Ridin'Ard (The h is silent)

Miles Thursday: 112 Hours in the saddle: 5:19 We did some excellent riding yesterday and today in the mountains. Thursday we went to the Gila Cliff Dwellings, and Friday we went thru the Black Range mountains to a little town called Hillsboro. We toned it down with the ambition and enjoyed having less of an agenda. Thursday is our favorite day of this trip so far.  The drive to the Gila Cliff Dwellings was just fantastic. It was constant switchbacks and hairpin turns. The 40 something miles took 2 hours, just like they said it would on the website. The visitor’s center is new and includes some administrative offices, and apparently there is government housing for the people who work there. However, the superintendent’s son is in high school and they decided not to homeschool him, so he makes that commute every day.  We arrived at the visitor’s center and changed out of our gear and in to hiking clothes to find out that the trailhead was 2 miles away from the visitor’s center. ...

Miles Tuesday: 183 Hours in the saddle: 7:33 Cattle guards: 14 Tuesday we went to the VLA (Very Large Array). It was awesome. On our way in, we saw a satellite crossing the road on the rail system. Apparently the fastest it can go is 4 mph. Each one weighs 230 tons.  After waiting for the gift shop to open up after lunch, we got our tickets and did the self guided walking tour. It was cool. Hot, but cool.  Jaron is standing on the solar calendar here.  The antennas sit on blocks!  They are moved around by these transporters that go on rails as well as on the road.  The antennas can be set up in different configurations. So we were fortunate in that they were in close formation for us.  This one was in for maintenance.  Julie has been using her female privilege and just ditching the mc pants and walking around in yoga pants and mc boots. We’re doing the wicking layers under gear thing.  After the VLA, we headed to Reserve, NM for a gas and dinner s...

Miles today: 153 Time in the saddle: 4 hrs 3 min Started the day off with a bomb-diggity breakfast with Pat’s cousin Edie. She took us to Triumph and we loaded up our bikes (after Julie nitpicked the bill). After that, we left our airplane luggage with Edie and headed to the Sandia Crest.  We were literally ready to go when Julie realized that we still needed to adjust her shifter to accomodate her new boots. It was kind of a letdown. But it didn’t take very long and then we were on our way.  Well, this drought is really screwing things up for us. The Sandia Crest road was closed due to fire danger. BOOOO. Jaron got a sheet with some info about closures from the rangers and we went to Subway to eat lunch and regroup. After looking at that info, plus National Park info, plus National Forest info, plus state park and Bureau of Land Management info, Julie concluded that we are just going to have to be ok with the road being closed and having to turn around. The conflicting info s...