Coming out of Farmington, I headed south on highway 550 (past Chaco Canyon) on my way to the Ghost Ranch. The Ghost Ranch is where my cousin Bill Padden goes just about every year and he recommended the place to me. Bill said I should spend the night there and even offered to pay for my room but unfortunately the timing didn't work out and I could only stop in for a quick visit. Bill's good friend, Willie works there but is semi retired. When I stopped in at the front desk and asked for Willie the lady there told me he wasn't in today. She did call him and I got a chance to talk to him for a little while on the phone. He seemed like a pretty cool guy and he told me I should come out there for a visit the next time Bill comes out.
I guess Georgia O'Keefe used to hang out in the area. I can understand the appeal of the place and how it might inspire an artist.
As I left the Ghost Ranch I headed south east and then north east to get to Taos, NM. The Taos Pueblo is another UNESCO World Heritage Site. I've seen five World Heritage Sites so far (it would have been six if I'd gotten up to Mesa Verde). It's a site and set of buildings that have been continually occupied for over 1000 years. How cool is that. They are still occupied to this day. The people that live there allow people to come in and see what are basically their homes. However they close the place down on Sunday afternoons. Guess what day and time of day I got there? That's right, Sunday afternoon. I was turned away at the gate, having never even set eyes on the place. Very disappointing. This is what it would have looked like if I'd seen it.
Ghost Ranch and Taos circled in blue.
At this point, I'd seen everything I wanted too in New Mexico and my next stop was Lawton, OK to see my friend Ricky. I knew I wouldn't get there by that night so I figured I would get as far as I could so the next day's ride wouldn't be too long. I set off heading east along highway 64 and then 120.
At one point while riding along my thoughts drifted back to the area around Chaco Canyon and why something that is called a State Highway could ever end up being a one lane dirt road. Who's fault is this? The state? The "highway" was on the Navajo reservation, perhaps it's their fault. Then again, it was a state highway. While these thoughts are going through my mind, I see a sign out of the corner of my eye that I think said something along the lines of "pavement ends". Just as my brain processes this, I go over a cattle guard and onto a gravel road at a speed that was nowhere near safe for that kind of transition. I managed to not lay the bike down and came to a stop. "Another "highway" that is a dirt road", I raged. "Damn you, New Mexico. This is clearly your fault and not the Navajo's". I took this picture as my proof that New Mexico is to stupid to properly name their roads. This should be a farm road, county road or just a trail but in no way is it a highway.
Sadly, the "highway" deteriorated significantly after this picture. It became even narrower, became less of a gravel road and more of a dirt road with large rocks protruding everywhere. It wound down the last of the mountains out into the plains. It was the kind of road that I expected to see a four wheeler more than a car or even a 4x4 truck. Yet again, I was worried for the safety of my bike I myself. At least the locals seemed nice. There were scattered homesteads through the hills with signs on them like "No Trespassing", "Do not leave the road for any reason" and one particularly nice one "Trespassers will be shot".
At one point, while dodging around some boulders, I thought how if Sasquatch lived in New Mexico, this would be his land. Just then I saw a dark shape moving through the trees. While thinking of an appropriate profanity to utter, I came around the corner and saw that it was just a black cow trying to cross the road. I hit the brakes and let it pass. "What the hell is a cow doing up here in the mountains and forests? Cows like the fields. Perhaps this is some kind of new Forest Cow, a new breed. How cool is that? I've discovered a new species of cow". The Forest Cow had trouble mounting the hill on the far side of the "highway" so it just started trotting down the "highway" itself. Very considerately it stayed to one side so I could pass. Just ahead was a whole herd of Forest Cows crossing the "highway". I stopped. They looked at me funny. I revved my engine a bit and they stopped crossing, making a pathway for me to get by. I rode on and when I looked back the herd had resumed it's crossing as if nothing had happened. "Forest Cows are a pretty laid back species of cow", I though.
A little past the Forest Cows, I saw another sign telling me that there was no center stipe. Cursing the New Mexico Highway Department yet again, I came to the paved road. By now I really had to pee. While I was now out of the hills and forests and into the fields, I still hadn't seen another car for about two hours so I figured it would be safe to pee on the side of the road. The only things around were some cows (regular field cows, not Forest Cows). The thing was, one of the regular field cows was looking at me. It just kept eyeballing me and chewing it's cud. How creepy is that? To combat the stage fright, I turned towards the road to go. When I looked behind me, the pervert regular field cow was still watching. What a nut job. I got on my bike I sped out of there. I don't need to be hanging around with any obviously unbalanced regular field cows. I wish now that I'd taken a picture of the beast to put up in the local post office.
By now it was getting dark so I sped down what could now be legitimately called a highway, albeit without a center stripe. I jumped on I25 and went south a little bit to Las Vegas, NM and a hotel. I was really tired.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Lawton,United States
No comments:
Post a Comment