BIKE TOUR

West rode us out of town. I've really enjoyed getting to know the cycling community through warmshowers and the eyes of the touring cyclists we meet. There is something comforting about being part of an obscure subculture. I have a splinter and I don't think there is anything poky in my vicinity to dig it out. Maybe I got it when I was playing with the pecan at the campground. There were peacocks at Hideaway Lakes. Jon didn't seem impressed, but the other day he stopped for a few minutes to examine roadkill because he'd never seen a skunk before. We rock-paper-scissored to determine if we stayed or moved on. Now I'm in a small restaurant in Fort Hancock. Two members of homeland security just came in to pick up their orders. Now they can eat quesadillas while patrolling our borders. The news rattles on behind me and a man who spend a year in Quartzsite sits under a US flag. He's chatting with a mustached man from the sheriff's department. I'm contemplatin...

I woke up to Jon asking me how I felt about taking a rest day. I felt like sleeping. I let Jon go ask if we might not be imposing if we stayed. It was cleared with the household community and we pulled out the maps. Texas will take us a while, but first I needed to change my tires. I brought my bike out to the porch where Daniel was getting his haircut. I was able to entertain Emma and Daniel for a moment by allowing them to release the air pressure, but soon they were on to other things. I moved about as quickly as I like to when doing bike maintenance and about four hours later I was done. In all fairness I was given tubes with broken valves. This meant I actually changed two tires and three tubes. Somewhere in there Freddy showed up from two blocks down asking for help with a recurring flat. Mostly Jon fixed him up, but I lubed his chain and told him that a clean bike is a happy bike. We walked back to Crazy Cat's to return the tubes and get a chain. Mine had stretched .75%. The...

The winter sun, stunted by the clouds, peered through the tips of the bare pecan trees. Pen and paper are hardly handy when pedaling down the road. These were the words I kept repeating to myself in an effort to drive them in to my memory shortly after leaving Mesilla. On the way out we met a group of cycling retirees that called us sturdy. Shortly thereafter, we met the Rio Grande again; this time we saw it in the daylight. After a half hour stop to take pictures and listen to the daily rant from Jon regarding water, we left the pathetic excuse for a river behind. Amidst the pecan groves/orchards (the jury is still out), we came upon our first loaded tourer on the trip. His name is Peter (note the link to the right) and he started in Florida about a month ago. We all chatted for about 45 minutes. By we I mean Peter and Jon, while I interjected occasionally and leaned on my bike. I was waiting patiently to get to a bike shop in El Paso where I could aquire fresh tires. Mine were tired....

Averaging fifteen miles per hour, the fact that we didn't leave until noon didn't pose a problem. We loaded up on pecan cinnamon rolls and welcomed the press on our backs. Stopping was the only time the wind chilled us. Once we started moving, the wind disappeared. Logically it makes sense but it was a weird sensation. We made the 60 miles by 4:30. We stopped in at the library. I blogged while Jon busied himself outside. I tapped him out and called home for the weather report. The 29 degrees overnight didn't sound exciting so we investigated the Economy Inn. Ironically, the heat didn't work. Jon compromised and we went to Pizza Slut. We ordered a large deep dish supreme. He punctuated his sentences with his straw hitting the ice in his root beer. He thought it would be a ginger brew. Ginger is a root. Root beer always gives him a chuckle because root means something different in Australia. "Isn't all beer root beer?" 776 ODO - 4:12:27 TIME - 15 ave - 25....

Aside from the time spent changing a flat while watching a tractor dispense a load of fertilizer, we did one thing. We watched the organ mountains move slowly closer. As usual, we had a late start. We didn't rise until 9. At 9:45 the Indian man who ran the hotel came in and asked if we were staying a second night. We were about ready to leave anyway. Jon made his first ever purchase from Walmart. He picked up some bananas. Last night we went in just so Jon could have a look. It felt like I had to drag him away from the toy section. He seemed impressed. I asked him if he'd seen the High Cost of Low Price. Down the street was a terminally closed local grocery store. Since we didn't leave Deming til at least 11:30, I had wire in my tire, the wind wasn't quite as much in our favor, and the shoulder was punctuated with cracks, Las Cruces didn't appear til after dark. Even though I couldn't repeat any of the street names that were given to me, it was easy enough to fi...

Two months ago I left Sitka and now I'm sitting in Kranberry's watching the cream slowly mix into my coffee. We turned southeast today to Lordsburg to avoid the storm coming into New Mexico. I feel like a snow bird. We're even saying in a a KOA Kabin. What is with their "K" obsession and planting fake flowers? But we're staying out of the wind and its frightening bursts. THe wind was terminally against us until Jon cursed "damn you wind." I scolded him for taunting the wind, but it changed in our favor. From then on we moved at a smashing pace with the wind at our backs. I could go 20 mph by barely pedalingon a slight decline. Jon, with his 26" wheels, had to continuously pedal to keep that speed. 30.8 max - 9.7 avg - 711.8 ODO - 5:58:02 time

After a leisurely rise in the Econo-lodge, we set off into the wind. 5 miles later we noticed the cotton field. Intrigued, we stopped for pictures. Apparently I also stopped to collect thorns in my tires. The rear was immediately flat and we paused to change the tube and repair the old one for the future. A couple hours later, after climbing gradually, I noticed my front tire was a bit squidgy. It was down quite a bit. However, through experimentation, I determined it was only losing 5 psi every half hour. This meant I could put off the change until the morning. Consulting the maps, we were surprised that the steepest part of the climb was over. i love that kind of surprise. The descent was wonderful. Few cars, great shoulders, and an ending including a cut out and a bridge... Fantastic! I asked Jon recently if he thought that the climbs were worth the descents. He gave me some sort of non-answer like "some". After fueling up on cookie-dough ice cream, chicken sandwich, and C...