Gila National Forest

Well the bike service went very well this morning...I was there at 0815 to let the bike cool down before they opened at 0830 and they took her right in and made a start.......all done by 11am without any problems or concerns which was good. The proper plate and registration document was also waiting for me as promised.

I continued west along route 70 and then made a 70 mile dash (?) north on I25 as I really liked the names of a couple of towns right next to each other and I wanted to check them out for myself.

I wonder what the locals do for drinking games?

T or C (as those who are familiar with the town like to call it) is pretty unremarkable....in fact I shouldn't really use the word pretty at all....it does have a nice mountain in front of it and sits on the Rio Grande.....and is neighbours with

Ah sure.....I bet the craic is only mighty in this place.....even if you are only passing through!!

Well they made me chuckle the first time I saw them on a map about 6 weeks ago and I was determined to get some pics.......the detour was well worth it mind you if only that it left me close to Route 152 to Silver City which is where I stopped for the night.

Route 152 is a narrow road with very little traffic running through countryside with distant hills to come. It isn't long before you are in those hills which seem to weave together to form an endless run of bends and inclines which made for a fun afternoon ride.

Passing through a couple of little villages the road starts to climb and all of a sudden you realise that the density and size of the trees has increased dramatically and all around is lush greenery.......and then you pass a sign for Gila National Forest.

The bends start to tighten up now and the speed limit recommended gets down as low as 10mph and 15 mph for some of the hairpins. All you can see are trees and the line of the road snaking along the mountain side. You can feel the air cool as you climb to over 8,500 feet and then you start down the other side again........I even managed to scrape a footpeg at one point (not difficult on the VTX I know but it was a first for me!)

I must have been running on fumes by the time I got to Santa Rita......where there is a huge mining operation going on........given that Santa Rita is just down the road from Silver City my first guess was 'silver' but it turns out it is a copper mine!

the pale section is the result of mining

Cows, Caves & Aliens.....

So I left Marathon this morning and headed west to Alpine where I turned north and headed towards the McDonald Observatory near the town of Fort Davis.

on the run-in to Fort Davis

The McDonald Observatory is one of the world's leading astronomical research facilities.....lots of professional stargazers!!

You can see some of the Observatory on top of the hill.

made it up that hill......

....well almost!

I leave the observatory and continue north along the 118, a narrow country road...it would have been nice if they warned you about cattle-grids in the road.....especially on bends! It didn't take me long to find out the reason for the cattle-grids......

...just like home!!

Sadly, I am leaving Texas and heading into New Mexico. I head for Carlsbad and along the way are the Carlsbad Caverns......and I decide to check them out. I must admit my heart sank a little when a Park Ranger tells me that there is an hours hike to the bottom of the caverns......so off I go and 40 minutes later I hit one of the main rooms and rather than continue for another 1.2 miles to the main display of stalagmites and stalagtites I head for the elevators.....I'm 75 stories down and the elevators travel at 9mph (must admit I found the elevators more interesting than the limestone!)

I continue north through Carlsbad and onto Roswell....(yes, Roswell...home of aliens and sorts of weird stuff) and I have my first emergency stop! I'm struggling to see in the evening sun and a woman pulls out in front of me so I lock up the front wheel and it starts to slide out from under me......thankfully I was only doing 30 - 35mph and managed to release the brake and keep going.......she waves a hand of apology but never even looked in my direction! I must say that the driving in New Mexico has been diabolical so far!

I then had a young deer bouncing across the road in front of me as the daylight faded......think he was more worried than I was.......I was more concerned where his mum might be coming from!

I am in Alamogordo (I really struggle to say that one) tonight......the bike is booked in to a local dealer for its 12,000 mile service tomorrow and the dealer in Florida should have sent my proper registration plate to the dealer here too.

Red & Blue Flashing Lights.....oops, sorry Sherriff!

Well the entrance to Big bend National Park was more like 130 miles away from Marfa! I didn't manage to go anywhere on Saturday as I had a recurrence of bike trouble.....checked out of the hotel, bike wouldn't start.....went back into hotel and booked myself another room for the night and the bike refused to start all day after that which was worrying!

Yesterday afternoon a group of guys on Harley Davidsons showed up at the hotel and so this morning I sought their advice on my bike problems. They all came out and had a tinker but to no avail. A really nice group of guys from Austin, Texas though......Farrell basically had taken 5 of the guys working for him for a few days off on bikes as the annual company 'do' and had ended up in Marfa...... I had breakfast with them (thanks again Farrell) and shared a few laughs along the way......my thanks to Farrell, Terence, Phil, Austin and the other guys for their friendship and generousity! (I hope you all got back to Austin in one piece and the rental company didn't sting you too hard for the damage)

With a lot of help from the hotel I manage to track down a mechanic in town, Fred Martinez, just as he is about to take his family to church (it is a Sunday morning!). Fred graciously agrees to help me rather than go to church with his family and turns up in no time on his own Honda ST1300 to check out my bike issues. While there.....it turns out Farrell and Fred knew each other years ago......Texas may be a big state but it is a small world wherever you go! Fred then takes a 60 mile round trip to the next town to get some spark plugs and returns. So the plugs get replaced and still the bike doesn't start.......we then discover (we being Fred....and me watching!) that the fuel line is blocked. With the use of a cocktail straw Fred get the petrol flowing again and the bike fires up without a problem!

A big thank you to Fred for his help and I hope your wife forgives you for missing out on church this morning!

So I leave Marfa at about 1230 or so and head east towards Alpine so I can cut south to Big Bend National Park for the afternoon. I am just approaching the outskirts of Alpine when I come over the crest of a hill and a white pick-up truck coming the other way suddenly lights up in red and blue flashing lights!! I slow down and in my mirrors I see the truck pull a u-turn behind me and follows me onto the hard shoulder. He tells me that he clocked me doing 83mph in a 70mph zone and asks for my licence and registration. He asks me where I am headed and I tell him about my trip and how much I am enjoying his brilliant country. He asks a few questions about the trip, gives me back my paperwork, says 'Well good luck with the trip and be safe!' and gets back in his truck. Now he never actually said I should slow down....... I had planned (should I ever get pulled over) to ask if I could take a photo but this didn't seem like a real 'kodak' moment and I was happy with the memory of NOT getting a ticket so I didn't push my luck!

I push on to the park and while the roads were not as dramatic as the State Ranch from friday they were fun and the scenery was truly breathtaking. The only regret is that I didn't get to the park until close to 3pm so my time there was somewhat limited.

The Rio Grande river forms the southern edge of Big Bend National Park for 118 miles and also the border with Mexico.

Santa Elena Canyon......Mexico on the left, U.S.A. on the right

(once again I have more pics but have hit some problems loading the rest so that is your lot!)

End of week 4....one whole month into the trip.

Mileage on the bike - 12268

Miles ridden this week - 1141

Total miles ridden - 4824