One of my Favorites

It was my first "real" ride..... not little jaunts to the next town or bordering counties on flat straight roads. It was the end of 2005 and we were visiting some family south of Albuquerque NM. My dad would work on the road all Spring, Summer and fall...... When December would roll around he would bring the family down to New Mexico every year and ride all month covering New Mexico and the surrounding states. Since I was going to be married the following year I figured it would be my last chance to get out so I went along for the trip. I took the 69 and my dad took his ulta classic. I always took it easy on the bike since it wasn't mine but I hammered on that thing just to try and keep up with my dad. I figured.... well it's his..... if I blow it up it's not my fault. Three days before Christmas we decided to go for a ride.



It was fucking cold! Since the only time my dad ever got the chance to ride was in the winter he had the proper gear. I on the over hand had some shitty gloves and stiff foreign leathers probably made of Yack hide that didn't do shit for me. I layered on the clothes and we headed south.



We started hitting roads heading east. You could ride for what seemed like thousands of miles without seeing another sole. Gas was few and far between as well....... it got scary at times even with 5 gallon tanks.



It seemed that every road we rhode upon was one of Billy The Kid's tails while running from the law. It was crazy to think that some one could make it across this terrain on horse back.







We stopped in Lincoln where Billy escaped from jail then headed on to Roswell in search of big headed people.





Somewhere in between it warmed up enough to strip off some of my layers. My dad came out of the gas station and couldn't believe the pile of clothes that were laying on the ground. We barely had enough room to tote it along. We stopped outside of Carlsbad to catch some Z's. The next day we hit up the caverns which is one of the most amazing things one will ever see. We crossed the Guadalupe Mountains...... Let me tell you.... those cross winds were fuck'n knarly! We stopped at the national park and the people there couldn't believe we were riding in that wind until I showed them some pictures in the back of my camera...... then they were really freaked out. At one point I had the throttle wide open going down the back side of the mountain and the bike was bogging down. I couldn't believe it..... I thought the motor gave up.



We finally made it over to El Paso.... looked at Mexico across the river then jammed up to Las Cruces. We ate some great Mexican food.... checked out some of Billy The Kid's hiding places and hit the pillow.








The next morning we made white sand castles....... then flew up the interstate for a great christmas eve dinner. I'll never forget that trip!