West Texas and SE New Mexico

[username]

john and i took off to see west texas and southeastern new mexico. we had great weather, great roads, great rides, and great food. We even had some chilly temperatures to go with our various green chile foods.

i'll break the trip into four sections: the davis mountains, the guadalupe mountains, carlsbad caverns, and white sands.
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outbound and the davis mts.

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john loaded and ready to go.

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Me.

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my dinner in fredericksburg.

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gorgeous R90/6 that parked next to us.

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Morning temperatures.

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We resisted the urge to eat one of these...

[username]

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place we ate in fort davis.

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they had lots of different tobascos to choose from.

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but i eat my green chile topped burgers au natural.

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we may head back for this event.

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McDonald Observatory, part of The University.

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fun road.

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[username]

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john walking down by the 107 inch telescope.

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another telescope.

next stop, the guadalupe mountains.

[username]

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headed straight for them.

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el capitan. the highest peak in texas. we just camped here for the night, then headed up to carlsbad, so not a lot of photos.

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this lady was sweeping her campsite. wtf?

next stop, carlsbad caverns...

[username]

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entrance. (and exit i guess.)

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entrance to the caverns.

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down below. you descend 800 feet or so. some of the rooms are 250 feet high inside, and really long. it's like a lord of the rings type of place. you should go.

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the food at the park isn't the best we had...

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lunch.

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men's room. too cool.

[username]

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wild stuff.

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ok, let's eat and then go to white sands!

[username]

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we stopped for the night in artesia, nm. i had a steak with green chiles and cheese and all sorts of good stuff.

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john had green chile stew, a couple of tacos, and some sopapillas.

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we woke up hungry, and i had this for breakfast. scrambled eggs, green chiles, onions, cheese, and some amazing salsa.

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john had an omelette and some biscuits.

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at white sands we saw this beetle.

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and these teensy, tiny, tracks.

[username]

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john served as an expert tour guide.

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then rode by, too fast to photograph!

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the bikes.

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all that white sand made us hungry!

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so we went to alamagordo for some chips and salsa.

[username]

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some green chile stew and sopapillas.

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and a big ol' fried relleno. mmm!

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up to cloudcroft to spend the night at the lodge.

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[username]

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frost on the grass the next morning. (8700 feet or so, it gets chilly.)

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john had biscuits and eggs with gravy for breakfast.

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i was more boring.

we rode to ruidoso, and on a bunch of curvy, mountainous roads. it made us hungry. so we came back through cloudcroft one last time and got a great burger, and homemade french fries.

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[username]

time to head home...

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cotton field.

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that's it. i think we did a little over 1600 miles in five days. it was a blast. cold mornings, nice afternoons, and cold nights.

thanks for looking.

[Mika]

Nice! Looks like a fun ride with haute cuisine to boot. :eat
Alas no lutefisk burritos :dunno

:thumb

[username]

Alas no lutefisk burritos :dunno

it was disappointing, to say the least. each time we went into a place, it seemed they would say, "we just served the last of it to that gentleman over there." they'd point, and some guy with rosy cheeks, a big nose, and wool cap would pound the table and scream, "hurdy fergen jurgen!"

it was surreal.

[Voni]

So I'm not the only one who takes pictures of food.

And anything with Green chillies is my favorite.

Thanks for sharing your pictures and your fun.

Voni
sMiling
:dance

[Callmethebreeze]

Thanks!
That was a great report! Now I have to figure out how to get all those pictures into an album that can be archived on the Forum so that if someone is thinking about heading that way they can just click, view and go!!!
I'd like to see all of these first hand reports and pictures archived for future use.
I'm jealous! I love the Big Bend country and Carlsbad Cavern.
"Watch out for those bats"--Dr. Raoul Duke.

breeze

[username]

Thanks!
That was a great report! Now I have to figure out how to get all those pictures into an album that can be archived on the Forum so that if someone is thinking about heading that way they can just click, view and go!!!
I'd like to see all of these first hand reports and pictures archived for future use.
I'm jealous! I love the Big Bend country and Carlsbad Cavern.
"Watch out for those bats"--Dr. Raoul Duke.

breeze

i agree. if folks here strove to have useful thread titles, we could get there with the search tool in the short term, and then add something fancier in the long term.

theyre doing some neat stuff with google earth and smugmug mashed together over on advrider.

what'd be neat would be a big pic of the US, and then little pushpins for the various ride reports. then when you're planning a trip, you could look at the area of the country youre headed too and see the sights.

i'll tell you, that hamburger place in cloudcroft was the shiznit. i have a feeling i'm gonne be doing an ironbutt out and back to that place for a burger one of these days. :D

[RebeccaV]

if folks here strove to have useful thread titles, we could get there with the search tool in the short term...
I'm so glad that I am not the only one who thinks that!

Delicious report. I'll get down that way someday.

[Callmethebreeze]

i agree. if folks here strove to have useful thread titles, we could get there with the search tool in the short term, and then add something fancier in the long term.

theyre doing some neat stuff with google earth and smugmug mashed together over on advrider.

what'd be neat would be a big pic of the US, and then little pushpins for the various ride reports. then when you're planning a trip, you could look at the area of the country youre headed too and see the sights.

i'll tell you, that hamburger place in cloudcroft was the shiznit. i have a feeling i'm gonne be doing an ironbutt out and back to that place for a burger one of these days. :D

You're right!! We already have an archive of sorts already. I had forgotten the search feature. I like the map idea even more. Someone could view the map; click on the area; review the posts and pics; plot the coordinates on the GPS and go!!
The food shots were terrific. I enjoy the vistas but give me the real deal with the 4 varieties of McIhenny hot sauces and I'm ridin'.
Thanks again, fun stuff.

breeze

[kbasa]

Dammit, Lee. Now I'm hungry.

