Phoenix, AZ to Guymon, OK

Last day in Phoenix with Kerrilyn and Dave.

It was a great couple of weeks with my friends. Being put up, I tried as best as possible to pull my weight and lend a hand where it may be needed and not be bumming around. On top of that it was a creative and productive period as well. I banged out the designs for the postcard set, got them sent off to print and contemplated and built prototypes for the portfolio to house the cards. I created a sign for Kerrilyn's Trunk Junk Show in Scottsdale and the haps at the Big Box store kept overlooking the print job and ended up being free. I didn't move Bike while in PHX other than pushing Her in into the backyard where I gave her a lube job and finally got around to changing the oil filter that accumulated more than enough miles than Bike is accustomed to. Sorry girl.

Dave and I hit up Lake Pleasant for 2 nights of truck camping and general being with a spot tucked into a cove. We took bicycles and a seafaring kayak along with the necessities, ie drinks and food, set up a mobile shade  system off the truck where we were able to scoot around with the sun. The water was low, real low, and our spot would ideally be under 10-20 feet of water. I played scout on the great fold up bike, pedaling around our area and see what is out there. We took the kayak out a couple of times each and my first outing in deep water, I somehow flipped the boat and left the Gods an offering of my glasses where they now reside in the bottom of Lake Pleasant. I grabbed the boat and paddle and swam to shore where I had a good laugh. Dave got a kick when I blindly paddled back to shore with a boat full of water and me dripping wet. Always being prepared like the Boy Scout I never was, I went to my overnight bag and pulled out another pair of spectacles, anticipating this moment for the last 4 years. I miss  my birth control goggles, good solid pair they were and lasted a remarkable 10 or so years with no tape or glue. The lens were foggy with scratches and embedded with bugs, but it was they're time and I said goodbye. The old new goggles that were a BOGO with the swimming pair are small, trendy and feel flimsy and I wish they housed more lens. But I can see.

I got my fair share of news when I got to PHX, arriving in the desert city as a US embassy burned in the desert country of Lybia. Riots in the Mideast, riots in Greece and Spain wanting to burst. Absorbing the pre debate rhetoric of the 2 dudes vying for voted control of the free world and the 47%. The blue dude looking like a dud while the red dude looked like a shmuck in the 1st rounds of debates, I wish there was a purple dude. Coming from the uninformed road to my highly informed hosts, it was a shock to the system and I rolled with the information punches.

I did get to make a bit of a paycheck in PHX. I did yard work for Dave's parents, them keeping an eye on me working in the desert sun, feeding me lunch, giving me a pair of strapped sandals after they saw the battered water socks I was wearing that had windows to my soles. More importantly than being paid in cash, I was paid in Marge and Butch's wonderful company. I'm glad I was able to lend a hand and help my friend's Parents while gaining new friends in them.

Being in a huge sprawling metropolis, a Cabelas happened to be present. Seeing that my tents zipper bit it a few months back, I thought it wouldn't hurt to try and see if they would replace it. I had no receipt and I bought it well over a year back, but being a store brand tent I thought it wouldn't hurt to try. BANG ON, they did. Since I had no piece of paper stating the sale of the tent, they gave me what their sale price was. They didn't have the 3 man tent in stock that I was carrying, but they did have a 2 man. I gave them $17 and I left the store with a new tent and a working zipper. SCORE!

Not planned by any means, Desert Dave and I spent a good number of weeks together in different intervals and locations; A lazy week in June in Phoenix, making asses out of our selves in Arkansas in mid July, partying with 10K other Beemer riders in Missouri late July, and a wonderful week long tour of beautiful rolling land and new friends in Iowa running into September.

My time in Phoenix was good to me and my surrogate Phoenix Family was even better. I love you Nelson's and I shall see you on the road in the future. The road and the things that come with it, there is no place like it. Simply wonderful. Putting myself out there, exposed to who and what only knows, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Up late, not packed, no rush. 100 mile range days if moving. Should make good use of the National Forests while I have them. Get east of Roswell, NM and free legitimate lodging dries up. No more NF's or BLM land, nil. I'll have to truly guerilla camp and squat on farm roads or such. Stop late and leave early before a rancher or the law finds me. I'm in no rush. Dave makes breakfast, we hang around and I continue my visit with Dave and Kerrilyn. It's now noon, Dave offers a beer and I accept. It's pushing 2 pm, it is time to go. I put on my boots after a 2 week hiatus, they feel cumbersome.

