Welcome to the Two Wheeled Texans community! 
Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to Be easy, this is my first "long" ride and therefore my first ride report.
Thursday morning, I pull out of the garage to a light rain/mist/fog at 5:30 on my way to Goldthwaite to meet Collin and ride to Red River, New Mexico. The weather clears just as I get to Goldthwaite at 5 minutes till 7, our meeting time. Unfortunately, we had the meeting time right, just not the meeting place. I’m at the Texaco station on the highway, Collin is at the Exxon station in town. We resolve that issue after 20 or 30 minutes w/ a few text messages and off we go. First stop is Sweetwater for gas and a late breakfast, early lunch.
Our original plan is to stop in Clovis for the night and finish the ride Friday morning. But we get to Clovis at 2pm (1pm NM time) and decide to push forward to the next town, Logan. At Logan we make the same decision to push forward, and again, and again, town after town, until 730 miles and 14 hours and 15 minutes or so later we are in Red River.
We’re staying at the Best Western, which is nice enough except for thin walls. You can hear every step made within several rooms and hairdryers at 5:30 AM. A few assorted pics of hotel area:
From the front
from the deck facing the river and of the river itself
Supper at Timbers, one of only three or four restaurants open in Red River in the “shoulder” season, is a ribeye and fried potatoes along with a single malt and the last Fat Tire beer in the joint (so we’d learn later). Fred, our Ride Moderator, joins us and we plan our ride for day two
Day Two (Friday)
Wake up early and it’s cold
This a free day since Collin and I were expecting to still be in transit to Red River. We have breakfast at the motel lobby (as we did every morning). Eggs and waffles to order along with self serve toast and hot and cold cereals. No meats, but still not a bad spread.
Around 10 AM it’s warmed up enough so Fred, Collin, and I head out on the bikes. First stop is Angelfire. Collin spent his first 5 or 6 years here and wanted to see if he could find his old home. We rode around but I don’t think he ever found it.
From there, Fred led us on a really nice ride on a seasonal road. Narrow and twisty with some elevation change and best of all, almost no traffic.
Fred and Collin take pictures of each other on a rock. Not sure what that was about.
From there we decide to go to Las Vegas, NM for lunch. Nice wide road with a little traffic. Apparently just enough traffic that someone with a cell phone took offense of our superior riding skills at mildly elevated speeds and decided to call the New Mexico Highway Patrol and report us for racing. As we’re cruising towards Las Vegas, the detector warns me of impending danger. So we check our speed to the posted 55mph. Then the detector warns me of another, and then another. Sure enough, three of New Mexico’s finest meet us from the other direction and pull us over. Well, the first one pulls Collin over as Fred and I continue on our way only to be foiled by troopers two and three. In our defense, we pulled over as soon as trooper two actually hit the lights.
Probably two of the nicest officers I’ve ever met. Extremely courteous and professional, the first thing I heard when I got the helmet off and the earplugs out was,” have y’all been racing at all?” , almost incredulously….like two fifty-something bald headed old men were incapable of such feats. They ran our licenses and were about to let us go when I asked where a good place to eat in Las Vegas might be. They recommended Spic and Span, at which point I asked “really, it’s called Spic and Span?”. Sure enough that’s the name. By now we’re all best friends and Fred asks one of them to take our picture.
And it really was called Spic and Span
and the food was incredible
More of day two (and following days) later.
Thursday morning, I pull out of the garage to a light rain/mist/fog at 5:30 on my way to Goldthwaite to meet Collin and ride to Red River, New Mexico. The weather clears just as I get to Goldthwaite at 5 minutes till 7, our meeting time. Unfortunately, we had the meeting time right, just not the meeting place. I’m at the Texaco station on the highway, Collin is at the Exxon station in town. We resolve that issue after 20 or 30 minutes w/ a few text messages and off we go. First stop is Sweetwater for gas and a late breakfast, early lunch.
Our original plan is to stop in Clovis for the night and finish the ride Friday morning. But we get to Clovis at 2pm (1pm NM time) and decide to push forward to the next town, Logan. At Logan we make the same decision to push forward, and again, and again, town after town, until 730 miles and 14 hours and 15 minutes or so later we are in Red River.
We’re staying at the Best Western, which is nice enough except for thin walls. You can hear every step made within several rooms and hairdryers at 5:30 AM. A few assorted pics of hotel area:
From the front
from the deck facing the river and of the river itself
Supper at Timbers, one of only three or four restaurants open in Red River in the “shoulder” season, is a ribeye and fried potatoes along with a single malt and the last Fat Tire beer in the joint (so we’d learn later). Fred, our Ride Moderator, joins us and we plan our ride for day two
Day Two (Friday)
Wake up early and it’s cold
This a free day since Collin and I were expecting to still be in transit to Red River. We have breakfast at the motel lobby (as we did every morning). Eggs and waffles to order along with self serve toast and hot and cold cereals. No meats, but still not a bad spread.
Around 10 AM it’s warmed up enough so Fred, Collin, and I head out on the bikes. First stop is Angelfire. Collin spent his first 5 or 6 years here and wanted to see if he could find his old home. We rode around but I don’t think he ever found it.
From there, Fred led us on a really nice ride on a seasonal road. Narrow and twisty with some elevation change and best of all, almost no traffic.
Fred and Collin take pictures of each other on a rock. Not sure what that was about.
From there we decide to go to Las Vegas, NM for lunch. Nice wide road with a little traffic. Apparently just enough traffic that someone with a cell phone took offense of our superior riding skills at mildly elevated speeds and decided to call the New Mexico Highway Patrol and report us for racing. As we’re cruising towards Las Vegas, the detector warns me of impending danger. So we check our speed to the posted 55mph. Then the detector warns me of another, and then another. Sure enough, three of New Mexico’s finest meet us from the other direction and pull us over. Well, the first one pulls Collin over as Fred and I continue on our way only to be foiled by troopers two and three. In our defense, we pulled over as soon as trooper two actually hit the lights.
Probably two of the nicest officers I’ve ever met. Extremely courteous and professional, the first thing I heard when I got the helmet off and the earplugs out was,” have y’all been racing at all?” , almost incredulously….like two fifty-something bald headed old men were incapable of such feats. They ran our licenses and were about to let us go when I asked where a good place to eat in Las Vegas might be. They recommended Spic and Span, at which point I asked “really, it’s called Spic and Span?”. Sure enough that’s the name. By now we’re all best friends and Fred asks one of them to take our picture.
And it really was called Spic and Span
and the food was incredible
More of day two (and following days) later.
)
