Taos is an interesting town and I would have liked to go back out to Earthhouses to get a closer look, but we pushed on east, over our last mountain range.  It was beautiful riding through the Taos Canyon up to over 9,000 feet again and down into the plateau.  It was a beautiful ride I failed to capture in any pictures. We ran across the high plain to Eagle Nest were we started our last climb up the mountains.  I stopped at the top to take a picture of what we had crossed behind us.  Scoot had done a great job, even though his little 150cc heart was not meant to drag my fat butt and luggage over 10,000 feet passes.  He struggled at times, but never gave up. 

We roared down the other side.  In Cimarron we made a left onto NM21 to avoid 6 miles of interstate highway.  It was a beautiful ride, with tree lined stretches much like Europe.  We passed the Philmont Boy Scout Camp, one of the nicest ones I had ever seen and a very large facility.

In Springer we stopped for lunch in front of a little shop that said "cafe".  After I took all my gear and walked in I found out it "was" a cafe, but now is antique shop.  Across the street was a cafe in an old hotel.  Breakfast was good, but more interesting was the black white pictures and short bio's of local cowboys.  Some old and some young.
Back on the highway, we were following hwy US56/412 as US64 took a big kink to the north, but we would rejoin it later.  This is flat land with nothing on it.  Just mile after mile of parries.  We stopped in Clayton, NM, the last town before Oklahoma, and thought of a hotel, but it was early and the town was not very exciting.  I have been fighting a cold or something the last couple of days and was a little run down, but I figured if I had a bite of lunch and sat for awhile, I would feel well enough to press on to the next town.  I found lunch in the oddest place, the back of Mary's Flower Shop.  No sign about a restaurant you just have know.  You walk through the shop  and in the back are a few tables and they serve the greatest food.  There is a door straight into the shop but it is disguised both on the outside and the inside.  The green chili did the job and we were back on the road. Outside of Clayton, there was evidence of the tornado had come through the day before and broke off about a mile of power line, rolled a lot of irrigation machinery and damaged one barn.  Got a lot of thumbs up from the electrical repairman.

We stopped for the night in Boise City, OK.  There are two 1950's hotels owned by the same people.  From the outside it looks like the Bates motel, but the rooms cleaned and the bed comfortable.  By night fall, the parking lot was full.

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