Day 11 - Gallup, NM to Lubbock, TX

458 Miles

Day 11 Trip Map

What can one say about Gallup, NM?  It's a great kicking off place to head north and west to Window Rock or, further along, to one of my favorite places, Canyon De Chelly in northeastern Arizona (SW U.S. Ride - Day 7).  I'm sure if I stayed around long enough I could find some more redeeming social values.  Like, for example, the 8 oz. sirloin and enchilada dinner I had at the El Rancho Hotel Restaurant.  The place gets a rather wide range of reviews on TripAdvisor but you learn to expect that if you read many reviews.  Hey!  Newsflash!  People have different tastes and expectations and they show up in reviews.  I thought it was a neat old hotel/restaurant with a neat "link" to old movie stars who had to eat there back when it was basically the only place in town when filming nearby.  That said, the steak was good and the idea of adding the New Mexican fare with it worked really well for me.  Besides, they had Stella (Artois) and I can eat a rock if you serve me Stella.

As usual, up early and on the road.  Given my plans to visit Bobby J. up in Utah fell through I decided I'd head home.  Golf ball lies lay awaiting as it were.  So, how do you make time in the U.S. on the road?  Answer: Slab.  And there was plenty of it.  Two hundred and fifty-three miles of it to be exact.  That's the distance from Gallup to Santa Rosa where I left the slab and began my ride down to where Billy the Kid met his end.

I took US84 south from Santa Rosa toward Fort Sumner.  Experienced yet another example of why I think New Mexico is one of the best kept secrets in the USA.  About ten miles or so into the trip it became apparent I was going to get wet so I found a place to pull off and don the rain gear.  There wasn't much room off the highway but I found a little and, keeping my flasher on, stood "inland" from the bike and began putting on the rain gear.   The first two vehicles, a big semi and a flatbed truck, passed with no problem.  The third, a pickup truck with an old man and a young lady (granddaughter, perhaps) pulled in behind Betsy and, the young lady, rolling down the window, asked, "Are you okay?"  I replied, "Yes, I am, just putting on some rain gear, but thank you very much for stopping and checking.  It's very kind of you."  She replied okay and waving, they pulled back onto the road and took off.  I have found the people of New Mexico to be kind, welcoming, and always friendly.  I have maintained for years that the friendliest people in America are in Tennessee but I'll guarantee you New Mexico gives them a run for the money.

Properly geared I headed on into Fort Sumner through sporadic showers to gas up and look at all the tourists traps set up to glorify Billy the Kid.  I do not know if he was a misled boy who was driven to murder by the killing of his mentor, or a gun hand readily available, but the "story" of the area as far as I'm concerned is the Bosque Redondo and Kit Carson's place in history and this event. Wikipedia has a pretty good article on this historic event (Long_Walk_of_the_Navajo ) but to really grasp this event (and Kit Carson) I thoroughly recommend 'Blood and Thunder' by Hampton Sides (2007) (Amazon.com: Blood and Thunder).  (By the way, an interesting side note on Carson is he was probably the only U.S. Army General in our history who could neither read nor write.)

Pulled into Lubbock about 5:00pm and settled in for the night.