Marathon - Sanderson 30th March

55 Miles.
Took the ride a little easy today, relatively short distance and flat terrain.

Met Matt and Steve along the way, up on th rocks eating their lunch.

 We really are in the middle of nowhere, no services of any description for the entire ride.

 Sanderson, like many of the towns we have visited, very small with nothing much to see. Photo below,(what you see is pretty much it).

 It's interesting to see these places, but I do wonder how people live in such isolated spots. All these RV parks we camp in sort of roll into one, but here is home for tonight.

Fort Davis - Marathon 29th March.

55 miles.
Short fast ride.
 A little down hill with a tail wind and very quiet, long straight roads.

 Rode the last 30 miles leading Jim and Doug, averaged 23 + miles per hour, fun ride. Camped ( in yet another) RV park, they all role into one in my mind.

Phat and Steve cooked eggs and pancakes for dinner, pancakes maybe a little ambitious outside in a camping stove in high winds!!!!

After dinner we played game called 'left right centre'.

Quite a fun game that required a bet of $3 , winner gets the whole pot of $45.
Required no skill, but was quite a laugh, Sheri won the pot.

Fort Davis 28th March

No miles- Rest day.

 Opportunity to speak to lots of family and friends on face time, do some washing and generally get sorted out.

 Met up with two UK cyclists that were travelling through east to west on the southern tier. I have met one of them (Alan on the left) before in the UK.

So kinda fun to see him here again in the middle of Texas.

Van Horn -Fort Davis 27th March

100 Miles.
 The main ride was eighty nine miles, but a couple of us decided to extend it for the century.

 Firstly the ride was alongside the interstate, allowing a visit to the service station. Not quite the same as the M1, cowboy boots, hunting knives and guns for sale.

 Second part of the ride took me through what can only be described as cowboy country.

 Saw three cowboys(photo below), driving cows through the countryside. A real highlight of the trip, felt like I was in a western movie.

 Toughish ride with plenty of hills.

Fort Hancock TX - Van Horn 26th March.

75 miles.

Through the Texas countryside to Van Horn.

 Passed through the town of Sierra Blanca, this Place had certainly seen better days.

Arrived in Van Horn just as Jared was setting up camp. Another day of increasing wind, so yet again we were not able cook for ourselves.

We ate in the camp cafe. A very beige meal of fries, fried shrimp and corn, followed by extremely sweet pecan pie.

None of which warranted a photo.

El Paso TX - Fort Hancock TX 25th March

34 miles.
Short ride today, but eventful.
 I rode with Matt and Steve for a short while. 

Unfortunately Matt took a tumble ( inadvertently touched Steve's wheel). Luckily not badly injured, ( bit of a sore back, cut finger and grazed knee) .

I very nearly went down with him, so very relieved that was avoided.

 Scary bit was there was a pickup truck just behind and Matt fell in the road, luckily truck avoided him.

 Good reminder to be careful!

 Ride extremely close to Mexican border, mountains to one side are in Mexico.

Las Cruces NM - El Paso TX 24th March

80 Miles.
 Started the day cycling through Pecan orchards, before turning up into the mountains.

 Evan and I had opted to do a slightly longer alternative route which was pretty scenic to start with.

 Crossed over the state line from New Mexico to Texas at about 42 miles then the route became busier as it headed down towards El Paso.

 Staying with a warm showers host(Photo below) who had opened up his garden for southern tier cyclists. He told us that his locality has very historic connections. It's part of the trail the Spaniards used as they travelled up from a Mexico.

 We are only a few miles from the Mexican border tonight. Every now and then a helicopter goes over, apparently part of the border patrol.

Percha Dam State Park NM -Los Cruces NM 23rd March

58miles.
 Last full day's riding in New Mexico.
 Initially nice days riding until the wind picked up.

This resulted in the final few miles in a full blown dust storm. Very difficult to cycle and stay upright, let alone see where you were going.

 As we arrived in the campsite it was pretty clear that attempting to put up tents in this weather was going to be nye on impossible.

 Thankfully campsite had four cabins available, that each slept four. I ended up in a cabin with Patty, Matt and Steve. We opted to put Matt and Steve, ( they coped just fine) in the double bed and Patty and I had the bunk beds.

 Out to dinner for Mexican food as also impossible to cook in the wind.

Mimbres NM- Percha Dam State Park -NM 22nd March

59 Miles.
 Start of the day was a climb up over Emory Pass 8228ft.
Nice climb through Gila national forest, with pine trees and a stream alongside. Still snow on the mountain tops.
Fabulous views of the downward route.

 You certainly see some strange place names along the way.

How about 'Truth or Consequences' as an address?

Silver City -Mimbres 21st March.

89 miles.
 Wow, what a day!
 Three of us (Patty, Evan and myself) decided to do an alternative route that took us up through Gila national park.
one other guy (Jim) did some of our route, but decided to cut it a little shorter. The rest of the group chose to follow a more direct and much shorter route.

In the way up to the park we passed through the town of Pinos Altos, just as you would expect a cowboy town.  First we met a chap along the road, who looked like he should be out prospecting for gold or something similar.  His name was ' Moose' , he had the longest beard I have ever seen.  Then there was a saloon, that I half way expected Clint Eastwood or John Wayne to come wondering out of. The saloon and what was called ' the opera house' next door were getting on for about 200 years old. I can only imagine the goings on that these  places may have  seen.

 There are remnants of cliff dwellings in this park and although we did not have the time to visit these the landscape and views on the route were spectacular. The cliff dwellings date back to 'the Puebloan people' who lived in the area during the 13th century. There is also evidence that the Chiricahua Apache's lived in this area from the 15th century and that the legendary Apache leader Geronimo was born in the area.

 It was a pretty hard day's cycling though.
 We cycled 88 Miles with an elevation of 7698ft. Crossed the continental divide twice more today.

 We left camp just after 7am and got into camp in Mimbres just as dinned was served at 6pm. It was very cold when we left camp, because again we are up in the mountains.

 We are camped just outside the town of Mimbres in a wide open space, beautiful night sky.

Saw a Scorpian scuttle across the recreation room.  Described it to someone as quite small, apparently the size described is a fully grown adult, that could give a nasty sting.