I gave myself a 2 week opening to make Oklahoma though I wouldn't need half of it. It was breather room to reach my Brother and Nephew's and the Folks were showing up, I was looking forward to seeing Family.

Desert, Mountains and Plains awaited me and I was itching. I wondered the temperatures in the different environs. It's getting late in the year, what would it feel like squatting on a mountain or the high desert? 2 weeks, 1,000 miles and possibly 4 States. I would try and keep it to a 100 miles a day. No different that what I was doing in Colorado I guess?

It was time for a run through the Valley and back in the Mountains. Desert Mountains. My gosh is it Red, the dirt, pink Sun, the rocks, interesting with the peppered green Junipers twisting to Sky. Sitgreaves National Forest east of Payson, AZ off of 260. I found a spot off a Forest road, it's the weekend and there's others around utilizing the free lodging of our forest. I'm nipping bourbon and gin mixed in a vodka bottle that Dave put together for me. Not for the actual odd concoction, but to set me off with a full pint of drink. I just started The Journey Home by Ed Abbey, collection of experiences and life  events. I take advantage of Fire from collected scrub and fallen branches. The stars are screaming from above. I take a gaping look but the Juniper has too much of an edge and obscure the view. Not negatively, but in their own natural way. I can't see Ursa Major, therefore my bearings are frazzled and can't make any sense out of the chaos up there that we try to tame. I watch the fire. It's like a movie set, the immediate area glowing from the fire while things lurk, waiting in the pure black behind the trees. I watch it's energy burn for me. I'm buzzed, that's the point me thinks. Feels good to be solo, I dig it, I prefer it.

Back in the saddle again.

Dave loaded me up with literature, the boxes are full. Kristofferson starts off the evenings tunes. He speaks the truth. "If you waste your time a talking to the people who don't listen to the things that you are saying who do you think is gonna hear? If you should die explaining how the things that they're complain about are things that they could be changing, who do you thinks gonna care?" Brilliant, blatant and honest.

Val remarks that I'm always running. I don't think I'm running. I just found a mesh that agrees. This is me out here, brutally honest. This is who I am, I think it's damn well worth fighting for.

"I've traveled thousands of miles just to make this land my own." -Abbey

My fire, my incubation, total clarification. I kissed Bike goodnight and thanked Her. We use each other. I saved her from neglect or collection, She provides the most excellent for of travel transportation. She is not rotting away in some garage. She is used what she is meant for. Moving a human. She is more than that, this Machine is an extension of my soul. I feel like the fabulous manipulated images of the collages from Hannah Hoch and the other fabulous DaDa FU artists. Images of people with ball bearings for brains. But mine is positive, I'm not taking over the World with industry. I'm enjoying the World with my dear Friend in the form of a Motorcycle. My lover, one who understands what's going on in my mind when I don't. My compadre, sister in arms to try and figure out just a slice of what makes this big ol' goofy World go 'round.

It's too dark to read, the music is wearing on me, the gibbon (gin+bourbon) has taken wonderful affect and I turn in around 10 or 11, what's it matter? I just know it's dark and I take comfort in the night. It's envelopes me and is a comfort here in the mountains of Arizona. I'm at 5K+ elevation, bears up here. I go to sleep.

I wake when Light hits me and I read for a couple of hours. Made a small fire and cooked some oatmeal . Read some more and rolled over for a nap, a nap that lasted for a couple of hours. It's now the afternoon, I'm not going anywhere.

I had a smoke, took a walk keeping an eye out for wood with no luck. Small branches small fire, that's all I need. Going on 4 pm, been reading, lazy day, getting back in the groove. Thanks Dave for supplying me with proper reading material. Back to solo, I like it this way. It does take a day or 2 getting back into being solo. Leaving Dave and Kerrilyns, hate to go, it's been good but time to leave. Zach leaving this past August after a week or so of travel and then the Folks departing, it was tough, my gosh a somber day it was. But it was them leaving me, going home, and me doing whatever it is I'm doing. It will be good to see them in a week or so.

Did some chores. Sewn up my cloths bag and organized my load. Need to stop in Show Low for provisions. Need a bag for food and readily accessible items. Should have brought my old stand by bag but I didn't, I'll make due, I have for almost 6 months.

Chill in the Air, 5pm. Clouds, friendly ones were about all day. 1st Cricket just started the program.

