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DAY
EIGHTEEN COMMENTARY
AUDIBLE!
That’s right, The Chief (tm) called his first major audible today!
Funny thing is, it left him struggling to determine whether or not the
move bought him an “extra” day on the trip. After much consideration,
the fact is that it did not, although it may open up some new route
opportunities heretofore impossible to consider (and it definitely renders
the map above inaccurate).
Before we get to that, I know what you’re all thinking; “Did the New
Way help you leave the hotel more quickly this morning?” And I am
thrilled to report that the answer is a resounding “YES”. The bike was
fired up for liftoff just about ninety minutes after the moment I
rolled out of bed, and while that may not sound terribly quick, it
definitely represents an improvement over the 2+ hour ordeals of
several recent mornings (this also, if I may pat myself on the back,
included a morning workout that featured an unheard of 121 pushups in the
first round). Altogether this allowed me to begin the “gas station
ordeal” quite a bit earlier than usual.
I pointed the Pork Chop Express back in the same direction I came in on
the main drag, Rte. 285, passing Alfredo’s from the night before and
then the center of town. Once through the center of town, though,
that’s it: you are out of town.
All the dwellings and buildings are gone and the landscape returns to
somewhat flatter hills than before, still dominated for miles around by
gigantic ranches and the occasional oil rig, and what I believe are the
Davis Mountains (elevations into the low-6,000 ft. range) bracketing
the western horizon off in the distance.
I didn’t see too many motorcycles – OK, none – but I did see the first
Smart Car of the trip. Did you know that this vehicle is the same length as the
Honda ST1100 (even before you add a trailer to it)? Anyway, I wonder
what the driver thought of a particular stretch of road that went dead
straight for thirteen
miles. And eventually, I left Texas and entered New
Mexico, passing into the Mountain
Time Zone by heading directly north! And this
time zone change was to come in handy later on, just like the last one
into Alabama and the Central zone…
"So what’s all this about an audible?", it would be fair to ax. Well,
the
original plan for today was to take the same route I was currently on,
visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park to the southwest of Carlsbad, NM,
then head west and overnight in El Paso, TX. The following day was to
feature a swing back to New Mexico to visit the White Sands National
Monument, finishing up by heading well north of Alamogordo for the
evening. Looking at a map and thinking it over, I decided that since I
hadn’t really locked anything down in El Paso, why not try to hit both
Carlsbad and
White Sands in one day, and stay in Alamogordo that evening? It would
demand a quicker and therefore earlier than usual departure, but the
New Way had already gotten us off to a good start, so I went for it.
The New Mexico stretch of Rte. 285 was similar to the Texas side, even
continuing the practice of putting occasional picnic sites along the
side of the road; sometimes in scenic spots, sometimes not, but it
looked like they did see use from time to time. The nearby hills seemed
slightly flatter than in Texas, although the elevation was already into
the low-4,000 ft. range, and now the Guadalupe Mountains loomed large
off to the west. Eventually I was directed to cut west using County
Road 720, which passed directly across a currently-dry riverbed, though
a sign suggested to “Watch For Water”, and other signs weren’t so
well-received.
Nearing the Caverns, I approached the hamlet of White’s City, which had
recently been in the news as its owners – a fourth-generation family of
landlords – had attempted to sell the entire fading town. I hadn’t seen
how the auction turned out, but I had been struck by the series of old,
old advertisements along the road; one hawking “Kodak Film and
Flashbulbs”, and the spindly, worn-out shape of all of them reminding
me of the totems guarding the “Forbidden Zone” in the original “Planet
of the Apes” film.
Passing on the chance to overpay
for gas here – and that is to put it
mildly – I climbed the park road to the peak underneath which the
Caverns are found, and docked the rig in the “Motorcycle Only”
section
right near the entrance. The visitor center looks high out over the
broad plain below, and while the elevator to the main cavern drops some
750 feet, its riders are technically still thousands of feet above sea
level.
A mere $6 brought me to the gateway to “The Big Room”, the
main walking
area for non-guided tours. Those with claustrophobia need not worry
about any such fears here – this “room” occupies some 60,000 square
feet, or almost 114 football fields, and features a “ceiling” that is
140 ft. high in certain places. There were all the countless different
and beautiful limestone formations
one would expect, to go along with
the sheer size of the open area. One spot still had a rope ladder
leading down into a chasm, hinting at the efforts of the early
explorers of the cave, and another still deeper hole was called “The
Bottomless Pit”, as given the lighting equipment those hardy souls had
to use, it probably did
seem bottomless. It is said that much of those
lower sections has yet to be fully explored or mapped. I know that I
couldn't get the camera to take a useable picture of it...
