'Let's Do It!' (Part 4) - An almost Cross Country Cycling Adventure
Pouring cats and dogs and some unidentified critters as we rode the final 16 miles to Lordsburg, NM. An exhaustive search yields no reasonable housing options, so we opt for camping in the thickets behind a city park.
The Holiday Inn of Pecan Orchard Camping
Roger's 'Breakfast Machine' greets me in the am and flat tires greet me later in the day. It occurs to me that I am the lucky recipient of about 100% of the bicycle problems. Amazingly, tire terror would puncture Rog's life, and out of mine, the last half of the country.
Hatch, NM, capital of all things chile, was next on the ever expanding pedal universe. Timing being perfect in our little chile world, we entered Hatch during their Chile Festival. We would attach 3 chiles to the back of our velocipedes to share our allegiance to chiles. Journal notes fail to supply the question of how long those lasted.
A little further along New Mexico roads, Rog would ride over a deceased coyote. In the slashing darkness, my laughter echoed across a rather empty landscape.
Near Nutt, NM and an approaching storm
Feeling good, but a touch of grogginess in the head, we spin triumphantly into the metro kingdom of Albuquerque. Blood sugars have been ok, but there are moments. Those moments are consuming when you are exhausted, pedaling into the wind (a true story teller will share that it was always a headwind!), dodging diapers in your path and dealing with agonizing blood sugars. The challenges of each day are easily forgotten as the day yields special blessings sprinkled through the miles.
Albuquerque, NM
As the big city looms, we jet into civilization behind our first tailwind. We are one day ahead of schedule and this is Rog's previous hometown, so we stay four nights. We set up camp in Grandma Burke's backyard. A novel setting for our tour that has yielded many different settings for our 'home' each evening.
I turn 26, with little fanfare and the fact almost escaped me. September 9 - Albuquerque to Santa Fe. A cold has developed and will effect the next few days of pedaling. My educated guess was the chilly night and horrible camping conditions upon the cement ground between a pecan and chile orchard in Garfield.
Amazingly, my back feels great and we are adapting to the long hours on the bike. It is a miracle, and I am truly thankful that I hopped on the bike, a little over one week ago, despite a back that was screaming no way Jose! There are still additional adaptions needed to a still uncomfortable seating arrangement.
We spin through the rugged beauty of the Pecos Mountains as we head into Las Vegas. No, the other Las Vegas (NM). The glory of this journey is embedding a mark upon my soul. Rog and I have taken on a trek that was hastily thrown together, with a serious lack of funds, between two people that did not really know each other and it is developing into the trip of a lifetime.
Rog, shirtless in Santa Fe
Within the scribbled notes of my journal; "A lot happens in 112 miles". This post was on a long day (September 11) from Las Vegas to Tucumcari. Those 100+ mile days, fully loaded packs, do make for a lot of possible journal entries, but a soul and body that is too tired to write more than a few scribbles.
The days are slowly blending together and the bicycle and the road are becoming our lives.
I no longer wonder, 'why are we doing this?' It is too amazing and enriching not to.
First extended rain hits us as we wheel into another state and an ever changing landscape. We say hello to Adrian. That is Adrian, TX.