Bear poop by the tent and Bike. Didn't see it yesterday, so I wonder if I totally over looked it or had a visit last night. It's definitely fresh, not hard, I pissed on it. There's a fun cluck and clicking towards the road, fowl is my guess. Here I am in Arizona, the second time in 3 or 4 months, about to enter New Mexico for the 3rd time, I love NM.

I'll climb and ride the Mountain Rim, the Mogollon Rim, again. It was a highlight a couple months back. It still is.The Rim is the edge, the beginning or end depending on how you look at it of the Colorado Plateau. A  literal wall just like the Moki Dugway. It's got to be 2K to the floor. A wall of sandstone, limestone, slickrock? I have no idea and don't care what makes up this wonderful wall. It's beautiful as it is without whatever we decide to name it's elemental make up. Ha, treating a rock like babies, dog and cats. Have to name and categorize and be specific. Ha. I drift asleep.

I woke around 9:30, had a bug that initially woke me around 5am, had to empty the gut both ways. Better. Ate some pineapple for breakfast and geared up.

I headed east on 260 looking for Forest Road 300, the Rim Road. I totally overlooked this extension a couple months back which works out well. Gives me something new to experience. There it is, just after Forest Lakes, AZ, I hung a right on the instant dirt road. It's Me, Bike, Forest and the dirt road. I may have passed 3 or 4 vehicles in the past 40 miles. The western extension of the Rim Road offers more vista views, this is more of a confined solitary road enveloped by the Forest. Half way through, the road becomes heavily rutted with tire tracks. A couple of feet deep tracks. I keep to the side and all is well. The road really became primitive 8 miles from Show Low and Bike keeps plowing on like a tractor. I think Dave's comparison of BMW Airheads being 'agricultural' is making more sense.

I fueled up and got provisions in Show Low, kept on 260E and after Pinetop Lakes, I headed south on 273. Beautiful ride, ski area. I'm greeted with the most vibrant yellows of the the changing leaves at elevation. I forgot, Fall is here. Being in the brown desert, I forgot. I went till the pavement ended for 273. I found the proper Forest Road and headed due east towards Alpine, AZ, 16 miles a Forest Circus sign says. Being 3:30, I start scoping for a squat spot. 7 miles in, I find it. bearing left and heading north on the rocky primitive road I keep an eye peeled and go a couple miles back into the wilderness, logging road I'm guessing. The high Mountain valley I find myself in has screaming signs of forest fire. I take the road till I feel I shouldn't go any farther, the road gets worse and worse as I go. I jump on a jeep trail and found a spot off the trail.

I tested, pulled and yanked on the nearby charbroiled trees, seeing if they have potential to fall on me, they seem solid so I set up camp and started supper over a small fire. I ate and read a bit. Being finished with the Abbey book, I begin 'Travels With Charely', from Steinbeck. It's 6:30, going to be dark within the next 30 minutes. Sitting by the small fire, taking a few swigs, going to bed early I decide. Throw on a couple more sticks into the flame, watch them for a moment and I lay me down to sleep.

GOOD MORNING! Sun is out and about smiling on me above the tree line to warm and fill me with energy. Last night I woke a handful of times from cold and piss. I finally got up around 7am and started reading. I'm perched  on a rock in this wonderful Mountain Valley. The wind sounds like traffic of nature, the wheat or whatever looks like wheat playfully dances, golden fields, green and black arbor giants, blue sky and the place to myself.

I ride the remaining handful of miles in the Forest and reach Alpine, AZ. Nice and cozy village in the Mountains. The changing colors of the leaves juxtaposed with the charred remains of fire. Nature is beautiful and intoxicating. I fuel up and head out, nothing for me here. I pause for a break at Luna Lake where I slept a few months back. I go to my past squat spot and noticed they had a 'No Camping' Forest Service sign posted. I don't remember that before. Ha, that's great. There's a pay campground not even a quarter of a mile down the road. Ha, the Forest Service is concerned with cash to sleep in a tent. No sir, not me.

