Day 10 (5/1/22): Big Miles. Big Elevation Gains

Begin:                               Chambers, AZ

End:                                  El Morro, NM

Miles:                               88

Elevation:                         5,691 feet

I was supposed to do a century tomorrow (Monday) but realized yesterday I could go a little further today and make tomorrow more manageable.  A few problems with my plan.  I miscalculated the mileage and wound up going much farther than I anticipated.  The elevation was way more than I was counting on (1,000 feet more than I’ve gone in any day so far).  I picked up headwinds at 11 a.m. that stayed with me for the next 35-40 miles (where the steepest hills were).  And, it turns out New Mexico is on Mountain time.  A longer day than I had planned (~10 hours total with 2 hours of breaks), but I have to say, I enjoyed most of it and feel pretty good.  Oh yeah, I was carrying about 50 pounds of gear in my rear panniers for the first time as well.  Confidence is high.

This is the first night I’m on my own camping (more below).  I’ve camped by myself before, but never from the bike.  I managed to set up camp with little incident here in lovely El Morro, NM and will crash almost immediately after I finish typing.

Some observations from the day:

• The scenery was nice, although much of the same as what I saw in parts of Arizona.  I pedaled through the Zuni nation which was quite nice and the highlight of the day was the El Morro National Monument at the very end of the day.  Very unique.

• I visited the Family Dollar store twice today and have to say I’ll be back often when I’m on my own.  Great place for a quick snack or bottle of milk and they’re quite common in the smaller towns I’m passing through.  They’re very nice about allowing me to trapse my bike through their store.

• Got chased by 5 dogs today (you were right Scott Casper).  No damage done.  They were just curious.

• The wind was good enough to change to a tailwind with about 25 miles to go, but when I got into the town of Ramah about 12 miles from where I finished, I was treated to a true dust storm.  A very nice woman offered to toss my bike in the back of her pickup and drive me the rest of the way to El Morro.  I thanked her, but told her that would be cheating.

• Speaking of “cheating”, we did the last of our interstate highway diversions this morning.  I’m in the saddle all of the rest of the way.

• New Mexico drivers are very curious.

 A twist.  Why I’m Bummed Today

• This is the first of 3 times on the trip Tish and I will be separated for a several days.  There are just some places where bikes have to go that wouldn’t hold anyone’s interest for a full day.  She’s in Santa Fe and we’ll connect on Wednesday evening.  I HATE being away from Tish.  I’ll devote more to my love in the future, but I’m not right without her.  Cue the Jerry Maguire music if you have to.  By the way, this isn’t just true now, it’s true when I go out for a ride at home.  I just like being with her.