Alabama --> Phoenix -->Alabama

Headed east on NM 53 East, passing through El Malpais National Monument, I came across the Continental Divide, and met a special guest star!

Wiggled my way past lava fields, badlands, and onto I-40 at Grants, NM.

I-40 was way too fast for me, so i found another route:



...by gettin' my kicks on Route 66. By the way, I did take the right turn for Albuquerque.

Route 66.

Just imagine what it would have been like to take a road trip on 66 in its heyday. You're from small-town America, and you take this weeks long trip Out West. Can you imagine how mind-blowing it would be to see all this alien landscape?

After getting lost a jillion times in ABQ ( I missed another right turn, apparently), I met up with my host, John Dunbar. I snuck a photo while following him through the cedar forest to his house. The canyon outside of town gives up the twisties nicely!

Nice K-bike, John.

John insisted on making some good wrench-time on y motorcycle.

Thanks, John- the turn signals haven't looked this good since I got the bike!

The baddest van/guest haus evar.

WANT.

Burly high-approach-angle winch bumper? Check.
Camper top? Check.
Four wheel drive? Check.
Stealth looks with top down? Check.

Nice van, John. Down by the river, you say?

It's nice on the road.

Motorcycling- or riding a bicycle, for that matter- is about instability. A bike's inherently unstable, and without proper input, it'll fall over.

Keep going forward, let the wheels roll, and you'll get there. Yes, I wrote that for myself.

NM 14, I think.

Curves is nice, ma'am. NM 14.

Madrid, NM is about the size of a gerbil. The speed limit is 20 through town, and people mill through the streets back and forth between the little shops and galleries and whatnot. The photo makes Madrid look about three times larger than it is. Riding through town, the trees make it look like you're in a tunnel.

NM 14

Rain on the horizon. NM 14.

I made it to Sante Fe, checked out a couple of galleries, grabbed lunch but no phone numbers from Whole Foods there, got fed up with the goatpaths that are the roads there, turned around, headed back to ABQ.

I rode around Mt. San Pedro, passed this guy who was feeding his cows... in his front yard. I turned the bike around and watched him walk among his herd- complete with a big black black bull- and thought to myself, "this is a fella whom I should respect."

Did I mention that they're longhorns?

Guy's name is Richard, and he's from Texas, and he keeps this herd on about ten acres. I asked, and he told me that it takes fifty acres to feed a mother-calf unit in this part of New Mexico. I wonder how many pounds of feed he goes through a week. He got most of his herd form Springer, NM a year or so ago.

NM 336

You should have seen him with his Great Pyranees dog- sweet as all get out. She's there to handle the coyotes.

He invited me in to feed the cows. He let me in the gate and we walked towards the garage where he stores his feed. The cows immediately started lowin- they knew it was food time.

Richard handed me a handful of Cow Chow (tm) and before I knew it I was surrounded by steer. I can't say that being surrounded by big-ass cows being for handouts is a comfortable feeling- especially when the bull starts tossing his head to rid himself of flies.

I was pleased I stopped. Richard was incredibly generous with his time.

Somewhere along the way, I blew out my visor. This caused much consternation for the rest of the trip.

John and I messed around with old Shoei parts for a crappy fix, but it wasn't working too well and I removed all the mis-matched parts.

I ended up buying another pair of eyeglass shields, and had to use a hankie to cover my face from bug strikes and from the sun.

The hankie/shield combo made it a drag to remove the helmet.

I-25N

I'm really glad Mr. Dunbar let me crash at his homestead for a couple of nights- I got to see more of this fantastic part of the country that I'd never before seen.

I ran East on I-25, noticing how the mountains dropped away and how one faces plains so close to Albuquerque. The day I left it was cloudy, stormy in the east. As I got farther east, I saw the lightning and thunder- I could really consider it a good pathetic fallacy with my internal environment.

I hated the long straight slab, so I turned left on NM 3, which took me through the lovely Las Vegas Valley. I passed wineries, punched through more rain, clouds, and lightning (!) (yikes!), sand-covered roads... but it was a nice leg.

Made it to I-25, headed north.

I-25 was a great ride for me- big, expansive views, light traffic, cool stuff to look at. If I had to drive it from Colorado all the time, though, I'm sure I'd go nuts.

I did end up here in NE New Mexico at this old fort. S'help me, I can't think of the name of the place, but it was bee-yoo-tee-ful. Quiet, peaceful, still, and great smelling.

I took an excursion to see Fort Union National Monument, just to breathe in more high prairie air.

Another shot of the upper prairie at the fort.

Driving out the gate at 6:30pm, I came across this:

I-25N

I came across a team roping event- I had to pull over and investigate.

These guys were the real deal- raw-boned, laconic, bowlegged- I felt kinda like a big-city sissy next to these guys.​