A BRIEF change of sport!

Thursday May 6, 2010

Camp 4: Deming Motel, Deming New Mexico (zero day)

Camp 5: Grand Motor Inn, Deming New Mexico (it's a long story, please read on!)

Our CDT adventure continues and in true sunflower and little g style, it isn't quite as expected!  We ended up taking a zero in Deming as Eric's knee was sore and swollen and I've managed to pull a ligament in the back of my leg which is rather annoying, really.  We iced our injuries and after a long look at the maps Eric had an interesting idea.  Since a very large portion of New Mexico is on roads, why not spice it up a bit and bike the CDT to Colorado and then hike from there?  After a little thought and some hesitation I agreed that it would be fun and different and it is our adventure, right?  So we headed to Wal-Mart (um, don't judge, this was really our only selection of bikes other than Big K) and bought two Mongoose bikes for $99 each along with a burly cart for our gear, helmets and some tools and prepared for a brief change of sport!

Today we headed out of Deming on the highway, delighted that we weren't killing our knees on the hard tread and continued following our maps onto gravel and eventually, sandy jeep paths where our tires sank instantly.  We pushed on although the 75 pound cart was ridiculous to pull and within minutes Eric was pulling thorns from his first flat tire.  I sat, trying not to let the frustration leak in.  The roads were a maze, some private, some BLM land, barbed wire fences blocked the path that we thought we needed to take.  The maps would have been more helpful if we had used them as toilet paper at that point.  We got yelled at for trespassing on someones private land that they had just purchased.  They were parked in their VW van which was actually their house, kids running around outside and the wife barefoot and pregnant.  I swear, I'm not making it up!  The only thing that would have been better is if she had a cigarette hanging out of her mouth.  Who am I to judge anyways?  So there we stood in the scorching sun trying to decide our plan of attack.  We ended up taking another soft, sandy road where I had to push my bike along with the heavy cart.  The cart is so heavy the bike lifts off the ground when I push, making it nearly impossible.  This goes on for quite awhile, the actual amount of time I couldn't be certain, but I assure you, it felt like days.  We finally got to a gravel road where Eric has to fix another flat tire.  This isn't the least bit funny by now as we stand in silence.  Four (additional) flat tires later (this is six total in case you're counting), sunburned, tired and suffering from severe saddle soreness we began to debate what to do next.  Our dilemma, we had already used up all of our extra tubes in just one day and we had miles to go until we get to Silver City to resupply.  I pulled out the GPS, oh yes, did I mention we actually brought a GPS this time, thanks to Auntie and Walkie and some prompting from the family.  In a monotone voice I say, “Baby, we are only 2 miles from K-Mart and I'm not even joking.”  We both laugh as we've managed to ride in a rather large circle around the town of Deming and here we stood just two miles from where we started just this morning.  So we rode back to Wal-Mart and buy more tubes and find a corner to fix a couple more flat tires.  By now it is all a bit humorous as more random thing begin to pile up...Eric somehow lost his sun hat from the burly cart, we run into Keith again in Wal-Mart and as we are ready to ride away I look back to see yet another flat tire on our trailer!  We sit and laugh, looking at each other in disbelief, loving our adventure, our life and each other.  We decided to go to Wendy's for burgers and frosties (because we feel we deserve it) and decide to toss it up as a “training” day as we don't have the time or energy to ride 30 miles to the park where we had planned on camping for the night.  So here we sit in the Grand Motor Inn in Deming, New Mexico.  It's a crazy vortex that we can't seem to escape!  Tomorrow is a new day and we have a loose plan as to where we're going...trying to avoid Jeep paths and flat tires.  It has been quite a day here on the CDT, we've been out all day and here we are, right back at the beginning.