First off, I want to say how awesome New Mexico has been. We're finally in real mountians, and I think everyone has finally hit that moment where they realize where they are and how they actually got here. Almost everything about the rides have been incredible, and whatever has been less than good doesn't even matter.
I was excited to ride into Roswell mostly becasue of all the stories and legends surrounding it, but also becasue I knew the next day we would have a day off(our first official one sinse Pittsburgh). I was sweep this day along with Ella V, which didn't turn out to be too terrible. We had a police escourt out of town, but her and I hung back at breakfast too long and missed it. Normally sweep gives some distance to the group in front of them, but becasue there was all of one town we would pass through this day, we decided to just ride with the group ahead of us. We played a lot of games which helped break up the time. I told some minute mysteries which took some people a while to figure out. As we were riding past anabandoned building, someone had chalked to stop in and see a piece of Bike and Build history. We went in and found last years trip had drawn on the wall and then someone from this year matched the drawing and marked ME2SB13.
Before second lunch, we made a stop at some state park for off-road vehicles because some other people had stopped there also. Turns out it was right on a ridge that overlooked a whole new type of desert. We spent some time there before heading out. As we crested the next hill, we got our first glimpse of a mountain on the horizon. This will be a highlight of my trip. Imanaged to get a flat somewhere along the way, so I changed that right quick before getting to second lunch.
As we were getting ready to leave second lunch, Kristen managed to lock the keys in the van with it running, so we hung back until she got ahold of AAA and they were on their way. The ride after second lunch was very hot. Ella V and I tried playing a game, but the heat was exhausting and it was just too hard to concentrate on the game and ride over the hills into the wind at the same time. It was a relief to finally get into the city. I was surprised by how large Roswell was, but I guess it's also the only major city for at least 100 miles in any direction. Once we got in to town, it was a little frustrating to be sweeping, I think within the last 6 miles of the host, we had to stop and wait for groups to get ice cream, and food, and all that stuff. I didn't mind waiting for them,but I also really wanted to just be done riding for the day and take a shower.
We had a double birthday, and as a celebration of that and finally getting a day off we went out to the bars in space themed get-up. We had on all kinds of weird costumes and covered ourselves in tin foil and glow sticks. We walked about a mile to the first bar only to learn they closed in less than an hour and wouldn't serve people who had vertical licenses, even though they were still valid and over 21. We ended up leaving that bar, walking a mile back to our host, then another mile in the other direction to another bar that would serve us. Since it was a Sunday night, all bars had to close at midnight, so we had to cram all our celebrations into a short time. We still had a fun time, and were back to our host and in bed by 1!
Knowing we were able to sleep in the next day, I chose to sleep in the basement so I wouldn't be disturbed by the sun. I ended up sleeping in till about 10 or 1030. A group of us headed off to the UFO museum. It was cool to read up on all the history, but it wasn't quite the weird experience I was expecting. In the afternoon, we went to a lake in a state park outside of town. The water was really refreshing even though the locals tried telling us it was going to be gross. We ended up swimming across the lake and back, and then played some frisbee before heading back to the host for dinner. We ended the night watching Cool Runnings before going to bed early for a 4:30AM wakeup(that's a thing now....).
Roswell->Carrizozo
I had been riding with big groups or sweeping the few ride days before so I decided early on I wanted to ride by myself. We had been told by an alum and several locals to expect about 60 miles of climbing and then a 20 mile decent into town.
The first part of the morning was much like the ride into Roswell; mostly flat and boring. Most of the day never really felt like a climb. Several miles out of first lunch was a huge downhill. It was absolutly amazing! We dropped down into a valley and for the first time in a long time, we were surrounded by mountains as the road wound through the gaps. I got to lunch well before the next major group, but I hung around until they arrived. I had a feeling I would beat the van to second lunch so I packed a PB&J and a granola bar and hit the road. The first town I went through was Lincoln, historically known for housing Billy the Kid when he shot his way out of jail.
The day continued as a slow almost unnoticeable climb. Apparently by the end of the day we climbed about 3500 feet. There were a couple other awesome downhills which provided great scenery along the way. Second lunch stop was in Lincoln, original home of Smokey Bear..NOT Smokey The Bear, they will correct you. I stopped into the museum, but I didn't want to spend 2 dollars to walk around on my own. I ate my sandwich outside of a gas station where I loaded up on Mountain Dew and refilled my water bottles before taking off to finish the last leg of the day.
Becuase there's not much going on in the small towns out here, and generally our ride days are getting shorter, we tend to have more free time at night. As such we have a Bike & Build Prom scheduled for some time in Arizona. We began talking about dates and all that the day before, so I was determined to get mine all settled before anyone else.Right outside of Second lunch, I stopped to chalk out my proposal to Sarah before finishing out the climb.
As I passed the 60 mile mark, I began anticipating this alleged 20 miles of no pedaling downhill. 10 miles go by, still climbing, another 5 and still going up. Finally I hit the big downhill. It was probably a couple miles long, and then the rest of the way into town was a very gradual downhill, but the wind was so strong, it was still difficult to make it into town. In the end, I think the count was more like 10 miles of nothing, 65 miles of climb, and 15 miles of generally downhill.
