Day 4 - Alamogordo NM Replayed

Day 4 and I’m still in Alamogordo NM to take care of those things I wasn’t able to do 8 years ago when I was thru here. My last visit in this area I did get to stay with the aliens in Roswell, had a great green chili cheeseburger and did see the white sands of Alamogordo, but I wasn’t able to see Ski Apache because of the forest fires they had here. I made sure to make another stop at the Billy the Kid visitors center to make sure I got my route down for how to get to where the forest use to be. 

Yes I have pictures to support all of my sitings today, but photo bucket doesn’t  seem to be working for me and I have quite a few photos. Some of them did get loaded but not all of them so I will try to tell the story without the pictures to back it up. The other thing I still haven’t been able to figure out is how to get my videos loaded to YouTube so I can share them. I have some awesome ones of some of the rides and am sure to have many more when it comes to Mexico. For some reason trying to load any video is telling me it will take over 500 minutes for the upload to complete so either I’m doing something wrong or my internet connections aren’t that good. 

This is where I reach out for help that if there’s anyone who has a suggestion of another place I can download photos to share and what I might be doing wrong with YouTube, I’d greatly appreciate it.

Ok, back to today’s ride. As I was saying about my trip here 8 years ago I wasn’t able to visit Ski Apache that I back tracked from yesterdays ride and rode 70 East back to Ruidoso so I could checkout the visitors center and try to find the same roads I took 8 years ago as well as the sign that didn’t let me thru last time here. What I mean by that is the sign for Ski Apache that was closed 8 years ago as well as the forest ranger who stopped me to make sure I didn’t go any further. Well, with some great directions from the lovely older lady at the visitors center I was on my way to the elusive Ski Apache. I did find the sign so snapped a picture of today’s compared to 8 years ago and the 12 mile road was open for business. 

It was another great ride to the top of the mountain and back. A number of switch backs and the same as with many mountain roads with some corners and no guard rail that if you miscalculate and miss a curve you’ll be over the edge and not coming back. Sure I’ve ridden these kind of roads before, but each is a new adventure. I do have videos to support the ascent and descent, but again not way to get them loaded to share at the time. 

So the trip did take a while up and back since it was only 25 miles an hour and fortunately of me I followed a truck up that helped wight he warnings of when there was a sharp cutback that I needed to watch for. It always helps following someone who knows there way. 

Well after finally seeing Ski Apache, it was time to head to the great green chili cheeseburger that I had last time here in Carizozo NM, the Outpost. I did read that it was closed back in 2011, but I was hoping that someone had stepped up and reopened it since it did have a great GCCB. Well to my disappointment, there it stood, but closed for business that the next question of a local was where can I get a great GCCB? He pointed me to Alamogordo where I had just come from to try one at the Hi-D-Ho drive in. That meant traveling a road that I had 8 years before again and if I remember right, last time it was sunny and warm that today’s ride turned out to be the same. The only difference is the bike wasn’t packed for travel, only me. I do have to say the Hi-D-Ho did have a pretty good GCCB, just not the same atmosphere as the Outpost. 

With time to kill and although the White Sands National park will be on my way to AZ tomorrow, I decided I might has well make the 15 mile drive to take my time thru the park and see how much it has changed in 8 years. If I had pictures to share and since I can compare them to last time, there was a lot of white sand all over the place. Sure some of the mounds have definitely changed over the years since the sand is continuing to move with the winds, but it is still something worth seeing. I could go again tomorrow on my way to AZ since it’s only a 6 hour trip, but I think I might stop on see other sites on my way thru. Once you’ve seen the white sands I can’t imagine they’d be that different a day later. I guess I could be surprised though so we’ll see what Friday’s ride brings.

Now to end the day with watching some of Jimmy’s football practice and a great steak and chicken dinner prepared by my hosts Audrie and Will. Thanks much to all 3 of them for putting up with me for a day and I had a great time and very much appreciated their hospitality. I’ll be sure to visit on my return trip.

Day 4 Alamogordo NM, Replayed