On to El Paso

Beautiful designed homes in New Mexico and Texas.

Leaving Hatch, New Mexico at 6 a.m. at 50 degrees, riding into the sunrise the first 45 miles through Las Cruses was a dream: no wind, little traffic, viewing a variety of crops and many beautiful country homes with the Southwest architecture.

After meeting Libby and having a second breakfast, I was off riding on country roads to El Paso. What a Garden of Eden I was privileged to enjoy. In one stretch of Highway 28, I rode through fields of wine grapes, corn, sorghum, cotton, red and green hot chili peppers, green bell peppers, pistachio nut groves, and later many miles of pecan groves. For one stretch of the road the pecan trees created a tunnel for over five miles of riding. Since the temperature was only 75 degrees tops today the trip under the trees was actually very cool.

I ended the day with riding 20 plus miles on busy windy city streets through historic El Paso. Busy means three lanes of traffic with little or no shoulders.

Tomorrow it is off to Sierra Blanca, Texas.

Miles Traveled = 97
Total Miles Traveled = 877
Trivia = Saw 3 pairs of sunglasses and one pair of glasses along the road.
The first 45 miles was on a road that did not have any culverts. Signs warned that there might be water over the road.

Facing the Wind

This is for yesterday, September 15, 2008. We were not in a wireless zone last night so couldn't get on line.

The New Mexico moon as Leroy was leaving Lordsburg and the struggle to get uphill and against the wind. . . . .

They say the wind was caused by hurricane Ike, but whatever the reason the wind blew all from the East to the West at 15 to 20 mph and it never let up. I was riding on the shoulder of the I-10 freeway, so the only time I got over 9 mph was when a semi truck would pass by and create a momentary vacuum. It would have been nice if there had been a solid stream of trucks pass by to really allow me to have maintained a nice speed. I did ride 79 miles today after starting at 6:00 AM and ending at 4:30 PM. Almost 10 hours of riding time. So after experiencing a day of wind we decided that tomorrow we would start from up north of Las Cruses, and ride from a community called Hatch, New Mexico to El Paso, Texas. Hatch is located on Hwy 185 about 30 miles north of Las Cruses.

We did manage to cross the Continental Divide at 10:00 AM at an elevation of 4,585 ft. I thought it would be a struggle because of climbing up a slope, but instead it was a struggle because of wind. Once over the divide there was no noticeable difference, the road continued to look totally flat.

We stopped at a bike shop late this afternoon to pick up another bike tire. My rear tire had six ¼ to ¾ inch cuts in it, that I suspect was caused by some glass that I have run over the past several days. I changed the tire tonight knowing that it is much easier to change in the hotel room as opposed to the side of he road.

The terrain remained very consistent all day so it will be nice riding through farming country tomorrow.

Hi! This morning I started the day riding my bike out with Leroy about eight miles. I turned around and went back towards the motel and experienced two interesting sights. The first was a rustling in the grass along side the road and out hopped a huge jackrabbit. He took off away from me, thank goodness. What a sight; it jumped up about eight feet in the air with each hop. Then about a mile down the road I heard hoof steps coming towards me and there were two havolinas (wild boars) coming towards me from across the road. Fortunately, a pickup truck was passing by and the gentlemen stopped his truck and then drove the wild boars off the side of the road.

The day ended with a flat tire on the car. Fortunately, I had already picked up Leroy and he changed it, drove to Wal-Mart and purchased a set of new tires. What a day!!!

Day of Rest

These tall and stately yuccas cover the landscape for miles around this area of New Mexico.

The copper mines goes on for miles on the way to Silver City.

The good Lord knew what he was doing when he assigned a day of rest. Not only has my body taken on new signs of recognizing what it feels like to be renewed, but my soul as well.

Libby and I drove up and over the continental divide to Silver City to check out the sites as well as to worship. We worshiped at an Assembly of God church and just by chance picked a church that was also celebrating the Lord’s Supper. For those who believe that one-hour is long enough to spend worshiping on Sunday, may have found the two-hour long worship a little stressful. We really enjoyed the service and found the people to be friendlier than in any church we have visited.


Silver City is a thriving community. It serves as the county seat as well as home to Western New Mexico University. It is also typical of most tourist communities with lots of different little boutique shops. The area surrounding Silver City has some of the largest open pit mines we have ever viewed. Most all of the mining is for copper so I guess the name Silver City comes from the past. For the past few days we have been passed on the road by truckloads of cooper ingots on the way to various places to be turned into many different commodities. We saw our first wild animal, a deer, since on the trip as we were driving up the continental divide. I have no idea why we have not seen more since the vegetation is very abundant and there certainly is nobody around bothering them.

On the way back from Silver City we drove to Deming which is the next largest town east on I-10. I will be headed there tomorrow and wanted to get a look at what faced me, as I know I will be pedaling across the continental divide for part of the ride.

