RED RIVER, NM. In the dead of winter, when we last visited, fewer than 500 people lived in Red River. The Road Runner RV Resort was closed for the winter. We walked the property. We chose a primo site, right on the creek. The “curbside” view from our Airstream would be a lovely stand of tall trees.
Our month of sylvan peace, Airstream style, would start on Memorial Day weekend.
Well, not quite.
This is also the weekend that thousands of bikers gather here for one of the biggest Harley rallies anywhere. The entire half-mile of Main Street is lined, both sides and in the middle, with bikes—thousands of them. They are parked, softtail to wide-glide to road-king to fat-boy, as far as the eye can see. Then there are the choppers, the custom bikes, the Roman chariot trikes with rows of seating, monster V-8 engines, and amazing airbrush art.
And that’s not the end of it. A large horse corral at the end of town has become a tent city. Every campsite, motel, and condo all the way back to Taos is parked solid with these big, rumbling bikes. The street undulates with thousands in bandanas, clad in black leather, all sporting vests and jackets covered with rally pins and badges.
And that’s before you get to the tattoos.
Most of the license plates are from New Mexico and Colorado. But Texas is well represented: I spot riders from El Paso, San Antonio, and Hill Country. Oklahoma riders are here and I spot others from Arizona, Kansas, Iowa, and Illinois.
Now an equal opportunity sport, there are nearly as many women as men. Many are riding their own bikes. One, a vision of Wagnerian proportions, is decked out neck to toe in white leather garlanded with flowing strands of Indian beads—Our Lady of Santa Fe Style, motorcycle division. She, like hundreds of others, parades up and down the street on a bike that seems to have all the chrome in the world.
Is this a great country, or what?
There are many reasons to come to Red River. For starters, there is the ride. Wherever you start from, you’ll traverse some of the best biker roads in the country, culminating in “The Enchanted Circle”— an 84-mile ring of twisties and vistas that links Taos, Red River and Angel Fire.
The enduring reason on Memorial Day, however, is the Vietnam Veterans National Memorial in Angel Fire. For many of these bikers a visit to the Memorial, built in 1971 as a family’s gesture to commemorate a son killed in Vietnam, is an annual pilgrimage— a day to remember the 58,000 brothers in arms who died in Vietnam.
It also explains why so many of the men in Red River are in their mid-50s to early 60s— they are Vietnam veterans. Indeed, the two most common phrases on all the badges are “Vietnam Veteran” and “Semper Fidelis.” In Vietnam the average infantryman was 22 years old. The average age of those who died was 23. If you start from 1965 (the year that began with our 23,000 advisors in Vietnam being committed to combat and ended with 184,000 troops in place) and end with 1973 (the year the last U.S. troops were withdrawn), all those young men, if they lived, are now somewhere between 55 and 62 years old.
May they always keep the shiny side up. May all the roads they travel be open and free.
Our sylvan peace can wait.
On the web:
Vietnam Veterans National Memorial, Angel Fire, New Mexico
http://www.angelfirememorial.com/index.html
Road Runner RV Resort, Red River NM
http://www.redrivernm.com/roadrunnerrv/rv_lodge.html
Harley Davidson
The Enchanted Circle
http://www.byways.org/browse/byways/2082/
Vietnam War facts
http://www.vhfcn.org/stat.html
This information is distributed for education purposes, and it is not to be construed as an offer, solicitation, recommendation, or endorsement of any particular security, product, or service.
(c) A. M. Universal, 2006