A Fool's Progress: Surfing New Mexico

I headed out destined to make Taos and lose a couple hours there. I knew I wouldnt make high miles because of it, so I stayed off the main roads. I'm telling you, 503 76 and a couple other back roads from Santa Fe to Taos are not to be missed. The scenery is gorgeous, the road is interesting. In some places it briefly becomes barely a lane and a half wide and is more a paved goat trail than a road. The pavement surface is frost heaved, patched and indifferently cambered....sport bikes with short travel stiff suspension need no apply. The big Quota was at home here. The long suspension soaked up the road like a sponge, dancing over uneven surfaces in corners. The big v-twin motor working the curves in a single gear, howling up in the rpm range between the corners, then growling as it hauled down the speed ast the corner approached, then powering up like a freight train through and exiting the curve, all within a single gear.

Taos confirmed my suspicion that Northern New Mexico is as lousy with "artisans" as LA is with aspiring actors and screenwriters. Everyone has some artsy craft that they pimp at every opportunity. Other than that, Taos is a nice, it touristy place...a good place for me to buy some bling for the missus. She deserves it having let me slip the leash for so long and raid the financial resources like Fat Albert at an open buffet.

Having killed a couple hours in Taos I headed out. I set my sights on Farmington, not wanting to tackle the Navaho reservation until morning. Out of gas, camping by a gas station that is closed until morning is no fun. Done it. Didnt like it. And I was a lot younger.

The route took me out across a large flat valley floor to the Rio Grande Gorge. That was very cool. It appears out of nowhere. If you raced across the plain and didnt know it was there, I doubt you could avoid a plunge..a plunge you would not survive. The gorge is literally like a slash in the ground. Like ripping a nail through fresh cement. I stood on the bridge...but not for long, traffic makes it vibrate like a guitar string. Combined with my inclination toward minor vertigo and it is most disconcerting.

After the gorge I passed a large group of "green homes" all half buried in the dirt. While I think the technology is cool and valuable....it made me think of the term "Hippy Reservation"...lots of junk laying around.

From there the path took me through the Carson National Forest. What a ride. Not a lot of challenges, but such fantastic scenery. In a short three hours I went from high desert on the rio grande to color sprouting Aspen forests and alpine meadows at 10,500 feet and then back down to high desert again. Then I crossed the Apache Reservation.most likely my favorite indiqan tribe to read about. I know this isnt the same exact land but I did imprint the sights and smell on my memory as I was treading a land of warriors unlike any in history.

As I rode the downwind leg toward Farmington the skies that had threatened all day long began to rumble in earnest. I clipped the edges of a couple storms and watched the curtain of a couple others travel the mesas in the distance. The sky is so huge that there is a lot of room for drama in the sky...and nature sure indulged in drama today.

I searched for lodging in Farmington with a growing desperation as the sky churned from black to gray to purple and back again; like a living bruise. I had no sooner parked my bike and grabbed the tank bag when the skies opened up. I unloaded the bike while getting hosed down from above.

As the hotel is in an industrial area, there isnt much int he way of food or groceries. I did not want to go out in the storm and ordering in dominos or chinese was unappealing. I took inventory of my snacks: a freeform candy bar, reshaped by desert heat in texas. A bag of pork cracklins. Some beef jerky...then I remembered that Coonass had pressed a couple MREs on me courtesy of FEMA. So dinner was MRE speghetti and meatballs. I tell you...as food, I have had far worse. I wouldnt want to live on them..but it beats ramen noodles.

Tomorrow we see if I need to buy a spare gas can to make the Navaho res. Sarturday should have me in Cali