Thursday, July 18, 2013

My Unplanned Road Trip to New Mexico (part 1)



As some of you know, Gary has been in Las Vegas for 7 weeks dealing in the World Series of Poker (WSOP)
His job ended on thurs july 11th.  Fri was tying up loose ends etc…  He decided he was going to drive his SCOOTER home-a scenic “adventure”  He left Vegas Saturday morning and headed south.  Made it to Flagstaff where he spent the night.   Sunday he was told by highway patrol no more interstate-bicycles only.  So he headed to the back roads as originally planned. (big mistake but who am I to say?)  
Sunday July 14, 2013 
10:22 pm (central time) I get a phone call.  The back tire lost air/got a hole/whatever…it went out and the bike went down/wrecked/blow out. Right near the VLA. Of course he couldn't see it in the pitch black night. Road rash on the elbow area-through his jacket. Bruised hip area. Wounded pride.  Stranded. On a two lane, hardly traveled road. In the pitch black of night.  No lights anywhere.  Two cars pass, but no one stops (would you?) “somewhere” in New Mexico.
10:44 He is going to call a wrecker to come get him. The nearest wrecker is about 50 mi away. One way. When I finally went to bed (not like I could do anything from here) they were on the way to pick him up. (I didn't get much sleep though) I received two more texts that they DID show up and got him to town. Socorro NM and he got a hotel room. The clerk was not Norman Bates.


Monday July 15, 2013   do my morning errands and come home. Decide to look up car rentals/truck rentals in the Socorro/ Albuquerque area.  No dice if you are going one way. Car rentals yes, with an additional $500. Drop off charge. (they have to pay someone to drive the car back)  So that is not going to be an option.  I texted him to basically tell him that he was screwed on that option.  He called a friend to see if he wanted to make a road trip-expenses paid but he said his truck was not reliable enough. I finally told Gary go measure the scooter w/out wheels and I would measure the inside of my car to see if it would fit. At an angle it would just fit in the back (Honda Fit) appropriate. So I threw some stuff in a bag, gathered up my journal and stuff and hit the road.  Once I got gas and got on the way it was about 12:20pm and rainy.
 
this guy was not having a good monday


me, road trip when the sun came out
New Mexico-sand  no beach
Trees in w Texas-in the middle of flat fields
Foreshadowing...(or also known as "you've gone the wrong damn way")




3 comments:

Kerry said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Kerry said...

Good story! So many times I thought I would have to go on this kind of adventure to pick up my other-kind-of-bike-riding husband. True love is all I can say :)

donna joy said...

never once did he have an issue like this on his motorcycle. other than having to put it down once on a residential street
at low speed. an ambulance was behind him and cleaned up his knee~it still looked like hamburger meat but he was ok.