:-(
I was not thrilled about walking out of the nice, cool air down in the
cave and back in to the hot, sunny air, even at the peak, although I
was able to score the first bumper sticker for the trailer in quite a
while. The plan now was to head
north through the town of Carlsbad and
then west to Alamogordo for White Sands. Carlsbad proper was mightily
annoying, as I believe I missed every possible streetlight in the
high-’90’s temperatures – hence the moniker ”Sun Country” for the area
-- not to mention that the road was somehow rutted and pot-holed.
Leaving there, the next town at which I turned west, Artesia, was much
more attractive in a still-rebounding way, with some interesting
architecture (the Land of Sun theatre) and downtown historical
displays. Next up came Hope, NM (not Hope, AR, you’ll recall
as the
birthplace of Bill Clinton), which mainly consisted of two general
stores and – I am not making this up – a volunteer fire department that
looked like it had been, um, burned down.
The road headed west and opened up, and there were very few other
vehicles to be seen. Eventually it began to weave and dip, and headed
towards storm clouds
near the start of some hills. Entering the Lincoln
National Forest in Otero County, I travelled alongside the Penasco
River, small but gushing because it was obvious that yet another
downpour had occurred here moments before the arrival of The Chief
(tm). The air was still so cool that I pulled over to remove the mesh
jacket and don the leather. The archetypical little two-block
town of Mayhill was highlighted by a “hotel”, a bar & grill, a
church and gas station. Later I learned that this area was called Cloud Country, and
they weren’t kidding, as the weather patterns tended to stall the
clouds right above this 8,800 ft. plateau.
The road passed through another awesome little frontier-ish town called
Cloudcroft, just as it was about to plunge almost one
mile down into the Tularosa Basin
formed millions of years ago, now the location of Alamogordo. Vistas
were incredible, though difficult to capture on camera thanks to the
10% downhill grade and twisty road, which passed through what I am told
is the only highway tunnel in the entire state!
(Imagine when they had to order signs for the tunnel? SAMPLE
CONVERSATION:
Rookie Salesman: “Hello, Joe’s Signs, how can I help you?”
State of NM: “Yeah, state of New Mexico here. We need new signs for
every tunnel in the state.”
Rookie (dollar signs flashing): “Excellent, sir! We can get right on
that. How many would you need?”
State of NM: “Two.”)
The White Sands were visible south of the city in the distance through
the gaps in the cliffs, shining brightly in the setting afternoon sun.
Here is where the Mountain Zone time change saved the bacon yet again,
as I had essentially gained an hour during my travel, and so there was
still time to visit the park.
Passing through Alamogordo wasn’t terribly thrilling -- aside from the
magnificent views of the mountains that I had just descended from,
sadly not captured well on camera.
Signs like
this and the presence of Holloman Air Force Base, home of
the fleet of F-22 Raptor fighter planes, also spiced things up a bit.
These planes were seen landing, though barely heard in advance, and
electronic billboards scrolled through messages such as, “2-liter Coke,
$1.29 with card…welcome home F-22 personnel and crews…”
While my pictures fail to reflect it, White Sands was
striking in its
quiet beauty -- and also fun to see what the kids
do with it -- and the
story of the
fields’ formation and ongoing advance across the basin floor was of
great interest. A walking tour was about to begin, but thanks to my
Audible, I hadn’t yet secured lodging for the night and therefore had
to pass. Not before almost dumping the bike over in a sand
parking lot
while snapping a few pictures, that is. Having
headed back into town, I
grabbed a room at the Motel 6
(good prices, decent rooms, usually a pool though no breakfast like the
slightly higher-priced Days Inns) and implemented the New Way again
(though I walked
to a nearby joint for dinner, a national chain that I care not to admit
patronizing although the food was fine). There I met a fellow
long-distance motorcyclist over a few 22-oz. Bud Lights, priced at just
$3 for Happy Hour, so as you might guess no web pages were updated at
all. Good night!
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