May 26, 2009
Riding With the Big Boys
Monday, I had arranged to meet some of the High Desert Hooligans at Coffee at Dawn's. Just as I pulled up, without so much time to even check the time, I notice Jim about to follow a bunch of other Ducati's up NM 14 on his 1098. Thinking this must be my group, I follow Jim up to the Shell where the others are fueling up. Jim responded affirmatively when I asked if his was the group meeting at Dawn's at 10.Mike and Tom on matching Pearl White 848 and 1098 were there, as was Ron on his Aprilia. Hans, with his 888 was filling up and the five of us took off north.
Of course, this wasn't the group I had intended to meet, but we had a hell of a time anyway. The route took us from NM 14 to Pecos Trail, which used to be Old Route 66, but is now a frontage road for I-25. Pecos took us to Glorieta, where we had to get back on the freeway before exiting onto a frontage road on the other side. This we took all the way to NM 3, where we fueled up.
The first 15 miles of NM 3 are some serious twisties — lots of blind corners, some rocks on the road, the Pecos River, and a few small towns. Once the road opens up it becomes much like NM 41 or so many other New Mexican state highways: very high speeds with some widowmaking sharp turns. But the early part is where the fun is, and I want to go back to try out Risa's in Villa Nueva.
We jumped on the freeway to Clines Corners for a snack and more fuel. At the restaurant, we met a GoldWing rider whose charging system was getting him about 50 miles or so on a fresh battery. He almost made it all the way back to town with us, but needed to get a ride on the 848 into town to get another battery from the only large blue store that was open on a holiday.
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