DAY FIFTY-SEVEN 8/12/00 61.5 mi 2640 ft
Hopewell Lake to Abiquiu
The people from Colorado and New Mexico have been praying for rain and these few high country thundershowers that land on us have been their only answer. Our guidebook suggests that we ride on the highway to avoid the "no go" mud, so after more rain last night, we decided to get to the highway as fast a we could. We were on the road at first light and started pedaling 20 miles toward pavement. After 7 miles we were pushing through the mud again. Finally, we hit the long downhill, the mud was gone, and we were cruising on a lonely paved road through little villages of Canon Plaza, Vallecitos, La Madera, and El Rito. These quaint, pristine towns had all been settled in the 1700's by the Spaniards of Old Mexico. When we arrived in El Rito, the Adventure Cycling Group was there to meet us. It seems they left the backcountry mud a day or two before us and passed us up. The group was waiting for vans from Santa Fe, so they could enjoy the culture of that city until Monday. After catching up on their adventures and waiting out yet another rain shower, we pressed on to Abiquiu, home of Georgia O'Keefe, for the last motel room in town. The scenery began to change from forest and open basins to mesas and red clay and we have left the high altitude of 10,000 feet and dropped down to about 7,000. It is much hotter here. We received an email update from Chris' mom in CT and learned that Chris suffered altitude sickness in the area of Indiana Pass. He hitched a ride to Chama and was taken to the hospital in Espanola to for medical care and hopes to join Mike and the girls in Cuba. We learned that some of the Adventure Cycling group had not been feeling well either. Altitude really makes one dehydrated easily and the combination of thin air and not enough fluids can sneak up on you.  We have been very lucky (so far) health wise. Finding surface water is becoming more of a problem as we get farther into N.M. Consequently we are probably going to skip the most remote sections of NM and make part of it a "Road Trip". By sticking to highways we can avoid the mud and should have much better access to water at towns, ranches, homes, or even flagging down a motorhome if push comes to shove. We will miss some of the gorgeous backcountry, but neither of us have been to New Mexico before, so the scenery, the culture, the people, will still be an adventure and lots of fun. We are not looking forward to the traffic and narrow shoulders though.

DAY FIFTY-EIGHT 8/13/00 61 miles 
Abiquiu to Cuba
Rita was still having second thoughts about leaving the backcountry route and taking the pavement. As we headed west on Highways 84 and 96 from Abiquiu, it didn't take long to see the cumulus clouds start puffing up south of us in the Santa Fe National Forest, today's suggested route. We enjoyed the red cliffs of Entrada Sandstone that is typical of the geological Colorado Plateau. We stopped to take a look at the overlook and reservoir at the Abiquiu Dam when a ranger zipped by in her Jeep and asked if we needed anything. We asked her about the condition of the backroads and she replied, "The soil here is red clay, Ma'am, and if you'll excuse the expression, when it gets wet it gets like slippery snot." By noon when we reached the town of Coyote, the clouds had turned black and you could hear the thunder and see the rain, but all that mud creating weather was high on the Polvadera Mesa. But it wasn't until we filled up our water at the tap with such ease that we were sure we made the right choice about taking the alternate route. We climbed west toward the continental divide and then headed south. We finally arrived in Cuba at 6PM with 60 miles under our belt, and got another motel since there was no place to camp. We were sorry to here that Chris' recovery is slower than he wished and he will not be able to finish the trip. We are getting anxious to finish also. Today's travel on the paved to Cuba was much less worrisome. We will continue on the paved to Grants and then decide about the last big push to Silver City. Out here its one day/mile at a time.  
 
