ups and downs

it's been a long day, with lots to tell. in fact, the day is still going in a few ways.

first off, new mexico is lovely, and far nicer than arizona thusfar (sorry AZ). it all started when i got up at 6:00 to a balmy 70 degrees in phoenix. when i left at 7:30 it was 85, and i was sweating just pumping gas. i had decided to brave it out without the cooling vest, since i didn't want to have a wet shirt all day, but i did wet my bandana. luckily, after about 40 or so miles out of phoenix, i started to climb into the hills and the temperature became much, much nicer. in fact, the whole ride became much, much nicer. turns out eastern arizona is much nicer than western arizona. that whole high desert vs. low desert thing. i'm definitely a high desert kind of guy.

anyway, the road got very cool, winding its way up through the mountains (kind of), and through some neat rock formations. the road looked like this:


and the altitude brought the heat down to a very tolerable level. after riding through this for a while, i came upon the next part of arizona that was good: the canyons. specifically, my route (highway 60 the whole way) took me through salt river canyon, which was tons of fun to wind down into and then back up. i of course missed the best photo spots, but this one turned out ok:

score a few more points for arizona. and after this lovely canyon experience, things kept going. i had a great ride through some high brush/ridgeline/cool stuff with amazing views all around (i didn't get any pictures, sorry), and pulled into springerville, the last stop before new mexico, around 11:30am, way ahead of schedule. so far this had the makings of a good day.

i decided to head into new mexico before getting lunch, since i wasn't terribly hungry yet, and i always like getting the hard stuff in before lunch, so my afternoons can be a bit easier. as it turns out, that's when the day started getting a little testy.

it started with construction, which delayed my getting in to new mexico by about 15 minutes or so. this wasn't so bad, as i got to chat with a guy on a scooter, originally from tennessee. he's been traveling for a long time (sounded like more than a year), stopping here and there to pick up odd jobs, and improving the performance of his scooter. it started out going 35 mph, and he had it up to between 45-50. he was hoping to get it to 65 by the time he was done with it. an interesting guy.

anyway, while this was going on, i was noticing some dark clouds forming over to my right, which looked suspiciously like rainclouds. turns out i didn't have to wait long to find out, as they started dumping a few miles to the south. it was a pretty cool experience, actually, watching the storm from far away, where the weather was still perfectly fine. there was some cool lightning too, which we don't get so much of in the northwest.

i went into new mexico and was going to get lunch at the next town on the map, which was red hill. unfortunately, red hill wasn't really a town, more of just a sign and a building that looked empty, so it was off to quemado for lunch. i was getting rather hungry at this point, since i had planned to have an early-ish lunch, and so i was booking it to get to food, as well as to try and beat out the rain clouds that looked like they were going to intersect my path rather quickly. turns out i was booking it a bit fast and, well, the new mexico highway patrol were a little bored that day. i got a ticket. i won't go into details. strike 2 for the afternoon.

the rain hit just as i was pulling in to quemado. and i mean hit. it hurt. it didn't help that i was still wearing my warm weather gear, and had no lining or layers on under my coat, but it still hurt. i pulled under the only covered area i could see, right next to a nice bmw sport tourer. i headed in to the old gas station to hang out with the couple riding the beemer. we chatted a bit with the guy who let us in (he was trying to paint the station, but it kept raining), and then i walked over to lunch at th cafe next door, which was a very good green chile cheese burger. turns out this is a signature new mexico dish, so it's a good thing i had one.

after throwing on another layer and putting the rain gear on (garbage bags), i headed out again. by this point it was almost 3:00pm, since i had also forgotten about the different time zones. oops. now it was much later than i intended. then the rain hit. that's when i discovered that my jacket had decided to stop being waterproof, and my arms quickly became soaked. strikes 2 and 3, and i was now in a bad mood. i started becoming very discouraged with the whole thing, and just felt like going home (or at least to a hotel). the last 100 miles to socorro, and however much farther to my cousins, felt like an eternity, even though i ended up going through some very pretty country. once i was sure i was past the rain, i stopped to put on more layers, and started heading through the plains:


i am amazed at how quickly the landscape changed today. from desert to mountains to canyons to tundra to plains. crazy.

anyway, after a gas stop in socorro (and a quick cup of coffee for the final push) i made the easy 20 minute ride up to bosque, new mexico, where i'm staying with my cousin and her family. they have an awesome house/farm with lots of chickens, and after filling me up with southwestern cuisine (red chili enchiladas, green chile quesadillas, summer squash risotto, winter squash soup and peach cobbler), i settled in for the night:


or so i thought. after looking at my route, i realized that i have a potentially 10+ hour day tomorrow, ending in my first night camping. this followed by another 9 hour day, and then a 3.5 hour day into indianola. this didn't make a whole lot of sense, so i've been spending the last few hours looking into alternatives to try and even out the days, while still keeping things interesting. so, i may be going to black kettle national grasslands in oklahoma tomorrow, or i may be going to palo duro canyon state park in texas. i'm not sure. we'll have to see when i get to canyon, texas and see how i'm feeling. or i could just crash at a motel 6 somewhere. after that, i could be at hot springs in arkansas, or hugo lake in oklahoma, depending on where i spent tomorrow night. i'm not sure. all i know is that i'm heading east on highway 60 tomorrow until canyon, texas. i'm kind of wishing i could just skip texas and oklahoma and just jump to mississippi. i'm not very excited about them, although i'm sure there'll be some great country.

no matter what happens, i'll be camping the next few nights, so blog posting is unlikely. i'll try to get something updated as quickly as i can, depending on the next internet i get.

until then,

rftc,

scott