It's all about Lordsburg

Pulled into Lordsburg around 5:30 pm and found strange comfort in seeing that the brand new Hampton Inn (yeah, HHonors points!) shared a parking lot with the Lordsburg, NM police department. Might have something to do with noticing how close to the border this part of the trip has me. Would hate for somebody in South America to be riding a nice, shiny 2004 Harley V-ROD next week.

Speaking of the border, I learned that the Border Patrol folks have absolutely zero concern that one could smuggle anyone inside the luggage on the back of my bike. They waived me through so fast I barely had time to slow down. On the ride down Hwy 70 from Almogordo to Las Cruces (past White Sands), I saw the border patrol stop where 23 years ago, I watched an agent draw his gun on my ironing board. Ask me about that story next time you see me. I laughed out loud as I rode past today.

Another nearly 400 mile day today. I really could get used to these fairly short days. Or more precisely, I could get used to taking my time on the ride, seeing the sights, taking pictures, talking to locals, etc. It's easier to do when you know that all you need to do is whip out 400 miles of riding and the rest of the day is yours. Somehow, I never am in that frame of mind on the ST1300. Guess speed crowds out thoughts of leisure. If you followed the blog today, you saw that I did in fact, stop to take a few photos.

From start to finish, today was a day of contrasts in a single state. Hobbs seemed more like an extension of the oil and gas fields of west Texas. Maybe even more intensely populated with bobbing oil pump jacks. Petroleum fumes filled the air. Like they say, what stinks to the visitors smells like money to the locals. The terrain continued flat and long all the way to Artesia, where pump jacks gave way to pecan tree groves. Saw a couple of very cool bronze sculptures in Artesia (see photos). Not too far west of Artesia, Hwy 82 starts to gently curve and slowly climb toward the Lincoln National Forest, nestled into the Sacremento Mountains. I stopped at a convenience store in Mayhill--a town that consists of a convenience store, a Baptist church and two fuel pumps. The owner of the store was so colorful, I hung around and talked to him for a bit. By colorful, I mean opinionated. By opinionated, I mean died-in-the-wool-southern-New Mexico-conservative-Republican-Obama-better-not-come-around-these-parts sort of guy. I know a little bit about New Mexico politics from my former life, so I had a fun conversation. I'm finding myself more easily amused as I get older.

I have video from the ride down the mountain into Alamogordo, but it's not a format that the iPad liked, so I won't be able to post it until I get to a computer. I did post a few pics from that part of the ride. First time on this trip that I had a chance to scrape the pegs a bit on the V-ROD. Given the amount of luggage on the back, I was slightly less aggressive than normal, which sucks. But, crashing in the mountains of New Mexico on day two was not part of my pre-trip planning, so I took it a little easy.

Ever been to Alamogordo? Sandwhiched between the beautiful Sacremento Mountains and the desolate White Sands Missile Range, which houses the White Sands National Monument. I've been through here before, but had never stopped at the Monument. National monument #1 officially checked off for the trip. Interesting place, but the fighter jets overhead from Holloman AFB distracted me too much.

Hwy 70/82 from Alamogordo to Las Cruces is as straight and boring as a road can be. Fortunately, the speed limit is 75 mph, which makes 80 mph doable (no radar detector on this bike). Came across a very bad accident where it appeared that an SUV flipped, rolled and caught on fire. Authorities hadn't arrived yet, but there were at least a dozen cars pulled over and people were providing aid. Pretty bad scene. Can't figure out how a vehicle would roll on such an incredibly straight road. (Sadly, I came across an almost identical accident about 2 hours later on I-10, just east of Deming.) Prayers to everyone involved in those wrecks.

From the oil fields and plains of southeastern NM, through the Sacremento Mountains, across the White Sands desert and into the beginnings of what is very recognizable as the Arizona desert--even if I'm not officially in AZ yet. This was just day #2? Unbelievable. This is not a trip I will take for granted.