Share The Road - On the road - Day 12

DAY 12
60 miles - 1900 foot climb
Santa Rosa, NM to Tucumari, NM

I thought we were going to get through NM today, but we need to make sure to get our paper work done as well. So, we’ll have a relatively short ride today. We’re also starting later than normal -- about 7:30. Feels hot already.

More later...

Turned out to be a great ride -- a rocket ride on interstate 40. I’m a much bigger fan of the small roads -- off the beaten path, but since today was about getting to the destination early and being ready for tonight’s event, it worked.

“Tonight’s event?” you ask. YES! We are in Tucumcari, NM and Gary noticed last night that they had some sort of celebration going on here. Chris followed up with the Chamber of Commerce and it turns out to be a celebration they do yearly -- a celebration of Route 66. Man, Route 66 does have some cool history. We caught just a piece of a documentary on the History Channel yesterday about Route 66 and I’d like to learn more -- having seen just the bit of it I did yesterday and what I’ve seen today.

So, tonight, we will be handing out bands and trying to get people to sign the commitment cards. We have so many bands and cards to get out. But I really feel tonight could be the beginning of a new focus on the trip. Up to this point, we’ve really been doing a lot of troubleshooting. It’s been about the physical difficulties (pain and discomfort from the exertion and the elements) as well as the problems with the SAG vehicle and sometimes communication between each other and/or the people we need to help us.

Through all of it, we have treated each other well and we are becoming a stronger team with each day. That’s something I’m very proud of. We’ve all taken small steps away from our own position and toward the team position. As I’ve said before, I think Chris deserves an awful lot of credit for that. I’ve nicknamed him “glue” because he’s really kept things together.

More later...

The festival was fantastic. Bluegrass music, great rural America feel and all the watermelon we could eat. The guys with the machettes cutting up the melons were pretty intimidating...except for the fact that they were about 80 years old. Those blades though...

We gave out tons of bands and got lots of signatures. It really made me feel great about what we are doing -- it was an affirmation of our presence and why we’re doing this trip at all. We spent a lot of time in the first week and a half adjusting to how the trip was going to work -- physically and mentally. There are times where it’s just so taxing to do the physical part that the getting the word out part gets lost.

Share The Road - On the road - Day 8

DAY 8
SHOW LOW to QUEMADO (NM)
Total distance: 96 miles

Crossed the state line in to New Mexico today. Hills were much less today. One of the big challenges was the crosswinds. On several of the downhills (hit a top speed of 48.2 today!) the winds would gust suddenly and nearly blow me off my bike. The weather cooled a bit. We rode consistently at 6000-7500 feet. Tomorrow we get over 8000, I think. I noticed I got more sun than I did the last couple of rides in hotter weather. The sun may be more intense at this altitude than I realized. I have to make sure to reapply the sunblock mid-morning.

Stopped to do our laundry along the way this morning in Springerville (about 2.5 hours into our ride). We simply don’t have time to plan the laundry -- too many intangibles with the trip. When we see the laundrymat, we gotta be on it. We have only four riding uniforms apiece so that means doing our dirties once every couple of days.

I took my first fall off the bike today. Thankfully, I was slowing to a stop and only fell onto some dirt and brush. Felt silly and made a little production out of my silliness until I looked around and saw no one was looking. If a kook falls on the side of the road and no one pays attention to his shenanigans, did he really fall?

We rolled into Quemado a little later in the afternoon. This place is a seriously small town. We had a good meal at a little place called, “Chuck Wagon” (this is funny -- click here to see what the Chuck Wagon is now...). I had a delicious bean and cheese burrito with green chile and some Spanish rice. That’ll do ‘er!

We’re going to camp tonight at Lake Quemado -- a good choice as the other option was to stay behind Ray’s -- not a store, but a man’s house. Ray apparently is “the man” in Quemado. Though it was a nice offer, getting out to a campsite sounds even better. Looks like it might even be a national forest (Apache). We’re going to cookout on the grill tonight -- first time we’ll have broken it out. That’ll be fun. Maybe I’ll even pitch the tent and blow up the airbed -- give myself a little extra space.

We’ll probably have to get up around 3:30 to get on the road by 5:00 as we have to account for the 14 mile RV ride back to town.

DOWN AT LAKE QUEMADO

Wow. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Chris and Gary were bold enough to swim in the chilly waters. I woosed out -- for one because of the cold, for two because of my occasional reaction to bacteria in stagnant water (like lakes). I get rashes and sometimes have sinus inflamation -- neither of which I want to deal with at all right now.

It’s very peaceful right now. Chris and Geoff is sleeping. Geoff got ill this afternoon and is hopefully sleeping off his stomach pain. Gary is updating his journal. I’m obviously doing mine. I’m also anticipating the sunset with three different cameras:

My 3-chip video
My 35 mm still camera -- it’s first time out on this trip -- can’t wait to see what it will do
and the digi still -- always great to know right away if what I’m doing has a shot. It takes some great pictures to (as I hope you’ve seen on the website).

I also got the video I’ve been shooting from my Samsung Sports Cam to upload to iMovie (Apple’s editing software that comes with the computer). It’s a far cry from Final Cut Pro, but it will do on the road. It also is made to upload easily to homepage -- so I hope to have a great video for you all to see very soon.

I set up the tent for myself tonight -- something I’ve been looking forward to. This way I can get to bed when I’m ready -- nice. Also, we’re going to be cooking out on the grill tonight. That will be tasty. Off to set up the grill then take some pics.