The ride today started at 28 degrees. There was frost on the windshield of the vehicles, and it took several hours for it to warm up enough for those who had plastic water bottles had a hard time squeezing water out!
We went downhill the rest of the way, somewhat of a repeat of yesterday. We passed throught rugged canyons, dotted with cedar, pine, pinon, and jujniper pines. We cycled alongside the clear waters of Percha Creek, lined with willows and cottonwood trees; even the air smelled sweeter here. Who knew New Mexico was like this?
The Rio Grande River begins in the mountains of Colorado, and flows south through all of New Mexico before turning southeast to form the international border. We crossed the river three times in the course of the day.
We stopped in the town of Hatch, and ate a wonderful Mexican lunch in the Valley Cafe there. This part of New Mexico grows chile peppers of all kinds, and we could smell it in the air! Colorful chains of dried red chiles hang by the dozens outside many of the town's stores.
After leaving Hatch and its chiles, we entered the world of pecans. Mile after mile, we biked past pecan trees on both side of the road. Their branches are bare this time of year, but they are planted in perfectly pruned rows as far as we could see!
The high today was 52 degrees, so it did warm up, but when you get that chilled, it is hard to warm up. The wind was from the west, which would have been great, except we were on winding roads going north, so we had mostly side and head winds. The gusts were so strong that Shelley Hatcher was blown off the road into the sand and gravel and fell. She was lucky to escape with a scraped knee.
The last 15 miles was delightful because the road turned east and straightened, which meant we had a great tail wind. We sailed into the city of Las Cruces on smooth roads, so the rest of our struggles on the 88 miles were forgotten! Several of us stopped at the Custard Freeze a mile from the motel. It was our reward for the day's ride!
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