Day 11 (Sat, 23 Feb)

I noticed today that we’re approaching 1,000 views on the blog site – I’m glad there are so many people following the trip!!  Thank you.

I rode from Deming, NM to Las Cruces, NM today.  The ride was 60 miles and pretty flat.  The ride started out on old country roads out of Deming, then was 11 miles on I-10 and finished up with some interstate frontage roads and a very cool downhill descent (500 ft in <2 miles) into Las Cruces.   The wind was light in the morning and then picked up in the afternoon – about 10 mph and mainly at my back – good overall speed of 17.2 mph (but not as great as yesterday!).   This was my 10^th day of Perfect Sun out of 11 riding days so far – yes, I am definitely getting spoiled and “look forward” to the thunderstorms I’ll be able to ride in later on…  Temperatures throughout the day were moderate – primarily in the 50s.

I had a couple of dogs come out to greet and chase me but they stood little chance of catching me when I was able to easily get above 20 mph.  Still, a bit of an adrenaline rush when you see them coming…

No flat tires today!

As an aside, I spoke with a few hunters at the hotel this morning who were also having breakfast – seems that Elk and Bighorn Sheep are popular around here with the hunters.

In the pictures below: 1) Pictures 1-5 are of the very dry landscape (see more info below) in this part of the world along with small mountains north and south of I-10 and a train track I’ve been following for the past couple of days; Picture 5 the panorama of the road and train track is kind of cool, 2) Pictures 6-8 are various views of the Organ Mountains (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_mountains ) which are just East of Las Cruces, peak at about 9,000 ft AND I’ll have the honor of riding over them tomorrow (!).

The last picture (#9) deserves a couple of sentences I think.  I was cruising into Las Cruces near the end of the ride and started up and over an overpass.  I happened to look right to see what I was passing over and saw yet another dry river bed (I think I saw about 40 in AZ – all the rivers are dry here!) and then I just happened to glance at the sign and saw what it said.  The Rio Grande, was dry here?!?  Wow.  I stopped, backed up and couldn’t believe it.  This river is supposed to start way North of here in Colorado.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Grande.  Pretty amazing!  There were a father and his son down in the riverbed taking a hike.  DRY around here…

Keep checking in - couple of mountain stages coming up!!