Ride Day 30

I was on the road well before it was light out this morning because my plan was to ride 90 miles with over 3000 feet of climbing. The weather was predicted to be hot around 84 or more with relative humidity of under 20%. I ate in my room before I left and loaded myself down with 7 bottles of water. The day started well. I made my first twenty miles in just over an hour and stopped there to eat another breakfast. It was a giant wet breakfast burrito that was perfect for me. When I entered the freeway for the next leg of 20 miles the wind was just starting as a light breeze in my face. The light breeze quickly became a strong gusting problem for me. I lost about 8 to 10 mph on my speed. That made it feel like I was going uphill all morning and was sapping my strength. I figured when I turned off the wind would be easier. I was wrong, the wind changed direction just as I did and continued to slow me down and tire me out. The road was very desolate once I got off the freeway. I saw maybe a dozen vehicles all day until I got to Mcdonald Observatory where the traffic picked up. The ride was my most difficult day to date. The combination of headwinds and thousands of feet of climbing just about killed me. I had to use every motivational trick I know to keep going. The ride topped out at about 6300 feet or so and the high altitude was just making it worse. I had to stop and rest a lot because my heart rate was getting too high and my legs were turning into worthless weak rubbery nothings. I had no power or stamina all afternoon. I should have stopped and camped on the side of the road but I pushed on just very slowly. The scenery was all high arid desert scrub with lots of rocky mountains and outcroppings. There was very little sign of humans other than some cattle ranching. Most of the ranches however, killed off their herds over the last few years because the cattle were starving due to drought. I took a few pics but not many because I was so exhausted all day. I finally arrived at the summit and went to the observatory for a while. It is a good place to visit but I was too tired to appreciate it so I rode down the other side of the mountain to my campground and crashed. About an hour later my neighbor and I started talking and he invited me over for dinner. I had already eaten my food but I quickly said yes to more food. I need all the calories I can pack in. We talked over a casual dinner that hit the spot with some grilled veggies and chicken. I enjoyed the company and the food before I went to bed. About an hour after falling asleep the neighbors on the other side came back to their campsite and made a huge racket. It woke me up and ruined my good night of sleep. I watched the shooting stars from my open tent roof and finally went back to sleep. Tomorrow will be a short day of mostly flat and downhill. I need the rest

Ride Day 29

I stayed in a hotel last night and got a good night of sleep so I left while it was still dark out. I wanted to get some miles in before the heat and wind came up. I was 14 miles down the road before the sun came over the mountains. It was all flat riding but I had a slight head wind to fight. I easily climbed over the only hill on my ride today of about 500 feet. Then I stopped after 35 miles to rest and use wifi at Mcdonalds. The drama started about one minute after I sat down. I turned around to untangle my computer cord and when I started to log in I discovered my camera was no longer on my table. I posted it on Facebook then I decided to try to find it. I went table to table asking each person if they had seen anyone go near my table. Two people told me a sweet looking little old lady got up and walked over to my table then went back and sat down again. I approached her and she pretended she did not speak English. I switched to Spanish and she had to talk to me. She feigned any knowledge of a camera but I persisted. I pulled out a twenty dollar bill and loudly offered a reward for my camera if anybody found it. No response from anyone. A few minutes later I saw a sheriff pulling into the parking lot. I told the sweet little old lady that I had called them and she suddenly produced my camera and took my $20 bill. I never said another word. She pointed to the floor and tried to say she found it on the floor. Yea right...at least I got it back. My ride plans are all shot today now. The wind is starting to blow hard in the wrong direction and I am burned out from the drama of getting my camera back. I might just stay here for the night and start again tomorrow. I will decide later after I rest for a while and think about it.

Ride Day 28

I took my time this morning leaving the motel. I enjoyed a Starbucks coffee and bagel before I hit the road. The weather forecast was for sunny 84 degrees and a light breeze SSW. The forecast was close but I think it was hotter than that or at least it felt hotter to me. I lathered myself in sun screen before I left but at the end of the day I found I had missed a spot with the sun screen or I rubbed it off because I got sun burned just in that one spot. I will be much more careful in the future with the Texas sun, it is very strong. Once I got out of the big city of El Paso the riding improved. Traffic disappeared and the road was fairly good even though it did not have enough shoulder if there had been more traffic. It was smooth and flat so I hauled ass at 17 to 24 mph depending on my mood. There was not a lot of change in scenery other than city to country. I saw a lot of abandoned buildings that were falling apart. It looked like most of them were booming before the freeway was built 50 years ago. Lots of small farm houses were falling apart also. Now it is mostly larger farms spaced further apart and they look corporate to me. A changing world takes its toll. I did meet up with some other riders that I last saw back in California. It turns out we stayed in hotels that were right next to each other last night. It is a small world sometimes. We talked for a bit and stopped off to get some drinks together before I took off for the road again. Once I left my friends I flew down the deserted highways in top gear. I really had some speed going and was eating up the miles. After two weeks of mountains as high as 8000 feet this ride seemed like a cake walk. I enjoyed pushing myself hard today. I had one hill to climb of almost 1500 feet but it was a slow climb and was not that bad. A trucker stopped and gave me two small bottles of iced water which was very nice of him and which I seriously appreciated in the heat after almost a hundred miles of riding. After going through the border stop at the top of the mountain (which is famous for Willie Nelson and many others getting cited for possession of drugs) I entered Sierra Blanca and started my nightly pig out on food and drinks. I try to keep it as healthy as I am able to but today I went for pizza. Now I am going to kick back and rest until day break tomorrow. More later.

