Day 13 – Rain, Wind, and New Mexico!

Miles Completed: 82.6

Cumulative Miles: 764.9

Miles to St Augustine: 2,335

Today’s ride took us from Safford, AZ to Lordsburg, NM. It was a long ride with only one small town in between, Duncan, AZ. We generally went uphill as Lordsburg is at elevation 4,269 feet. This was one of the hardest rides since we started as I’ll explain below.

Let’s start with the rain. This was the first rain since the start of this trip and it was a non-event. The first 18 miles out of Stafford went relatively easy, then we got a little sprinkle from a pop-up monsoon storm. It only lasted about 5 minutes and was rather refreshing. But right after that came the winds.

It hit immediately and winds were in our face at 15-20 mph and lasted the entire 60+ miles of our ride. I was able to finish with 4 others, but the other 5 had to cut their rides short because it was so exhausting. It took me 9.5 hours to finish the ride today.

At about our 50th mile today, we entered New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment. We now have completed two states. Yay!

In Duncan AZ, I rode up to the Ranch House restaurant and there were 6 bikes on the porch. This was the place everyone was stopping for a quick lunch. I joined them and had a cheese crisp (tortilla with cheese). These fun random stops add to the adventure. We also learned that Sandra Day O’Conner grew up on the Lazy B ranch (which we rode by) near Duncan.

Other good news for the day. No flat tires!