Day 2 & 3 - west into New Mexico, visits with family

Day 2
Abilene, Texas - Polvadera, New Mexico
505 miles

The morning of Day 2 saw me up early and fixing coffee in camp. I knew it would be a long trip to central New Mexico and wanted to get going early enough to take advantage of the cool morning air.

Everything packed up easily and I headed west. Western Texas was predictably boring, but I did start to see the subtle differences in the landscape as I made my way west - flat, unremarkable grasslands started to give way to flat-topped mesas and the ever-present red dirt. I have never seen a stretch of NOTHING quite like the 50 or so miles from the Texas border to Roswell, New Mexico - no houses, buildings, or even signs of civilization - a perfect place to lose a UFO ...

Heading west on US 380 out of Roswell, I started to climb, and as I gained altitude, the temperature started to fall. Soon the high 90s of the lowlands had been replaced by high 70s and low 80s. I even found some curves and a beautiful little valley in the region between Hondo and Carrizozo - all located in the famous region around Ruidoso, original site of the Aspencade rally.

As I moved west of Carrizozo on US380, I also rode through the "Valley of the Fires", an area of volcanic flow that in covered by black lava. Seen from the satellite image, it appears as if someone spilled a bottle of ink on the landscape and never bothered to blot it. I finished my day's ride with a crossing of the Rio Grande, and then spent the last rays of evening sun on my cousin's porch, overlooking the beautiful Rio Grande valley near Socorro, NM. I'll spend a non-riding day here visiting family, then head west again early on Tuesday morning, the 11th.