My wife snapped this as I left.
20190524_103504 by Roger, on Flickr
Raygun and I agreed to meet up in Socorro and head West from there. I knew he had a little longer ride to get there so I had a little extra time at the house. This gave me a chance to download a few stations on my offline Pandora subscription, which was a first for me. I always just tune in to an FM radio station, but in the hills where we were headed that wasn’t going to work. Anyway, I made it to Socorro, hit the ATM for some cash and Raygun called. I’ve got a problem, he says…
He’s talking on his Sena while riding and tells me his ride just got really rough for some reason. His rear Shinko Tourmaster decided to lose a few pounds for the trip.
20190524_144223 by Roger, on Flickr
He was able to limp down the shoulder of I-25 on into Socorro. Not sure how many miles, maybe 30 or 40, but I’m amazed the tire held! He somehow found a new tire in Albuquerque, 85 miles North, and located a tire shop in Socorro, and talked with me about how to get the new tire to him WITHOUT STOPPING! I called back to Albuquerque and asked my wife if she’d be interested in taking a short road trip to bring the new tire for Raygun. To our delight, she said yes!
As Raygun rolled into town, we met for lunch and waited for my wife. Our first stop and someone already asks about the old bike out in the parking lot, his KZ1300. As we were walking out, an older (80 something) Navajo lady said to me “I almost joined the Hell’s Angels just to ride a motorcycle”. I told her she didn’t have to join those guys, I said I’d take her for a ride. She laughed and declined the offer.
Oh yeah, the tire… My wife showed up with a brand-new Dunlop 404. We thanked her and Raygun said she had just saved the trip. I owe her big time! Fortunately, she rather enjoys a spontaneous road trip every now and then. On to the tire shop…
The one guy that worked the little shop was out on a wrecker call or something, so we got the KZ ready and sat there. We got our Sena headsets paired up and Raygun showed me some tips on using the headset. That thing can do way more than I’ll probably ever use it for. Anyway, the shop guy finally showed up and swapped out the tire in no time.
20190524_162430 by Roger, on Flickr
New rubber, time to roll!
20190524_164458 by Roger, on Flickr
With the new rubber on the ground we hit the highway at around 5pm. Heading West on 60 we passed through Magdelana and the Very Large Array radio telescope, then veered South a bit towards Apache Creek campground. This is as far as we’ll go for tonight. About 120 miles after the tire fiasco, but we’re away from town and loving the ride!
Here’s the camp setup on the first night.
20190524_200240 by Roger, on Flickr
A look into the GS’s pantry shows the stash of MRE’s from the Kirtland Air Force Base commissary. Looks like I’ll have the chicken burrito bowl for dinner tonight!
20190524_200303 by Roger, on Flickr
It got dark pretty fast, and real friggin cold! We weren’t expecting temps into the twenty’s overnight. The sun came up and boy were we glad! We walked over to where the sun was first shining and stood chatting for a while before tearing down the camp site to head out.
More to follow.
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