* In the 6 years since we last visited the two museums at Fort Sill, it turns out that this military installation has instituted program where you are required to get a visitors pass (for unescorted admission) to the Fort.  Thus, we will be required to complete an application and submit to a background check.  I guess that for some silly reason (since 911) they would like to know who is on their property.  Frankly, I have always felt uneasy riding around the fort unescorted, where we were able to get on the Fort by just showing a drivers license.  

And now they they have a special Visitors Center where you can go to get a temporary visitors pass.  I have talked to them and this process goes pretty quickly after you submit the request for visitor access.  They are open at 9:00 on Sat, so we can go there first before going to the museums.  

We have attached the pdf form (scroll down the page), where everyone going can print it out to be completed and brought on the ride.  But they do have forms at the Center, so completing the form beforehand, will only speed up the process.

The basic itinerary is:

Sat, 5/27 – Denton to Artesia

Sun, 5/28 – Artesia to Silver City

Mon, 5/29 – Silver City to Alpine, AZ (dance on the Devils Highway) for lunch and back to Silver City

Tue, 5/30 – Silver City to the Gila Cliff Dwellings and on to Almagordo for the evening

https://www.nps.gov/gicl/index.htm

Wed 5/31 – Get up late and spend most of the day at the New Mexico Museum of Space History, when they open at 10:00.  This is one nice Museum where they have one of the original dome theaters which have several showings daily.  When finished, head for Ruidoso for the evening.  We stayed at this motel the last time we went to Ruidoso and this location was very nice.

http://www.nmspacemuseum.org/content.php?id=16

Thu, 6/1 – We will spend a relaxing day in Ruidoso riding up to Lincoln, Ski Apache, etc.

Fri, 6/2 – We are going to ride back to Cloudcroft and spend some time riding to and visiting the Sun Spot Solar observatory and on to Tiberon.  And then we are going to head for Carlsbad for the evening. for the trip finale.  But before getting to Carlsbad, I want to ride toSitting Bull Falls:

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/lincoln/recarea/?recid=34238

Sat, 6/3 - This day we are going to ride to Carlsbad National Park and spend most of the day visiting these magnificent set of caverns.  Linda and I visited these caverns back in the early 80s with some friends and these caverns spoiled us for any other cavern we ever visited since.  If you have never been to these caverns, you will not be disappointed.

https://www.nps.gov/cave/index.htm

Sun, 6/4 – get up early and head for home.

So if you were planning on making this ride, call the motels and let them know that you want one of the rooms blocked for Rick Butler.  I blocked 9 double bed rooms, but if you need a single King, just let them know and they will make the change.  And once you finish, go ahead and reply to this post, so we will know who is going.

Gonna be a great trip, where you will get some sight seeing in as a tourist other than just riding.  And there are 3 locations where we are staying 2 nights each.

Rick

And I’m still working on routes which I’ll put out later.