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.