This morning I woke up from a great night’s sleep and started my routine of packing bags and doing a safety check on Gypsy.  I was excited to get out of Springerville and head to Santa Fe.  My motorcycle friends were doing the same so we decided to eat breakfast together.  Breakfast for me consisted of a piece of toast and a hard boiled egg, everything else was sugary carbs.  My friends said a morning prayer over their hotel waffle, asked for safety during their ride, and included me in their prayer as also having a safe ride.  We all said “amen” and I dug into my egg.  I was careful to follow the rules of the awesome signage:

After “breakfast”, we said our goodbyes and wished each other safe journeys.

Juan, Robin and Mark from Clovis, NM

I ended up heading out around 7:30 am.  It was a beautiful morning and chilly enough to turn on my heated grips, but it felt good.  Again, most of my ride was on a gorgeous, 2-way road with hardly any traffic.  Within 12 miles I crossed over into New Mexico, hooray!

I rode past the Gallo mountains and through the Cibola National Forest.  I felt so lucky to just be there, seeing it all and trying to savor every moment of it.

 

After going through the Cibola forest I made my descent into a valley with wide open grassy meadows and stunning mesas.  So I’m riding along through this grassy valley and I notice something on the road.  I’m not sure what they are at first but there’s a lot of them.  Then, I see what I thought were little birds flying all over but….they weren’t swooping like birds.  I realized they were grasshoppers.  The size of 747’s.  My sister, Karen knows I HATE grasshoppers.  If I see one, I’ll run.  So, I’m pretty sure I must have been paying off some kind of karmic debt because, there were BILLIONS of them.  Thank God for a full face helmet but I was getting pegged in the arms and legs so I rode with my head crouched down and my non-throttle hand holding the neck of my jacket closed.  I was freaked out and had to tell myself NOT to do the ninja grasshopper dance and crash the bike.  I did get one up my sleeve and made a little squeaky sound in my throat as I pulled it out.  That lasted about 10 miles and then, they were gone.  I breathed a sigh of relief just a bit too soon as I sat up and BAM!  One nailed me right in the chest.  HUGE.  Sorry, I was too freaked out to get a picture of the locust storm.

One stop I really wanted to make was Pie Town, NM.  I am not even sure you can call it a town, there is the cafe’ and a little store of some kind.  Even though it was only 10:30 in the morning I had to stop for pie.

As soon as I walked in I noticed a table full of ladies and it looked as if they were celebrating someone’s birthday.  One of the pretty silver-haired ladies approached me  and asked me where I was riding in from.  She was also a rider and she told me some good roads to check out.  A very fun bunch indeed.  I sat down and ordered my favorite, peach pie.  I wasn’t really hungry but I had to have some.  It was very good but just for the record, my mom’s is better.

After eating as much of it as I could, I said goodbye to the birthday ladies and they wished me safe travels.  I walked out to Gypsy and as I most often do, I find someone intrigued with her.

This is Ron, he tells me he used to be a mechanic for Triumphs and also owned a few.  He asked me questions on engine size, horse power and the usual.  He told me he now owns a BMW 900c.  He says he dumped it the other night, rode it into a ditch.  I was wide-eyed and said, “how did THAT happen”?  He casually says, “well, I probably had a little too much to drink”.  My reply: “oh”.  He said, “Yep”.   I liked Ron, straight and to the point.  He was headed in for something to eat, and told me he was glad they weren’t closed or he’d be at home eating a frozen burrito.  He then wished me safe travels and I was off again–contemplating the birthday ladies, and Ron on his BMW 900c riding in the ditch as I rode over the Continental Divide.

I arrived in Santa Fe around 3 pm.  I walked in my hotel and was happy to see I have a kitchenette with a stove top, full fridge and dishes.  Albertson’s is across the way as is Starbucks so I’m all set.  I look forward to exploring Santa Fe tomorrow since I’ll have a day off the bike.  I may go to Ojo Caliente mineral springs (one of the birthday ladies in Pie Town recommended it) and likely do a little shopping in the Plaza.  More to come…