I take a moment, have a smoke and check the paper map. I find myself in New Mexico with minutes of leaving Luna Lake. The Land of Friendly People Who Wave On From the Road. Feels like home. Last June, I headed south from here on 191. This time I'm heading east on 180. Something new and true till I meet up and hang a left heading north east. Gila National Forest. I love this place. Something special and true. The majestic, observing, patient and waiting San Francisco Mountains spotted with scrub and Juniper on a background of beige. It looks like it did a couple of months minus the slew of firefighters dancing with the flames of the recent fire. Extinguished, it's now quiet and peaceful, barely anyone on the road. Small sleepy villages. I find myself outside of Datil, NM on Forest Road 66 by Sugarloaf Mountain. I hang a right at the 'Y' and find a grove of trees amongst the open range cattle, where I nest in the center and set up camp and simply be in the moment and enjoy and except the simple existence. I finish 'Travels With Charley'.

'When you move, you're dead to the ones who remain. A ghost.' Steinbeck. Totally not verbatim.

'You can never go home.' Whitman

I'm messed up on time. I don't know if daylight savings time happened (AZ doesn't recognize it) or a possible timezone, but it's definitely dark now at 7:45 instead of 6:45. Wind is blowing in the distance with the trees looking out for me, a prop plane flies low overhead, it's a clear crisp day greeting me. Heading out, and thinking back on all Forest roads, it' funny how the distance feels long and winding and on the way out, it seems like nothing. Ha.

I watched a Raven and listened to it's wings as it got edged by an eddy of air. 3 giant swoops steered it back to it's bearings, if it has any other than following the lead Raven.

Today I don't think I'll go farther than Socorro, NM. I'm looking at a 60 mile day. I'm in Datil, NM. I stopped for fuel and a large coffee, treating myself. First cup since I left PHX.  I sat on the walk, drank the lovely mud, observed the simple nothing in the simple nothing town. I like it here. It's great!!! I moved on for 15 miles and came upon, 'Very Large Array'. ha, I love that name, so ambiguous. It's the NRAO where there's a great number of satellite antennae pointing past the sky projecting sound waves into images of our space. It blows my mind. I walked the grounds. The visitor center had no power. Ha, all these engineers and they can't change a light bulb. I trespassed backwards down a dirt ranch road to snap a pic of Bike and one of the antennae.

I got back on 60E and took break in Magdalena where I got super glue for my tire plug kit and walked the colorful celebrating cemetery of the town on FR354. No one out there but me and the painted tombstones. If I ever decide to toss my vessel in a box and be buried in the ground, I want a hispanic grave site. Not for the Jesus and Mary but for the colorful teal and fuchsia. It didn't feel like a graveyard. It felt like a party, like I said a celebration of life. Burn me up and set me free to the wind.

I headed out of town after an hour or so and with the thrusting Mountains on all sides, it appeared I was in a large ancient desert floor basin. It was almost 2pm, I found a road on the right heading south straight for the Mountains, my Mountains, I was going to live there for a day. So happens the road turned to a FR, Cibola NF welcomed me. Cool, another observatory 12 miles down but really 'up' the road. I shall go there.

I go for 4 or 5 miles and come to a fork, right to a campground which I roll through and find out it's free, good to know. The left towards the observatory says, 'Primitive Road, no passenger cars.' Me not being a passenger car, that's the road for me. Had to do it. It literally ran the edge of the Magdelina Mountains. I climbed and climbed for 4 miles, the road not being too bad. I came to another fork. Left said, '1 mile dead end', the right was the remaining 4 miles to the Observatory. I hung right and the road did get primitive, a steady dose of switchbacks, road sliding down the hillside and I'm greeted at the top by a locked gate and screaming yellow leaves. The leaves are better than the man made building anyway.

I descend the 4 miles back to the fork where I take the 1 mile dead end road which actually ends up being a 1/4 of a mile at best. Now this road is primitive. The outside of the road is definitely sliding over the hill, I had to hug the inside wall as much as possible to ride the road, meanwhile I'm thinking, 'What did I get myself into?', but outside I'm screaming from joy. I go the quarter of a mile and approach a closed locked gate and luckily there's a wide spot in the road where I can turn around. It would be a great spot to camp but wide open where the wind could make it not enjoyable. I turn around, ride the last 4 miles down the Mountain and pull into an area where I find a fire ring and bear poop.

