Day 18 - Mimbres to Deming

Today we go seriously off the normal southern tier rout to avoid the washed out 152. We are heading to Deming and then back up through Hatch to get back on our planned route and itinerary.

Last night we ate dinner at the local restaurant/store/gas station. We had salad, green chili stew, and chocolate cake for dinner. It was very good.

We woke to fairly cool temperatures. Again in the 30's and it seemed colder last night, I think because there was a steady breeze blowing all night.

I got up as late as I could without missing breakfast. I packed my stuff, which was thankfully dry, but cold and donned my riding gear along with an extra jacket and took off.

I only took this photo, looking back up 61 toward the range of mountains that we would normally have crossed today. The road was mostly downhill with rollers in places. The road surface was fairly rough but not real bad.

We had a tail wind for the first section along highway 61. Then we turned onto 180 which was yet another very long straight stretch. The wind was now a side wind varying from tail to head depending.

I finally took off my cold weather gear when I reached the Rest stop on 180, which was nearly 30 miles into the ride.

For the most part 180 had a nice wide smooth shoulder, but toward the end the shoulder was really bad for quite a few miles.

For most of the day I kept Ron in sight catching up with him at the one rest area along 180 and again just before we reached town. Just before town he pulled away from me again. As we went through town I lost sight of him and when I got to camp I was surprised that I was the first one there. It turns our Ron stopped for a bite to eat at a Wendy's. I'm not sure why the rest of the group that left before me didn't make it in before I did. But it was kind of nice being the first one into camp instead of last.

I set my tent up and then discovered that there are goat heads under the tent. I'm probably going to move it so that I don't puncture my air mattress.

After getting my tent set up I rode back down the road to Wendy's and had a burger. Then came back took a shower and decided to update this blog.

Things seem to be getting more routine, but I still find myself struggling to get things packed up in the morning. I'm getting a little more organized, but still have a ways to go. I am pretty efficient at setting up my tent and taking it down now.

Tomorrow looks like a long day a bit over 70 miles with the first part of the day being a steady gentle climb, if I can trust Google Maps. We do drop about another 1000 ft from the elevation here at Deming so the overall is downhill.

Mitch just got in, he had 3 flats and carried about two six packs of coke from the camp. Apparently one of them exploded in his pannier which made quite a mess. Sound's like we may have bbq chicken tonight as there is a bbq grill here.

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