When leaving TorC we carefully considered our route choices, yet somehow still ended up on a dead ending Hwy 181, so we ultimately had to brave the freeway. Dave was way less than thrilled since he not only doesn’t enjoy freeway riding, but with the wind whipping us left and right and the cross winds from the big rigs, it was a daunting task to take on the miles. Understandably, it was not fun, but necessary and my 1250 had no trouble running the speed limit, but Dave’s 650 was a bit underpowered for dealing with both the wind, the trucks and the inclines. I could watch his headlight dim in the distance. I decided to simply ride on ahead and would wait at the intersection with Hwy 60 which would take us by the VLA.

Seeing the VLA last fall was so interesting that I felt the need to share it with Dave. I was able to not share my routing faux pas from last fall as I attempted to get to the VLA via Hwy 52 which was a nice paved road for nearly 20 miles before turning to gravel. 🙁 This time we went directly.

We stopped in Magdelena for pie, which I also experienced last fall and totally enjoyed. Dave decided a second breakie would be good, so he had biscuits and gravy and spuds and I had Lemon Chess pie… yummmm. Smiling and content we gassed up, since our gas mileage was hosed due to the headwinds, and braced for the next leg of the journey.

Well, at this point I need to elaborate on the journey. Earlier in the day, I had my compulsory caffeine and ate a bit of breakfast, which is not my usual. I am a coffee/tea girl with little interest in eating an early meal. Well, Annie made deviled eggs, a personal favorite, which I immediately dropped into my tea. As I glowered at the sinking carnage, my mind filled with dread. Hmmm, I was not feeling like this would be my “best riding day ever”. So, with that said, back to the VLA…

Riding down Hwy 60, I missed the Hwy 52 turnoff and looked for a place to do a u-turn. Along the roadway sat about 15-20 Harley motorcycles all lined up blocking the one area to pull off. But knowing my great riding skills, I turned in front of the seated group, rode down the gravel incline to the back of the line and “attempted” to ride back onto the roadway, flipping a U as I went. Whoops… I rode up the gravel, attempted the U, pulled my clutch in too far, lost momentum and dropped my bike right in the lane of traffic in front of my Harley audience. Nice…

Four guys jumped off their bikes, and ran to my aid. They got the bike off me and upright and asked if I was OK as their friend ran down to stop traffic. Uh, duh, I smiled and told them I was fine, having only a nicely injured ego and a very scratched back right bag. Yea… at least it was on the same side I last dropped it at no speed taking it out of my friend’s garage. Poor Bandit. I also broke my turn signal yet again and upon careful inspection discovered the metal bracket holding my exhaust pipe also snapped, but I didn’t see that until a day later. Sheesh… so it was not just my pride that was injured but my beautiful bike! Damn it, anyway!!

So, Dave said, “enough already, let’s just get back on the road. I can see the VLA good enough from here!” Back onto the road we went, changing our previous plan to now go to Show Low and ride north from there.

Middle of nowhere, NM

Dave

Horses on the roadway along the Native American Reservation. Open range is not uncommon.

We were both spent by the time we arrived in Show Low, though it was early. We joined the matrix by way of motel wifi and posted to our blogs, answered emails, skyped, then had dinner at the local Mexican restaurant which was actually quite good and right next door to the motel. A scotch nightcap and decent beds… yea.

Early departure was out of the question due to the 29 degree temperatures but we were heading to Bluff with the possibility of making it to Torrey. Little did I know that this would be Dave’s and my last riding day together as we had talked about splitting off so he could do some camping and this was going to be the day. It was a chilly ride, but a beautiful one and we made it to Bluff and our parting of the ways!