We got Wet, but we made it to Sipapu

We woke up early this morning, but that was not planned. I guess being so close to Texas, my iPhone did not change time zones, so we woke up at 5AM instead of the planned 6AM. I was wondering why Jackie was taking his time while I was scrambling around to get bike packed on time. 

The prior night we were startled awake, when the guys next to us were killing flies, using the heel of their shoe. Banging on the shared wall of our rooms. We were not pleased. It sounded like they were coming through the wall. I’m sure it did not help that they had the door to their room open for most of the night. They probably had a fly festival in the room. Idiots..

We got the bikes loaded up and ready to go. The weather apps on all of our phones had to be working overtime. We knew we were going to hit some rain, we just wondered when and how much we would get. We grabbed a quick snack for breakfast then hit the road. We rode dry until we pulled into Tucumcari. From there until we reached Las Vegas we got rained on. Not a hard rain, just steady and damp. NM 104 runs between the two cities for 114 miles and it rained the entire time. I still like doing that cut across. 

We dropped into Las Vegas and the rains stopped. It is so pretty riding into there on 104. We ended up eating breakfast at Charlies Spic n Span. Like every other time we have been there it was very good. I had been craving some good NM red chili and I was not disappointed. 

We looked up towards Sipapu and it looked pretty ominous. Jackie had reserved a room in Taos just in case it was raining when we reached the ski lodge. I really was hoping we would camp. We climbed on the bikes and headed up hoping for clear skies. The ride up to Sipapu is a good twisty one. The road has some traffic but it is still a fun little ride.we arrived at the lodge and it was SUNNY! I told Jackie I was camping and paid the registration fee. I got my t-shirt and then we went and scoped out camping sites. We got to set up in the same area as 3 years ago (the rained out event) but this time got to set up in dry sunny conditions. Nothing beats Moto camping in the mountains.

We got set up and decided to kick some tires and look for old friends. It’s always cool checking out the wide assortment of machines at this rally. We hung out the rest of the evening, enjoying great conversation and some mediocre green chili stew. We were exhausted by the end of the night and was  snug as a bug in my sleeping bag by 9:30PM. Nothing like falling asleep listen to the creek and the mountain winds. Tomorrow we will do a little route before hanging out at rally central the rest of the evening.