With the weather having taken a turn for the awful (and quite frankly, dangerous), Rick and his wife loaded me in their van and gave me a ride south to the Colorado/New Mexico border.


Hindsight, I probably should have taken up Rick's offer to stay in Salida for a day or three and wait it out, but I was in a moving mood and had to keep going. I followed US285 south to Sante Fe then to Albuquerque and finally to Socorro.

Several times during the day the dust and sand created near brownouts on the road, the sand coming up under my helmet and coating my visor and face with dust. I stopped for lunch in Oja Caliente at a little diner/gift shop (Mesa Vista Cafe), had a great buritto smothered in green chili. While I was sitting and eating, a massive gust blew up outside and when the dust cleared, my little windscreen was gone, probably halfway back to Colorado. A blessing in disguise though, wind blast was a bit smoother without it.

I stopped in Santa Fe briefly, mainly putted around downtown and swung past St. John's campus to get a look at it (I had applied and been accepted there several years ago, but decided not to attend). Seems like a cool town, kinda reminded me of an adobe, upscale, and larger Eureka Springs.

After Santa Fe, I decided to head in a more south westerly direction and eventually followed rt 14 out of town. Soon I came up to a little town that looked strangely familiar... looked a lot like the town from Wild Hogs actually. Madrid, NM... aw hell, it IS the town from Wild Hogs! :laugh1: The wind was blowing bad with lots of dust and the weather was turning so I didn't bother playing tourist with the camera. The roads in and out of town were wonderful though, and the new Continentals were great through the rolling hills and canyons. As I rolled back up in elevation, the weather turned cold and colder, then slowly it started snowing. Great. Fortunately I was near a town, Cedar Crest, and pulled in to a bar, the Lazy Lizard Bar and Grill, to see what the weather was supposed to do (if I had cell service).



As I pulled my helmet off a couple guys were hanging around out front. "Wow, riding out in this weather? Where you coming from?" Maryland. "Hell, Maryland?! On that! If you come inside, I'll buy you a ."

Hell I need to wait this snow out anyway.

The guys at the bar


Fortunately the snow cleared quickly before it stuck to anything, and I made it to Socorro without further issue. The best thing about Socorro was the nicest cheap hotel I've ever stayed in, a $35 econo lodge with a bed as comfortable as ones I've seen in hotels costing 10x as much plus a full hot breakfast in the morning. Tomorrow... big radios, big country, and more weather.

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2008 Yamaha WR250R