Blogs from New Mexico, United States, North America - page 8

Day 20 Cuba to Grants 16kms out of town, after a diner breakfast we were straight onto a gravel road. This was a good road with the odd patch of sand just to keep us alert. Our soft sand skills are either improving or there wasn’t as much of it as I remember. After 25km of this track we re-joined the main road. Here the BDR went straight ahead but with a map warning about deep sand on the remainder of today’s track. Ian opted to continue as he “loves” deep sand and Bryan, Keith & myself took the wimpy option to Grants via seal. This was boring riding but still interesting scenery. We passed a huge open cast coal mine which is owned by Peabody Energy, apparently the worlds biggest coal miner. They have mines ... read more

We woke up this morning to find ourselves still in Roswell still in our hotel room. Alien abduction avoided. So with no UFO sightings and no aliens being reported in the area, we decided to head out of town towards Albuquerque. It was a another long boring ride as we were once again on a highway that ran alongside vast open land. For miles and miles, nothing but land. Not even trees. Today was mostly a ‘ride to the next town’ kind of day, but having something to entertain you along the way does help the miles go by faster. Even though most of the day’s ride was on the dull side, we have seen some interesting things during the past few days of driving - interesting to us for we do not see them in ... read more

SHERIFF HARVEY WHITEHILL Harvey was born in Ohio in 1838 and stuck around there until he was 19 years old, then headed off to California Gulch, near what would later become Leadville in Colorado. He got there early enough to strike a fairly nice pocket of placer gold. Within a year he sold his claim for fifteen thousand dollars and then wisely left town before the new owners found out his claim was about played out. From there he ventured into New Mexico and like any prudent miner he kept right on prospecting until the money was all gone. In the meantime he had married a girl named Harriet Stevens, built one of the first homes in Silver City, and started up a boisterous family that eventually included ten youngsters. During those early years in Silver ... read more

We let Beamer sleep in this morning. He had a hard day yesterday and he was sleeping so soundly, we wanted to let him rest. So, we didn’t get going until 9:20 and 80 degrees. The plan for today was to visit areas around Santa Fe and Albuquerque. (Man, that name is hard to spell.) So we headed south to the big city. First stop…Costco. I was almost out of wine and who can pass up the prices at Costco when it comes to wine. It appears that there are three of them in Albuquerque and one was right on our way to city center. After making this critical purchase, we visited the business district. Interestingly, there are a lot of government buildings in the city center…the county courthouse, which is a beautiful building, the country ... read more

What a scenic drive we made today. Our choice of routes was spot on. We left our hotel at 7:45 and 74 degrees and pointed the car north. And the route took us from 74 degrees to 97 degrees and everywhere in between, because our elevation kept changing the entire way. It was a slightly ear-popping day. And I should add, a very rural day. We drove for hours through uninhabited areas with no gas stations (good thing we gassed up before leaving) and no rest stops, except for one that we happened on, buried in wooded area off the main road. That was quite a relief. Our destination was Santa Fe, NM and we decided to take route 180 through the Gila National Forest. The drive began through gently rolling hills of pink and tan ... read more