May 19th – Las Cruces to Roswell

The day began slowly for us today – possibly not unconnected to the huge meal and the two rather nice glasses of wine each that were consumed last night. Need I say that it was sunny and bright but the temperatures are getting lower (although to put that in context we are talking 95F rather than 105!).

After a bit of initial manoeuvring we got ourselves on Highway 70 heading east and followed that (except when I got lost in Almagordo) until we reached Roswell. It was mainly a four lane (ie dual carriageway) road which took us through some very varied scenery and towns such as Alamagordo, Tularosa and Ruidoso.

After crossing the Rio Grande (which was practically dried up), the first fifty or so miles were through the White Sands missile testing area. We kept a wary eye on the skies but all we saw were the buzzards which increasingly seem to be taking a professional interest in our progress. Inevitably we got pulled again at a Border Patrol checkpoint but this time everyone seemed to be getting close scrutiny so I can’t blame Mark (aka the “Pablo el Narcotico” lookalike).

White Sands was, well, white sands really, stretching for tens of miles in every direction. After that we began to climbing into the mountains. For the first time in days it actually began to feel cool and the landscape became greener and pine trees started to appear. We were in the Mescalero Apache Homeland and the highest point we reached was Apache Peak at 7500 feet above sea level. We passed a sign telling us that “The Inn of the Mountain Gods” lay just up ahead. Sadly it turned out to be a casino! Casinos are big business in the Indian Homelands because they can operate outside of state jurisdiction and we have now seen quite a few on our travels.

There were also a large number of bikers on the road today and we spent quite a substantial part of the journey “low fiving”. Virtually everyone was on a Harley and the required dress code appeared to be bandana, sleeveless vest and beer gut. Beards were optional but when worn were required to be grey and chest-length. We did speculate whether these guys were actually estate agents and university lecturers taking a Sunday ride.

After the climb up into the mountains we seemed to reach a plateau which sort of reminded us both of the North York Moors. It was quite green but still very sandy. There were very fierce cross-winds up there so riding through it was not as much fun as it should have been. After that we dropped down a bit into Roswell where we saw an “alien” theme start to emerge on billboards and businesses that we passed.

We found our hotel quite easily and booked in about 3pm having covered 195 miles virtually non-stop. To our delight we discovered that the hotel has a bar but eschewed this to hit the gym and swimming pool instead. However eventually the lure of the bar became too strong. We sat out on the terrace (which the barman insisted on referring to as the patio) and watched the Harleys and enormous pickup trucks parade past on the road outside. We also watched two bikers (sleeveless denim jackets, bandanas etc) having a massive spat just outside. Anyway they made up and shook hands and probably agreed to share the moisturiser or whatever it was they were arguing about. An elderly man resplendent in cowboy hat and boots then parked his pickup and tottered into the bar. He later confided to Mark that Roswell is “The Asshole of the World” although he had apparently never lived anywhere else and has clearly never visited the West Midlands.

We ate tonight at a steak house called the Cattle Baron where the food was good and plentiful although starters and main course arrived at the same time just as we had got back from the salad bar! Still we rose to the challenge and managed to stuff everything down us.

Tomorrow the plan is to get to Lubbock Texas but at the time of writing we struggling to find somewhere to stay there. If there is no blog tomorrow it will mean that we are sleeping out in the desert with the rattlesnakes and coyotes.