THe forecast only called for thunderstorms (big fat liars)

On the road by 11am today, not too bad considering I washed every item of clothing in my possession before I departed. One can get their clothes awfully dirty camping for six days……



Today was a trip that I had read about somewhere, some motorcycle on-line magazine I believe. Highway 191 (formerly Highway 666) was my destination. To get there, Highway 180 south from Alpine and past Pleasanton is a wonderful ride The weather steadily deteriorated the further south I went, but I was very fortunate that the road wove between the thunderstorms and rain showers, I could see lightning strikes on both sides and in front of me, so much so that I was hesitant to get off the bike for a badly needed pee break. I thought about turning around and skipping it, but my stubborn side said no way. That'll learn me!









After I turned on to Highway 78 to head up and over the pass things really got interesting. This is a narrow two lane road, missing the centerlines for the most part and it quickly turns into a mountain road, Good Riding!







I was still doing okay missing the rain, but the winds came up very, very strongly and as I approached the pass I started seeing hail. Yes, hail in July in New Mexico. That’s right I forgot to mention that just past Alpine is the New Mexico state line. (Side note: they need to do some serious road repair in New Mexico. I’ve noticed that there appears to be a big nasty crack down the middle of the lane that really likes to catch your front tire and send you a direction you did not plan). Back to the story….It had been so warn earlier that as soon as the rain hit the pavement it started to turn to steam, leaving this odd fog, only on the road. For a while it was so thick that the visibility was less than 50 feet. You will learn that this is relatively good visibility for ths trip,





The rain cam down hard, the wind came up strong, and I wasn’t having any fun at all, not one bit, I crawled over the pass and took Highway 191 West instead of North. No way was I tangling with Highway 191 (used to be Highway 666) through that again.



I took what I thought was a conservative choice and hoped to skirt the storm by heading West on Highway away from the mountains and then North on Highway 60/77 and miss that bit of nastiness in the mountains. My plan worked splendidly for 24 miles until I turned off Highway 191 (used to be Highway 666) when I immediately ran into a sandstorm that limited visibility to less than 10 feet at times, with I’ll bet 40 mph crosswinds. I’ve had some strong crosswinds on this trip, but noting like this. I actually could not ride for 45 minutes, and for about 60 miles I had all the crosswind that I could handle. I could not tighten my helmet enough to make it feel like it was not getting yanked off my head.



The wind finally abated, and the rest of the ride through the Apache Reservation was pretty cool. After 389 miles I’m within 42 miles of where I started today.

Mileage today 389/cumulative 5103

Best thing today – missing the rain, but seeing the lightning for the first 3 hours today


Challenge – the weather