Today was an interesting day. Leaving Plainview it was overcast and there was some wind but it was from the north instead of the south wind I’ve gotten used to. It was actually a cold wind too. That combined with the cloudy skies had me reaching for my jacket and winter gloves. As I got close to the Texas/New Mexico border I had to laugh at the name of the last town on the Texas side. Texas/Oklahoma = Texoma, Texas/Arkansas = Texarcana, Texas/New Mexico = Farwell; isn’t that funny.
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| I wonder if the guy that named this town so many years ago just wasn’t a very good spellar. |
I was a little worried that the New Mexico fires might hinder my route through the mountains but there were no road closures and just about no more smoke that I could see. Hopefully they’ve got those things under control, come on rain.
The wind was kinda shifting around today but just outside Arizona I got hit by what must have been a dust devil that was invisible since there was no dust in it. Both hands on the handlebars please. That dust devil didn’t wreck me but this deep sand did. I missed a turn and took what my GPS (remember it has an interesting sense of humor?) said was a good road back to where I was supposed to be. I saw the missing asphalt but thought it didn’t look that bad – WRONG. Worst part was that after I got through the sandy mess, the road was closed. I used some more of that fancy language but vowed I wouldn’t be going back through that again unless I had no other options. I picked my way through the vacant lot area & got back to the road. My adrenaline was pumping so hard that I had no idea I was going 85 mph and I think the speed limit was 60 – I put the cruise control on and tried to relax.
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Today I also saw some Texas Longhorn cattle. I looked and looked in Texas but never did see any, now that I’m in New Mexico – here they are. They were all laying down when I rode up but when the white calf started walking over to the fence, mamma stood up and whacked him in the face with the side of her head and they both stood there and watched. Nobody else even thought about getting up.
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| NRAO Very Large Aray in New Mexico |
Just a little ways past Socorro, New Mexico I started seeing all these dish antennas. They are spaced kinda far apart and scattered all over the place. Hmmm, wonder what that could be. Well, it’s NRAO – the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. I thought you might find it interesting so here is link to their web site. I checked it out but like that bar I was thinking about going into in South Carolina, (but for a different reason entirely) I was a little bit out of my comfort zone.
I guess you forgot to mention to me that you laid it down in the sand that day… hahahaha oh those crazy nights we had that week.. hahahaha