June

Well as I said May, was a bust not really much to talk about the first half of the month. My last week was filled with a little excitement along with the start of June. My friend Greg came in from Indiana on his FJR on the 23rd. I was really impressed when I saw the set up for the short time he had Greg really did a nice job getting the bike ready. He purchased the bike about a month ago so he did a lot of scrambling to get all the farkling done.

I decided to meet him on Sunday in Moriarty, NM. It is a little town just east of Albuquerque along I-40. He called me once he was at Tucumcari and I took off from my house. I ended up getting to the truck stop in Moriarty about 45 minutes ahead of him. I sat around just watching the wind blow; it always blows in Moriarty. After he arrived, we talked for a little bit while he filled up for the ride to Rio Rancho. I called my wife to let her know we would be at the house by 16:30. Stacey pulled her SUV out of the garage so that Greg and I could get the bikes in. Once we arrived at my house, we gave Greg a few minutes to relax then headed for dinner. Since Greg was from Indiana, we decide to go to a Mexican restaurant in Corrales. After dinner, we sat around and talked about his ride in and what the plan was for Monday.

Monday morning we took off early starting out at the Mule Barn for breakfast. This is an old truck stop that I usually start most of my rides from. After it warm up a little Greg and I headed for the Crest. Since Greg didn’t know the roads, I led most of the time. The Crest is a winding road that dead ends at the top of the mountain close to 10,600 feet. We were running the road at what I would say was a decent clip without incident. I did knock my foot off the pegs a couple of times and did scrape a little off the bottom of the pegs. After we passed the half way point the temperature started to drop into the thirties. As long as I have lived here, I should have known better but we weren’t dress for the temps. We also ran into some road construction on the way up, the highway department was working on the edge of the road. As I came up on them the pickup truck decided to pull onto the road without looking. A quick blast of my horn and evasive maneuver I just missed his front bumper, at least he stopped after he heard my horn giving me just enough room to squeeze by. Greg had to swing out a little but we made it safely by. After that the rest of the 6 miles to the top were pretty uneventful. There was little traffic on the road, probably due to the low temps. Once at the top we parked and as we were getting our gear off this couple came up. The girl was wearing shorts, tank top and flip flops. I took a picture of Greg and her by Greg’s FJR, you could tell she was cold. We then headed inside the gift and proceeded to purchase long sleeve t-shirts and get something warm to drink. Once we warmed up we headed to the overlook and took some pictures, we hung out about 10 minutes then headed for the bikes and the bottom of the mountain. On the road down we ran into a truck hauling hay up, it looked like he had dropped a bail and parked in the middle of the road to pick it up. As I came around the corner there he was but luckily I was not running that fast. My tires were cold so I was taking my time going back down the mountain. Once we hit the bottom of the mountain, we headed to Madrid where we stopped so that Greg could take a few pictures of Maggie’s dinner. It was the restaurant in the movie Wild Hogs. It was built for the movie and is not open to the public, it is a prop only. After Madrid Greg and I headed for Los Alamos and Jemez Springs, we stopped for another photo op at the Caldera. Afterwards we headed for my favorite lunch spot Los Ojo’s tavern, we grab lunch and ran home overall it was a nice 250 mile run. That night we talked over the rest of the trip.

Tuesday morning we took off for what was supposed to be a 5 day trip. We started by heading for Quemado, Pie Town, Datil then stopping at the VLA (very large array). It is 27 radio telescopes connected together in a Y shape. Each leg can span 13 miles; the telescopes are moved by rail cars. We walked out to the telescopes and while we were taking pictures they repositioned the telescopes, it was cool watching them all move together. We also toured the museum before taking off. Afterwards we headed for the Buckhorn in San Antonio, we stopped for lunch. The Buckhorn is noted for its Green Chili Cheeseburgers. We pounded down a couple of burgers and washed them down with a cold beer. Needless to say we were miserable all the way to Truth or Consequences and the end of our first day. After getting our room and parking the bikes, I ran across the street for a six pack of beer and we settle in for the night. We were so stuffed all we did was kick back, drink beer and watch a little TV before hitting the sack.