We were told we were sleeping at a school, but for whatever reason, we were given the address for a church on our cue sheet. I followed to where the church should have been and coulnd't see it, so I looked up where the school was on my phone and went there. I knew at this point it would probably be an hour if not more until the next person got there, so rather than wait there by myself, I went to the gas station and got a soda and used their WiFi. Eventually I went back to the school and found my way to the office(the school had no markings on it) and talked to the secretary who of course had no idea we were supposed to be there. I guess the person setting us up was not there that week.Aftera couple phone calls,everything was sorted out and I got the tour of where we were staying. For some reason we only had access to one of the locker rooms and the showers were less than good. At one point, one point, I got a message from one of the leaders saying we were supposed to be staying at the church, so I gathered up my stuff and walked back to actually find the church. I no sooner walked in the door and got the tour there, that someone received a phone call saying we were actually suppoosed to be sleeping at the school this year, and only eating dinner at the church.
Once I was back at the school, others eventually started arriving. We got a group together to get malts while we waited for the trailer to arrive. Most of us took showers in the hose outside. Dinner was at the church, and then back to the school to settle in for the night. I worked on finishing a job application(bah, real world is scary). Since it was summer and we were in the "old" gym, there was no air conditioner, so a lot of us decided to sleep outside. They actually had turf outside as their lawn which was nice. I was told that at 10 the motion alarm would set in the hallways, so if we left the gym, the alarm would go off. We tried calling many people to have themturn it off, including the police, but they just told us that if it went off, they would come out and shut it off. Sure enough, no more than 5 minutes after 10, the alarm went off. It was loud and probably went off for 10 minutes before shutting off. This process of setting it off and waiting for it to stop went on for probably an hour. I was outside for most of it, but there was a siren outside too making it impossible to sleep; at least the stars were nice to look at! Once most of us were asleep someone finally came by to shut it off, not that it did much good at that point.
CARIZZOZO->SOCORRO, NM
Apparently its really cold in the desert in the morning. We took offf right as the sun was coming up, and rushed to the Valley of Fire State Park in hopes to see the sun come up from behind the mountain. This was the site of an old lava flow, so the groud was much darker in this area, and as a result, the plants and animals adapted to be darker also. The sunrise was incredible; there are so many colors playing off the mountains and clouds; New Mexico really is a Land of Enchantment.
I rode with Sarah, Matt, and Daniel. I once again found myself taking pictures every 100 feet. Coming into lunch, we had a wonderful downhill. Lunch was at a roadside rest area. I snuck off to a bush to go to the bathroom and caught a glimpse of a live snake slithering away. Someone else tried to go back and find it later, but they apprently couldn't grasp the concept that it slid away to hide. She came back with a piece of tire claiming that was what I saw, but last time I checked, tires don't move on their own. Most of the day after lunch was downhill. Daniel got a flat just outside of lunch, which was pretty awful, because at that point, most of us just wanted to get to lunch so we could relax a bit. Second lunch was about 15 miles from the host, so the rest of the ride was pretty simple.
We sttayed at a small church in Socorro and had green chili cheese burgers. Green Chili has been a theme on this part of the trip. Tonight we started our individual affordable housing presentations. Alongside volunteering with a group before the trip, we were supposed to also do some research on the basics of affordable housing with that particular group. Since most of us worked with Habitat, a lot of the info was the same, but it was still cool to see how different areas of the country have different variations on the same idea. It is also rewarding to hear about all the work Habitat and other Affordable Housing groups are doing in this country and in the world.
SOCORRO->PIE TOWN, NM
PIE TOWN!!!!!!!!!
This town has had a ton of buildup all summer. We've heard stories from the internet, and legends from ME2SB alum about how cool this town is, and how great the pie is, and how we get to sleep in the coolest place ever. We were all jazzed to get there, but we also had about 85 miles and 4000 feet to climb.
I rode again with Sarah and Casey. We were told to expect a nice climb the first 15 miles or so and then someone from the Socorro church was going to meet us with water, juice, and snacks. The climbs don't seem as bad anymore. The grading of roads is a little less steep than the east coast, but we're also a lot stronger. They were paving parts of the road, so there was a section about a mile or two long that was only one lane with a flagger. Typically they don't know how to handle bikers, so all the cars zoomed ahead, and although we still were travelling through the construction, they sent cars at us the other way. As if that weren't bad enough, the wind was significantly stronger through here, probably gusting over 20 mph. We regrouped and headed into the first town and stopped at a cafe for food. We rode to first lunch to fill up bottles and take a little break.
The stretch between first and second lunch was very long, very boring, and very windy. We killed time playing the grocery store game, where the first person says something with an A, then the next person repeats what the frist person says and adds on something starting with the next letter. Eventually we made it to the Very Large Array(pictures to come) but the visitors center was 4 miles off the road, so we didn't stop. We took a break on the road, and then attempted to power our way the last 10 miles into second lunch. It was pretty brutal and getting a flat didn't help me at all.
