I'm in Denver, CO for work right now. Been over here for about 3 months and will be here for another 6 weeks. Well, not having my bike up here.... i decided to get a bike. I purchases a '76 CB550-Four. I've been fixing it up and got it running great.
I really had nothing to do for Labor Day weekend, so me and a guy i work with, out of seattle here in Denver for a few months also, decided to ride to El Paso. I opnly had a 30 temp plate on the CB and would be switching bikes when arriving in El Paso. My buddy, Kris rode his cbr600f4i from seattle the first month here, he's a daily rider also and couldnt live without his bike.
My buddy has never been further south than Denver, so while we were going all the way down there to El Paso we decided why not go to Mexico. Thus, the trip being named the Denver - Mexico trip.
We decided to leave Friday at noon. making a stop in Roswell, NM for the night. Yeah, Roswell is a little out of the way, but we didnt want to take I-25 all the way to El Paso, it would have been an easy and VERY BORING ride.
Well, we got soaked when we were coming into Roswell. we were wet head to toe. But nonetheless we made it safely. We had our camping gear packed, wrapped in trash bags, but we were so cold and it was dark when we got to the campsite. "F$%& IT, we're going to a motel".
The next morning, we had a great breakfast at a local country diner in Roswell and hit the road. We stopped at White Sand Missile Range on the way. It was a nice stop. But, once again, it rained on us the entire time from White Sands to El Paso. I was freezing, not really having my gear since it was all at home in El Paso. It was pretty $hitty, the streets in El Paso are not designed to handle those big storms. At some places the water was flowing over the curb and were were riding right through it.
We got to our destination fine, my CB550 made it. The 32 year old bike made the 750 mile ride. We then, rode our bikes to the Border, walked accross, walked down the main street the bridge is on and came back. There have been lots of killings of there recently, something close to 300 this year. So, we really didnt want to stay long.
We departed El Paso around 2pm Sunday,now i was on my blackbird, riding towards Albaquerque/Santa e on I-25. We rode exited historic highway 66 in Albq and then went onto highway NM 14. We really had no destination that night, we had our stuff to camp so we were just looking for a campground. We found a campground right before dark, but we couoldnt have a fire and there have been some bear sitings in the area.... so we rode down the rode and found a Hostel.
We hadnt ever stayed in a Hostel before so we decided, Why not?
it was ok, we just slept pretty much. Then we took off the next morning, continuing to Denver.
We stopped at Madrid, NM on the way. It was only down the highway from where the Hostel was. We saw the set of Maggies Diner from the movie Wild Hogs. The town was tiny, we found a great BBQ place and ate lunch there. We continued riding, stopping at some old spanish ruins in north NM.
After that we booked it to Denver, making good time and getting home before dark. Man it was fun. we made it. the bikes made it. and we didnt get any tickets.
Here are some pics
http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f61/motoracergabe/denver%20el%20paso%20trip/
