Feb 12

In search of the perfect cow

adventure, motorcycle, photo Add Comment (1)

I headed down to Socorro on Saturday in search of cow. The kind of cow that when turned into steak, becomes a delicious treat. I knew of a place, a place in the middle of no where, where I might be able to acquire such a thing. This place has a name, and that name is the Eagle Guest Ranch, in Datil, NM.

I discovered this place way back in college. Or rather, I was told of its existence. My Uncle Eddy told me of this place, as he has a rancher friend out in Pietown (which is even further out on highway 60 than Datil). I told some of my adventure loving friends, and we mounted an expedition to this location. The treasure we discovered was in the form of the ‘Special T-Bone’, which was a 1 inch thick steak that would envelope an entire serving platter. Yum.

Saturday was preparation. I got a new tire on the bike, tuned it up, and headed to Socorro. Danny was to ride with me out to Datil on Sunday at 11am. Further, Chris, Josepine, Lewis and Bill were going to follow along in Chris’ “cage”, as us biker types refer to automobiles. Get out of that cage and ride, man! Jo and I spent time with Bill at the Capitol Bar. At least until closing. At which point, surprise surprise, Bill wanted to goto the El Camino for food. I must stress this point, it was a true surprise. Bill never wants to go anywhere to eat, especially after the bar closes.

Sunday was to be an interesting day.

Sunday arrives with a call from Danny. He is running late, can we wait until noon? OK sure. I put out the call to Bill, who is unhappy (no surprise here, he was sleeping) and Lewis (who was chipper and ready to go). Much closer to 11:30, Danny calls and is ready to go. We pack up and meet at the gas station.

Chris tells me before we leave, “I’m not going to run 90 miles an hour out there.” No worries, I assure him, neither am I. I was wrong. As soon as the road opened up, so did Danny, and the next thing I know, I am tooling along in his noisy wake at 85-90mph. This keeps up most of the way there. The temperature dropped about 15 degrees here from Socorro, and Danny and I both were looking forward to the warm steak at the end of the ride.

My dad had a saying. “Some days you get the bull, and some days you get the horn.” Today, we got the horn. Eagle Guest Ranch is closed on Sundays. Steak denied.

Not one to let a good opportunity slip by, we swung out past the VLA for some photos. The resultant images can be found at the tail end of my DL1000 photo page. They turned out pretty well, I think. Chris took the shots. I had envisioned something slightly different when I described the scene to Chris, but.. Danny was running very low on gas, and everyone was slightly bummed about the steak, otherwise I would have spent some time playing with this ‘shoot’.

We ended up eating at Evritt’s (sp?) in Magdelena. I do like this place a lot. It is in an old 1900′s style bank, although you would never think it, save for the stamped tin ceiling. They have some great milkshakes.

We ate, and headed back to Socorro. This would be the end of the story, save for the fact that I ended up having dinner with Danny, Chris and Jason at the Brew Pub (aka, Socorro Springs). There, Chris and I had ourselves a rib eye each. Yum. Not ulta-yum, but close.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this story and the pictures. Let me know what you think.