Day Three June 14th 2009
The morning dawned cool and clear in the TexasPanhandle. Fortunately the storm activity of the night before stayed clear of Dalhart.
The Nomad Caravan rolled into the morning air one member larger, as Wanderer and his Red '07 had been waiting for us at the hotel Saturday night. Red outnumbered the Black on today's journey, and we made good time finally exiting the lone star state and entering New Mexico with the sun climbing inthe sky behind us as we headed West Northwest on 87.
The morning dawned cool and clear in the TexasPanhandle. Fortunately the storm activity of the night before stayed clear of Dalhart.
The Nomad Caravan rolled into the morning air one member larger, as Wanderer and his Red '07 had been waiting for us at the hotel Saturday night. Red outnumbered the Black on today's journey, and we made good time finally exiting the lone star state and entering New Mexico with the sun climbing inthe sky behind us as we headed West Northwest on 87.
Finally made it to non-flat land!!
Fueled up in Raton NM and took a short break before traveling through Raton Pass. 
Definite scenery change, as we enjoyed sweepers through the pass, and made note of the falling rock signs, and the Elk & Deer signs.
Raton to Pueblo, to Colorado Springs sections were fairly uneventful, but after a lunch break within sight of a snow-capped Pikes Peak the caravan pushed on.
We hadn't made it to the exit for the US Air Force Academy when a strip of plastic jumped up and attached itself to Jeff's pipes and started flailing around. The Nomad train made a hasty exit to the shoulder where the offending plastic snake was cast off. The skies ahead were looking threatening and we pulled off at the next exit and found a safe place to don rain gear. Riding in the rain is bad enough, but this storm offered an added hazard of hail to boot. Fortunately it was small stuff, and after a few minutes of painful strikes to the hands & face the hail was behind us, but the rain persisted for 25 miles or so.
We fared better hail-wise on the road than Westminster where we are staying tonight. Arriving in the parking lot we noted a large accumulation of white stuff near the cornersoftheroof and at the gutter downspouts. Reportedly the accumulation came on in about a 20 minute period.
Denver traffic has earned a dishonorable mention, as we sat in stop and power-walk traffic for almost a half hour before it finally broke loose.
As we were getting ready to head to dinner our group grew by three Nomads. The Southwest delegation of Scott (Cactus Jack) Brad (Blown Dodge) and Tom (TomK) made it to the end of their 1000+ miles to Denver.
We're meeting Daryl (Audioguru) and acouple more riders in the morning for the final leg of our journey to Custer
Hi LW,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the blog and pics...we are all loving it. Ride safe and tell the tribe we are all hoping they have a great time, have great weather, and most of all wishing them a safe trip.
Schoeney