Well, after a late night with the Desert Diamond girlz, we enjoyed a few moments of picture taking and thanking them for their hospitality before heading out to Roswell, NM.
We knew it was going to be another scorcher of a day but going through the mountains would give us a reprieve from the heat. We only hit around 80ºF plus. A lot better than the 120ºF plus the day before.
I was absolutely exhausted. Only got an hour sleep. Have you ever been so tired that you just couldn't fall asleep? That was me. Didn't know how I was going to keep my eyes opened but going on the twisty turns gave me no choice.
The scenery was absolutely breathtaking. Came up upon a sign that said, "Salt River Canyon". Boy oh boy, when I rode into the open canyon, tears welled up. I was overtaken by the beauty.
We pulled over to take some photos. One of the girlz was backing up her bike when someone yelled, "watch out!" and she dropped it. LOL We told her to not get so excited next time and just hold on. :)
Photo: K. Lee
We crossed into New Mexico and off in the distance, we could see the storm clouds. They looked ominous! Jett, Carol, Lynette, Nancy, Debbie, K. Lee and myself took off ahead of the rest of the pack. I donned on my leather jacket and full-face helmet in preparation for the pending thunderstorm that we were most likely going to encounter.
We got to the town of Tinnie, NM, where 2 deer crossed right in front of Jett (she was leading) and a 3rd was just about to run across and changed it's mind. I was right behind her and said, "Of sh*t, don't let that deer jump in front of me!"
The winds started picking up. We were pretty much slanted and then the rains started and if that wasn't enough, the hail started pelting us. All the while, the lightning and thunder surrounded us and the sun from behind blinding us in our mirrors. I kept my eye on Jett because she only had her doo-rag on her head and a bandana on her face. She also had a short windshield, so she was getting the brunt of the pounding. K. Lee also only had a bandana and beanie helmet on.
Nancy and Debbie, were also in there motorcycle attire of ripped jeans and sandal-type shoes. *tisk tisk*
We were moving so slow because of the traffic. We only had 17 more miles to Roswell, NM, when Jett saw a sign for a rest area. We rode in and everyone had their bikes under the cover but ME!
We were still missing K. Lee and Carol. All of sudden, we looked up and saw K. Lee crouched over the tank as if she were riding a crotch rocket and she never saw us. Nancy looked behind us and saw that Carol had stopped on the side of the road about 200 yards back. She went to see what was up and Carol's spark plugs were wet from the rain. Nancy went a head and cruised the bike to the rest stop. Got the plugs dried off and her bike started right up.
Jett put in a call to Kaye, who was back with the remainder of the group and told her to expect the storm we were in. 
(Click the pic) Off in the distance to the left, you can see the a single head-light, that's Carol's bike. :)
We hopped back on our bikes to head towards Roswell. Just hoping the storm would let up but it didn't. We got into town and for some reason, we all got separated. Jett and I were trying to find the hotel and made a couple of U-turns. Debbie was off on her own, Carol and Nancy were already at the hotel. K. Lee ended up at the wrong hotel and decided to just stay there for the night and meet up with us in the morning.
Well, once we got checked in, the remainder of the group pulled in. Wouldn't you know it...they never encountered the storm. They said that they only saw water on the side of the road and the ground was dry and sunny.
Most of us headed across the street to IHOP for a late dinner. I really didn't want to go because I knew we were going to have to get up early again to head out. Jett convinced me and said that we wouldn't be leaving until 11am. Some of the girlz were planning to go to the UFO museum. I wasn't interested in it so I enjoyed the couple hours just laying around then packing up the bike.
Off to Shamrock, TX!
No comments:
Post a Comment