Wednesday morning we were on the road by 08:00. Our plan was to run highway 152 then state roads 35 and 15 up to the Gila Cliff Dwelling. These are excellent roads a lot of tight and sweeping turns. After the Cliff Dwellings we were heading to Silver City then over to Devils highway and our stop for the night in Springerville. We had a blast on highway 152 the road was in excellent shape with almost no traffic. We stopped for pictures a couple of times. As we turned off 152 to state road 35, I stopped at a small station to check and see if Greg wanted to lead for a while. I told him I had never been on 35 before but he said he like the pace I was setting and didn’t mind bringing up the rear. So off we went about 5 miles down the road we passed a Sheriff sitting on the side of the road talking with a highway worker. We were running the speed limit (45 mph), so I wasn’t worried about him. The only time we were above the speed limit was in the corners. We weren’t in a big hurry so when we were on straight roads we ran close to the posted limits. About 4 or 5 miles down the road is when the real fun started. We had just came out of a corner and heading down a straight way when out of the weeds on my left a Javelina darted out in front of me. To be honest I didn’t even see him till he crossed the centerline, by that time it was too late and I braced for the impact. I hit it dead center and it jerked my FJR right I tried to correct it but it was too late. When I tried to straighten it out, the rear end slid out from under me and I low sided. The FJR and I slid a short distance and then started to tumble. I was lucky no one was coming from the other direction because I crossed the centerline and ended up on the shoulder. I laid in the dirt for what seemed an eternity assessing the damage. Greg ran up as quickly as he could to help. After a few seconds I told him, I thought I broke my ankle and my left hip hurt but was okay and needed help getting up. Greg helped me stand up after a few minutes and I hobbled over to see the FJR. We talked and I told him I needed to get checked out, so he tried to call for help but didn’t have phone service. He was getting ready to go for help when the postman pulled up. He went down the road to call for help. While we were waiting, Greg and I pulled off a few things from the FJR and grabbed my saddle bags. He also snapped a few picture of my bike and the Javelina I hit. I told him to be careful if that thing was still alive it was going to be pissed off. About 30 minutes later the same Sheriff we saw earlier showed up right with the ambulance. We explained what happened and he asked how fast we were running, I told him 45 maybe 50 mph max. He said good answer and Greg showed him the Javelina on the side of the road. The ambulance workers put me on a gurney and removed my boot. The second they took it off, my ankle swelled to twice its normal size. They loaded me up and Greg followed me to the medical center in Silver City. On the way I called my wife to let her know, I was on the way to the hospital but okay. I wanted her to come down to Silver City to pick me up, I was going to have Greg get me a hotel and we would spend the night. While I was waiting at the hospital to get checked out, I told Greg to keep going. No reason for him to hang around, Stacey would be here soon and he still needed to be in Tucson, Arizona on Thursday. So he finally agreed and took off and I was expecting to be discharged anytime. Well that went to heck too, when they made me pee in a cup and found blood. I ended up getting a CT scan and they found I had a small laceration of the spleen. I quickly received a helicopter flight to Albuquerque and UNM hospital; they are the only trauma 1 hospital in the area. So I called Stacey to tell her to turn around and head back home because I was getting a ride to UNM and I would meet her there. I ended up spending the night at UNM but the good news no surgery on the spleen. They also put me in an air-cast for the ankle and hopefully I will get it removed in four weeks.

Greg completed the ride picking up his buddy in Tucson. They took another 4 days to get back home. They cruised to the Grand Canyon and the mountains of Colorado before heading home.

So right now I sitting at home trying to recoup and talk my wife into another bike.

Well the talking wasn’t as bad as I thought; I just asked if we get another Bike which one would you want. She told me the FJR was uncomfortable and when she sat on the Connie she didn’t like the feel. So we talked and decided that if I was going to get another bike it would be a Goldwing. I started looking about three weeks after the accident and found several in NM, AZ, and CO. All were priced right at book value so it did look like I was going to find a kick-ass deal.

Well my next visit to the doctor resulted in getting rid of the air-cast and switching to an ankle brace. Since I had done a lot of looking at Goldwings and hitting the forums, I pretty much knew what I was looking for. I decided on a 2003 Goldwing I found in Tucson, AZ. I talked with the owner and we came to an agreement on the price and I pick it up this Thursday. I’m flying in Thursday morning and hope to be on the road by 13:00. It’s about 500 miles to Tucson so I figure about 8 hours to get it home. I’m probably going to head north out of Tucson and cut across AZ to NM and jump on I-40 for a straight shot home. The weather reports are calling for thunder storms in NM so I’m bringing my rain gear with me.

Well that’s about it for now until next time ride safe and remember “Javelina the other white meat”.