Second lunch was at a diner/gas station, and at that point I was so annoyed with the day I had to order a burger...and an energy drink(this is becoming a theme). The first couple miles after lunch were still brutal, I was coming close to bonking, but I knew if I kept pushing forward I wouldget back into the groove. Although we still did plenty of climbing, the roads were for the most part new pavement making it nice and smooth. We took some celebratory pictures at the continental divide and then again at the Pie Town sign before finally getting to the host.
Pie Town is a cool place with a population of about 50 people living in town. Wikipedia lists the population as 150, but that includes about a 30 mile radius of surrounding ranches. We stayed at the toaster house, which is jjust a haven for hikers, bikers, etc, riding the CDT. It was small for 30 people to fit in, but had a ton of character. There were guest logs of the past 5 or 10 years of people staying there, including posts and pictures of previous ME2SB groups! We had dinner(including pie) at the community center, where probably half the town showed up. People that have lived there for "150 " years told stories of how they ended up there, about living there, meeting family, etc. It was really neat. We later had to shower at the RV park next door. I started a fire outside(first of the trip) and most people ended up joining in at some point. One of the neighbors(Andy), I think he said he was 20, heard us, and brought his guitar over and sang songs and told stories about Pie Town. It was a cool place to be and a totally different lifestyle, but I could see myself going back to visit and get some more pie there someday.
PIE TOWN,NM->SPRIGNERVILLE,AZ
Way back in Ohio,I decided that since I hadn't used my arm/leg warmers up to that point, I probably wouldn't use themat all this summer, so I sent them home. Apprently, when you're at elevation in the desert it's damn cold in the morning. My only source of warmth , cycling wise, is my rain jacket.
My group was the last to leave, aside from sweep. We left, and at some point early on, my hands were so cold that I was doing that whole, blowing into them routine. Well that started my see-if-I-can-go-a-mile-no-handed trip. Pretty quickly1 mile became, two, then five, then 10. Thankfully it was mostly downhill, but there were some minor climbs which were tough, becuse I refused toeven reach down and shift. Once I hit 10 miles I decided to just try and make it to the first town in the next 5 or 7 miles. Things were going smoothly until I got a flat...I ended up going a total of 13 miles no handed including taking off and packing away my raincoat, not so easy while still wearing a backpack and going uphhill.
Between Casey, Sarah, and I, we combined for close to 10 flats in the past couple days meaning we were out of spare tubes. Sarah had dropped back without us knowing due to a flat and Casey got ahead of me leaving me stranded with no tube or patch kit. I waited for 5 or 10 minutes and stillno one else had come by. I started getting desperate, and decided to try and patch the tubee with a piece of gum and plastic baggie. First attempt failed, but if I had more time, I think I could have made it work. However, Sean rolled by and he had a tube to spare. Sarah caught back up with me and we rode into the first town and stopped at the gas station. For whatever reason, lunch wasn't going to be until mile 48and not near any town, so I once again indulged on an energy drink.We sat outside and ate snacks and once sweep caught up, we took off. A big group was stopped at the cafe, so Sarah and I passed all of them easily. We killed time going to lunch playing variations on the grocery store game including having a movie night, going to a concert, and going to the zoo.
Lunch was a fairly quick stop, there was already a pretty large group that already left ahead of us.We spent the afternoon talking aboutt family, friends, and life. The ride was just as beautiful as ever, and pretty soon we were in Arizona! The ride in Arizona was awesome, there were some nice climbs, but the views were amazing. We stopped at the top of one, and I did a little climbing to get to the top of this particular mountain/hill. We got into town and stopped at the general store to pick up some random stuff when we ran into the group ahead of us. None of us realized Arizona doesn't do daylight savings time, so we gained another hour. HOST BY NOON has been a saying of mine for a while. It means what it says, but had never been accomplished yet. Apparently this group managed this feat, but the host was no where to be found so they had been loitering around town for several hours waiting for the trailer. Sarah and I went to McDonalds for a while to kill some more time and get some sweet tea and mcflurries.
Our host site is the only domed highschool football venue in the world. It seems like more of a practice facility than somewhere people would come on a Friday night to watch a football game, but I guess that's just how things work around here. Once we figured out where we were staying, and realized we had a ton of tome to spare, we took a trip to the local bike shop to get more tubes and patch kits. Not a very exciting place as they only had 2 tubes in the size we needed. We picked up some patches and headed back to the dome. We had a patch party as well as took care of other essenitals and even managed to fit showers and laundry in before dinner. We had to cook our own dinner. Dinner crew made spaghetti which was actually awesome becasue we haven't had that in a long time. After dinner we finished the remainder of our individual affordable housing presentations. The only lights in this place are the big flood lights like they use at any outdoor stadium, and we did not have access to use them. By the time dinner was over, it was dark in the dome, so it was only 7 or 8 but people were struggling to see things and most people hit the hay early.
One last note: I've switched over to writing this on my phone w/ bluetooth keyboard, so I apologize if spelling and typing sucks because this isn't the best system, but this makes it easier for me to upload without WiFi, and easier to add pictures.
