Flat tires, Mountains, and Vegas

We left Mosquero this morning at 6 am, after the night of Cowboy Camp- which was an amazing get together of cowboys in the area who made us wonderful food and taught us how to lasso and entertained us with cowboy music.

The ride started off uneventful. Pretty flat. Some wind, but not too much. Then all of a sudden we got this amazing dowhill strech with curves down into this beautiful valley. It was such a ruch and absolutely beautiful. At the bottom, however, was when my tire blew out. This was different from the more common flat tires that I usually get- which just puncture the tubes in the tire. My tire literally just blew- and there was a huge hole blown out of the side of it. I always carry extra tubes on me- but not extra tires- so this was a time to call the van for help.

Being that we have been in the middle of nowhere for the past few days- cell phone reception is hard to come by. Luckily enough I was riding with Aylin who has an iPhone and was actually already on the phone with the van trying to lead it to the nearest gas station (which was like 25 miles away). The van came, and I got a stock tire out of the back of it and was back in business.

Nothing too exciting happened until we got to lunch at mile 45- where I realized that the stock tire I just put on was about to blow out as well- so I got another tire out of the van and changed it again, hoping that it would be in better condition.

We rode after lunch among the base of mountains for a while before we came to the point where it was time to actually climb up them. At the base of our first big climb, Aylin and I came across the van and trailer stopped on the side of the road. This usually means it's a lunch or water stop- but in this case it wasn't at the right mile for either. Apparently the trailer had gotten a flat tire as well!

Luckily enough right across the street was a woman's house out in the middle of nowhere who shared her phone and helped us out. After calling neighboring towns (which weren't very neighboring according to our standards), Rebecca (the van driver for the day) was told that no one in any neighboring town would have the size tire that we need. The nearest would be Santa Fe (which is where we're riding tomorrow). That's over 100 miles from where the trailer was stranded. There wasn't a single tire that would fit our trailer in over 100 miles! haha, what should we do?

So our plan turned into trying to get what we would need for the next day out of the trailer into the van. That included all 32 of our individual luggage and anything else (coolers, etc) that we would need. So about 5 of us took out everyone's bag, and SOMEHOW fit them all in the van. It was an amazing packing job that I can't take much credit for, and not only were there 32 large bags in the van, but there were two bikes, 3 large coolers, and two people! I was impressed.

At this point we had done all we could to help and our attention turned to the mountain ahead of us. We made it to the top. And it was amazing. We came so high and it was so amazing to look down once we reached the end of the incline and see such a beautiful landscape.

Overall it was a long day, but a beautiful one. The trailer later ended up getting towed to Las Vegas, NM and we will have to pick up a tire from Santa Fe tomorrow and bring it back to Las Vegas to have our trailer again- but in the meantime I guess it's good to know that we could do without a trailer if we needed to.

It was a 100 mile day, and when we finally arrived after all the tire shenanigans, everyone was leaving for dinner at a hotel. A local hotel provided us with dinner and I just have to say that I ate 3 full plates of spaghetti, salad, and bread- and then I had 3 pieces of cake. And I don't think I really felt full after all of that- which is just insane. I don't think I've felt full this entire trip. The food just gets burnt up right when it enters. It's crazy.

Thanks for reading about my day! I'm going to sleep now. More mountains to come tomorrow! Get excited!