(Wed, 3/12/25; 66 miles, 466 feet of climb)
My gambit paid off — I made it 25 miles past my original goal of Las Cruces and all the way to Texas!
The winds were as strong as predicted (21 mph), and fortunately, also as predicted, they were straight out of the west. That means no headwinds today! It was mostly crosswinds as I headed south, and I even had a little component of tailwind whenever the route turned southeast.
I finally got an early start — I was on the road about a half hour before sunrise. It was a great time to ride! There were only one or two cars every ten minutes in highway 185 leaving Hatch.
I stopped at around 9 am to get some drone videos, since I knew it would be too windy later. In fact, even at that early hour, I got “high wind” warnings and it told me to land immediately. But I managed to get a few shots first.
At mile 36 I got to Las Cruces and saw my first stoplight in four days! The route went right past a Cracker Barrell on I-25, so I took a mid-day break to charge my devices while eating eggs, bacon, and chocolate chip pancakes.
At mile 58 I was taking a break on the curb of a post office in Chamberino, NM. Just as I was leaving, I met Steve. He was in a pickup and is a pilot and a biker and told me about the winds coming up Friday. He said that sometimes in these sand storms, the visibility is less than a quarter mile!
He told me I could stay tonight at his friend’s house nearby, but I told him that I had already booked a hotel in nine more miles. I wanted to minimize the distance to El Paso tomorrow (hence my stretch goal).
Tomorrow, the winds will be headwinds. Unlike today, they will start gentler and get worse around noon. So my plan is to leave early again and be on the Mexican border before it gets windy.
Steve also told me about Crazy Cat Cyclery, his favorite bike shop in El Paso. I had been trying to figure out how to get my bike to Rad Dog Bikes on Friday during the windstorm (it’s going to be 29 mph winds BEFORE DAWN!), but the nearest hotel was nine miles away.
Crazy Cat, in the other hand, is only 0.4 miles from a Hilton Garden Inn that has rooms for $87! So I booked a room there for Thursday and Friday nights.
Now I can get to El Paso early Thursday and see whatever I can. Once I check into the hotel Thursday afternoon, I don’t have to leave in the wind storm except to bike a few blocks to the bike shop Friday, and walk back.
Then I booked a 6 am flight on Saturday, so I should be in Minneapolis Saturday afternoon and home Saturday night. I get to go to church Sunday!
And I BEAT THE WIND STORM! WOO-hoo!
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TRANSLATIONS/BACKGROUND: “CANTBIRD” = CA-AZ-NM-TX Bike Ride, my own nickname for the 1000 miles on the western half of the Southern Tier Bicycle Route, from San Diego to El Paso, using maps from ACA (Adventure Cycling Association). (I did the 1500-mile eastern half in March 2024, which I called GUMBIRD [Gulf of Mexico Bike Ride].)
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LINKS:
Old-fashioned BLOG if you have friends who don’t use Facebook:
“Old Scouter” Facebook page if you want to follow big adventures with more pictures and video clips (but not unrelated personal posts):
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066334039590
“Old Scouter” YouTube page (when I get time to edit after the trip):