2018 Tour Of Honor

Brian Thorn

Premier Member
#1
The new season has begun. Check out all the details at www.tourofhonor.com or if you're on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/130290830851907/

I managed to trophy again this year, but I wound up in 3rd place. I staged in Las Cruces thinking that I could go in any of the compass points from there, but the first site was in Lordsburg and I had to backtrack 100+ miles to get the site, then return back east to head to Tularosa; a waste of 200+ miles and 3 hours of time.

I missed out on 1st place by just 42 minutes, so if I had staged in Lordsburg "as I had originally planned" I would have aced it. Oh well. Live and learn. The couple that took 1st and 2nd live just 25 miles from Lordsburg so they were at the first site within the hour of the locations being release.

I hope to have earned an Extreme SaddleSore 1000 for getting all 7 state sites within the 24 hours - took me about 20.5 hours - so there's that too. I just need to get everything gathered up and submitted.

Lordsburg was just a little sign in the middle of nowhere; very difficult to see and find at 1 in the morning.



Next up was a small Veterans park in the small town of Tularosa.



Then it was on to Albuq for a daylight shot. I stopped at the Rio Salado Rest Area on my way north and slept for about 45 minutes so the sun was already up when I woke up. They have covered picnic table areas with 6'+ benches which make for a perfect nap, Iron Butt Motel style. If anyone saw me I'm sure I was quite the sight, sound asleep with helmet and full gear on.

The ABQ photo has the memorial in the background behind the flowering trees.



Next up was the Veteran's Cemetery in Sante Fe. This is a very nice final resting spot for our vets.



Then it was on to the Vietnam Vets memorial in Angel Fire. This is one of those rare memorials that makes it to the list year after year, just because it is so darn good. Please follow the link to read more about this site. https://www.vietnamveteransmemorial.org/



Grants was next and this too has been on the list before.



Last up... Gallup. Downtown Gallup. Drug and alcohol addicted downtown Gallup. I'm sure glad I hit this one during daylight hours because I wasn't off the bike for 30 seconds when some crack w... errr... lady of the evening approached me. I just told her I had earplugs in and couldn't hear anything she was saying, but the way she was eyeing my GPS I was afraid that she was going to try to grab it off the RAM mount and run.



I finished in Gallup with about 1005 odo miles, and since I have a run-flat car tire on there that reads faster than actual I was concerned I wouldn't have enough legit miles, so I back-tracked to a Love's truck stop, got a receipt, and then rode back toward Gallup for my final fill-up and receipt. My final odo mileage was 1,042 which should give me enough cushion for the certificate.

Gallup is a scummy town, but if you ever have to stay there I recommend East Gallup on the north side of the freeway. There's fuel, a Denny's, and about a half dozen decent hotels (Marriott, Comfort Suites, LaQuinta, etc). The LaQuinta gets high marks from me because they "told" me to park my bike on the sidewalk next to their office. I normally ask to do this, but they didn't even wait to be asked.

This morning as I was checking out I discovered that they are a multi-year supporter of Run For The Wall, and the rider participants stay at that hotel. They will get my business in the future should I ever "have" to stay there again.

On the way to/from Angel Fire I passed this doe on the side. She was fresh, as were the locked up tire skid marks on the road, so it happened either that morning or the prior night. I'm just glad that I wasn't the one to encounter her. She had been shot in the head so I can only assume she lived past the accident and then was put out of her pain. She was small; roughly the size of my Wing.



Other wildlife sightings were minimal other than rabbits. New Mexico must be the headquarters of the Jackrabbit Suicide Association. I've never seen so many bunnies in my life; alive and squashed. I hit one fresh carcass because I didn't swerve enough, and then I had two others run out into the road that I managed to miss. What was interesting about both misses is that the rabbits stopped, sat down, and froze. Both rabbits froze in a sideways position, giving me a full profile view of them and never moved as I went past. The first one stopped in the left tire track line that I was riding in and I had to swerve to miss it, and the other rabbit stopped in the right tire track line and I just continued on my path and missed him/her by a couple of feet.

There was one large owl flying east as I was riding west, but I was lucky that he was flying the shoulder because he was at my helmet height and that would not have been a good ending for either of us if he'd been in my lane.

The weather was great. Slightly overcast both night and day, but there was almost a full moon which helped light up the sides of the roads a bit. Temps stayed around the mid-60s other than 380 between Carrizozo and San Antonio when it dropped down to 44. I finally stopped and put the heated jacket on and was SO much more comfortable after that.

I did this ride solo since it was a competitive ride, but Brenda and I will revisit NM over the next month or so and let her get a chance to see everything in daylight hours. We're also riding a charity event out of Kingman (Kactus Kilo) in two weeks that will encompass 4 of the AZ Tour Of Honor sites, so we'll still need to get the remaining three on our own after that.


My Sat/Mon trip.


Thanks for coming along with me.
 
#3
You missed the pic of the Huey in Angel fire, that is also a challenge, getting pics of Hueys at the memorials.
Nice job getting all 7 in less than 24 hours, I hate you, I think I got 4th, but I didn't do it in 24...
See ya on the road!
 

Brian Thorn

Premier Member
#4
You missed the pic of the Huey in Angel fire, that is also a challenge, getting pics of Hueys at the memorials.
Nice job getting all 7 in less than 24 hours, I hate you, I think I got 4th, but I didn't do it in 24...
See ya on the road!
Yep. I was VERY focused on just getting to the sites, getting my photo and then heading for the next one. Still, the McCauleys beat me by 42 minutes. If I had staged in Lordsburg as I had "originally" planned to do, I would have beat them by about two hours. Live and learn. ;)