Today was another long day on the bike. The place we stayed overnight – the NW Inn – was clean and comfortable. It had more amenities than we realized, and was very reasonably priced. Biscuits and gravy are still a breakfast menu staple in this region. This is common in the southern Midwest (and the south, I am quite sure). I developed quite a liking for them!

We had decided to ride into the mountains. We headed out across the OK panhandle – miles of mostly flat farmland – sparsely populated, with oil derricks dotting the landscape. I wondered as we passed abandoned farms how many of them were abandoned in the 1930s, during the “dust bowl” era.

We had lunch at LeeAnn’s Restaurant, located in Texhoma. It’s a hole in the wall with quite good food and plentiful servings – a locals’ hangout. When we got back on the highway, we missed a sign and wound up going into Texas for about 60 miles. We finally crossed into New Mexico, and stopped to make reservations in Taos for that evening, at the Sagebrush Inn.

We stopped in Springer, NM to find a map and to stretch our legs. We came across a museum – a former courthouse and walked through it. After its time as a county courthouse (the county seat was moved) it had also served as a boys’ reform school.

We rode toward the mountains. The locals were telling us that the canyons were a great ride. We were ready for some cooler riding weather.The ride along the into the Sangre de Cristo Mountains did not disappoint us. There are some beautiful passes on Hwy 64. You go by small towns like Eagle Nest and pass some spectacular rock formations, such as the palisades.

It was in these mountains we saw a bear cross the road in front of us. We stopped to take a picture, but the juvenile black bear moved faster than I could reach my phone! As we sat in the road, we suddenly both had the same thought – where’s mama? We headed on down the road. This is country we definitely want to come back to fully explore.

We arrived in Taos. Our motel was a beautiful, if somewhat neglected, property. We had a wonderful room.