Three Days In Espanola
Our first stop on our day ride out of Espanola.
The OFMC has discovered that it is nice spend more than one night in a place. First we started staying two nights and playing golf the non-travel day. Then we found it was nice to spend three nights and play golf one day and do a day ride the other. This is what we continue to do.
So we got to Espanola and settled in for three nights. Our first full day there was the golf day. You might not guess it but they have an extremely nice municipal course there. We had a good day.
The next day was time for a day ride. I had a thought in mind but wondered about a connection I only hoped might exist.
The idea was first to go north on the High Road to Taos, which we had planned to ride but took a wrong turn two days earlier. No getting on the wrong road this time. So up the High Road to the south end of Taos, then east on US 64 over to Angel Fire, then south on NM434 all the way down to the little town of Mora. My question: might there be a road connecting Mora back to Espanola so that we would not need to go all the way down to Las Vegas and then take I-25 around to Santa Fe before completing the loop back to Espanola?
Yes there is. Nice!
The road you hit at Mora is NM518 and if you go west out of Mora it brings you back to the High Road at Penasco. That leaves you backtracking on the High Road from Penasco back to Espanola but that’s fine. So our route was set.
We headed up the High Road (NM76) and just before we got to Truchas I spotted something I had been thinking about: a cemetery with a motorcycle-themed grave marker. I had seen this marker as we rode past years ago and really wanted to stop and shoot some pictures but I was with the group and it’s just not easy to decide to halt the entire group so you can shoot a picture. So with deep regrets I rode on past. This time I was determined to stop, and we did. That’s that picture up above.
We continued on our route, to Taos, then over to Angel Fire, and I pulled into a tourist information center so we could have a pit stop. When we were leaving I needed to either roll back or I could pull forward and do a U-turn. I’m a pretty competent rider so I figured I’d just do the U-turn. Bad choice.
It was a tight turn and I dropped the bike. Dang, I hate when I do that!! I suffered some inconsequential bruises, and two weeks later I still have a knot below my right knee where I believe my leg hit the end of the handle bar on my way over, but basically I was OK. Can’t say the same for the bike. The left mirror was busted so it just hung limply to the side, as you can see below.
The mirror itself didn’t break but the armature that holds it up and allows you to position it did.
So we headed on south out of Angel Fire. The last time we had ridden down NM434 it was this tiny little road, not even two full lanes wide in many spots. Back then they were doing some “improvements” but it was a really sweet little road that I wished could just stay as is. Nope. Now they are engaged in fully expanding it into a full-blown two-lane highway, complete with shoulders. This means carving big chunks out of the hillside and things like that. So sad.
It also means we got stopped for nearly half an hour by construction. During that time we were joined by a young guy on an Aprilia who was on a lengthy tour alone. To say his bike was in rough shape would be putting it mildly. But he was out there loving it and we all wished him a great trip. Then another guy on a Gold Wing came up. When they let us go the two of them took off ahead of us and within seconds they were out of sight and we never saw them again.
We got to Mora and it was time for lunch. We sat on the patio at this place and also on the patio were two people who obviously belonged to the two bikes we had seen in the parking lot. They were an older couple and the really odd thing was that the guy ate his entire meal without taking off his helmet. And this was not a half helmet. Bizarre.
We watched them as they left and the guy loaded their two little dogs into a carrier that he strapped onto his passenger seat and the woman got on her bike, putting on a helmet but otherwise in shorts, T-shirt, and sneakers. Away they went. To each his own.
We headed west on NM518 and were just getting out of town when we saw a blockade up ahead. The New Mexico State Patrol was conducting a stop-all drunken driver check. The lady trooper asked me nicely if I’d been drinking, I said no, and she smiled and said “Have a nice day.” I had been stopped at a similar blockade in New Mexico years ago and it had been really creepy with a bunch of dudes skulking all around my car, peering in the windows to see if they could see anything to harass me about. Maybe this kind of stop is just something New Mexico does.
On we went and this was a very nice road, except that it clearly had been the scene of a forest fire not long ago. But it was a really nice road and a road we had never been on before so that made it really cool.
Just a little ways before we got back to Penasco to rejoin the High Road and started backtracking I kicked my right leg up to rest it on my highway peg . . . and the peg fell away out of sight. What the heck?
I couldn’t stop right there but as soon as I found a space where three bikes could pull off I did. Miraculously, my highway peg was hanging suspended from the fairing and it hadn’t even lost the bolt or washer. Apparently the last time my mechanic had had to remove it to work on the bike he had not tightened it securely. Or maybe he has never removed it and it just worked loose after all these years. Either way, it truly was a miracle that I didn’t lose it or the bolt and washer. But putting it back on would be a hassle because that would entail removing the body work. Not something to be done on the spot.
We made it back to Espanola much later than originally expected and by that time the fourth and final member of our party had arrived. Bruce is someone I have met through the RMMRC and I had invited him along on this trip. The three of us had agreed long ago that four would be a better number than three so we were glad to have Bruce join us. Welcome to the group.
Biker Quote for Today
You know you’re a biker when you feel like every car is out to get you.
