Day 39: Las Cruces, NM to Caballo, NM

Daily Miles: 62.7 Total Miles 2141.0

Farms and mountains

Today was another excellent day! We once again slept in a little, I had my leftover spaghetti and meatballs for breakfast, and then around 9:40 I hit the road. I was heading pretty much due north today and was lucky to have a light side to tailwind the whole day with a very gradual 700' elevation gain. I quickly rode out of Las Cruces without having to battle any of the stressful traffic I faced yesterday in El Paso. The roads were really good and before long I found myself rolling along through beautiful farmland flanked on each side by huge mountains. For much of today's ride I was riding along side the Rio Grande and I even crossed it a few times.

The prettiest view of the Rio Grande we've seen so far

 Today's route passed through lots of small towns, so I always had something to look forward to every couple of miles. I met up with Mary 38 miles into the ride in the very interesting town of Hatch. Hatch is the heart of New Mexico chile pepper farming country and there were chiles for sale everywhere! It was pretty cool. We ate at Sparky's Restaurant, a kitschy treasure-trove, home of the world famous green chile burger. We both ordered green chile patty melts with pepper jack cheese and they were delicious and SPICY. Soooo good.

Sparky's. In all of it's glory.

I had to lie motionless in the car for a few minutes after lunch in an attempt to digest some my food before getting back on the bike. Totally worth it though. In the last 25 miles of the day I passed through 4 more small towns, and past one enormous, very malodorous dairy farm before reaching the very pretty Caballo Lake State Park. Today I stopped in Caballo at the route's intersection with State Road 152 where I will start tomorrow's eastward climb over the mountains. I am starting tomorrow's ride at 4303' and when I finish the ~50 mile ride I will have crossed the summit of Emory Pass, the highest point on my trip, standing at 8228'.

Hate to ruin the surprise but you're all getting chiles for x-mas

Needless to say, I'm more than a little nervous. Tonight, Mary and I made the excellent decision to drive another ~14 miles north to stay the night in Truth or Consequences, NM, a very interesting spa/resort town and also the future home to America's spaceport where commercial flights into space will launch. We found a steal of a deal hotel, where for $60 (including tax) we got a night's stay and an hour long mineral bath soak for each of us. We hopped in those baths as soon as we arrived and they were AMAZING. We now feel rested, rejuvenated, and much less sore. Right now we're getting ready for a pizza dinner and taking advantage of the restaurant's wi-fi. Wish us luck for tomorrow, it's going to be a big day!