Ride Day 27

I woke up a bit sore this morning and got a late start for me. At a bit after 7AM, I headed down the road from Caballo to El Paso TX. I had a plan for the day. I would ride without pushing it and when I got to the outskirts of El Paso I would jump on a public bus and ride to the far eastern side of town. I hate riding my heavy touring bike in busy city traffic. It is dangerous and for me pointless. Sure there can be some site seeing but at the risk of getting killed. Not worth it.

So I rode down the freeway for the section they allowed bikes on which was a nice smooth safe ride. Then they kicked me off to a narrow two lane road with almost no shoulder to ride on and a dangerous drop off on the edge of the pavement. There were lots of big trucks going in both directions and I had a cross wind blowing me into traffic. How is that safer than riding on a freeway???? The states need to allow adult bikers on more of the freeway system. Maybe with a driver's license requirement or something because the freeway is way safer to ride on. Or they need to widen all roads so there is a safe place to ride a bike.

I stopped for lunch around 10:30 and ordered a cheeseburger, fries and V8. When I was finished I ordered another burger. The waitress did not believe me and I had to convince her I was serious. They were both delicious and I then ordered a third one. She almost died when I asked for that one. Then I told her no two was enough and she started having a laughing fit. I guess not many people in these small towns mess with their waitresses.

I had a head wind for a couple of hours which slowed me down from 17mph to under 10mph. It really killed my legs and my spirit. I only had one mile more to go to get to my bus stop that I had already looked up on the internet. Then the worst thing happened to me. A big sign that said DETOUR. I tried to go around and get through the closed part of the road but it was impossible to get through so I had to back track and take the detour. In the country a detour can mean a half mile or it can mean 50 miles. This one ended up being about 10 miles out of my way. My tired legs were complaining and my mental state was a mixture of anger and depression or something. When I finally got across the border into TX I could not make myself backtrack to get to my planned bus stop so I went ahead into El Paso thinking there would be a bus stop. I stopped and asked lots of people but nobody knew anything about the bus. I rode on another 10 miles which made my day's ride way too long. Finally I just gave up and checked into a hotel for the night.

I soaked in the tub and showered off all the crusty salt and sun screen. I am windburned which is the same as being sunburned. Not too bad but I was putting sun screen on frequently so it annoys me that I still got burned. If it is going to be this windy here in TX I am going to have to start using zinc on my lips and up my sun screen to spf50.

I feel good now. Did some stretching and realized I need to do a lot more of that. Going to have to work it into a daily routine. Tomorrow I will deal with getting out of the big city. Tonight just sleep sleep sleep...

Ride Day 26

I am finally past the big mountains in New Mexico. Emory Pass was 8228 feet. The views from the top were awesome as usual from mountain tops. I just can not capture the grandeur of the vistas with my little pocket camera but I included a few pics here anyway.

I left Silver City right as dawn was breaking. There were two choices for roads. One went to the Gila Cliff Dwellings and the other went by a giant open pit copper mine. I chose the giant open pit mine because it was flatter and much shorter than the other route and I have been to the cliff dwellings before back in the 1970's.

The road was rolling hills with various changes in scenery as I went up the grade. I was getting tired much faster than I am used to but I was climbing and working hard at between 6200 and 8200 feet in elevation where the air is pretty weak to say the least. The weather was perfect. Sunny but cool with a light breeze. I took some pics of the copper mine and then I just got into my work routine of pumping and letting my mind go blank. Letting my mind go blank seems to be getting easier as I go along in this ride. I had to rest a lot and a few times I walked a short distance to get my lower legs some blood. I do not use my lower legs when I ride. I can only push with my heels. I lose a lot of power because of that but it really only hurts me when I am doing a steep long uphill.

