Day 14: Friday 03/18/16, Rodeo, NM to Douglas, NM

Day 14 distance: 95 miles

Total miles:  791 miles

Elevation gain: 1951 feet

Map of today's ride:

Yesterday was another beautiful riding day with blue skies and light tail wind at the start of the day. As the day progressed, the wind speed increased, and the 95 mile ride, the longest of this C2C, flew by. It was a day for not too many pictures as the scenery varied little.

We observed several working windmills that were pumping water for livestock.

 

 

Another working windmill and the only cattle we observed the entire 95 miles.

Two buzzards flew away from a dead rabbit they were self-serve eating on the highway. I believe we saw more animal road kills and buzzards on this ride rather than anything else.

These two riders are Treus and Jan from the Netherlands. They ride much heavier bicycles than most US riders but are among the fastest riders in our group. This photo was taken at a community center in Hachita, NM. The community center is about all that is left of the town, but they are kind enough each year to let Bubba use the center for a SAG stop. Since there are no stores along the route, each coaster prepared a sandwich at breakfast and placed it in a cooler. The SAG staff then brings it and other snacks and beverages to Hachita, the half way point on today's ride. The people from the community center had also prepared a cold pasta salad for everyone. I think most everyone was generous in leaving a donation behind for the center.

 

This picture gives you an idea of how poor the area is around Hachita. I mean if you look close, you can even see there was no water connected to the toilet!

This border patrol station was located about ten miles outside of Columbus, NM. This patrol station, Hachita, and one ranch, was all I recall seeing along the road for the 95 miles until right outside Columbus. There were more border patrol vehicles on the road than any other vehicles.

 

 

If you look very close at the sky, you can see a white blimp in the upper left side.  The border control uses these blimps for aerial observation of the border between the US and Mexico.

Close to Columbus I observed the only agricultural operation for the entire ride. This appears to have been a cotton field as if you look closely at the field, you can see white tufts of cotton on the furrows.

A historical museum greets you as you enter Columbus.

The school we are spending the next two nights changed the time that we could enter from 3 pm to 4:15 pm. This is a picture of some riders and Wolf Pack members killing time waiting to get inside for showers and rest.

Tomorrow is our second day off of this C2C.

 LINK to Day 14 of my 2015 C2C blog.

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.