The mountains may kill me

Today was the 2nd day in a 7 day ride series through new mexico and Arizona. We rode 75 miles today from the tiny town of carazozo to the slightly less tiny town of Socorro.today’s ride was similar to yesterday’s ride in a number of aspects, with the major exception of the 12 mile decent into the town at the end of the day. Even without an entry like that I continue to be impressed by the beauty of desolation of the landscape of the southwest. This is my first
Time visiting this part of the country, but it always seems as if I have been here before just because I continue to think that everything out here looks like a painting or a photo of thw wild west that I have seen before. Except in most of those painting, there tend to be more buffalo being chased by wild savages which unfortunately I have yet to see in my travels.
There is no longer any doubt that were ate i the mountsins now. Today’s ride was a series of long climbs followed by even longer descents, which isn’t a bad way to pass the time. Today’s ride didn’t offer as many opportunities for extra stops as yesterday’s ride, but the one bonus stop we did have was at a national Forrest which was the home of some ancient lava flows, they were interesting and very photogenic with the mountains in the background.
Tomorrow is some 85 miles of more climbing to reach pie town new Mexico. As you may expect I am really excited about getting some pie in pie town, and the great thing is that of 85 miles of climbing mountains on my bike I think I get toneat just about as much pie as I would like tomorrow without having to feel bad about any of it.

Today was a great riding day. We rode 91 miles into Carrizozo Nm, which may sound like a lot, but today really flew by. We started he morning in Roswell, and befoe we left the day was already off to a great start because we were treated to breakfast at a local diner. That was a first for us on this trip and we all really enjoyed it. I had he pancakes, and they were fantastic fuel for the rest of the day. Also this morning I got to ride around in he GTO that Rita was loaning out. It was only around the block while other were getting ready, but it was still fun.
We got into the mountains of Nm today. We climes from 3400ft this morning to about 7000 before we started our final descent into carrizozo. Even though we had a good about of climbing today it was all really gradual so it never really felt like that much work. In the end all that climbing paid off because the last 12 miles today into Carrizozo were all downhill. It was breathtaking to see the mountains all around us as we came into town. It has to be one of the best entrances into a town we have had so far.
Highlights of today include “finding” a rattle on the side of the road, outrunning the rain long enough to find shelter in Lincon, the smokey the bear museum we went to in capitan, and the views.
On a less positive note I had my first flat tire today. I think I may have been the last person in our group to get one, and I made it some 2700 miles without a flat, so I guess I can’t complain too much, but I was really begining to hope I could make it all the way to Cali without a flat.

The name of the game today was wind. We rode 92 miles today, but it seemed like a thousand because we were riding into a strong hot headwind the entire time.
Highlights include, the police escort out of Portalles, as well as the two abandoned buildings we stopped at for lunch.
Also today we celebrated “august fools day, to make up for the fact that we do not get the chance to celebrate April fools day on our trip. The day started out with a squit gun wakeup call, set to the James bond theme playing in the background. Then I zip-tied a half a dozen or so of the bags in the back of the trailer, so people would have to cut them apart or take them out as a whole group. Lastly I had a couple of cans of sillystring that I sprayed people with on the road. I wasn’t the only one playing jokes, but by first lunch I had a fairly large target on my back. Those who unloaded the trailer got me back. They emptied my bin, hiding my stuff in different places, and making me try to find it all scavanger hunt style. Then they filled my emptied bin with Gatorade. A bit harsh of a retaliation I thought, but I guess I had it comming.
After dinner a group of us went out stargazing. We drove half an hour out of the city to some state park where there wasn’t alot of light. It was amaizing how much more we could see out there. I wish I could bring this sky back to Charleston with me. It is one of the few things I think Charleston is missing.
Tomorrow is a build day which is fantastic because I don’t have to be on my bicycle seat.

Today we reached New Mexico. We rode 75 miles out of Texas into New Mexico. I’m really excited about New Mexico because it’s one of the states on the trip that I have never been to before.
The ride today was great. The pavement wasn’t trying to murder my butt all day, the winds seemed less brutal, the stench of feedlots bettered as we got further from Herford, and best of all I just slowed down and took me time. I had my morning snack at a doughnut shot on our route. I rode with a group of people in the back of the pack today and just enjoyed my time and co versations with them. As is now typical we made a number of additional stops including rhe best one of the day which was to see some people’s collection of old windmills. The dallies had been collecting old windmills for 25 years and had admassed over 80 different mills. Some were brightly painted other looked as if they had been abandoned for years. It was just interesting to see how much they cared for these. We actually knocked on their door and ms. Dallie gave us a private tour, pointing out some of her favorites and telling us about their history.
Dinner tonight was provided by a local church. The mayor of the town goes to that church, and not only came to dinner but also gave us an official proclimation proclaiming today to be bike & build day here. The church also had a few members play music for us, and we got up and sang with them after dinner. It was alot of fun and I think the church members really enjoyed it as well.
Now I’m off to bed, we are staying at a college tonight so I actually get a bed to sleep in which is exciting. Tomorrow is 92 miles into Roswell. Woot.

Hertcord was supposed to be a short 50 mile day. However there were opportunities for a couple detours that people could take along the way. The first optional detour was to the cadallic ranch. All it is, is a series of 10 or 12 cadallics that some rich guy burried half way into the ground with their trunks pointing towards the sky, that you are encouraged to spraypaint. It may not sound like much, but it was actually really cool. We got to take some great pictures, and we had fun spraypainting messages for different people. The detour itself was a bit of a challange to get to. We didn’t really have any real directions, just a couple of people telling us how we could get there, and it doesn’t have an address since it is just out in the middle of a field so we couldn’t even google it. However we managed to find our way there, and back onto our route without too much trouble or heartbreak.
The second detour was to the second largest canyon in America. I didn’t go tothat though because it was an additional 18 miles, we are goingto see the largest caynon in America in just a few weeks, and I really wanted to go to the cadallic ranch.
The ride itself turned out to be suprizingly difficult. It was short, but we started late, there was alot of wind to fight against, the pavement continued to hurt us. Alot of the ride into Hertford smelled bad be ause they are the beef capital of the world and all that beef comes from feed lots that smell just as bad as you think a herd of a few thousand cattle would.
Once we got in we showered had dinner, and then had our hoedown. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves at the hoedown. The costumes were halarious. One of the guys shaved his beard into a handlebar moustache and massive chops. I was decked out in some great red whit and blue flannel as well as some jeans I cut into shorts. I also had one of the many large and legit cowboy hats. A number of people were in jean overalls. A few of our riders even managed to pick up cowboy boots at thrift stores along the way. Best of all Kristine was able to meet back up with us. It was great to get to ser her, and know she was ok.