Yes...another great day of riding

This entry is for Monday, 16 May 2011:

Today's ride took us from Silver City, NM to El Paso, TX, a total of about 390 miles. The ride included about 70 miles of mountain riding to start heading east on Rt. 152 from Silver City over the Emory Pass at elevation 8228. Lot of grade changes with many turns, twisties and switchbacks to Caballo, NM (see photos).

Then we headed south to Las Cruces through the Rio Grande River valley along Rt. 187/185. This section of the ride was through farmland with lots of pecan tree groves and several green chili companies (see photo).

From Las Cruces we headed east across the White Sands Missile Range to Alamogordo, NM, about 60 miles of hot and windy desert riding. We stopped at the White Sands National Monument which is located about 10 miles west of Alamogordo. This national monument includes extensive sand dunes which are the whitest sand I have ever seen (see photos).

After the national monument stop we headed up into the Sacremento Mountains and did a loop that started and finished back in Alamogordo. Interesting terrain and tunnel getting up into the mountains (see photo). Saw two groups of 5 to 7 deer grazing in alpine meadows on this loop.

The final section of the route was about 90 - 100 miles of flat, straight, hot and windy desert riding south into El Paso. We couldn't resist the opportunity to visit Barnett's Harley-Davidson, reportedly the World's Largest Harley Dealer. It was definitely a big dealership but it seemed like most of the bikes in the inventory were used. Construction was underway and gypsum dust from drywalling was all over the merchandise.

Thanks to Gerry having a free night at a Marriott, we are living it up on the Concierge Level in the El Paso Marriott. Can't beat the price!!!

Tomorrow by plan we are headed further east to Lamesa, TX along Rt. 180. We plan to stop at the Carlsbad Caverns National Park along the way...should be interesting.