Day 7 - Wow! What a ride!

Day 7 - Fantastic! Route 64

Captain's Log Day 7

Today was another incredible day of traveling! The mountains in northern New Mexico were nothing like I had expected to see! We traveled across Route 64 from Eagle Nest to Farmington and the sights were simply fantastic! Actually, I would highly recommend the stretch of road from Cimarron, Nm to Farmington. There were a few brief stretches that were desert and pretty straight but the rest of it was simply motorcycle heaven! From the tight left and rights with an occasional switchback through Cimarron Canyon State Park to the longer sweeping corners that allowed speeds up to 55mph through Carson National Forest, it was a day of great scenery and fantastic riding.

A trained monkey could have driven through the plains of Kansas and into the Oklahoma northwest, but these roads through the mountains were a whole different story. The cruise control on my Yamaha Venture was barely used at all, just now and again to stretch out the right hand, then it was right back to driving again. Ohhh, was it nice!

It seemed that I couldn’t make any time though because at every turn there was another great photo opportunity. We would climb back on the bike and barely get up to speed while cresting a hill or turning a corner, and there would be another great sight that compelled me to capture it for memory sake. At one point, Dawn said, “Oh no, what did that sign say?” I answered, “A picnic spot in a half mile.” She said, “I was afraid of that! Do you have to stop?” “Naw, I have taken enough pictures.” Then we came to the pull off and the most spectacular view of a mountain came into view and I had to stop - I JUST HAD TO!

The next pull off Dawn put blinders on me using her hands! But you should have seen the view! It was the same mountain, just more spectacular than the last view! We didn’t stop. We did end up with far more pictures than we could begin to post but here are a few of them for you. Can you believe we ran into snow? Well, we saw it off the road at our elevation!

We came across the Rio Grand Gorge quite unexpectedly during this ride. While talking to a gentleman there, (I know, you probably find it hard to believe that I would be talking to strangers!) he said that this was used in one of the scenes in the movie, Wild Hogs. Check it out!

Later we ran into wind. Oh did we run into wind! It gave me a good workout for sure. Then the sky turned black to our left and right, connected in the middle a bit higher than the horizon - it gave the impression of a huge rain umbrella. In fact most of the clouds were pouring rain out of them but the rain was evaporating before hitting the ground. That is until we climbed in elevation, then we got hit by some massive drops but those periods of rain were very short lived. We were just trying to get into Farmington before the rain decided to reach all the way to the ground.

Did you ever notice how God has a great sense of humor? About 10 miles from Rick and Kim’s house, it started pouring! Then it stopped, then it started, then it stopped till we got to their house and were standing in their driveway talking and the thunder began to roll and the rain decided it was time to stop teasing us and it really started coming down! I laughed and laughed as we were running through those showers because we were spared from all the black clouds through the mountains and as we pull into town, He decides to shoot us with His water canon! Go figure!

Needless to say, it took far longer to get to Rick and Kim’s house than we planned - hard to make any time when you stop every mile or so. Maybe if we had moved along a bit faster we wouldn’t have gotten wet at all, but I simply could not resist the beauty of the moment. Given the chance to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing!

Here is a picture of the Francher’s. It is always good to get back with old friends just to catch up. We will be spending a few days here with them before moving on but we already have some great plans to see what this part of the country has to offer! We’ll keep you posted on our time with them and OHH, I think there will be some stories to tell. Lindsey is already talking about the Captain’s Log… maybe she can make a guest appearance. :-)