New Mexico Here We Come

I hope that you enjoyed the new photos that I just posted.

This past Sunday, two weeks into our adventure, I am still having a good time and have no regrets about having signed up for this tour. As we woke up Sunday to 32 degree temp again, we headed to our first New Mexico town called Buckhorn. I would have to say that Sunday's ride was the most dramatic in scenery. Our first 16 miles was climbing 3400 feet, with the last 3 miles being the steepest and nothing but switchbacks, taking us to the top of the pass. Standing with our bikes at 6300 ft., with the vista of the mountain to the west, we could look back into the distance and see where we came from. Taking pictures of the other riders riding up, and as the entire group reached the top, we took the opportunity to take a group shot with the beautiful scenery behind us. After leaving desert landscape, climbing through forest and wood, we descended down into New Mexico, land of dry grass fields and miles of rolling hills.

After arriving in Buckhorn, Tom and I hit the ice cream parlor, which is always well deserved. The town is very small, known as the Land of Manyana (Tomorrow) according to the RV Park owner. There was not much available at the grocery store for dinner, we had our first mac and cheese dinner. (Ok, Geno, you can say 'I told you so'.)

And I thought 32 degree was bad, try 27 degree Monday morning. It was so cold, that all of us squeezed into the RV Park laundry room to eat our breakfast, turning on the clothes dryer to heat the room. But talk about how dramatic the temperature changes around here, by 8:30 we stripped off our cold weather clothing.

Though the day's ride to Silver City consisted of only 1 climb, our legs were all tired from the previous day's climb. Silver City is a neat town full of eateries, galleries and shops, with a river running along the town. Reminded me of Sutter Creek back in CA. We stopped for couple of hours to tour the town, lunching on sandwiches and strawberry pie. From there we cruised on into the KOA campground. With Silver City sitting at 6000 feet elevation and anticipating another cold night, ten members of the group decided to rent 3 cabins and sleep in comfort. Of course, I was one of the ten. I'm not crazy.

Our route today takes us up our highest pass of 8200 feet, then dropping down to stay at Black Range Lodge in the town of Kingston, from there Jeff and Christina (the lady from Chicago) will join back in with the tour. Wednesday will be a layover day at the lodge. It will be good to have another break.