First overnight of the year

A group from the Sangre de Cristo HOG Chapter did the first overnight of the year down to the Trinity Site, just outside of Socorro. We did the lunch thing and the dinner thing as a group. Minus two for the lunch break, but they joined us for dinner.

The run to White Sands Missile Range was an endurance ride on the slow side. 45 minutes of stop & go riding. I had promised my bike that I’d never do that to it again after I blew the engine, but dammit, I made the same type of ride this past weekend. This time I knew how to enable “parade mode” on the bike and it did not fry.

Everyone but us returned home on Saturday after the ride, but Nina and I spent another night in Socorro and and a great meal at Bodega Burger Co. & Lounge.  I had the prime rib and Nina had the salmon salad. Both of us enjoyed it immensely!

The ride home was very nice until we hit Route 3 where we were buffeted by cross winds. Serious cross winds. We made the trip home in about 3 hours. I decided to check the milage, something I haven’t done in ages, and I got 42.25 mpg on the way home despite the winds.

Great weekend with good friends.

Fritz & John
Chris & Rob
Bob Bob Bob
Becky & Carolyn
Rob, Nina, and 1/2 of me
Nina
Boom replica
Nina, she’s the bomb!
Some stone thingy at the Trinity Site
Sign

Mixed up ride that really was fun.

Well, today’s ride didn’t happen as planned. The couples that said they’d be there weren’t, so Nina stayed home. We left later than planned and the farther east we got, the colder it became. No one was dressed for the weather we encountered. We reached Conchas Lake and decided to blow off the ghost towns and truck stop and work our way home. We were going to have lunch in Tucumcari but I made a wrong turn and we ended up eating 60 miles west of where we hoped to eat. We stopped at a Love’s Truck Stop and they had a Carl’s Jr. as their restaurant. We ate there and headed west again on I-40. When we hit Route 3, we all split off with 4 of us heading north. by this time, we were back in warmth and pleasant. We figured that there was a front of something that we crossed. Nina said it was beautiful at home.

Even though it was not the ride I planned, we all had a great time. Lots of camaraderie and friendship. We spent an hour at Carl’s and all of us were talking and laughing. People were looking at us, eight of us in leathers and HD gear, having a good time. Nothing scary about us as group of biker, but cause of our age, but people seemed to enjoy watching us. Kids were standing on the benches in the booths, looking at us.

It was a good day, even though it didn’t go as planned.