Day 19 Are you Kidding?

A bar with no beer! Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen. They are empty, go figure, I am too polite to just walk out. Trouble with the license they tell me, I’ve left my phone on the hotel WIFI uploading pictures so no chance of scouting around for an alternative venue for afters. The salsa is scorchingly hot, which went a little way to ease my disappointment.

Billy the Kid country today, Lincoln, once the baddest town in the West, now quietly nestling between rugged hills, “The Boys” would still recognise it. The fondness for gunplay is still here, borne witness to by the bullet perforated historic markers.

The lady at the desk of the Motel 6 had offered good advice “don’t leave town without a full tank of gas and a ‘potty break'”. She also let me use the staff washroom when I got dirty trying to remedy a fluid leak on my rear brake that I’d spotted just before leaving. Also prior to departure I phoned Mark at ‘Classic Guzzi’ in LA to enquire about a pair of new carburettors in the hope that might fix the clattering that occurs at certain revs and throttle openings. Perhaps also to reward the old girl for making it this far. He talked me out of it, US stock carbs are restricted for emissions regulation. I’ll call him again to talk about getting the brake fixed, it looks much worse than it is due to the low viscosity of the fluid and I can get by without the linked brakes on these open roads.

‘Potty break’ lady was right, about the gas, and it was over 200 miles until I was able to fill up again. I could not have made it on my ‘modern’ bike (a Cagiva V-Raptor), it’s apparently voluminous tank conceals a large air-box and she splutters out just past 100 miles. No such problem for the Guzzi, she sucks air through two short trumpets capped with expanded mesh ‘bird catchers’.

We crossed the White Sands Missile Range and a shop offering ‘atomic’ glass, presumably related to some weapon testing. Gas came eventually at San Antonio where I enjoyed the relief and butter pecan fudge. The mountains rose up ahead and heavy clouds offered promise of rain, the temperature dropped as we climbed following Route 60. Cresting a ridge the VLA (Very Large Array) telescope hove into view gawping out into the universe.

Pie Town at 7,778′ saw the sleet start, cold and very wet I had nowhere to stop to put on rain gear until the Rito Quemado store where I recovered and put on layers for the ride on down to The Rode Inn, Springerville. There I met Steve who was delivering a BMW GS motorcycle to a friend across the country and picking up another to bring back, nice work if you can get it, he’d also caught the storm.