I’m up early this morning. The air conditioner in our motel room doesn’t work that well, plus I’m also about two feet from it, so when it is on, my nose gets stuffy.

We rode into New Mexico a couple days ago, and boy, are we glad we’re here for just three nights. I mean, I like the state so far, but the roads have been too bumpy and littered with debris, and the wind has been a total blunder. Our first full day in New Mexico, on the ride from Las Cruces to Deming, the headwinds were so bad I wished I could kick them in the face. I was actually the first of my roommates to show up at the hotel, but that’s ’cause 1) I didn’t eat breakfast with the big group thy rode seven extra miles to eat at an overpriced pancake house before the ride, and 2) while riding with Davide and Chris (yup, Chris was finally slow enough from the wind that I could keep up with him), I fell behind on an uphill and or film guy, Frederic, let me draft off his scooter; I even skitched at one point, but I felt too unsteady to skitch for too long. I was so thankful that he let me do that; the wind was just so bad.

Deming to Lordsburg was yesterday, and while the wind was much better, the roads weren’t. We were on Interstate 10 again the whole day, which is usually OK except these roads are so bumpy. I got a flat just as we (Lauren, Crystal, and I) got to the second van stop and luckily was able to fix the flat after drinking a bunch of water and noshing on some tasty snacks my mum sent me. As for the flat, I had to pull a 4 mm piece of wire out of my new Gatorskin front tire with tweezers.

There has been one amazing part of New Mexico: White Sands National Monument. Our drivers Red and Judy were so kind to drive us the hour each way so we could see it. We went on the sunset stroll, where a park ranger talked about the geology and biology of the area. It was so awesome, and we all got some great pictures.

In about a half hour I’ll start getting ready for the ride to Willcox, Arizona. It’s a 74-miler, but we have a huge reward at the ride’s end: Our drivers are taking us to Tombstone, Arizona, for the evening!

Advertisement