Hanging Out in Socorro

The Sands, Socorro, NM

Ray Patel

We got a room at the Sands at 205 California Street, $40 per night with tax. It wasn’t bad. Took awhile to air out the perfume smell, but then it was fine. It was clean, especially the bathroom was spotless, and it had a tub. (Aggie loves washing clothes in the tub, and then soaking herself.) Ray was a good host, kind enough to share his cutting pliers with us. That’s him.

As for repairs, the bike shop we had been counting on had shut down the year before, and WalMart was closing out its bike department, so tubes, water bottles, and a 2.5 gallon MSR Dromedary to be overnighted from REI. C lubed the ratchet on his cassette, adjusted the derailleurs (while cursing Ordinary Bikes), cleaned the chains, sanded the disk brakes, and lubed the cables.

REI came through in a hurry, as they always have for us, and our friend Craig sent along a pair of padded bike shorts for Aggie. Whee, that will help!

Dublin, solo cyclist

Dublin's rig.

While this was going on, we met a solo cyclist, Dublin Driskill, pictured. Check out his rig. It’s a lot lighter and more compact than ours. A net bag in front to carry three 2-litre bottles, backpacks for panniers, etc.

Our camel across the desert.

On our last night, just before we headed to San Antonio, NM to sit and find a ride across the White Sands desert, we got a phone call from Nathan and Marsha, who we had met in Datil. They were going to the same place, and offered us a ride in their RV!

THINK GREEN
BLESSED BE
AGGIE and COUGINA

OLD TOWN BISTRO - Socorro N.M.

What a wonderful place. We decided to treat ourselves to a wonderful YUPPIE meal and a few drinks. Beautiful surroundings in a starving town. Of course we only have two changes of clothes as we travel, so admittedly we may look a bit on the rough side. We had rented the motel, bathed and washed our clothes, and walked two blocks to the Bristol. The cook came out to chat with us, and at 3:45 we ordered an appetizer and a drink to wait till dinner started at 4. The presumed owner, Donna, refused me a beer, saying that she can smell alcohol on my breath. Is she anti anything else? I did not take a photo, what an ass---e, left and came back to the motel, saved at least 60 bucks... So remember, even YUPPIES can be STUPID.

THINK GREEN
BLESSED BE
COUGINA and AGGIE
http://anoldmansjourney.blogspot.com/

Dreamtown: Pie Town, New Mexico

Pie Town sits at 8000' elevation. It originated, in the late 1800's, Nita thought, as a stopping point along the cattle drive from Springerville, Arizona to the railhead in Magdalena, New Mexico. Cowboys bought dried fruit here, and eventually pies. Indeed, we have been following a route through high, open grasslands all along the way. And, indeed, there are two local cafes which both serve excellent pie. By the way, we're talking 35 residents in town, and 150 in a 15 mile radius of town.

Alyce

Not just Toaster House, but the entire community, is a special sort of place. You know how the magazines do the articles on the ten best places to live in the US? This is one of those places that you hope the magazines never discover.

Tommy

Nita stopped by in the afternoon and told us about the Friday dinner at the Pie Town Cafe. Thus began the expansion of our experience, from the friendliness and generosity of Toaster House, to the friendliness and generosity of Pie Town. We had fried cod with cole slaw and hand cut fries, excellent by any standard. But the food was not as remarkable as the people. The Friday evening dinner is obviously a town social event. There was even a lower priced dish on the menu, such that most anyone could feel comfortable attending. Every table but one was reserved. All he locals were friendly to us, including Alyce, Michelle (our waitress who was handling the whole place, and whose dad came in for a hug while we were there), Ed, , and JY, Joan, and their son Tommy. Tommy later came to the Toaster House with three nice beers, Dominican cigars, fine guitar playing, and interesting conversation to finish our evening in style.



It was all so enjoyable, and we, so fatigued, that we changed our plans and spent another day.

Saturday, we tried the green chile stew at the Pie-o-neer. Great stuff!

Ajo

Later in the day, Ajo came by and regaled us with more good ale, oranges (bless you, Ajo) and stories of his time on THE ICE. He spent 10 years doing technical work in Antarctica.

Cougina magically summoned the energy to drag me to the dance at the community center. (I wanted to get my rest for the next day.) Sorry we didn't get photos! It was a blast, and I didn't want to leave. A country/western band, which was good enough to play an urban bar, IMO, played country favorites, and you know how we love to dance. Plus, we got to meet a bunch of new friendly people.

The striking thing about Pie Town was affirmed by Anna, the post mistress: the residents not only care for each other, but seem to accept each other. If you've lived in small towns, you know how the support and friendship is counterbalanced by gossip and jealousy. It gets revealed even to us as passersthrough. Cougina and I have noticed that, with all the people we have talked to here, no one has had anything but positive words to say about anyone else. Not even veiled neutrality. Just positive.

This is about the nicest thing I can think of that I could say about a place. If it were in our hearts to settle in one spot, I don't think we would need to look further than Pie Town.

THINK GREEN
BLESSED BE
AGGIE and COUGINA

Largo courtesy of http://www.swproperties.com/

No posts lately because we have been out of Verizon coverage for the last few days. This is highly upsetting for Cougina, who had checked the Verizon online coverage map and chosen a route that was identified as having service.

Other than the data service, all is well. We were exhausted when we arrived in Quemado, NM. Conditions were too windy for a comfortable camp, so we got a room at the Largo motel. Highly recommended! The manager told us that it is three years old, but our room looked like it was brand new. The appointments were as plush as many more expensive city hotels that I have stayed in. Also, the cafe had good food in huge portions.

Campsite enroute to Pie Town.

The next morning, we started the two day journey toward Pie Town. Cougina's plan to get us into condition is certainly the all out masculine approach. We found a very nice campsite on BLM land, just in time. Considering that we started with zero conditioning, we were satisfied with 55 mi in four days, loaded, uphill, and into the wind almost all the way.

Aggie's turn to cook.

Next post will describe Pie Town, which turned out to be worth every bit of the four days of uphill riding into the wind.

THINK GREEN
BLESSED BE
AGGIE and COUGINA