May 27, 2001
After I dragged Garrett out of bed at 4 in the morning, we got ready to ride from Las Cruces to Las Vegas. For those keeping track of the calendar, this was the morning of May 27, 2001. We had to ride from Las Cruces to Las Vegas in one day - something the computer mapping said was possible before we left Austin. This is yet another reason why "geek" and "biker" don't really belong in the same sentence. "Geeker" anyone?
About an hour or so into the ride we stopped to get gasoline and de-ice our
hands. The weather about this time of year has two modes - REALLY HOT and
REALLY COLD. The change of elevation makes this even more the case.
At the gas station the helpful attendant gave us a "short cut" that went through
the mountains. While it was true that the short cut was colorful, even
interesting,
there was one missing piece - gasoline. There was no gasoline for
over 100 miles, there wasn't even a shack in 100 miles - we were in the middle
of nowhere, with little gasoline on a Sunday and no one to call. Also,
check your calendar - this is Memorial Day Weekend - so this area was even more
desolate than usual. The only person we saw was a policeman who waved his
hands emphatically for us to slow down as we blew by him around 85mph. Here I
am, smiling like a fool, before entering the twilight zone.
Every cloud has a silver lining - and this day was no different. When we started to figure out that there might be NO GAS and we might just have to find someone's house to find assistance, the cloud was thick and smelled like flatulence. Then we figured, what the hell - how many times does a person get an opportunity to be the only visible person within a 20 mile radius at any given time.
Since we had NO idea where the next gas station was, and the only one we found was
closed - we rode at about 30 miles per hour most of the way. This let us
soak up some of the environment, and New Mexico is beautiful. We took
turns perfecting our skills passing the camera back and forth between the two of
us. Here is a shot of me riding
:
As well as one of Garrett riding - yes, we are idiots.
One of the things that seriously bored people on motorcycles
may do is take random pictures from the saddle. We were bored.
B-O-R-E-D, bored. In addition to being bored, we were a little freaked out
being on a road we had never traveled before, with no civilization in sight and
gasoline running out. As always, life is what you make of it - we made a
photo op out of our time in New Mexico, shot from the seat of a motorcycle. Here
is a picture I took
from the back of my head - hey, I wasn't going to turn around . . .
We
saw the satellite dishes used in the film "Contact," should have stopped but
didn't. We also hit the continental divide. Much to no one's
surprise it was quite cold. Since we
were riding so slowly we thought we'd stop
and get a shot, in truth I don't think we even stopped for this shot -
just walking alongside the bikes to save gas.