October 3
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This morning started cool, but warmed up nicely as we went on. Since the hotel had no breakfast, we decided not to look around for a place to eat, but just get on the road and have an early lunch. We took US-84 south to US-64, headed towards Taos, NM. The road today was pretty, not as pretty as yesterday, but still interesting and fun.
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Somewhere along the way, I had just passed two cars and was coming up on a Nissan Pathfinder. He was approaching a crossroads and beginning to slow, so I slowed as well to see what he was going to do. I was about 5 car-lengths behind him when he signaled a right turn. Since we were on a deserted straightaway, I decided to pass him as he made his turn, and signaled my pass with my left blinker. Just as my front wheel crossed the yellow line and I began to accelerate for the pass, the Pathfinder suddenly signaled a LEFT turn and pulled directly into my path. I hauled down on the brakes and swerved back into the right lane. As he turned, I made eye contact with the driver, a young male, in his left rearview mirror…and he just looked at me. No look of surprise, nothing. I was mad enough to spit nails. I just couldn’t believe he didn’t see me…the FJR has retina-searing headlights, plus I had the headlight modulator running! The way he gave me that blank expression in the mirror made me wonder if it had not been deliberate. It would have been my fault…T-boning him in the driver’s door as he made a left hand turn…and all he had to say was that he had signaled the turn. There would be no way for me to prove that he signaled a right turn to begin with!
Now, in reality, it was not that close of a call. I had plenty of room to get back into my lane, I was not accelerating hard to get around him, and I had plenty of stopping power…the ABS never kicked in. But it did teach me a lesson about passing vehicles making right hand turns…you never know if they might change their minds.
| We stopped for gas at lonely little station at Tres Piedras, just west of Taos at the intersection of 64 and 285. As we filled our bikes, I heard a buzzing sound, like a chain saw, coming up the road. I looked down 64 towards Taos and saw the strangest sight! A girl in a leather cowboy hat and jacket was pulling into the gas station on a 50cc two-stroke scooter, with a MOUNTAIN of baggage strapped on the back. She was carrying more stuff that Eric and I combined! She pulled up to us, never stopping, never getting slow enough to put her feet down, and yelled “Is Colorado that way?”, pointing up 285. “Yeah,” I responded “that will get you to Colorado.”. “Thanks!” she yelled back, smiling broadly. She gassed the little scooter, which could barely accelerate under the huge load it was carrying, and pulled back on to 285, heading north. I was so stunned that I forgot to get my camera until the last minute, but did zoom all the way out to get a distant shot. I sure hope she had a gas can in her bags somewhere. |
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Coming into Taos there were a lot of odd looking earth-sheltered houses under construction. I wanted to get a picture but the batteries in my camera were just about gone. We also crossed the Rio Grande gorge, where I robbed some batteries out of the GPS to get these pictures.
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Taos is a pretty little southwestern town, lots of adobe buildings, and lots of touristy shops and espresso bars. We were hungry, and after taking a wrong turn and getting lost briefly, I started looking for a restaurant. I saw a place in a strip mall called the Downtown Bistro that had a lot of cars in the parking lot, so headed there. We walked in and got a surprise…it was empty. All of those cars must have been for the massage therapy place next door. But the inside looked pretty classy…a well-stocked bar, linen tablecloths, and nice flatware, so we decided to stay. This turned out to be our best meal of the trip. We both had chicken over pasta with a basil-crème sauce. It was out of this world, and only $8! We told the owner that 1) he was under priced, and 2) that if he was in our towns, we would be there every day! By the time we left they were beginning to fill up, and it looked like a lot of the folks were regulars. If you are ever in Taos, don’t miss this place, it’s killer.
From Taos we continued south on Highway 518, another pretty, curvy road. As we approached Las Vegas, NM, we could tell that we were right on the edge of the forest that we had been riding in for quite some time…we could get glimpses through the trees of a broad, grassy plain extending as far as the eye could see to the east.
We fueled in Las Vegas. There was a guy at the station on a 94 Yamaha XT 600 that looked brand-new. He was the original owner and only had about 20,000 miles on it. We chatted bikes for a few minutes before he headed back to work.
Our goal for the day was Tucumcari, NM, and we could either take US 84 down to I 40 for a high speed run, or take a back-road labeled 104. We chose the path less traveled. The road was almost arrow straight and fairly flat for about 30 miles, but then we were surprised to find a nice set of tight twistys as the road descended a 1300-foot cliff called the Canadian Escarpment. We passed a V-Strom and a Triumph Tiger headed west, and I wondered if this lonely road might be a favorite for the local motorcyclists.
At Tucumcari we took 104 until it crossed the interstate, but didn’t like the looks of the hotels we saw there. We headed east two exits and found a better selection, but could not find a place that had a business center. That bummed us out, since we both wanted to check e-mail. We rode about two miles to Del’s Family Steakhouse for dinner, and then I walked across the street to a convenience store for a 6-pack of Corona.
I didn’t record how many miles we rode.