[Mika]

And I am confused. I thought it was a ride report, then it turned into a title commentary and finally it is riddled with gastronomic editorial comments.

I am not testy any more, I was just slapped silly in another thread. :p :bolt

[username]

And I am confused. I thought it was a ride report, then it turned into a title commentary and finally it is riddled with gastronomic editorial comments.

I am not testy any more, I was just slapped silly in another thread. :p :bolt

:D

i like threads like this.

[kbasa]

i agree. if folks here strove to have useful thread titles, we could get there with the search tool in the short term, and then add something fancier in the long term.

theyre doing some neat stuff with google earth and smugmug mashed together over on advrider.

what'd be neat would be a big pic of the US, and then little pushpins for the various ride reports. then when you're planning a trip, you could look at the area of the country youre headed too and see the sights.

i'll tell you, that hamburger place in cloudcroft was the shiznit. i have a feeling i'm gonne be doing an ironbutt out and back to that place for a burger one of these days. :D

On smugmug, you can enter a location for each photo and use a map to click down to photographs taken there.

[Callmethebreeze]

On smugmug, you can enter a location for each photo and use a map to click down to photographs taken there.

I need to familiarize myself with this procedure. Does Smugmug walk me through it? Can we get the map hhere on the Forum?
Thanks,

Breeze
:bolt

[Voni]

AND, you can use use this thread as an example of a multiple hijack.

Voni
sMiling :wave

[lorazepam]

Hey Lee, great pictures and a great report. You do find great places to eat, that is for sure.

[BubbaZanetti]

Hey Lee, great pictures and a great report. You do find great places to eat, that is for sure.



wait....................username has a name??? all my perceptions are smashed, i was hoping his legal name was username...................

[DanGreene]

That is fantastic! Thank you. Great ride report, not too many words and lots of pictures. I especially like the way you incorporated the food tour in with the motorcycle tour. I spent two nights in Cloudcroft back in July on my annual western tour. Great place, especially in July. :clap

[RustyJC]

Thanks - now in addition to being hungry, I want to head out for the Davis Mountains scenic loop as well as the River Road from Study Butte to Presidio! :laugh

Rusty

2003 K1200GT

[kbasa]

I need to familiarize myself with this procedure. Does Smugmug walk me through it? Can we get the map hhere on the Forum?
Thanks,

Breeze
:bolt

If you get your smugmug account up and running, you have an option under the large photos to do things like delete the photo, crop it and that kind of thing. It also has Edit Geographic location.

If you have GPS coordinates, you can plug them in. If you have a full street address, you can plug it in. Otherwise, you can use the map image to place a pointer on the google map. I use the hybrid view, which has a sat photo with a street name overlay. Pretty neat.

[johnnyquest]

When did you take this trip? Did you ride I-10 or I-20? I saw a couple of BMWs loaded up pretty well headed west on Sunday the 16th when I was heading east.....

Looked like a great trip....I would have gained 10 lbs eating all that food! As it was, I made it a point to go to my favorite BBQ place back home....nobody around here knows how to BBQ a brisket!

JQ

[username]

we went from the 21st to the 26th, so it wasn't us.

one thing i've learned about riding around on the BMW - i almost always see other folks on well-loaded BMWs doing the same thing. we rule.

[Visian]

How do you stay so thin??????

*Great* report, thanks!

Ian

[mistercindy]

Great food pics! And you're right about that cave men's room. Very cool!

[JimVonBaden1]

Sweet! Now I get the food comments! :eat

I love reading about places I have never been, but it is equally fun to see other's take on places I have been! I love West Texas, and Southern NM.

Jim :brow

[The_Veg]

Ride to eat, Eat to ride! :eat

[Ozonkiller]

What fun!!!!!!!!!! My arteries hurt just looking at the pictures. My wife says eating healthy doesn't make you live any longer... it just seems that way.

BTW Watch out for White City near the caverns, a few hundred feet of 50 mph zone surrounded by 70 mph. Your stereotypical speed trap. Ask me how I know :bolt

[gremor]

This sure is the wrong thread to read right before lunch, is it lunch yet?

I'm out of here :eat

[robsryder]

I enjoyed this trip report. The last few months have found me
spending quite a bit of time in SE NM, alas, sans bike. And yes,
I too have come to really like green chilies with my food.

I happened to be in SE NM on the first Sat. in Oct this year.
On that day (and the first Sat. in April) the US Gov't allows
the public to drive to the Trinity Site - the location where
the first atomic bomb was set off.

The entrance is just off Rt. 380 east of San Antonio, NM.
There were a lot of folks there this last time, including quite
a few motorcycles. As one would expect (and hope!) this
location is in a remote part of the country.

I'd recommend visiting this location once if one is in the area.

[StevieWonder]

Username ...

(1) THE University in Texas is located in College Station. The SECOND University in Texas is located in Austin. :stick

(2) IF you had attended THE University and not the SECOND University, you would have learned that El Capitan is NOT the highest peak in Texas. Guadalupe Peak, just to the right of El Capitan in your picture is the highest point in Texas at 8749 ft. :nyah

Ya'll do have a nice telescope at MacDonald but why you need one to look at hamburgers still escapes me !!! :D

Looks like it probably took a few weeks for your digestive tract to recover from this trip.