After leaving Las Cruces, I ride up towards Alamogordo with the intention of seeing the White Sands again.
Made a quick visit with the former Concours 14 back in 2016 and wanted to see it again.
This time it’s a cool morning. There’s a slight smell of a giant sand box! Something I didn’t notice in the hot afternoon back on 2016.
I also rode the entire loop and have decided I will return in a four wheel vehicle so I can get out and walk around without forty pounds of riding gear.
A new chapter for the ‘wing. Nathan of North Carolina is the new owner now. He’s got to be the happiest guy in Tennessee today. Good guy and already has some riding plans.
So I had a set of new tires on hand for the ‘wing. Remaining tread is limited to maybe 1,000 miles.
Spent some time in the garage and installed the new tires. The 200mm rear tire is no joke to remove!
Did a short couple of miles for a test ride. Even the ‘wing likes rolling on new tires.
Ready to hit the road!
So, I posted this picture in a forum thread with a bridge theme; and, while doing so I noticed Rob and his Harley are in the rear view mirror. I couldn’t have intentionally set up this framing to capture, the dash panel for the ‘wing, the bridge, and Rob in the mirror.
So Rob and I have had the same Army assignment and flew together for maintenance test flights. Stationed at Fort Campbell twice, Korea, and deployed to large sandboxes too. While he is finally retiring, he bought a new Harley last week. I rode over to his house and from there we were riding his local area-an area I am familiar with too. I led so he could focus on building some riding skill.
After heading up the Trace in Land Between the Lakes, we stop at this furnace so I can get a couple of pictures.
A little further up the road, we stop at the LBL Visitor’s Center. Maybe there would be some other bikes there. A couple came and went while we talked about important things like Army Aviation and our bikes. It was a good time catching up again. Last time was down in Huntsville, AL a couple of years ago.
Continuing the loop back to Rob’s house we have to cross Lake Barkley. This is the replacement bridge for the Eggner Ferry Bridge damaged in 2012.
The detour took hours for traffic that routinely used this bridge. The collision occurred at night. The first driver to approach the missing bridge section stopped in time. He was interviewed the next day by news stations.
https://www.cnn.com/2012/01/27/us/kentucky-bridge-collapse/index.html
Spent most of the day on the ‘wing. Today I linked up with a local FJR rider. Got on some familiar roads but today the pace was much quicker. Took some more metal off the footpeg scrapers. 😜 Rode about 510 miles for the two days of riding.
Gas price on the pump is $0.42 but it’s dry–no fuel. 😆
The yellow pickup in the garage is a Ford F100.
Stopped on this bridge just for a photo of the railroad bridge. So, two bridges in one photo. 😃
With all the rain over the past couple of weeks, there is plenty of ground soak flowing out of the limestone rock.
Rode around to the other side of the river to have a better look at the falls.
A better view, from the viewing area, of the whole scene upstream of the falls.
'winging it again! 