Leaving Arizona
And Entering New MexicoI love the days when the cue sheet reads something like “go out of the motel parking lot, turn left go for 9 miles, turn right and go straight for 65 miles, stop at the Best Western.” That’s a cue sheet I can follow. Of course it was supplemented by notes from the guide including at 40 miles in the town of Dunkin, Ol Jos Café on left- lunch stop, flush toilets, water and ice”, “watch for state border crossing at mile 47”, “road flattens out at mile 49” and “margarita party tonight to celebrate the state crossing.”
I think part of my problem riding yesterday was that I was in a real calorie intake deficit from the night in Globe. There had been no place for Linda to cook so we had all been taken out to the local Copper Kettle type place next door and told to order one of the four set dinners from the senior menu. While I understand the need for the organizers to keep the cost of feeding a group of 21 women plus guides while eating out low, a senior size meal of a small chicken breast, four pieces of steamed broccoli, and a small portion of mashed potatoes and gravy simply is not enough food. By 9:00pm I was ravenous, craving salad, fruit, anything with substantial fiber, carbohydrate or protein. I raided my bike bag for the emergency protein bar, the remainder of the jerky and the dried apricots in my suitcase but still went to bed feeling hungry and in an obvious calorie deficit. With that lesson in mind I made a point of eating a small bite of cheese or protein bar a couple of times an hour and drank copious amounts of Gatorade to replace the electrolytes.
I think part of my problem riding yesterday was that I was in a real calorie intake deficit from the night in Globe. There had been no place for Linda to cook so we had all been taken out to the local Copper Kettle type place next door and told to order one of the four set dinners from the senior menu. While I understand the need for the organizers to keep the cost of feeding a group of 21 women plus guides while eating out low, a senior size meal of a small chicken breast, four pieces of steamed broccoli, and a small portion of mashed potatoes and gravy simply is not enough food. By 9:00pm I was ravenous, craving salad, fruit, anything with substantial fiber, carbohydrate or protein. I raided my bike bag for the emergency protein bar, the remainder of the jerky and the dried apricots in my suitcase but still went to bed feeling hungry and in an obvious calorie deficit. With that lesson in mind I made a point of eating a small bite of cheese or protein bar a couple of times an hour and drank copious amounts of Gatorade to replace the electrolytes.
St. Patricks' Day pancakes at Ol Jo's Cafe
The group hit the town of Dunkin and almost everyone stopped at “Old Jo’s Café” and had lunch. The café was celebrating St. Patrick’s day by serving green pancakes all day which several of the riders couldn’t resist. The rest of us , knowing that Linda the cook was going to be cooking Corn Beef and Cabbage for dinner, stuck to more traditional lunch type things like sandwiches, burgers, enchiladas and tacos. Of course the most obvious benefit, in addition to the food, was an opportunity to read the road kill menu while waiting in line for the bathroom and sitting and eating and relaxing for 40 minutes or so mid ride.
road kill menuAll in all, between the cue sheet, a nice tail wind, slightly cooler temperatures, extra calories and the excitement of being back in New Mexico again, even if only for a few days, today was a much better day than yesterday.
Although we did end up climbing about 1300 feet, we did it in the middle of the ride and once we had gained the elevation we stayed there. There were several picture taking opportunities at the border as we crossed into New Mexico and a few miles later while standing staring at the ground and thinking about things I looked down and found a chunk of what I optimistically was hoping was turquoise. Of course it wasn’t really turquoise but instead was a bit of copper ore in a quartz/muscovite/mica/iron pyrite matrix, but it still a New Mexico sky blue, so I chose to call it a welcome back gift from the spirits of my home state.
It was interesting to watch the earth change colors as we rode towards Lordsburg after the state line. We lost the Saguaro cacti around the edge of the San Carlos Reservation but started seeing more and more mesa land and remnant volcanic cones. The predominant land color changed from a pale yellow to a softer adobe pink with darker basaltic rocks in the mesa areas. We also are seeing more and more juniper, chamisa and sage brush along with Manzanita trees which surprised me as I had always associated those with California.
After the lunch stop at “Ol Jo’s” and one more tricky railroad crossing, which I heard later had caused a couple of falls, the rest of the ride was on a relatively good road surface, flat and at times even with a tail wind so our feet were truly “dancing on the pedals” which meant that we got in in good time in spite of having lost an hour to the time zone change between Arizona and New Mexico.
Mary Jo, a rider from North Dakota who is married to Harvey, a soy bean farmer, spends every winter at St. David’s Monastery near Tombstone, NM with Harvey doing service for the monastery and living in a camper. As we rode into Safford, we all noticed a group of people standing on the sidewalk with balloons and flowers. As each rider passed they inquired after Mary Jo. It turns out she had some groupies from the monastery drive up to kidnap her for dinner. Between gadding about with the bikers, margarita parties at every state border and possibly in between and being met by and taken out to dinner by the groupies from the monastery, I have a feeling Harvey is going to have a hard time keeping her down on the farm when they head back north.
Today’s stats
75.1 miles
5:30 riding time
Two injuries on the railroad tracks in Dunkin with bruising, road scrapes and a cracked helmet
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