Day 38: El Paso, TX to Las Cruces, NM

Daily Miles: 52.3 Total Miles: 2078.3

Easter breakfast with Jackie

Happy Easter! We made it out of Texas!!! Today Mary and I had a great, very unique day. We started it out by sleeping in a little, then picking up my Honduran friend Jackie and going out to a pretty good Mexican breakfast. It was really great getting to catch up with Jackie and hear all about her experience living and studying in the US for the past 9 months. After breakfast we dropped her back off and then returned to the hotel to pack up and check out.

Alpacas give the best hugs

I hit the road at 11:30am and for the first 5 miles enjoyed a nice, relaxing, traffic-free ride though downtown El Paso. I rode under the big bridge crossing in to Juarez, Mexico and all through the very cute downtown area. After making it through town I turned on to Mesa Street, the road heading north to New Mexico, and immediately had to get to work. I faced a 500'+ climb to get up and out of the city on a very, very busy street with no shoulder and tons of traffic lights.

Little baby alpaca... so cute!

There were a lot of up and downs while climbing and every single time I came down a hill with momentum I got stopped at a traffic light right at the bottom and then had to start the next climb from a dead stop. It was pretty stressful, but the climbing only lasted about 5 miles, however the traffic lasted a bit longer. Today was Easter Sunday and I felt very stressed out by the traffic, I can't imagine riding this route on a normal day. Once I finally made it out of the El Paso urban sprawl, I was riding smoothly on very nice roads with a little tail wind and anxiously awaiting the New Mexico state line. I rode on and on waiting for the line, and after making a turn, I had a sneaking suspicion that there was no state line sign.

Great pic of Bruce and me

22 miles into my ride, I saw a man out by the road in front of his house so I stopped to ask him if I was already in New Mexico. He told me that his property was 90% in New Mexico and 10% in Texas and that I was already in New Mexico and wouldn't be crossing back over in to Texas. So I didn't get a picture with the Welcome to New Mexico sign, but Mary and I ended up getting something far better. I continued to talk to this guy, Bruce, he got on the phone with Mary to make sure she wan't lost, and then he said, "Well, you guys are going to have to come in to see the alpacas." And like anyone in their right mind we said, "We'd love to see the alpacas." We ended up spending over an hour at Bruce's place, playing with the over 50 alpacas he has, checking out the llamas, and learning all the ins and outs of the alpaca business.

Hello there, mister

It was AWESOME. They were the cutest things I've ever seen in my life, there was a little precious baby alpaca, and Bruce was just so fun and interesting to talk to. I have decided that I am only going to wear clothing made out of alpaca fur from now on. They are so soft! It was such a nice experience. We finally had to pull ourselves away and get back on the road. The last 30 miles of the ride went very smoothly. The roads were nice and flat with a slight tailwind.

Crossing the Rio Grande

We rode by more pecan farms, including the largest pecan farm in the world, and we also crossed the Rio Grande. Before I knew it we were at the hotel and another day's ride was in the books. We went out to a nice Easter dinner at Olive Garden and we're looking forward to exploring more of New Mexico in the upcoming days!