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.
