New Mexico & trip to Trinidad

Once we hit the border and entered into the Land of Enchantment AKA New Mexico, the tide had turned. We were finally out of Texas and onto the 24 hours we had ahead of us in this new state. Surprisingly somehow all of the wind just went away as we went into Clayton New Mexico.

We stopped to talk to some locals and buy post cards from a convenience store, and my attitude was refreshed. I realized how much fun the next 60 miles would be to Des Moines while we sang our way through Clayton. Singing has become one of my favorite pastimes while going through any town, it is the best way for people to know what we are doing.

The bike ride up until Des Moines was beautiful with mountains randomly appearing throughout the ride. We finally had something to look at other than just flat land and it amazed us. When stopping at a Rest Area, I met a great couple driving through the country and other random people with odd stories. I guess that is what a place like the west.

The town of Des Moines had three stores open and I made sure to talk with all of them. I hit up the first one for Sopapillas to remind me of the days with visiting my sister Kerry in Albuquerque. I stopped at a coffee shop to watch my teammates playing a solid game of Checkers. I was asked to leave by my teammates because I told them what move to make too often.

My favorite shop was the local art studio where photos and paintings were showed off. I foound out that I made it for the Open Mic Night where locals showed off their poetry skills etc. I showed off my skills in writing Hi-Kus and then told them all a little more about our Bike & Build group. It was really fun to talk with all these locals and we actually found a rancher that wants to host our group next year.

So the night was fun but just like everywhere else, we leave before the town awakes the next morning. We found a more manageable back road that took us through an easier mountain pass than what we originally had planned. It was beautiful with the RR train following us along the way into Colorado.

We had the mountains to our left as we biked from the border into Trinidad. Unfortunately, we had a 20-25 mph headwind coming at us for the last 20 miles. It was another test for our mental wit as we barely made it to our host without wanting to go crazy.

The day off was the deciding motivating factor as we got near Trinidad. Everyone was pumped too know that we could let loose, relax and sleep in as much as our body lets us! Good day!