Arizona Cotton Fields to Lordsburg, New Mexico

We were truly been blessed by the best of conditions today. Libby and I got up early and rode together for several miles and then I was off on my own. The Safford AZ area is a beautiful agricultural area with many different crops, but mostly cotton. After about an hour on the floor of the valley it was time to climb up into the high desert.

Because of recent rains, the high desert was green and lush with many types of cacti, yucca, and flowering weeds of various types. Since the vegetation is so available, many of the little critters that live in the area were also plentiful. I would be lying to you if I said I ran over less than 5000 of the biggest grasshoppers I have ever laid my eyes on. By the time I finished my trip today my bike and my legs were covered with grasshopper innards. Not a pleasant thought but so very true.

I rode 107 miles today, which marks my fourth century ride. I rode two of them when I road the Seattle to Portland ride, one the first day of this ride across America and then today. I thought the tough part of a century ride would be my arms, legs, or lungs, but instead it’s my butt. I could have kept going today except my bottom said that’s it! Since we will be taking tomorrow off I’m hoping it will be prepared to take on another week of riding. The other difference in being able to go the long distance is the temperature. Today I started at 64 degrees and ended at 87 degrees.

Tomorrow we will attend church here in Lordsburg and then drive up into the mountains to Silver City. We’ll give you a report on it after the visit.

On Monday I will be heading for Las Cruces via Interstate 10. Numerous people told us that taking the route down close to the border was too risky with all of the drug traffic and other activities going on in the area.

Trivia: 5000 + dead grasshoppers by bicycle
3rd flat tire. This is only the second flat on my front tire in over 5,000 miles. I wish I could say the same for the back tire.

Total miles ridden = 701 or an average of 87 miles per day

Apache Junction to Globe and Beyond

A New Day Outside Apache Junction, AZ -- Scenes Along the Way

What a day! 85 miles and 5700 feet of elevation gain. I got a nice early start and all was well until Superior AZ, then the road took off to the sky. After three hours of climbing on Hwy 60 with cars and trucks whipping by at 55 mph with no shoulder; I finally reached the summit. Since I was riding at 5.4 mph. I had to get off four times to take short breaks; the old legs were screaming.

Libby had gone to visit a classmate in Surprise AZ. and then drove to catch up to me; she arrived in Globe AZ. within 15 minutes of my arrival there. We had lunch and I was feeling like I needed a few more miles before calling it a day. So after riding up hill for 3 hours I got to ride down for about an hour and half to cover the next 30 miles. As I think about the day, I know that I certainly have much more energy to put into biking when the temperature is 15 degrees cooler. It never got over 84 degrees on any part of the ride.

We saw lots of different types of terrain. Much of it was mining country that goes way back to the 1800's. Many old mining relics dot the hillsides as well as huge cuts in the earth where they have been excavating for mostly copper.

We found ourselves out of cell phone contact many times throughout the day, but were able to find each other after some searching.

We are staying in Safford AZ. this evening as it was the next town with motels available. Tomorrow I will be shooting for 100 miles. We will be staying in Lordsburg, New Mexico Saturday night and all day Sunday for my first day off the bike.

Miles pedaled = 85

Total Miles = 594

Wickenburg - Where the West is Alive

There were many reminders that yesterday was 9/11 as every community had flags at half mast and the businesses we entered had folks wearing patriotic colors. This picture was taken at the end of our trail for the day

-- Apache Junction, Arizona --

Wickenburg is to Arizona as Ellensburg is to Washington. Nice town with lots of remnants of the Old West.

Left Wickenburg on Highway 60 yesterday morning headed to Phoenix. The first flat tire occurred after twenty-six miles of riding. Weather was quite pleasant up in the foothills, but it did warm up considerably once reaching Surprise. However, the weather was an improvement over the previous few days, as it didn’t reach a high of 94 until the end of my ride about 3:00 p.m. in Tempe. The second flat occurred at 39 miles. Libby joined me with reinforcements - a heavy duty tube and the portable air compressor.

Libby worked out at Curves in Surprise, and then spent the remainder of the day following the bike path on the city streets, getting lost, and car touring many residential districts in the process.

After a hearty second breakfast, I left Highway 60 for streets through residential areas and onto the Arizona Canal bicycle path. It was a beautiful path along the canal, which took me through Phoenix. Many times along the pathway, it was tempting to take an off ramp down into the canal for a cooling swim, but I resisted. The pathway took me along the base of Camelback Mountain, through parks, around multi beautiful churches, and ended at Arizona State University Stadium in Tempe.

We didn't get to blog last night as a dust storm blew in making the WiFi connections unavailable. We spent the night near Apache Junction where I will leave this morning headed to Globe.

Miles Traveled = 79

Total Miles Traveled = 509