Labor Day and More Ride - Day 3

September 7, 2009
Labor Day
Fort Collins, CO

Having chosen our accommodations in Roswell, NM poorly, we didn't rest well. Nevertheless, we were up and out of there before first light. Way before first light we were sitting in a Denny's having coffee. We rode away from the Frontier Motel, without looking back. Thankfully, the witch had retired. She was probably exhausted from all the screeching of the night before. About 3 am, she screeched - stay away from that motorcycle! - which had us on our feet in a flash. We don't know who or what she was hollering at and that's probably a good thing. By 4 am I was in the shower and we got the heck out of there. Ha!

Although we didn't notice it at the motel, it had rained during the night and the Main Street of Roswell was standing in water. We rode the few blocks downtown in the darkness to catch a glimpse of the green alien street lights. I snapped a couple of pics and we rode back to Denny's for coffee to let the day lighten up before riding out.

Yesterday on the way into town I remarked on the number of what appeared to be cadets out and about. As it turns out, Roswell is the home of the Military Institute of New Mexico, which is a beautiful and well-maintained facility. Founded in 1891, it is one of five Military Junior Colleges in the USA.

Roswell hosts a huge UFO festival every year on 4th of July weekend I believe, which includes a parade and entertainment (Jefferson Starship was this year's headliner), fireworks and more. It might be fun to ride through and see that sometime... if we run out of other roads to travel. Ha!

A few miles east of Roswell on Hwy 380, the vista became a vast expanse of flatland and a ribbon of highway that disappeared into a big sky. Photo ops were mostly anything that broke the skyline, drilling rigs, pump jacks and a series of telephone poles bearing bird nests. Our conversation was reduced to - we have cows... we have goats... we have antelope and do you think that next town has a cafe? Later, we were wondering why we hadn't seized the opportunity to have breakfast at Denny's when we had coffee. The brownies that had been riding around in the saddle bags for three days were starting to sound pretty good.

There wasn't much between Roswell and the Texas border. We stopped in Plains, TX for a cup of coffee and a stretch of the legs. The scenery on Hwy 380 in west Texas doesn't offer much more than it did in New Mexico with a couple of exceptions. Now we had grain elevators and a few more people on the road and stirring in the small towns. We reminded ourselves that it was still early on a holiday. It surprised us to see acres of young vineyards in west Texas. The scenery improved somewhat once we rode up on the cap rock - now we had trees, hills, deep gullies and mostly dry river beds. Ha!

We rode on through Brownsville, remembering that Al the Printer (the man we met last night in Roswell) said there was a good restaurant in Post, TX. We rode the main drag and the downtown area of busy Post (which had bricked streets and some great architecture) before deciding a restaurant called George's on the corner must be the place. It was certainly doing a good business. Actually, most of the buildings of downtown Post appeared to house local businesses, including antique, book and gift shops.

We ordered breakfast at George's and I stepped out in the lobby to give the folks a call. I think it was a good surprise when I told Mom where we were and where we were headed. I had just set back down at the table when my phone rang. It was Mom. I looked at Tim and grinned - wanna bet Dad is gonna ride out to meet us? He was. We agreed to meet up at the DQ (Dairy Queen) in Seymour. We were looking forward to it.

Riding east on Hwy 380, we picked up a few more clouds. It was getting hot with temps in the 90s. We stopped in Haskell for gas and a drink of water. I called the folks again. Dad was already in Seymour waiting on us. Ha! As we turned north on Hwy 82 we ran in and out of light rain showers for a few miles which we didn't mind all that much since it broke the temperature.

We rode into Seymour with a thunderstorm on our tails, but we still took a few minutes to have an ice cream cone with Dad. But, not before we admired Dad's new ride. He said the wait was no problem. A biker buddy had spied him sitting in front of the DQ and had stopped to visit. We had a few sprinkles as we rolled out of Seymour. A short time later, we were rumbling up the street where the folks live. Mom was waiting with a smile and a hug and Molly was wagging her tail.

Today's ride was 405 miles. We looked forward to relaxing a few days with the folks before heading back to Colorado (route still undetermined) at the end of the week.