Day Nineteen — Tatum Bunnett

Day 19

77.53 miles

768 ft (elevation gain)

693.9 total miles

Hillsboro -> Las Cruces

Today was really fun! We woke up at our RV park in Hillborro, a super tiny town with a population of around 100. We decided to go out for breakfast to see and get a feel for the town. At breakfast we met a ton of the locals, they were all super friendly and talked to us for around an hour they even helped us with our route for the day. It was so nice to meet such friendly and kind people. After breakfast we headed out for the day, the ride started with around a 300 ft climb, this climb was super easy compared to yesterday’s climb. I took a slight tumble today, as I was shifting for the climb my chain popped off and I didn’t un clip fast enough. It was a really slow topple so I was injury free. After the climb we had a really nice gradual downhill, we weren’t going super fast so it was fun for me. After the down hill it back fairly flat with just a sprinkle of downhill, at this portion we were able to go fast and knock off some miles quickly. We then road on 25 for a couple miles, the shoulder was wide so with a speed limit if 75 mph we had no problems with cars. We were then in the flats for pretty much the rest of the day, we had an occasional small uphill but it wasn’t too bad. While riding we past a million Chile, cotton, and pecan fields. The Chile’s smelled super yummy and fragrant as we past. We also past a couple of dairy’s, unlike the Chile fields the dairy’s smelled pretty smelly. About halfway through the ride we stopped at the world famous Sparky’s Burgers, Barbeque, & Espresso in Hatch, New Mexico. I ate there famous green Chile burger and an Oreo shake. It was all super yummy but I most definitely can’t recomend eating this and then riding another 40 miles, it wasn’t very pleasant. Once the burgers digested the rest to the ride was pretty anti climactic it was flat with a few hills, and a lot of the same agriculture. Overall today was really good it was the most mikes I have ever riden, I’m feeling really strong and excitedly about the rest of the trip.

Cotton field (it kinda looks like it just snowed).

Peacan trees (there were no pecan pies near us though).

Thanks Barb for the awesome care package and Ginny for all the bread and cookies!!

Please help raise funds for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) at https://www.firstgiving.com/event/rsds/Ride-Across-The-Country-For-CRPS