I was resting and walking at one point today and a truck stopped and asked me if I wanted a lift. My mind said no, that is cheating, if you take the ride you did not ride across the entire country. My legs however spoke up much quicker than my mind did and said yes right away. So I put my bike in the pickup and took a short ride with them. We stopped for pics here and there but I did not realize that my camera battery was dead so I missed a lot of great pics. It is very difficult to see the screen with my sunglasses on in the bright sunlight and I just did not know the camera was dead. Each time I turned it on it showed the pic I wanted to take and I pushed the button but the pics did not show up on my chip. Such is life. I think I still got enough pics for the day.

I met a Canadian family, Mom Dad and two boys riding on tandem bikes at the top of Emory pass at 8228 feet. They had just come up from the eastern direction which is a single very long uphill climb. We talked for a while as we rested and ate some food. After they left I used the restroom and when I came back out my bag of food was gone. I thought Yogi the bear only existed in the cartoons. I have no idea what or who took the food. It was just some bananas, sardines, candy bars, cookies and a gatorade.

My original plan was to sleep at the top of the mountain but with so many hours of good light left I decided to take the downhill run of 4000' drop in elevation. Now that was fun. The worst uphills are past me now for this ride. Tomorrow I go to El Paso. Maybe I will stop at the Alamo in Texas but more likely I will just pass through the big cities except for Austin which I really like. I am starting to like the lonely time on my bike in desolate areas like I just passed through. Just me and nature...more later

Ride Day 25

As usual I started early on my ride. I planned on going from Buckhorn to Silver City today a distance of about 40 miles with a couple thousand feet of climbing. The road started out downhill and then the rolling hills started. The road was good with a nice shoulder but I found my legs were still tired from yesterday's long grueling ride. I took it easy as I went.

I stopped at a coffee shop in Cliff and caught up on my internet while I ate some breakfast. Then I hit the road again. The road disappeared off into the distance for most of the day. Very little traffic for a Monday morning. I did run into five other bikers. A Belgium couple, a lone guy from Georgia, and a couple from Switzerland were all on the road going the other way. We all talked for a while and compared notes on the road ahead of us. I enjoyed the Swiss couple because they were vivacious and trusting. We talked for about 20 minutes before we broke it off and continued our rides.

The road started to climb after our talk. It was only 10 more miles to Silver City but my legs were tired and the road was climbing at a long slow rate. I had to rest often as I am at 6000' and I was getting winded. I would just stop for about two minutes to let my heart and breath catch up and then take off again.

I made it to Silver City but I was tired for only a 40 mile ride and only a couple thousand feet of climbing. I blame it on the elevation but it is just as or more likely that I over did it yesterday on my 90 mile ride with almost 6000' of climbing. Us old men don't recover as fast I am finding out. I hope I survive this ride coming up over a 7200' pass and Emory pass at 8228 feet, then some glorious downhilllllllllll.

Ride Day 24

I waited out the big storm in Safford. I had a good time there. I spent some time talking and hanging out with a woman from Oklahoma. When the storm passed over I left the next morning.

It was still dark when I left. The sun came up about a half hour into the ride. My goal was to get as close to Silver City as I could which was about a 125 miles away. The weather was cool with a light breeze blowing behind me. It started out with a flat ride then quickly started to climb. It was a slow climb until I got to Solomon where the climb to the 6350' pass started. That was a grueling climb for me. I had to rest often at this high elevation. I even walked a little of it because my lower leg started to cramp and I hoped that a short walk would help.

I met a nice 70 year old man riding his bike around near Solomon AZ. We talked for a while and he was very fun to talk to. Very active for 70 also. I like that.

The views along the road were spectacular rock formations and high desert. There was a bit of ranching in the valleys but not much else. The ride was pretty lonely and desolate. I saw very few cars and no other bikers. It had one small store at a place called Three Way but otherwise nothing until I arrived at Buckhorn 90 miles from Safford.

After I climbed to the top of the 6350' pass the scenery changed to conifer forests. I saw some elk but I did not get a pic of them. They stared at me while I pulled out my camera but the second I aimed it at them they vanished into the thin air. I had to laugh. Digital cameras are just too slow for wildlife pics. I prefer the old fashioned SLR cameras.

There was a long downhill to get to Three Way which I enjoyed. But if I have learned one thing riding a bike it is that whatever goes down must come up and it did big time. I was getting tired after fifty miles but since there was nothing around and it was only noon I slowly pushed on. The New Mexico border passed and then the road started rolling up and down for miles. I was dreading looking at the climbs up with my already rubbery tired legs. I pushed on with lots of rest stops. Once I hit the turnoff on 180 the road improved and I sailed into Buckhorn with a tailwind. I pigged out on food at the cafe there and drank potassium drinks, vegie drinks and fruit drinks to try to replenish my tired old body then went straight to sleep in my tent.