Take Me to Your Leader

June 16.

Today was going to be a good day.  We were headed from Las Cruces, NM to Amarillo TX.  The plan was to take in three tourist stops along the way; White Sands Missile Range, Roswell, NM and Cadillac Ranch.  It was going to be about a 650km day but we knew this going in, and we were prepared to arrive in Amarillo late if need be.

It was a beautiful day in Las Cruces and the temperature was over 100F, by the time we were approaching the White Sands Missile Range.  For those that don't know, White Sands is a huge military  facility used for the development and testing of rockets and missiles by the US Army.  One location on the base is known as "Trinity Site", where the first nuclear bomb was purposely detonated as a test at 5:29am, on July 16, 1945.

They have a small indoor museum there, and an outdoor display of countless missiles and military weaponry. But make no mistake, this is a military facility.  We were required to park our bikes outside the base, present ID to enter and walk along a pathway to the museum.  There is no charge to enter the museum.

Notice the sign when entering the White Sands Missile Range.

Missiles on Display

This means YOU

Old control room equipment.  I continue to be amazed by
the work that engineers did in the 40's and 50's.
Developing guided missiles for example - All done with
hand calcs, slide rules, no CAD, Ansys or anything.

An early drone

The last thing you see before you are struck by a V2 rocket.

Anyone that remembers watching the events of the Gulf War
unfold on CNN will remember the patriot missile launcher.

This is a "Fat Man" nuclear bomb casing.  This is the type
that was dropped on Nagasaki.  I learned that it was a
different type of bomb dropped on Nagasaki than Hiroshima.

An early drone

If you look carefully at this picture you will notice a rocket behind me.

The reason the area is known as "White Sands"

 After visiting the While Sands test range, we set off for Roswell via Alamagordo and Ruidoso.  There was a forest fire burning not far from Ruidoso, but we were told the road is still open.

Prepared for smoke blowing from the forest fires near Ruidoso, NM.
Plus it looks really badass.

 As we travelled between Alamagordo and Ruidoso, the scenery was beautiful but the temperature was rapidly dropping and dark rain clouds were ahead.  The temps dropped from 100+ to just over 60F in the span of 30 minutes of riding!  Then the prayers of the people in Ruidoso were answered and the skies opened up with a downpour.  Fortunately we were able to pull off under a truck stop cover to figure out the next move.

Hmm...C'mon 3G signal... How much longer will this rain last?

I gave up on the badass look and went for
comfort while riding through the rain.

Fortunately the rain didn't last long and by the time we got to Roswell the weather had turned nice again.

If you don't know about Roswell, in the 1940's (I think), a weather balloon crashed near Roswell...or so they would want you to believe!  Conspiracy theorists have long claimed that a UFO crashed near Roswell and the government has been covering it up.  Roswell is ripe with all kinds of Alien stuff and is by far the main attraction to the town and a major source of tourism income, I'm sure.

This town has by far, more tourist fromage than I've seen anywhere else in my life.  It was awesome.

We arrived at the UFO centre, which has a self guided tour for two bucks and leads you to the back of the gift shop.  We bought awesome patches for the vests.

Take me to your leader...

The black light "tour"

Scarry...

There is goofy alien stuff everywhere downtown.

Mexican Aliens at the restaurant where we ate lunch.

This is Connie who nicely sewed some patches on our vests for us.

After Connie finished sewing our patches on the vests, we debated the need to fill gas.  I was showing a range of 145km left on my tank.  We figured we'd just top off in the next town.

Mike's got a badass vest, all patched up now baby!

The highway was long, straight and fast with a 70mph speed limit.  The road went on, and on, with nothing appearing.   No anything, and I really needed gas after close to an hour of riding.  There was a small town showing up on the GPS that I was praying they had gas.  If they didn't I was parking the bike anyway and looking for plan B because the next town was 40 miles away and there was no way I would make it, and of course Mike was basically in the same boat.  Fortunately we rolled into the tiny town of Elida, TX and (cue angles singing) a Phillips 66 appeared.

This is what happens when your Harley drops below a 15km

remaining range on a tank of gas.  It just gives up trying to be

accurate and reads "Lo".  i.e. "You're in big trouble buddy."

The best looking gas station I've seen in my life.

 We continued riding trying to press on to Amarillo.  However dark clouds were rolling in again.  Raingear back on, we continued riding for a spell.

Dark clouds and lighting ahead.

However, as the highway continued it rolled through the small town of Bovina.  Then it happened.  Right across the roadway was some kind of drainage pathway that made a huge deep "puddle".  It was fairly dark at this point and rode through this water that was certainly 8" deep or more.  The tsunami created was unbelievable; not unlike crashing through a wave on a seadoo.  Thank God the bikes cut through it well.  We pulled off the road, acknowledged "this was nuts" and looked for the next motel; fortunately not too far in the tiny town of Friona.

We'll get an early start tomorrow and catch up.