Days Twenty Three through Twenty Six....

Errmm......How do I fit this in?

I had planned this trip for quite a while now, and had placed May 1st, 2008 as the departure date. However, there was a large birthday celebration planned for my father (who turned 75 years young) slated for May 24th in Buffalo. Obviously, I had to be there.

BUT......hell! I hadta buy the airline ticket (all fine and great), but i didn't know from WHERE!!! I mean, I had VEEERRRY rough approximates as to where I'll be Geographically on May 23rd (ROUGHLY, at a average, standard clip of 200 miles a day [give or take], I woulda been in either Dallas or Houston, Texas, depending on my choosen route).....but to buy the flight from Dallas or Houston left veeeerrryyy little wiggle room.

I mean, so what if I git into an accident? What if The Helix became ill?? What if I met the girl of my dreams along the road and decided to stuff the rest of the trip entirely?? What if I got abducted by aliens in Roswell??? Would I hafta invite them to the party as well, in exchange for them flying me to Buffalo??

I reaaaalllly hadta play this safe. So I gave myself a week buffer time just in case and bought a flight outta the Albuquerque Sunport to leave the night of Day Twenty Three.

This way, in case any of the aforementioned disasters struck, I'd have seven days as a safety net to make my way from wherever aforementioned disaster struck to The Sunport via bus, train, airplane, hitch-hiking, etc. etc. so that I would make that flight for my father's birthday celebration.

And I've never unintentionally missed a flight.....

Turns out nothing happened:

• Drivers were more than courteous this entire ride so far

• Failed to find the girl of my dreams on this ride so far

• The aliens ran out of fuel somewhere between Vaughn and Roswell, New Mexico, and thus, couldn't abduct anybody

• And The Helix has roared through the first 3500 miles of this ill-advised folly with flying colours (save for minor altitude-carburetor issues)

Sooooo.......THAT left me spending a week in Albuquerque! Besides drawing Will and Cindy away from the store they own and hafta operate to entertain me for nearly a full fucking WEEK, I pretty much ate and drank them outta house and home!

Two kinder souls you could not meet.......

So, before flying outta the Sunport at 11:30PM Friday Night (JUST the way I enjoy spending my Friday Nights), I picked up my skooter from Downtown Scooters (where they did a once over on it, discovered that the shocks were slightly leaking tiny amounts of oil, engine compression was a touch low [both of these ARE normal - given The Helix's age and mileage from what Harry, owner of Downtown Scooters, told me], adjusted the carb idle, topped off the coolant, and re-adjusted the brakes and inspected the entire thing for, like, FORTY FUCKING DOLLARS!!!!!).

Good folk.....check 'em here!!

Tried riding it the 30 miles from Downtown Scooter over the Sandia Mountains back to Will and Cindy's abode.....but an absolutely pissing rain and balmy temps in the mid-40's had me thinking better of that idea. Left it in the garage at the Patio and Hearth store, and figured I'll pick it up Monday Night upon my return from Buffalo.

Flew out from The Sunport, landed at Buffalo-Niagara the next morning at 9AM, spent time with my family (and my siblings, a few friends and myself almost killed my ex-cousin-in-law, Darryn [see post of "Day Fourteen"] who flew into Buffalo to be there for my dad's celebration, where we kept him out hitting the haunts around Elmwood and Allentown to the point where his earliest evening going to bed was, like, 2AM).

If anyone's interested, I'll have a website up within the next week or two with pictures of my father's birthday party.

Flew back into The Sunport Monday evening, got The Helix, rode it up the hills to Will and Cindy's under a pleasant 80-degree evening.

Tomorrow morning......life back on the road returns Tuesday Morning.......gonna try to make Hobbs, New Mexico, en route to Houston.

Was a bit sad leaving Edgewood......got to see a bunch of great folk again (as well as meet some new friends).......but it got to the point where i HADTA ride. After three days stationary somewhere, I get really itchy for The Road.......

......so I'm off again.....

....and I'll leave you with a few pics....































New Mexico sunset over the Southern portion of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.....











.....resulting in a weird New Mexico moonrise over the Northeastern horizon

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Will and Cindy











And finally, my friends Leyland and Andra.......two of the sweetest, coolest people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing (even though Leyland drinks like a girl!!!). I was kindly invited to their son Tyler's graduation party on the 18th, and I had a blast. True, one of the bathrooms in their house looks straight outta King of the Hill......and to give you an idea of the decorating theme of that bathroom, have a look at their flagstones -




















More later from Hobbs, New Mexico.......

-E-