I slept through the overnight rain but woke up to a damp and chilly morning. I stayed under threatening skies most of the day, and was glad I packed the heavy jacket. I took US-70 from Portales to Clovis, where I picked up US-60. I got on US-84 in Ft. Sumner and my rain luck ran out just outside Santa Rosa. I got out of the rain about when I got on I-25 andfinally saw the sun just south of the Colorado line.

Crossing Raton pass in to Colorado was a lot of fun. The bike ran really well at almost 8000 feet and the views were spectacular. I stopped at a scenic overlook just over the pass and got a good picture of some cool looking mountains.

After that I booked up to meet my friends in Walsenburg, CO. They’ve got some land up in the mountains and I took them up on the offer of tent space. I really should have left the bike at the bottom instead of riding up the dirt roads. The hills were OK to go up, but they’re going to be scary going down in the morning.

Vic cooked up some excellent fajitas for dinner, and after some catching up we settled in for what looked like a chilly night at 7000 feet.