A Silly Grin In Holbrook - #8

Wednesday 11 April

Up at 5:30 for 6:00 breakfast.

Our not very impressive 'free' breakfast.

We're getting good at our early start routines now, a mass of efficiency we are. Off we go after fueling up. The most I've ever paid so far for fuel is $17.50. Not bad a!

Long straight road out of town, and then started winding up into the hills. The scenery slowly changed from the usual flat dusty terrain to low scrub, then small trees then bigger until we were really starting to climb through beautiful alpine pine & fir forests. The wind was starting to get very strong in places and it hit you as solid gusts, no so good on some corners or when caught side on. I was starting to get quite cold (how's that for contrast from Vegas?), so was quite glad when Phil stopped for petrol. Murray's new bike had a slightly smaller tank than ours so we would have to stop a little more frequently.

We stopped for coffee and a sort of brunch at a really nice little cafe that was also a drop in centre for the locals. Alpine was the name of the village and it was well, kind of alpine. Lovely little log cabins for the winter months. The signs on the road said the the snow plow doesn't plow after dark or in the weekends so I'm not quite sure how the locals get around?

Lovely lady, huge food and good (well hot anyway), coffee. I'm sounding like a pro now. Eggs medium over, scrambled with wheat bread, (the came with hash browns any way whether you want hem or not; of course I don't eat them!). Coffee with 'half & half'. Murray and I suspect that half & half doesn't have much to do with dairy? Half & half is half milk and have cream in a funny little container.

Lots of stags heads and a pig heads on the wall sort of a place. The boys thought it was hilarious that there were a lot if photos of local fireman holdings signs that said 'Dave Sucks'! Obviously a local joke, haha, very funny! Lots of talk about the big storm that's on it's way! Oh no!

The ride down out of these hills was beautiful. Like riding through Yogi Bear country. The signs said to watch out for Elk and deer. Oh and falling  rocks. Lovely corners and forrest with views over the Apache National Forrest. Three or so miles out of Alpine we crossed into New Mexico. Goodbye Arizona.

We rode through Silvercity without stopping except for when Phil's GPS died. Although the rock Buttes (just how do you pronounce Buttes anyway), round here were spectacular! Down onto the plains and towards the bubbling metropolis of Deming, along one of the straightest pieces of road I've ever ridden.  There were bush fires that you could see in the distance and 'dust devils' in the distance. The signs on the side of the road advised in the case of dust storms and 0 visibility to pull over to the side of the road and stop. Don't stop in the moving lanes. I had visions of riding our bikes into one these and coming out with all the paint gone and down to bare steel, haha...

Anyway didn't happen. Went to the Comfort Inn where we asked their best rate, was good so it was there that we tied up our hosses and set up camp.  We ended up in a cool brew bar, funny that. It was just right there. The lovely Kelly looked after us and was a great hostess. She now knows how to pronounce Kumara. Very useful. Nice beer, but at 9% this poor little Hog was decidedly light headed as we headed back. I must remember that water also hydrates quite well I believe.

We abanded Murray in a Mexican dinner that was recommended by the lovely Kelly as we weren't feeling super hungry after the snacks with the beers. Murray later reported that Kelly's recommendation was right on the money, our loss. We ended our last day together with a couple more beers and then I updated the blog a bit more.

Nitety night all...