almost no traffic and plenty of small towns to stop and take breaks.

Good night.

Apr 13 Albuqurque to Lubbock TX

Yesterday my JetBlue flight went without a hitch. I did not expect a long layover in NYC, but it was a good chance to get started on the Mosher book "Disappearances". Got 2/3rds of the way through it.
Arrived in Albuquerque around 11pm Mountain Time and shared a taxi with a native NM guy coming back from 6 months in Portugal. Jake was up and we had tea and talked for a long time before he once again gave the old man his bed and he took the really comfy foldout couch.
I looked for the street address of the Toyota plant in Austin and discovered the plant is not in Austin but rather in San Antonio, which added another 150 miles or so. So I decided to skip the Toyota tour and instead just take it easy and poke around West Texas.
So leisurely breakfast at Eli's as recommended by his roommate Claire. Turned out to be a hole in the wall that was featured on a TV show (Diners Drive-ins and Dives) and it was a tribute to get a simple formula down, do it really well and don't fancy the place up too much. There is something homey about a place that does't fake stuff up and there are some well worn but loved accouterments.
I dropped Jacob off at Deep Space 9 (Physics building) and hit the road. The beemer was running really smooth, as always, so I jumped on 25 north and then 40 east where I spent a good part of the day. I never used to like interstates and I guess I still don't, but out here there is not a lot too look at, or maybe it's that there is a lot to think about.
And the most interesting people go by (remember, I drive pretty slow  so most drive by). Lots of trucks and business travelers and the occasional refugees, loaded up in their old beaters with everything they own, heading for somewhere new, new beginnings I imagine, excitement and fear.
Now New Mexico is a pretty big state and as the signs on rt40 go by, I keep thinking the next town is in Texas, but alas, it's still NM.
I stopped and called the BMW shop in ABQ to get it in next week for valves (it's getting "chatty"), and got the answering machine. They did call me back later with an estimate. Nothing like interstate phone tag on a motorcycle, and no, I do not talk on my phone on the bike.
I couldn't find the iPod so I tried something new, Pandora on my iPhone. Works pretty well, and it hardly uses much service so maybe once again, a mistake forces a discovery. That what my R and D work life has been, mistakes and discoveries. Love it.
I finally did get to the Texas border and I gotta say, not much out here. I made a couple coffee stops and finally did get the BMW guys and they can work on the bike next week. In Lubbock, I stopped at the Cadillac Ranch where the guy buried Cadillac's nose first in the sand and he had what looked to be a Muffler Man, so that would have to make up for the Toyota plant tour. My clocks all read something different but I finally figured out, if I pushed until sunset, I could make it to Lubbock. Amarillo is not much to look at so I'll go for it. Empty smooth road all the way to Lubbock and I even called ahead for a motel (I can too plan!!). Got in just as the sun was setting and it would have been pretty, but there is nothing but power lines to look through to see it.
Long walk in the warm (70's) air, light dinner, cold beer and then hit the hay. No idea where I go tomorrow..
440 miles today