land of enchantment

New Mexico, and I'm back in the mountains.

I had a great week staying with uncle Mike, Prescott is a really cool little college town. We went to some Indian ruins which were pretty impressive. I learned so much about my father's side of the family which was great beacause thats always been such a mysterious part of my heritage, and it was wonderful getting to know my uncle. I left tuesday with my camera (mailed over by my parents) and a ton of new music from my uncles extensive collection on my ipod.

My last days in Arizona were quiet but beautiful, I spent the first night out next to the Roosevelt lake. I met some drunk Indians, "T-Juan" and Jackson "Jackson 5" at a rest area in Safford and received an Apache blessing for my trip which was surprisingly moving despite "T-Juan's" intoxication, I returned the favor with an out of tune banjo song. T-Juan scribbled his address and phone number on my map before saying goodbye and hitching their way back to Bilas. Coming out of a dollar store in Duncan I met an ex heroin addict/travelling magician who offered me a place to stay for the night, I turned him down because I was trying to do another 20 miles that day, but I'm consistently amazed with how friendly strangers have been towards a smelly young man on a bicycle. On the way out of town I found a sweet handmade biking cap on the side of the road, one of those tight ones with the tiny rim, jackpot!

I got a flat tire coming into New Mexico, and after trying to patch it over and over and realizing that my "universal" replacement tube was about a foot long around, a guy in a pickup pulled over and offered me a ride into town. His name was Fred and he was a local railroad worker, he was full of stories and laughs. Along the way I learned that he had been once been posessed by a demonic girlfriend for for several years until his faith healing uncle cured him, he told the story much more interestingly, but I thought it was worth retelling.

I passed by the white sands national park yesterday, miles of huge fine white sand dunes in the middle of the desert, it reminded me of cape cod.

Coming into Alamogordo the mountains looked a bit daunting so I opted for the long route to go around them and get some distance north. Because of the extra distance I decided to do some night biking for the first time. Highway 54 was a quiet highway and it was a very peaceful ride. Riding under the stars was beautiful.

I stopped at a friendly little coffee shop in Carrizozo that had free refills. Chatting with the employees they told me about an israeli girl who had biked through town that was going from nova scotia to guatemala and back, that just blew my mind. A woman was kind enough to pay for my coffee and burrito, I gave my thanks, said my goodbyes and headed east on the 380.

The 380 has been a beautiful mountainous scenic route, it was a steady uphill for about 15 miles, when I spotted the descent I got super excited and threw on my scarf and sunglasses, just to turn around and see I had a flat tire. My 6x thickness thorn resitant tire went flat not from a puncture, but from the valve coming off of the tube. Luckily I had stopped at the Walmart in alamogordo and loaded my pockets with tubes.

I stopped in another coffee shop in the lovely mountain town of Capitan, and they gave me a free slice of pie, I'm going to miss the friendliness of the southwest.

Well I'm off to Roswell