I evaluate my situation and feel maybe it's safer at the campground. I head to the campground and poke around again, TOO SAFE! I leave and head back to the dispersed spot with the fire ring and bear poop, where I find 3 or 4 more piles. I was lying to myself maybe it's coyote, but I doubt coyotes eat nuts. This happens to be a spot where bears are present, a campground wont make you any safer, it may be worse with trash cans and dirty camps. I  keep a clean camp and if the bears show up, I'm in their house. Plus, Dave said I smell like a bear, so maybe they will like me or want to hump me, ha. I looked at all the piles, kinda fresh. I touch them, and they're hard and dry. Regardless, this appears to be a bear right of way. I'm going to take a chance on my solitude, regardless of campground or dispersed, still in bear country. I set up camp, broke some cut down tree limbs against a tree trunk for fire wood and started reading another Abbey book, 'Hayduke Lives'. The continuing story of our friends, 'The Monkey Wrench Gang', their tirades and shenanigans against progressivism and conservatism, they my friends are preservationists. Leave the wilderness and forests alone, blow up bridges and damns, destroy the mining equipment to halt and be a nuisance to the fat cats, spike trees to ruin mill equipment. Great reads and I love Abbey's ramblings when he gets going.

A couple of hours of reading and an early dinner here in the Forest, I am the poster child of a content and happy man. This is my element. Alone under the screaming stars, crickets singing lullabies and darkness for solitary comfort. Bike handled the forest roads well as She always does. I flog Her and She wants more. Front tire is about done, hence the superglue I bought. I used the only glue I had trying to patch bicycle tubes on Dave's collection of bicycles. I'd feel ignorant if I punctured a tire and I have a whole kit minus the glue. Doh. I got 2 tubes of super glue for a buck.

I've cut back on the smokes again, HA. Come to think of it, I haven't had a smoke since the day before last, but I look forward to one with coffee later. River Rat Phil told me I sounded like an old man, hacking in the morning, heck, throughout the day. I like 'em and I'm going to smoke 'em if I wanna.

I love the sound of fire, the gases escaping the wood and becoming flame, altering the chemical makeup.

The scat is totally bear, I haven't heard one coyote. I've been yipping for the last 2 hours trying to rile one up but nothing. The nearby campground is probably sick of hearing some scratchy dude in the distance trying to mimic coyotes. Fuck 'em. This is my world, I'll yip if I wanna yip.

My hands are back to black, my aroma is back to earthy, my mind is extremely clear, Bike is ready, waiting and wanting and the season, the early season of Fall has been good to me visually and sensually. I wonder where the bears are? I feel I am almost begging for them to show up. I had a dream 2 years back of cuddling with a bear, running my fingers through it's corse hair. Come to find out, it supposably means I was cuddling with death. I don't want to die but I feel a sense of rejuvenation, rebirth.

So long, I'm going to enjoy the fire a nip and a smoke. Goodnight Earth, Family and Friends. I love you all more than you could ever know. Just don't think of me dead cause I'm gone.

The tone of orange in a cigarette cherry is the same as the coals in the fire. Same temperature? The crickets are singing, sun is almost, just almost done for the day. I'm squatting on Forest Road 434 in the high desert of the Lincoln NF outside of Ruidoso Downs, NM. Today started off great just like every other day of the past 5 1/2 months.

While heading out of the Bear Scat Squat Spot in the Cibola NF by Magdalena, I paused on the rode to take pix of the goofy loafing flora. I did that and heading out, I almost ran over a snake. I made a louie to make sure I didn't hurt the creature and more importantly, I had to see what it was. Damn, the snake was alive, pissed and rattling. RATTLING, GREAT! A FREAKING RATTLESNAKE! I stayed on Bike, keeping a few foot distance between me and the serpent while it curled, stuck it's tongue out at me and shaking the end of it's tail like a maraca. I was wondering if the thing would strike, I paused for a couple of minutes to observe and take pictures, covered in leather, I had a chance. After making it spaz, I left the little guy alone and get back to his sunning. I'd guess he was between a foot and a foot and a half. I got into Socorro, NM, grabbed an over priced coffee in, gasp, Ronald's House and hopped on I25 South for 10 miles and then jumped on 380E. I've been here before, 4 years back, a lonely stretch of road to Corozzozo, NM.

I tried to sweet talk my way into the Trinity Site, but closed to public and I missed by a week, a open house day to see where death is tested on the desert floor. A-Bomb land, death from above, where scientist of Los Alomos are the mechanics of death. AHHHHHH. No luck but the guard was into Bike and was telling me of his Yamaha Raider that he was soon to be tripping on.

