Day 5: Dulce, New Mexico

Starting Mileage 8222
Ending Mileage: 8624
Miles traveled: 402
April 17, 2008

Brian woke up early and looked out the window to check on the bike and discovered that it snowed last night, so of course, he got dressed and went out to take pictures. Then he went to have breakfast that was provided by the motel. He came back and woke Grace up with a plate of fresh fruit, a fresh waffle and biscuits & gravy. “Breakfast in bed!” What a wonderful man! First thing Brian said was..."I will never order biscuits and gravy in California again--California does NOT know how to make it!" One look at them...yeah...I agree. And then I tasted it! Wow! No comparison. I guess this means there will be more trips like this to the South West (but I haven't told that to Brian yet) :)

While Brian was out, he talked to several people who said that the way we were headed was closed due to snow. So plans were discussed about heading in a more southerly direction…with a goal to get to Four Corners and to hit Taos, New Mexico.

Leaving Colorado was filled with absolutely gorgeous snowy landscapes. Once again…Grace was craning every which way to get a lot of shots.

By the time we got closer to New Mexico, there was no more snow, so Brian unplugged his gear—Grace didn’t.




The ride into New Mexico was much more open—big huge valleys and vistas, and with such openness came gusts of wind. Brian had the bike leaning into the wind and still going in a straight line.

Brian had been wanting to get to Four Corners since he was a kid. After fighting the wind for about 12 miles, Four Corners was a very welcome break.






The goal was Taos. We were in New Mexico for about an hour and Grace announced that she had unplugged her gear. This was a milestone—Grace is always complaining about being cold. As the early evening approached, it was getting cooler again. We got as far as Navajo City and stopped on a crest of a hill that had a café called “Navajo City Roadhouse.” Good thing we stopped there because not only did we have the BEST hamburger ever (called the Roadhouse Roadkill), but we found out that the pass to get to Taos was…closed due to…more snow. So—we were hoping to get to Chalma before it got too dark and too cold. But we only got as far as Dulce—about 26 miles short. Dusk fell magnificently on the scenic drive…and even with a beautiful ¾ moon, we weren’t on a major highway—a two lane road, curvy and not well marked.

Stopped at another Best Western—no Jacuzzi this time…but still very nice. It was also connected to a small casino. Brian checked it out and it was all slot machines. Not a card table to be found, so Brian kept his money in his pocket.