DAY FIFTY-NINE 8/14/00 54 mi 
Cuba to Pueblo Pintado
We were on the phone till 10 this morning trying to figure out how to get some bike boxes. We want to ship our bikes home before catching the bus from Demming NM to Santa Barbara. When we finish this ride it seems like the perfect time to spend a few days visiting with Ken's sister-in-law, Shirley. After our late start, we headed pleasantly downhill southwest from Cuba on the highway towards the Navajo village of Torreon. We rode through dry washes and finally into a deep arroyo to the Native American elementary school, a small group of mobile homes and gas station/C-store. We filled up our water, had an ice cream, and began a long, hot climb up to the top of a mesa towards the continental divide. After a 53 mile day, we arrived at the gas station/C-store of Pueblo Pintado. We purchased a bag of popcorn and bottle of Gatorade, then asked the clerk if she knew any place we could pitch our tent for the night. She said to ask at the Chapter House a 1/2 mile up the road. We arrived at the Pueblo Pintado Navajo Nation Chapter House just as a community chapter meeting was convening. We stepped into the office, and asked if there was a place where we could pitch our tent. The kind lady told us to camp any place in the yard and she would leave the bathroom door unlocked for our use, but we'd have to wait until the meeting was over. We were extremely grateful to the Navajo people for sharing their facility with us. While we waited, Rita pulled out her bag of popcorn to share and we sat down at a picnic table with some children who were playing while their parents and grandparents were discussing community issues. While talking and playing with these happy kids, we learned they liked to go to school, but when they go to high school they have to ride the bus 60 miles one way and that many of the kids board at Crownpoint. The Navajo language is the primary language for the children and adults. Toward the end of this 3 hour meeting a young lady drove into the parking lot, climbed out of the car dressed in full native dress, and introduced herself as Katrina Yazzi, Queen of the Eastern Navajo Nation. She was selected from 31 Chapters in New Mexico. Katrina will be starting college this fall at New Mexico State and was requesting scholarship funds from the Pueblo Pintado Chapter. After the meeting we met Preston Sandoval, a chapter officer and father of one of the kids we were visiting with. He told us that the planning meeting was being held to see if they could get a high school in the village for their kids. They were also trying to get emergency funding to drill another well to help with the extremely dry conditions this summer. Often times when we think of the Navajo people, we think of tourist shops with silver and turquoise jewelry, but tourists don't come to Pueblo Pintado or Torreon. We just saw real people striving to improve their lives for their families. It was dark by the time we ate our mac & cheese and got the tent set up, but the sky began to light up with a nearly full moon to the east and spectacular lightning to the west. We went to sleep with rain tapping on the tent fly.

DAY SIXTY 8/15/00 72 miles 
Pueblo Pintado to Grants
It was dark when the school buses left the parking lot, but the moon set to the west as the sun rose in the east as we locked the bathroom door behind us, hopped on our bikes and rode past the Chaco Historic Ruins. Native people have lived here a very long time. Morning is such a beautiful time to ride. We are immersed in the light of the sunrise, and we feel strong in the cool morning air. The landscape was peppered with more mobile homes, windmills and water tanks with not enough water. There were more arroyos and washes as we went through the villages of White Horse, and Hospah. While these towns have Chapter Houses, they have no services of any kind. It was up a long hill and down a short hill many times until we reached the continental divide and then rode along a not so visible ridge. We finally dropped down into a deep wash and climbed out of a steep canyon to a spectacular view of sandstone rock formations. Rita wanted to take a picture, but Ken said there was no way to capture such magnitude. There is just no way to frame a 360 degree view with our little point and shoot. We got a nice gradual ride down to Historic Route 66 and the town of Grants. In a hurry to get to the Post Office before 5 to pick up our mail drop, we walked in the door donning our helmets. We were greeted with, Hi! Ken and Rita." We were confused, Rita was wondering, "Should I know this lady?" Michele Ray, the postal worker, is also the "trail angel". She presented our maildrop box like a gift and asked us to sign her hiker/biker guest book. She went on to update us on the the riders ahead of us. It was Michele who gave Chris a ride to the Albuquerque Airport. Michele has invented a wonderful new way to go postal - shower the customers with kindness and smiles. We got a room in one of the original (that means not remodeled) motels along the Route 66 and are gearing up for our final 10 days. Ken is anxious to get to Pie Town. Look it up on your map.