I took it slow on 380 to Corozzozo, the 70 or 80 miles took me almost 3 hours. I passed the Valley of Fire where Zach and I camped this time last year. I cruised through town and got back on 380, the town is a town. I headed south to Nogal and onto Ruidoso. Wonderful ups and downs of the Mountains and then they started turning black. I took a climb towards Apache Ski and it was so evident a fire recently torn through the area. I went 11 miles up the 12 mile road and the last mile was where it was closed off and my gosh was it a view, looking on Ruidoso and back towards where I came from, the land stretched and stretched.

I went back down scoping out NF roads and did a good bit of off roaring. Everything out there was black and brown, Forest Circus signs warning of floods, debris and dead trees. I did 3 or 4 roads branching off the main artery and I was skeptical, the trees were swaying in the wind and my gut said go on. I chanced it a few nights earlier with burnt trees, not again, trust the gut. I stopped at the Ranger station in Ruidoso, a touristy type of place and asked a good dispersed spots.

The concentrated on the forest to the north, I was heading south and was told of 434 in the high desert just east of town. I held off on fuel till the morning, I was approaching reserve but never flipped the petcock. I climbed up the rusty and brown hillside and found a spot right off the road. It was good and had lumber from a previous guest but too close to the road. I hit up a couple of trails and it looked better, it was flat, had wood and I had a good view of Sky.

I got a great fire going, a big one just because I could and everywhere I step, I step on shotgun shells, seems to be a pattern with NF's.

Flames flames

fire of night

shoot to the sky

warm my bones

and keep me company

flames flames

hot to touch

but warm my soul

I look forward to the night tonight.

I'm treating myself this morning to huevos rancheros at Chef Lupes in Ruidoso. More filling than a can of mandarin oranges for breakfast, but there's that lingering thought of that the $10 could have went towards fuel.

Billy the Kid Scenic Highway. Trail of Tears Scenic Byway.

What's next? A Tim McVey Scenic Byway? A Unibomber Safety Corridor?

I understand they're preserving the inevitable past but there is a bit of bad taste associated. Taste a little strange? Maybe not bad taste, more ironic. We ruin a life of the native indians from the east and displace them in shitty land or white forefathers at the time couldn't use. Billy the Kid? Marshals and the Law couldn't wait for the guy to be dead. Now Chamber of Commerces have the opportunity to cash in on the 'Wild West'. BAH.

I went through the Mescalero Reservation.  probably have high expectations but I want to see if it's evident in the creative thinking of Joe Strummer and possibly his reasoning on why he named his great band after the tribe of indians. Why not generic like, Joe Strummer and the Sioux, the Crow or Blackfeet? Why specifically the Mescalero? It wasn't in my general direction but I was in the area.

I scooted down the road, back west and then south through the Mescalero Apache Reserevtion and back to wonderful Cloudcroft where I met Craig, Thielo and Alesi in June from St. Louis. Well, the Mescalero Reservation didn't prove a thing culturally but was a wonderful ride to boot. I avoided the actual town of Mescalero hoping to see what was offered outside of town thinking a town is a town. Well, their country side was just that, country and no inhabitants. Ha.

I skirted down to Cloudcroft where I paused for a break and contemplated a night back in the Lincoln NF, But I was in the groove, I was riding and all was right. I continued east from Cloudcroft where tarantulas were in abundance, I bet the average of 1 spider every mile.

No place to pull off and no traffic, I park Bike on the road and get off the machine to play with the spiders. They wanted nothing to do with me. I'd try and see if they'll walk into my hand, they'd use their front legs observing my gloved hand and turn around. I'd try again and again but it would never let me pick it up. The land changed dramatically from Cloudcroft which was high Mountain elevation and towards Roswell which is scrubby desertish plains. This area including Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle used to be included in the Great American Desert. Or so I've read. I passed an owl that was hit by a vehicle, still fresh but dead, I pull over and pick it up off the road and off to the side. I say a primitive prayer and apologize on behalf of man and I take a feather.

I made Roswell by 2 or 3, wrote up some postcards and visited the the post office. Roswell, I've been here a number of times, seems to be my crossroads as Vernal, UT is Dad's. Being later in the day, clouds building up from horizon to horizon, 360 degrees, the groove and the road was a callin' and I split town. Roswell is a mad house of a town where every driver seems to be on the phone and paying attention to everything but driving and the road. Roswell is also sprawling in a sense. All the usual establishments peppered with alien mercantile and a military academy. I got out of town and headed north on 285 I think.

