No Country for Old Men

 

Happy Memorial Day everyone!,

I wanted to wear my Honor the Fallen jersey today but it was so cold and rain was predicted so I wore another jersey along with a rain jacket. It was also very cool with temperatures in the low 40’s when we left Las Vegas. Two years ago it was less than 30 degrees but were not dealing with a threat of rain. It makes it difficult to figure out what to wear . One can always drop off excess cloths at the SAG, but there is not an option to pick up a rain coat or warmers if the weather changes for the worse. I opt to have too much rather than too little.

After we started to ride it seems that the temperature went down and clouds were moving in. I passed Geoffrey who had left earlier than I and he muttered about being really cold as I passed. It was over a 108 mile day so it could be miserable. The areas that we pass through are very desolate and few cars pass us on the road. After we left Las Vegas, our queue sheet announced “No restrooms or services for 75.6 miles”.

Our first SAG of the day was at mile 27 and there are two important thing to mention. First of all, it marks the 1000 mile milestone of our journey. Secondly, there is a trailer on the site that ewas supposedly used in the filming of the movie No Country for Old Men. The surrounding area looks like Anton Chigurh could walk out from behind a rock  toting a captive bolt pistol and asking “Do you feel lucky today.”

The high point of today’s ride is the descent into the desert. around mile 30, the surrounding countryside looks like prime cattle / agricultural land. All of a sudden, you round a corner and the road drops a couple of thousand feet into a gigantic canyon. At the bottom of the canyon after a 3 miles descent is the desert with completely different vegetation.  I did shoot several photos of the canyon vista but the attempted video failed. Perhaps Ross did one for his weekly video. The descent also had several cattle guards which are always dangerous especially at high speed. I took the descent try carefully as the road had a lot of issues and sand from the recent storms.

The next highlight of the ride was the climb known as The Wall. It is a .7 mile climb at a steep grade. Trucks sometimes have difficulty navigating it. I didn’t have much of an issue with it but was breathing hard at the top. Carol was there to greet me with chocolate milk, a smile and a hug.

The scenery was pretty with lots of red rocks and reset vegetation, but the road was often bumpy for the last miles. I was moving really well today and kept increasing my speed as i got closer to Tucumcari. I ditched my rain jacket at the last sag and the sun peeked out now and then. The temperatures had increased to the 70’s and the threat of rain had diminished. We did have several significant climbs in the last miles that brought groans from my legs.

My total ride time today was less than 7 hours which was pretty good considering the mileage, climbs and overall road quality. I sometimes swore that I must have a flag tire because my progress seemed sluggish.

Tomorrow we ride to Dalhart Texas and that is another day of almost 100 miles.

Hope that everyone had a safe Memorial Day . I am riding for the WoundedWarrior Project and donations are appreciated.

Tailwinds

Chuck