Heading North to Interstate 40 and Albuquerque

Pedro and I both of us had to continue our itinerary. Pedro was going direction West along Interstate 40, to Los Angeles and I was going the opposite direction,  straight East , along the same interstate.


We have a rule before long rides to have good breakfast, and found the only bakery open early in the morning, where where we had some good coffee and home made pastries. It was in this little mall with interesting architecture.

Then we headed North on 89A with a beautiful sun.


After Pedro and I spliting up and heading East on I-40 I did not know exactly where I was going to spend the night.

It was time to refuel in Winslow and have some lunch, when I thought it would be good to let some friends know I would come the next day to their house.  It is always difficult to exactly know when to arrive at my destination.

While talking on the phone with them, they said I could still make it in time to arrive that evening.  I looked at my watch and realized it was only  4 more hours of riding to make it to Albuquerque and arrive still by daylight,...... so decided to go for it.

It was windy but the wind was behind of me, not having much trouble making good mileage. When arriving close to Albuquerque the traffic had come to a total halt.

Once in a while it moved a few cars ahead and waiting again. I was certainly practicing slow riding now.

I could feel the engine warming up along my legs and I was watching the temperature gauge to se if it would overheat. I was running several scenarios in my head, on what would I do if that would happen. After a long time of stop and go, I eventually asked a truck driver next to me what was going on.

The trucks communicate between them and he had heard, there was a truck roll-over 10 miles ahead.

I was not vey happy, but I said to myself at least I am not in a blasting 101F (33C). The truck driver said to me I should go between the cars and move ahead. I looked at the space between the trucks and cars, but with my wide boxes on the bike did not feel I had enough room to do that.  I asked the truck driver, if it was allowed to ride on the shoulder, his answer was ‘I would do it’.

While I was thinking if I should take the risk for getting a ticket from the police or not, I suddenly saw the most amazing move.

A truck with ‘Over sized load’ was suddenly passing full speed on the shoulder with its support vehicle

and blazing so much dust in the air, that made everybody close their windows.

Having seen that, I thought, I can   go slow an move ahead.  I did that and later eventually traffic started to roll again. I arrived a my friends house not only one hour but 2 hours late, due to not knowing that I had crossed timezone line. I felt really bad to arrive that late.

The positive side was, my friends could track me on my Spot, so they knew I was stuck and also had heard about the traffic accident on the road.

Eventually my GPS brought me safely to their place where they where waiting for me patiently for dinner.

My camera was out of battery so could not take a single picture to record the event  :(

© Nina Boonacker 2012