aliens, hippies, and hypothermia

Since my last update, our merry band has been flying across the Southwest. First, New Mexico, or as I called it, the state of plagues. First, there was extreme heat as we rode into Roswell. A sign around mile 20 proclaimed "last food and fuel for 65 miles." While 65 miles would only take an hour in a car, it's a long time on a bike. Luckily, Jose kept us fed and watered with numerous van stops. Then, from Roswell to Corizozo we faced extreme cold. Well not, extreme cold, but 60 degrees and rainy is really cold when you're riding all day in a jersey and shorts. The day from Corizozo to Socorro we were graced by a violent thunder and lightening storm. It wasn't until I found myself crouched in a ditch while the rest of the riders debated what to do that I realized that I am terrified of lightening. Then, a woman drove up and told us to get out of the ditch because of flash floods. So we rode through the storm, which ended up not being so bad. The next day was the day of extreme altitude: we climbed 4,000 feet in one day and I discovered that you actually can bike enough altitude to give you altitude sickness. Thankfully, the next day we crossed into Arizona and the biking was pretty smooth (despite the bits of wire and glass covering the sides of I-40 giving us tons and tons of flats).

Despite all the craziness, New Mexico and Arizona have been my favorite parts of the trip so far. We had a day off in Roswell where I got to go to the alien museum (eh) and eat some delicious Mexican food (yay). The rides through the mountains in New Mexico were absolutely beautiful, as have been the desert rides in Arizona. We biked past the Very Large Array and the painted desert. We've also had great hosts. Pietown, New Mexico -- a town of 60 people straddling the continental divide -- went all out for us. They made us a huge dinner, lots of pie, and let us stay in the amazing 'Toaster House,' which had toasters hanging around the entryway, and tons of other cool artwork around. Two days later, we were in Houck, a town on the edge of the Navajo reservation, where our hosts made us 'Navajo Tacos' -- tacos with frybread instead of tortillas -- and taught us a bit about life in the Navajo Nation. We've also slept in some pretty crazy places, like the raquetball courts at Eastern New Mexico University in Roswell (have you ever slept in a giant white box?) and an indoor astroturf field in Eager, Arizona. Now, I'm in Flagstaff, which is one of the coolest towns we've been in: lots of cool shops, resturaunts, and bike shops. It has a very hippie vibe.

It's pretty crazy that there are less than two weeks left in the trip. I feel like we still have so much to see: the grand canyon, Las Vegas (just wait until you hear about where we're staying), the California desert, and then... the Pacific!