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Published: October 22nd 2019
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Day 26 Alamogordo to Dell City From Alamogordo up the hill we retraced our steps towards the finish point of the trail yesterday. 25kms later we were back on the trail. Gravel with new. very skatey gravel but an ok road. We were climbing heading SE so with the sun in our eyes made it a little more difficult. In the Lincoln forest again so great scenery all the way with huge areas of White Sand many miles out to the West. Besides skittery the track had a few rocks & ruts & dry washes. After around 50kms we crossed the main road & then straight back into the forest. Climbing up a gnarly, steep rocky rutted track, up to around 2500m. This was quite a challenging section & it felt noticeably a lot cooler in here. Continuing on this trail it was damp in patches & where 4 wheel drives had been through there were patches you could almost call muddy. It had obviously rained recently, probably yesterday as we had seen some black rain clouds over these hills as we rode into Alamogordo. Small streams were actually flowing, & in this area the grass was green rather than
brown. The only other people we saw were a few hunters at campsites and a group of guys all in camouflage gear who were spotting for quarry with high powered telescopes. The occasional side by side or 4 wheel drive truck came towards us or we caught up to & passed. Generally once they realised we were behind they moved over & let us past -very considerate.
Reaching Weed at the 110km mark, we gassed up & Keith got the “gen” on this unfortunate area name. Apparently back in the day the original settlers decided this area was to be called Garden Valley - very appropriate as the whole area was quite lush & green by New Mexico standards. The guy the settlers sent to the County Courthouse to register the new name, got a bit confused by the paperwork. The box that said “Name” of area he mistakenly put his surname in…. Weed! Hence the new name for this area & settlement for evermore became Weed!
Onwards on seal for around 50kms we then followed the BDR back onto gravel heading predominately south & once again climbing. This trail continued for 90kms. More Skittery new shingle, then
hard packed dirt with rocks protruding just where you didn’t want them to be. Some fast sections, some slow, some dry washes & even some with a splash of water. In this section two other BDR riders came from the opposite direction doing the route South to North.
Approaching Dell City which is the end of the New Mexico BDR we cut out as we had ascertained there was no accommodation there & headed the 90kms to Carlsbad on a sealed road through the Dark Canyon! At the junction of the main road & the Dark Canyon Road we met 3 other BDR riders who were just setting out to start this New Mexico BDR South to North.
Into Carlsbad we unpacked & headed to a local bar to celebrate the successful completion of our third BDR on this trip. 385kms today & tomorrow we head towards Houston expecting a leisurely ride to our final destination. In the bar which was a karaoke venue, we sat and listen as locals sang - many of them were on the verge of being picked up by a talent scout (or perhaps the Police). We got talking to a young Apache
Indian guy who sold us a loaf of banana bread - raising money for his church. He told us his story.On the reservation he was into drugs & alcohol & wasn't going anywhere until the pastor of his church turned him around & gave him a purpose. Very personable & positive..it was a great story.
Day 27 Carlsbad to Odessa Out of Carlsbad we had our own transit section planned to take us all the way to Houston over 3 days. We were soon on a minor sealed road in dead flat territory with scrubby land on either side. This could have been a long boring ride all on seal, but because of the oil & gas activity it was very interesting. The whole landscape was full of "Nodding Jennys" pumping oil into the many holding tanks scattered around. Every few miles there was a natural gas flare & even although it was Sunday there were trucks hauling drilling gear, tankers & a general air of activity. Everywhere you looked there were gas & oil installations & busyness.
Stopping at a small service town Jal for lunch the attendant in the restaurant told us in a round about way, never mind the smell of oil you could smell the money being pumped out of the ground. As we left, there was a genuine dust/sand storm which obscured vision for around 10kms. After a while we crossed into the lone star state of Texas & our clocks went forward 1 hour as we are now on Central Time. Heading for Odessa we diverted to look at a Meteorite Impact site (63000 years ago give or take) Not a hugely impressive crater but what was impressive was the museum. They had examples of similar Meteorite impacts from other areas including one that hit a car in NY city.
Leaving here we circled the local town looking for a suitable motel. Finding one we relaxed for a while before dining at an excellent Italian Restaurant. 280kms today, all on seal.
Day 28. Odessa to Llano Leaving Odessa was a little confusing trying to find firstly a cafe that was open for breakfast, then our route. Eventually no cafe so we decided to head out of this ultra-busy oil town. Headed in the right direction everything seemed fine, Then Ian's chain guard started falling off on the freeway so we had to stop to repair that.
After finding a Dennys for breakfast, & on seal we cruised along at around our normal highway speed of 60 - 65mph (100 -110kms) - being passed by huge rigs doing closer to the limit of 75mph.(130km/h)
All the while out of Odessa we were passing nodding Jennys, gas flares & storage tanks. Texas is actually "bigger than Texas" in more ways than one. Industry, trucks, distances, fuel stations, car & truck yards, RV parks etc etc are all huge as is everything else I have forgotten to mention. Arriving into the town of Garden City we started to see crops being grown. Unusual juxtaposition of two industries, in the middle of many of these crop fields there were often a couple of Nodding Jennys hard at work.After some research we discovered mostly these crops were cotton. Later on after a gas & coffee stop we saw cotton harvesting going on mainly by John Deere...no sign of Old Black Joe! Apparently cotton is a relatively recent crop in this part of Texas not really cranking up until about 2004.
As we covered more miles the landscape became greener & the oil & gas industry less. We passed the small district interestingly named Lipan Kickapoo & crossed the Kickapoo river.Kickapoo comes from an Indian word "Kiwigapawa," which roughly translates into "he moves from here to there.Very NZ appropriate.
9Into San Angelo which is nicer than the average city in these parts. Quite leafy, a nice river the Concho flows through the town and when we rode through we had our first major "getting separated" issue - we all had a route to our final destination of the day Llano, but through this city, Ian's route was different to ours. We eventually recontacted a few kms down the road.
Sdtopping for lunch in the small town of Eden we ate at a small basic diner. The owner/cook Jose came out & spoke to us & asked us to send a postcard from NZ (he collects them and displays them on a board in the restaurant) Sylvia his wife served us - a very friendly couple. The cafe had been in Jose's family for 80 years, before him it was owned by his mother. A major storm came through & did a lot of damage 15 years ago. They ohave the diner running now but not the motel. These motel units were very quaint, but it looked as though they were little work away from operating again.
As we left the town we noticed what looks like a high security prison with rolls of barbed wire, guards & guard towers, however on the interweb it is described as low security. Half of the towns population reside in here.However probably very few of them hail from here.
Continuing on, the countryside got greener & greener, we passed a deer farm & a few live wild deer lurking on the side of the road. We even saw a couple of irrigation booms in operation.
Into our destination of Llano we found our accommodation at Days Inn to be well above average. 440kms today. 2 thirds of the way to Houston.
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