Stage One
The Desert Run

July 7th 2005 1:30PM

It's 104° in the shade and we are actually standng in Mexico. We were going to put our new knobbies on here but decided to ride a few more miles as there seemed to be a few more miles left in them.
The Canada border is 2,700 miles away and we are ready to ride. Dust, dirt, rocks, flat tires, mechanical gremlins, heat, cold, Moose, antelope, sheep, mountain lions, elk , cows and snow capped mountains await us.
And oh yes---Pie !!!!

There is nothing but a port of entry in Antelope Wells, New Mexico.
No food, water, gas and certainly no----Pie !!! We head North on this lonely road where you could probably take a nap in the middle of the road and nobody would come by for hours.

About 40 miles North of Antelope Wells is the Hachita Cafe, in you guessed it----Hachita. Do not miss stopping in for a bite to eat or better yet a chat with the locals--you will be highly entertained with Sam Hughes (left in the picture) as he is a hoot. Sam is for hire doing many things--one is a trail guide for the hikers. Sam said his hiking only includes walking from his red pick-up truck to the Hachita cafe--- he's full of advice.

And yes Sam is a biker no doubt--his talents and business adventures include: tires, land, whiskey, manure, guns, gold, snake oil, used cars, birth control pills, mining claims, mules, revolutions started, assasinations plotted, uprisings quelled, dictators replaced, tigers tamed, bars emptied, prospecting, treasure hunting, virgin conversion and tax free investments----a pretty talented man. Yes he was a hoot and I bet that cigarette hangs out the side of his mouth all his waking hours. Stop in, have a chat--and ole' Sam will straighten you out !!!!

It wasn't long before our first mechanical gremlin surfaced. Some riders break parts off of their bikes--but parts just seem to fall off Kevin's. A little "Mexicanda" and were on our way. Kevin can fix anything with little or no tools.

After getting North of I-10 the road turned to a lovely red dirt road toward Silver City, New Mexico.

We didn't really get that far North today as it was in the middle of the afternoon when we left Antelope Wells. I love the desert---there was absolutely no humidity and it felt great---so much better than the Southern, Illinois humidity I am used to.

Silver City, New Mexico
We couldn't wait to get those heavy tires off the backs of our bikes. We put on 4 tires that evening and didn't pinch one tube.

We drove a Ford F-450 diesal dually over the side of Monty's rear tire on his BMW to try and break the bead. We had a hard time trying to convince some Mexicans to "Mexicanada" their work truck to help break the bead. It wouldn't break---we finally broke it with the center stand on my KLR--it was easy !!

Ironically this is the same motel I stayed in on my last trip thru here in 1981 on a BMW R90S--the same people still owned it.

It was a great day and I awarded Kevin the "Rube Goldberg" greasy shirt award.
Kevin's bike was running a little "Funky"--and we didn't figure out what it was untill the ride was over with.

We would cross the great divide 27 times on this ride and we had bagged two crossings today.

Stage 2 On to "Pie Town"