DAY SIXTY-ONE 8/16/00 5 miles around town
Rest Day in Grants
We had breakfast at Grants Cafe on the old Route 66 then checked out of authentic Route 66 Motel and headed to the Lavaland RV Park to set up camp. The RV Park was out by the freeway and close to WalMart (the only store in town). We had a lot of loose ends to tie up before we head out on the trail for the last 10 days. We need to carry 6 days of food and we won't find water for 2 days as we head south out of Grants to the El Malpais National Monument, spend the night at a dry camp in the Narrows and arrive in Pie Town on Friday night. Pie Town has a place to pitch a tent and a restaurant that is only open on the weekends. Ken has been anticipating pie at Pie Town for the entire trip. Then we spend 4 more days on back roads before we arrive in Silver City, our next grocery, shower and laundromat. Today we begged a couple bike boxes from WalMart and mailed them to Deming, NM so we can pack our bikes and ship them home. We purchased bus tickets from Demming to Santa Barbara and plane tickets from Santa Barbara to Spokane. We hope to be home on Sept. 5th. The Cibolla Ranger Station in Grants called the Apache and Gila Districts to provide us with updated information on water sources,  along the route, so we are ready to hit the road at first light tomorrow. We learned that Grants' boom and bust economy was based on railroading, logging, ranching, coal mining, and most recently uranium mining. Now most everyone works at WalMart.

DAY SIXTY-TWO 8/17/00 54 miles 2510 ft 
Grants to 20 mi N of Pie Town N34*31.6' W108*1' 
We rolled out of Grants at 7AM after picking up a newspaper to read at camp tonight. One of the things we miss the most is catching up on the daily news. Ken thought he would be glad to miss the political conventions, but as soon as we get to town he scrambles to buy a paper. Sometimes he even digs old papers out of the trash. We arrived at the El Malpais "the badlands" Nat'l Monument. We learned some more about the chronology of the the Anasazi Pueblos in the 4-corners area. Then we continued our ride with Zuni Sandstone cliffs on our left and the McCarty Lava Flows on our right. It was a gorgeous morning with an early lunch at a picnic/camping area called the Narrows. Since we were only 29 miles into the day and it was only 12 miles to the next possible campsite, we decided to press on. We arrived at Homstead Canyon by 1 PM, it was hot but the only place to pitch the tent was 1/2 mile down a soft sandy road. We found a lonely juniper tree, pitched the tent in the shade, climbed in, read that newpaper,and took a siesta. When we awoke at 4M we felt so energized we packed up the tent and headed 10 more miles down the road to another small piece of BLM land. Since tonight was going to be a dry camp, it didn't matter where we camped as long as we were on public lands. Amid a forest of Pinon pines and with hoards of ants we ate a quick supper of noodles and jerky, with dried apricots, Fig Newtons, and a chocolate bar for dessert. We washed up with moist travel wipes and hit the sack. Ken is really getting excited about getting to Pie Town tomorrow. All that's there is a lonely restaurant that is open on the weekend. Yippee, tomorrow is Friday. 

DAY SIXTY-THREE 8/18/00 23 miles 1000 ft 
BLM Camp to Pie Town
A change in the weather occurred. Last night we awoke to the soft gentle rain which seems to be the remnants of Hurricane Beryl. We got up to cloudy skies with humidity in the air. After breakfast we began pedaling and were grateful to find that the clay was not too sticky. The rolling hills up to the continental divide and the rolling hills down and back up to Pie Town were completed in 2 1/2 hours. We arrived at the Pie-O-Neer Cafe at 10:30 in time for pieces of raspberry cream and macaroon pies. Nita, the pie maker, invited us to her home for a shower and to do laundry. We set up camp in the free Jackson Park and rode our bikes to Nita's house. Her daughters, Autumn and Prairie, let us in and by the time we finished our showers and started the laundry, Nita arrived home. It is not uncommon for Nita to open her home to Divide hikers and bikers. Her guest book was filled with entries by people from all over the world. When we left Nita's it was time for dinner so we went back to the cafe for Texas Chili and more pie. The laundry and shower will make our next 4 days of tough riding a lot more pleasant. New Mexico is getting a little rain. This is good, but we can only hope the roads are passable for a couple bikers anxious to get home.