Final Numbers

According to my GPS I rode a total of 2,824 miles, had an average speed of 8.1 mph, climbed a total of 221,454 feet, spent 347 hours on my bike, and crossed the Continental Divide approximately 29 times. I saw a lot of beautiful country, met people of all different walks of life, made a lot of memories, got some serious tan lines, and had a great time. I would like to do some more bike touring, but probably a route with a little less climbing. I'm tired of climbing. Maybe the Pacific Coast or around the Great Lakes might provide some interesting scenery without copious amounts of climbing. Thanks for reading and now I'm going to catch a plane and head back to the real world. Tootles.

Day 63 MEXICO!!

I met up with another rider that I met in Pie Town. Bruce had taken the gravel that I didn't want to take because of potential mud. He said the road was fine, no mud, but he did have to go around some road closed signs because part of the road was washed out. So Bruce and I headed down to Antelope Wells together. It felt a little like the final stage of the Tour de France only I wasn't riding The Champs-Elysees and seeing the Arc de Triomphe. I was riding down to the Mexico border where 4 out of 5 cars were Border Patrol. As a side note I never felt unsafe. There were several people that I ran into on my trip that told me that Mexico was the devil and I was putting myself in danger. I felt no such thing. It was just another ride.

When Bruce and I got to the border the border patrol were really nice and chatted with us and gave us some Schwans pop's. We got our passports stamped and rode a couple hundred feet into Mexico. There were even some kids that came running out of their house to see us. That was kinda fun. Instead of riding back we caught a ride with a lady that was dropping off her relative to go back to Mexico. She was super nice and got me refreshed on my Spanish. The weather really wasn't too bad. It was in the high 80's low 90's when we were coming back.

Day 62

I rode out of Silver City and headed down to Hachita. I had my last taste of a gravel road. The sand/gravel road took me back into the desert away from civilization. After being on pavement for 250+ miles it felt kinda cool to be out in the boonies again. I rode to a little stop in Separ that turned out to be nothing more than a convenience store/fireworks place. It was stuffed to the rafters with knick/knacky junk. They were doing their part to support the Chinese economy. Then I continued on to Hachita. I saw my first Antelope Wells sign and border patrol. Not much else though. I stopped at Sam Hughe's place. My map had pointed him out and he turned out to have everything I needed. A place to camp, water, and even SportsCenter.

Day 61

It was a short ride today. 37 miles to Silver City. Not a very interesting day at all today. Finished up what hopefully will be the last of the hills. Made some calls when I got to Silver City and lined up my return trip, and called it a day. No, I will not make 60 days. The timeline doesn't matter to me at all. It has been an incredible trip so far, and just two days left.

Day 60

I went from Reserve, NM to Buckhorn, NM today. About 62 miles. I was trying to get all the way to Silver City, but it ended up not working out. I stopped at a cafe and I was just about ready to pay when this retired guy came up to me and started talking to me. He was interesting, but I really wanted to get going so I didn't ask a lot of questions. Didn't seem to matter though because he talked non-stop for about 1/2 hour. I learned about his 500cc scooter, or scoot as he affectionately called it. His German background. His military career. His low paying social work career. Yadda, yadda, yadda. I did finally get out of there, but Silver City was most definitely a bust. The other thing I have noticed,, that I wasn't expecting is the number of cowboy's here. I don't know who has the tighter clothes me, or the cowboy's wranglers. I guess they are probably for practical reason like me. Gotta watch out for those PTO's!

Day 59

I was a little sad to leave the toaster house. My best memory will be eating lunch at the Pie-O-Neer and the Cowboy that lived in the park came in and started playing his guitar. It seemed like that was his gig. Anyway one of the songs he played was John Lennon's "Imagine" and the other 8 people that were having lunch all sang along. But I needed to get going so I got on the good at about 8:30. I wussed out on the dirt road route because I was scared of the mud and the monsoons. I went about 77 miles and called it a day.

Day 58

I went to Socorro today and got my thorn proof tubes. It was pretty amazing watching the miles fly by in the car. Maybe more impressive was just pushing the accelerator a little harder to go up the hills. Ahhh the internal combustion engine... I was planning on heading out after I changed the tubes, but it was about 3:00 and I didn't think it was worth it. Plus the toaster house was just too cool to leave. The only thing that wasn't so cool was the rooster's crowing at 4:30 in the morning. Grrrr. So I cracked open a book and listened to the Beatles, The Doors, The Eagles, The Rolling Stones, and other hippie music. The photos I posted are of the VLA that the movie Contact used as a backdrop. I drove by them on the way to Socorro. It is not to be confused with the VLBA which I mentioned a few posts ago.