Member Contributer vanion2 Posted July 5, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted July 5, 2009 Jenni, VFR, & Rebel All week long my little Rebel girl had been asking me where we were going to go for a "test ride" and all week long I had been watching the weather maps with disgust as it seemed every corner of New Mexico was destined to be rained on. You see, we are getting ready to do our first multi-day ride to southern Colorado in 2 weeks and we needed to see how the Rebel and her rider were going to hold up to a full day of riding. Saturday morning rolled up and here I was looking for a break in the radar that would give us a chance at a run that wouldn't involve too much in the way of getting wet. And there it was. Chama, NM. It was all I needed to get things rolling. Packed and Ready Off we went in search of beautiful scenery and adventures. Since the Rebel is a 250cc engine and the rider was still new to the saddle we decided to take North 14 up to Santa Fe and then catch 84 North. Top speeds where posted at 65 mph and I let the Rebel lead so I could sweep off any road racers and such giving her plenty of room and letting her get comfortable with just riding. The weather was fantastic all the way up to Santa Fe with plenty to see of rolling foot hills and interesting rock formations. The only hitch on that leg involved a sight seeing SUV that decided to hit her brakes every time she saw a sign pointing out yet another art gallery. Needless to say as soon as the road opened up a bit everyone stuck behind her wasted no time in passing her aggressively. Sure...sight seeing is great but don't do it at the safety of others. :cool: Having made it to Santa Fe we stopped for an early gas stop. This would allow us plenty of fuel to make it to Chama without concern. It also gave Mother Nature to open the skies up and pour down some serious rain. We decided to head out and try to get ahead of the front moving in on the town and so on went the rain gear and off we drove. For all of 30 minutes we were catching rain on and off until we hit the town of Espanola. There we found the skies were clear and the roads dry and thus on continued out trek north up 84. One thing I love about New Mexico is the scenery changes pretty quickly depending on which direction you go. We have a pretty wide variety of mountain ranges, desert flats, rivers, lakes, grassy plains, all within several hours of driving. Going pretty much straight north took us by the Rio Chama river and up into the Red Canyon Wash area. Jenni pulled off at a roadside table for a brief respite as we had been on the road a good 2 hours at this point. It saddens me to see such beautiful country wasted on lazy people who can't seem to be bothered with picking up their own trash. At least it was localized to the road side picnic area and it probably would have helped if the locals running the show had included a couple of garbage cans. Rest Stop The day was moving on so soon were we. We had just passed the Abiquiu Reservoir when traffic came to a dead stand still. Apparently the parade of Sheriffs cars that went flying by us were not after a donut sale as we had originally thought. Nope. As luck would have it someone decided to become "one" with the road up ahead and the lanes had become a parking lot. The final sign that we had gone as far as we were going was that people had been there long enough to have turned off their vehicles. Turn around we did and to make the most of this I pulled off to take a couple of pictures. Red Rocks Red Rocks Jenni & Rebel overlooking the Abiquiu Reservoir VFR & Rio Chama Overlook VFR & Rio Chama Rebel & Rio Chama My little missy let me know that it was definitely time for some food so we trekked it back to Espanola and made an attempt at dinner at a few local joints but all the places we could find were closed so that led us to the local Pizza Hut. Don't waste your time there. In the 10 minutes we sat waiting for someone, anyone to come take our order we decided that Subway was sounding mighty fine. After our tasty sandwiches had vanished it was getting late. After 5 hours of exploring we were definitely looking forward to home and a hot shower so we reversed our route, cut out Santa Fe by taking the Santa Fe Relief Route (if you've ever had to drive through Santa Fe you will know this is a very good thing) and caught South 14 for a repeat trip down the Turquoise Trail. We missed a hell of a rain storm as the road had several wash outs that made things interesting from time to time but the sun was shining and most of the roads were pretty dry. Finally after just around 7 hours of riding we arrived tired and exhausted at home sweet home only to be greeted by 4 dogs all hyped up and raring to go. We unpacked our bikes, changed our clothes and took them there pups to the foothills for a leg stretching and as we had just turned around on our trail to head back to the car I jokingly pointed out "Wouldn't it be ironic that after 7 hours of riding we would get rained on as we hiked back to the car?". Never tempt Mother Nature because not 5 minutes later we got soaked. :fing02: Happy 4th to those whom it still means something too. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. :biggrin: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monk Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Nice pic's.......... Thanks for sharing..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer poconovfr Posted July 6, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted July 6, 2009 Great pics and write up. :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer mkttv2 Posted July 6, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted July 6, 2009 Looks like a great day trip, thanks for sharing the pics. The Rebel is a great starter bike. We got one for my wife a couple of years ago and she loves it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer vanion2 Posted July 6, 2009 Author Member Contributer Share Posted July 6, 2009 Looks like a great day trip, thanks for sharing the pics. The Rebel is a great starter bike. We got one for my wife a couple of years ago and she loves it. Yep. The little missy loves it. She's 5'2" and the bike inspires a lot of confidence for her. Her's is an '86 so I am still working out the last of the bugs but all in all she loves it. Heck, she keeps taking it to work making it impossible for me to work on it. :fing02: Thanks for the compliments folks. I know I always love checking out everyone else's ride reports so I felt I needed to do my part and return the favor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vfr_steve Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 I like the two-tone colour on your VFR. Nice trip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Muff Posted July 6, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted July 6, 2009 I have always found New Mexico a beautiful place to visit even spent a long weekend exploring Carrizozo (SP) and Lincoln county. The northern portion has a trout farm feed by an artisan well, how cool is that? As you said the scenery changes very quickly and is never boring. Thanks for the write up and the pics!!! Muff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V4 Rosso Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Wow, great pics of some awesome scenery. I love the pic of your bike with the red rocks in the background :blink: Did you have, or ever had, a citroën deux chevaux charleston by any chance? :laugh: Also love the rebel, looks like a great ride. Lots of riding schools over here have them for riders that have to, or want to, start out on a beginners license. To me it looks like you can enjoy a bike like that even when you'r an eperienced rider. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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