Taos, NM; Day 2; Tuesday, September 11th

A very wonderful thing happened on September 11th . . . . . 2008.  Grandson JACK was born.  Happy birthday Jack!

We left Garden City at 8:05.  It was mostly clear, 68 and windy.  Chris was NOT looking forward to another day of wind.  We rode west on Hwy 50 and before we reached Syracuse the wind died down – HALLELUJA!

So the weather was fantastic as we hit the Colorado line.Hwy 50 into Colorado We also picked up an hour so we’d be riding into Taos in good time.  We ran into some construction but we had a lot of really great resurfaced road.  We stopped for gas and a break in Lamar and then somewhere between Lamar and La Junta my motorcycle rolled over 120,000 miles.  Another milestone, another first for me.

As we rode into La Junta neither of us needed a break before attacking Hwy 10 into Walsenburg (73 miles with no towns and no service) so we kept on riding.  Before we reached Walsenburg, however, Chris needed to take off her heavy coat so we stopped alongside the road.Hwy 10 between LaJunta and Walsenburg, COThere is not much traffic here so we weren’t creating a hazard.  As luck would have it there was a patch of some sort of gourds in the ditch were we stopped.  Chris, of course, had to pick two to take home for souvenirs.

The La Plaza Restaurant in Walsenburg provided our lunch.  It was a tasty meal in an old historic hotel.

From Walsenburg we rode west on Hwy 160.  A short distance out of town I realized I should have stopped for gas and I was not certain I could make it to Fort Garland.  So I took Hwy 12 south five miles to La Veta, CO and filled the beast’s tank with petrol.view along Hwy 12 just north of La Veta, COThen it was back west on 160 to Fort Garland and south on 159 to New Mexico.  We went through San Luis, CO which, according to their sign at the edge of town, is the oldest town in Colorado.

We rode through some rain in New Mexico and had to stop to put on our rain gear.  The ride from Walsenburg to Taos provided some very good scenery and we noted that some of the aspens were changing to their golden autumn color.  We arrived in Taos at 3:15 after 388 miles in the saddle.  Our high temp for the day was 88 and our low was 59.

Our lodging for several days will be the Hotel Don Fernando De Taos.Hotel Don Fernando De Taos  It sounds much fancier than it is.  It does have a big indoor pool and we enjoyed a swim before calling it a night.

For more pictures from today click on the following link: https://picasaweb.google.com/104542123131082631220/TaosNMDay2091112?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCL7Y3tqlhJ6WZQ&feat=directlink

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