Day 13: Thursday 03/17/16, Douglas, AZ to Rodeo, NM

Day 13 distance: 59 miles

Total miles:  696 miles

Elevation gain: 1254 feet

Map of today's ride:

 

NOTE: Due to a lack of WiFi and no AT&T network service, this blog and tomorrow's blog are late. This will be experienced off and on during this ride, so enjoy your time off during these wireless blackouts!

Thursday was another day of riding with blue skies and strong tailwinds for the last 25 miles of the ride. It is fun to ride along, with only minor effort, up to 26-28 mph! A bicyclist's dream! 

It was a beautiful morning as we left Douglas, Arizona heading 59 miles down Hwy 80 to the Painted Pony Resort outside of Rodeo, New Mexico.

This was a typical scene along the highway. Looks like real cowboy country!

Confirmation came that we were in real cowboy country when a little further down the road, we stopped and watched about 7 riders driving a herd of cattle to a new range.

This was a sad sight I observed from the road in a wash. Both horses looked undernourished, but the rust colored horse in the foreground looked like it was close to starvation. Fortunately, someone had thrown hay to them to eat. One wonders if the horses had been neglected or if the rust one had cancer or some other disease.

Note the one lone cow in the center of this photo.

An interesting colored old abandoned bridge along the highway. I believe at one time the structure supported the train tracks for the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad.

No major grades on today's ride and the highway was almost completely void of traffic.

 

 

 

 

Thirteen days and 686 miles after leaving San Diego, California, we entered our third state on this C2C ride, New Mexico! This was the second time I used the selfie stick. Apparently the blogger does not take any better photographs!

I stopped at this art gallery in Rodeo to look around. It is operated by a coop of 49 local artists. There was some nice artwork, but decided it was impractical to carry a 2'x3' painting on my back while bicycling.

 

That is a yucca tree in the foreground, with the Chiricahua Mountains in the background.

We rode a 3 mile dirt side road into the Painted Pony Resort, our night's stop-over.

 

 

 

This is the main house of the Painted Pony Resort. This site was developed by John McAfee, the founder of McAfee anti-virus software. It was originally built as part of an ultra light aircraft center. Please click on the link at the end of this blog for some historical background on this failed venture. BTW, for those who followed me last year, once again I was a lucky coaster and had my name drawn to stay in a bed in the house, rather on the floor of a hanger on an air mattress. However, this year I shared a room with another coaster and did not garner the McAfee's master suite. :)

 Due to it being St. Paddies Day, Anne served a delicious dinner of corned beef and cabbage.

LINK to Day 13 of my 2015 C2C blog.