Saturday, March 24, 2012

Rodeo to Columbus NM March 23 2012




When the alarm went off at 6:40 Am this morning it was still dark as we lost an hour. So I crawled into my riding kit and headed off to breakfast. It was a long day today; in fact it was the longest ride of the tour at 96.5 miles. I don’t exactly know what the temperature was but I think it was in the low 40’s.

When I hit the road it was 7:40 and the sun was up and things were starting to get warm. I wanted to get as far down the road as possible as early as possible because the forecast was for 90 F. There were quite a few others who had the same thoughts and I was far from the first out.

The road was not a good as yesterdays and a lot of it was rough chip seal. It was also some what rolling. However I did manage to maintain a pretty decent speed. There sure wasn’t much to see as this is pretty desolate country, in fact we hard the road to ourselves. The only car I saw was our cook and just as he passed me the county sheriff came screaming passed and pulled him over for speeding.

The lunch spot was a cross road and we had these wraps which were delicious.

Having 50 miles yet to go I jumped on the pedals and with a nice tail wind was down to the school in Columbia where we are staying by 2:30. I rode a couple of extra miles to make my century. The ride time for my century was just 5:35. Only one other rider was in and so we had to wait until everything was set up. I went to see the local museum which details Pancho Villa’s raid on Columbia in 1916 and Pershing’s counter attack. The army posted to divisions here for a long time fearing more raids from Mexico. Now it is a town of a few hundred.

Tomorrow is a day off in Columbia. Bubba has organized a trip across the boarder to Mexico for lunch.

Terry

2 comments:

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Agnes said...

Pancho Villa? Do I know Pancho Villa? I had lunch with him!

Sounds like a great day. Glad to hear that the food is improving.

Ride safe.