Road Trip

So, It started with a half-assed plan to just grab Evelyn and head out to Las Cruces to visit Wilson and possibly pig out at a restaurant. With summer winding down, the weather starting to cool, I had not been able to really head out on a true road trip. I have the perfect vehicle for it.

It's also the time of the season for the annual Hatch Chile Festival. Hatch is a good one hundred miles away from the house, but thought it would be great to just get out and enjoy the journey. So after filling up, Evelyn and I hit the freeway to Las Cruces to meet up with Wilson & haul to the festival. Evelyn & I ended up meeting up with Wilson, sitting on his favorite ride (FJR 1300) I dropped the top & we jumped onto the highway another 22 miles to Hatch, just north of Las Cruces.

At ludicrous speed.

A reason there aren't that many pictures of the actual event. It was like a fair/ carnival on dirt, but without the sort of pomp & circumstance that usually a fun-filled frivolity comes with. It wasn't what I thought it would be. It was a fair. There was one thing that I really really loved while there. It's a "Hit & Miss" engine. I never thought I would see one in real life, let alone running a slew of modified hand crank ice cream makers. The ice cream being made? Green chile ice cream.

So, we didn't leave empty handed. Evelyn & Wilson bought and split a full bag of roasted Hatch chiles. The entire way home, we could not get away from the smell of roasted chiles. Wilson had stowed his 10 pound bag in the "trunk" on his bike, and we had our haul in the trunk. No matter who was leading the way home, we were following the smell of chile.

Back in Las Cruces, Wilson & I parted ways, Ev & I were hungry. We stopped at a Red Lobster and single handedly decimated the shrimp population in Las Cruces in one hour. By the end of the night, we went thru 200 miles of absolutely gorgeous roads, a half tank of gas, 60+ some-odd number of shrimp, one 20 pound bag of chile and two trunks that still smell of chile.

Next time I make this journey, I will take a proper camera. It was definitely an adventure worth doing all over again.