May 30th, 2007
Grants, New Mexico
GPS: N35 07.867, W107 49.698
Distance Traveled: 570km

My father just informed me that he'd been arranging to buy a new motorcycle jacket for me to replace the one i'd damaged when I wiped out in Chile on the freeway.  He'd ordered it through Turple Bros, and had my Mom pick it up to take it to Ajoy at Milano for Men to have the logos put back on it.  Ajoy refused to let my parents pay for the jacket, and is sponsoring me, again, for a new jacket.  He apparently plans on keeping my old one, to hang in his store.  Ajoy, if you're reading this – thank you.  I'd like to shake your hand when we see you in Coutts – but as a Scout would do it, with my left hand, because I still have one, thanks to you.

We were very late leaving El Paso this morning.  Since we'd ridden so late last night (getting in at 3am local time), we decided to spend an extra couple hours sleeping, and get out of El Paso by about 9am.  One of the tires that our dealership contact had for us was more of a sport-bike tire, and would be worn out by the time we hit Red Deer.  Since we were still in El Paso by the time regular business hours rolled around, Justin took off to another dealership to pick up a tire more suited to what we were doing.

On his way to the dealership, Justin made a tight pass around a large truck and was spotted doing it by the police.  The office pulled Justin over, and lectured him about passing on the freeway.  The lecture might have been more effective had he been aware of some essential laws of physics.  In his southern drawl, this office informed Justin that it is not possible for a motorcycle to stop as quickly as a semi truck, because bikes have only two wheels, while large trucks have many more, and thus, can stop much more effectively.  Nevermind the fact that the motorcycle weighs (with rider) less than seven hundred pounds, and the truck several tons.  The cop let Justin go with a warning.

At the dealership, Justin paid for the tire, and they asked for some ID.  He handed over his driver's license, and after careful scrutiny, the clerk asked Justin if he had another piece of identification.  He handed her his passport, which she looked at quizzically, and said she'd have to go confirm this with her manager.

The manager came over, and told Justin that he'd never even seen a passport (we're all US citizens, and Justin brought his US passport, so this guy was holding Justin's US passport) and did he have anything else?  This is in El Paso, on the border with Mexico.  And he's never seen a passport.  They eventually ended up not accepting it, and took a photocopy of Justin's Alberta driver's license instead.

After that, Justina nd Rob took the motorcycles to the friendly Santa Teresa Motorsports Suzuki dealer to get the new tires put on 'em.  It took a long time to get tires, but finally got 'em done, and they were back at the hotel by 2pm.  I'd asked Justin to get me a tank bag to hold my water bottle &amp; ipod up front where they're accessible, and I fricking love it.  

We stopped for lunch about 500 metres from the hotel, to sample some fine Texas Mexican food and to fill up our water bottles.  When we finally got moving on the road at 3:30pm, Rob slipped his tire while turning at an intersection, and was so focused on trying to let me know that his tire slipped that he slammed on his brakes at a green light.  I was no more than six feet behind him, 'cause he'd been trying to communicate with me, gesticulating wildly, and I damn near ran him over.  

Since my tire had been so low on tread (it was completely bald by the time I hit El Paso, but thankfully no steel was showing), Justin had told me that I needed to take it easy on my rear break, so for that last two days i'd not been using it at all.  When Robbie slammed on his brakes at the green light, I forgot about my rear break, and squeezed hard on the front one.  I fricking love ABS, too – stopped my front wheel from locking up, and I was able to slide past Robbie into the intersection.

I love the roads in the states.  Especially the interstates.  What a difference from the roads we've ridden so far – drivers obey traffic laws, and stay in their own lanes.  While in Mexico, Justin and I were almost taken out by a semi that passed another truck – in our lane.  He forced us onto the shoulder, and Justin's side cases couldn't have been more than three or four inches from his trailer.  The roads are in much better condition, and we don't have to waste any time hunting for a gas station that'll take Visa.  It's also really nice to be able to pay for our snacks &amp; gas at the same time, instead of another stop farther on the road.

With all of those nice things going for us, we were able to get almost 600kms done in less than five hours – nearly a full days' ride on the more southern roads.

Outside of El Paso, we saw some signs for a place called Truth or Consequences, which I found a very strange name for a town.  Rob did some research and tells me that this is a town built on a geothermally heated spring that's famour for its' healing and relaxative properties for sore and tired muscles.  Of course, we didn't stop there, and pushed on to Grants, stopping at our hotel just as the sun set.

Robbie didn't want us to unload our luggage, complaining that by the time we were done that, all the restaurants would be closed.  Please, Robbie – closed at 9pm?  We unloaded our bikes and found out that, yes, everything closed here at 9pm.  Worst of all, Robbie was finally right about something, and he made sure that we knew about it.

We ended up walking to the only open restaurant we could fine, inside the Econo-Lodge Motel.  One of the things I'd really been looking forward to about being in America was that i'd be able to order exactly what I wanted for dinner, and actually get it.  I'd been getting pretty good at miming 'chicken taco', but it was getting old.  This place, though, was a bit special.  Our chicken wings came raw, and I ordered a tortilla burger, thinking it'd be a burger with chips or something.  Turns out, it actually came with no bun, and was just a regular burger in a tortilla shell.  Good, nonetheless.

We've only got about an eight hour drive tomorrow, so we're going to sleep in a little bit tomorrow, and do a bit of maintenance in the morning.  

[b:89b38]UPDATE: [/b:89b38]Dad has been experiencing problems with his chain stretching (it needs to be tightened every day) and this morning while Justin was swapping the chain out he noticed that the rear sprocket has been severely worn.  We've located a new sprocket in Durango just a few hours down the road and slightly out of our way, and we're going to try and make it there and swap out the parts.  This will put us into Grandma's house a bit later tonight, which isn't very cool.  

Ryan Noble,
Grants, New Mexico