Day 3

Friday, 09/24/2010
Socorro, NM, to Sweetwater, TX
437 Miles (plus 50 mile detour)

I left Socorro on I-25 southbound about 9:30 and promptly missed the exit for US-380 east. I went about 25 miles south before I was sure I had messed up. Unfortunately I had forgotten to pack my Road Atlas so I was navigating exclusively by GPS which often leaves something to be desired especially in the “Big Picture” department.

After I got turned around I came back to the north on NM 1 which parallels the freeway. About 5 miles before I got to US 380 I came to a nice parking lot for the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Preserve. I pulled in there to do the 1,500-KM service on the Ural.

It was a very pleasant morning even though there was a breeze blowing. I had watched a Youtube video of a mechanic doing a fluid change on the Ural so I did not have much trouble changing the oil and filter. The problem I did have was that there was no o-ring/sleeve/seal on the oil filter post and since I had not looked carefully at the pictures of it on-line I thought it was an O-ring and that I might have lost it in the drain pan. After spending a fair amount of time fishing in the old oil and pouring it through a small aperture funnel into Gatorade bottles I gave up and put the new filter in with no rubber o-ring/sleeve/seal (I had no other choice). I called a new friend from a Ural Forum and he told me it was OK to run without the seal so off I went.

The bottom line is that I did not get onto US-380 until 11:30 and still had most of the day’s ride to do. This may have been a blessing in disguise because it caused me to be too late for some very heavy rain in West Texas. As it was I rode the last 100 miles in the dark and the last 40-50 in moderate rain.

I had a nice ride across central New Mexico under ominous looking thunder clouds. I entered Texas near Plains and turned southeast for Sweetwater at Post in the dark and soon enough rode into the rain.