Wide open landscape and a handful of vehicles. I went maybe 40 miles and hung a right on a county road where I was the only movement upon the land. 40 miles to Ft. Sumner, where you can see the grave of Billy the Kid. I've been in this town a couple of times and have yet treated myself to the tourist trap. It's raining here and there, looks like I'm going to run into the mother of the clouds but it holds off or at least I make it at the right time. It's getting dark and I realized my clock was an hour off, crap. The sun will be setting a lot sooner than expected. I'm making ------, NM where I cut north on county road, taking me to Logan, NM where 54 which will shoot me right into Guymon, OK.

It's now dark, I'm 30 miles from Clovis, NM and 45 from Logan. I'm starting to think of hotel rooms. Last night on the road for the season, I should treat myself. No I shouldn't. I should maintain and keep it right. It's dark, no Nationa Forests or BLM land. Back to guerilla camping which I haven't had to worry about in 4 months back in Texas. The road is unexpectedly twisty here, it's dark and it's tough to see. It's pitch black. I make -----, NM. Only 20 miles to Logan. I continue on and cross tracks, noticing a pull of on the right where I see the lights of Logan. I make a louie and go back to the pull of. I get a flashlight and walk over a rise on the pull off and there's a great spot just begging to be filled with Bike and I for the night. OK, spot secured by the railroad tracks, it's a weeknight and I shouldn't have to worry about being woken up, citation for vagrancy and told to hit the road. I go on into town and call Zach to let him know I'm a lot closer than anticipated. I buy 2 tallboys of Bud mixed with clamato juice, some of the best brew out there and decide to check out the ---- Lake. It's a pay to stay place of course and too much to pay for a tent site and possibly squatting on a picnic table and skipping out early morning, I risk a town cop rolling through here. I'm going back to the railroad tracks.

I pull off the road and let a couple of cars pass. Once I can't see their tail lights I ride over the rise at the pull off and back Bike into a clearing and eat a can of cold chili, a cold can of beans and enjoy the beers. Funny, I shoot Desert Dave a message on the squat spot and he knew exactly where I was talking about. Like minds think alike, especially when looking for a free place to squat for the night. I throw out the cot, thinking of the rattle snake and all the tarantulas. I wouldn't want to wake up spooning with one of them. Noticing the clouds have cleared, the stars came out for me one last time on the road. I smile and fall asleep to the mess of the heavens and drift off to sleep wearing all my leather and boots in case I need to quickly split.

I wake twice. 2 am I got out my blanket. 4 am I wake 30 minutes before my alarm and go ahead and throw the cot back on Bike and split while the getting is good. I pause in Logan for a cup of mud, eat a can of mandarins and fuel up. It's cold and I don't feel like digging out my heavy gloves, I move on down the road just thinking of getting to Guymon, OK. It's dark and I make Dalhart, TX. An hour or so more and I'll be at my Brothers. I fuel up and have a smoke, warming my hands and gloves on Bikes cylinders. Sun is finally coming up. I make the last bit of ride without incident. I make Guymon just before 9 am and my hands are stiff, I can't shift smoothly, therefore burping int town. I make my Brothers house, I jump right off Bike, hunt down the key and 1st thing I do is hop into a hot hot shower, the blood coursing through my veins fills like needles.

Here I am. Zach is at school teaching, and I have the whole afternoon to myself. I unpacked Bike, chilled and watched a movie and started shuffling through the Podunk postcards that were delivered a week before and they look great. Zach came home, we hugged. It was good to see my Brother, my best friend. Later that evening, we go out to meet our friends. I'm in Guymon, OK. This is where I'll spend winter. This is another chapter in this wonderful experience we call life. Taos will be back from his Mothers Monday and our Parents will be in town Monday. It would only be complete if Anika, Rob and the 2 wonderful little nieces, Kahlan and Lorelei could join us, we would then be complete.

It's odd, here I am, is this it for the year? No more distant travels till spring? Time for a job to replenish the funds as I want to keep this up. It's worth every penny and thought to continue this. It's what I want to do. It's what I was meant to do. It's what Bike was made to do. Bike has performed wonderfully and we close out our 4th year together. I've put 95K miles on Bike since. The handful of months since May 4, 2012 when I departed WV are the best months of experience in my life. Thank you road, thank you Family, thank you Friends old and new, thank you Experiences that shall never end. Thank you Bike, thank you girl. For a machine you are a true Friend.

Love Houston.