Newsletter No. 29
September 15, 2022

At long last, we have reached Arizona

Leaving New Mexico - Entering Arizona - September 14, 2022

As we climbed out of Socorro, as I looked into the hills by the roadside, I could not help to wonder which one of these fields was the one where C.K. Shepherd had an unexpected encounter with a bull. We rode up and up and up, soon reaching Magdalena. Since I had visited here in 2019, we did not linger for long and continued up and up, finally reaching the Plains of San Agustin whose notable feature, besides being a broad and flat place, is the Very Large Array of radio telescopes. It seems they have done some upgrades to the telescopes since 1919!

The VLA is closed to the public, but we got close enough to see the dishes and scale of the operation.

From the VLA, we continued the climb to Pie Town and had hoped to have a snack at the Pie-O-Neer, but it was closed. The annual pie festival had taken place last weekend and it seems they were out of pies!

We continued to climb! I am not sure where it was, by Lloyd announced at one point we had reached 8,000 feet elevation. I had to adjust the gasoline mixture on the carburetor to get up the hills! We stopped in Quemado for a rest and a bite to eat and then pressed on to reach Arizona (see photo).

From there, we rode through Springerville where C.K. stopped for gas and signed the travelers log book at Becker’s Transcontinental Garage but I have been unable to determine if that building still stands. We rode on through St. Johns and soon reached the Petrified Forest. I had entered the park in 2019 so I didn’t bother entering, but Lloyd snapped this photo of me out front of the gift shop where someone had slightly overloaded their VW.

From there, it was only 15 or 20 miles to Holbrook where we slept.

On to Flagstaff today. Grand Canyon tomorrow.