Day 43: Oak Grove, NM to near Virden, NM

Daily Miles: 51.6 Total Miles: 2277.2

Please note gloves, socks, and grimace

It's good to be back on the road! I was anxious to get going this morning (and foolishly hoping to get some miles in before the wind picked up), so I was up and getting ready by 6:30am. It was around 28 degrees when I got up, so I slowed it down a little, bundled up a lot (including wearing a pair of pink Ralph Lauren gloves that Mary found in the trunk on top of my normal cycling gloves), and took my time packing and eating breakfast. By the time we drove back out to Oak Grove and I got on my bike it was 8:30am, still a respectable starting time for us. It was soooooooo COLD. Like 30 degrees. And already extremely windy. And I started my day with a climb to the Continental Divide. My feet very quickly went numb, and then very quickly went from numb to hurting very badly. It took me just over an hour to ride the 10 miles to the Continental Divide and when I got there I was miserable.

We're back in the desert

I had to jump in the car and I stayed there well over an hour warming up my feet and everything else. I decided to put a pair of hiking socks on over my cycling socks before heading back out. We quickly took a few pictures and I'm pretty positive that I am the most pathetic-looking person to ever cross the Continental Divide... in history. As in, I'm sure the people who went across during the Oregon Trail days, in covered wagons, with full-blown dysentery, still looked perkier than I did this morning. But I made it, and I headed back out and things were considerably better.

On the road again

It had warmed up somewhat, and the hiking socks really helped keep me warm. I only had to ride on another ~7 miles of up and down hills before reaching the 14 mile, 2000' descent into Lordsburg. The descent would have been much more fun if there wasn't a 21 MPH sidewind, but it was a pretty easy ride. Once in Lordsburg, I met up with Mary and Jay and we went to grab lunch at Kranberry's Restaurant, the same place we ate dinner at last night and the same place we're eating dinner at tonight. It's a local spot in a town with less than 5 restaurants, but it's actually really good.

Celebrating with the Big Guy

After lunch, I was feeling warmer and better and decided to press on, heading northwest on US 70, now directly into the 20+MPH headwind. I was definitely feeling better after 3 days off, because I did actually enjoy the ride. I put in another 20 miles through the desert, stopping short of the Arizona state line, and then drove back to Lordsburg with Mary and Jay. We're staying in the same hotel as last night (which has an indoor hot tub!), and it's very nice. We're heading out to Kranberry's again now, and we're really looking forward to tomorrow! We should have minimal winds (possibly even a slight tailwind), and we're crossing into Arizona (the second to last state of the trip)!