Day 14-15 - Headwind hell

New Mexico: Land of Enchantment, but not sign maintenance evidently

To my great relief today was a great day's riding; 75 miles of decent country road, clear skies, a couple of reasonable passes which must've taken me over the Continental Divide, and then long stretches of flat road with a tailwind as I pushed into New Mexico. It has been a huge confidence booster after a few days that had left me rather shaken.

Arizona is unlikely to come in as my favourite State of this trip. The scenery was stunning, and every person I spoke to was polite and kind to a fault, if slightly reserved, it was just such grim riding. After the cold and rain into and in Phoenix, there was then the tough day in the mountains, and then their was yesterday.

It was meant to be an easy 80 miler through vast chunks of the Apache Nation's land, and I made the cardinal mistake of leaving Globe late. With in 5 miles I had realised my mistake, this was going to be a brutal day. The land rolled significantly for almost the whole route, and by 10:00 I had a vicious wind howling straight into my face at 25-30mph. If you don't cycle much outside urban areas headwinds are the absolute killer, and this was the worse I've ever ridden in. It accentuates every hill, and bump in the road, and highlights every ache, pain or niggle you have, as you have to hammer into the pedals all day just to keep moving, even down hill. With my left knee already giving my concerning bother from a fall on the second day's riding and the day in the mountains, this was really gritty stuff.

But I guess this was always the point of all this. Arriving in the prosperous farming town of Safford as the sun set a 19:00 I was genuinely over the moon, and relatively proud of myself, if aching all over. And to be fair the scenery was stunning, and every member of the Apache I spoke to was charming, even if their towns and villages were depressingly windswept and, to put it bluntly, looked short of funds.

All this made today's happy exploits all the more enjoyable, added to by a 20 mins conversation with a chap cycling the other way. It is one of the great joys of the trip bumping into guys doing it the other way. You stop have a chat, and share tips and generally enjoy some company on the long isolated stretches.

Bar that not much else to report. I'm holed up in a windswept little highway town called Lordsburg in Western New Mexico, and off to find a chemist to pick up further supplies for my brutalised legs. Always a fascinating exploit, given the shear size of the chemist stores, even in a small town like this. Guys out here must have an encyclopedic knowledge of medicine, because there are rows upon rows of drugs. It's most impressive. Back home I'd probably just let my GP write me a prescription and be done with it. I feel staggeringly ill informed.

Route - Globe - Peridot - Safford - Duncan - Lordsburg

11 April
Breakfast - Cherrios, bagel, apple and banana at the motel
Snacks - Cherry and Almond Cliff bar
Lunch - Grim sandwich and a banana from the supermarket in Peridot
Supper - Weird deep fried chicken and beef escalope thing and chips - Jerrys Diner, Safford. Quite the most revolting thing I've tasted in I can not remember how long. Made the mistake of asking the rather cuddly waitress what she would recommend, and thought she said this was grilled. Horrible, just horrible

12 April
Breakfast - Wheat flakes, bagel, apple and banana at motel
Lunch - Chicken wrap and fresh chips and salsa - Hilda's Kitchen and Meat Market, Duncan, AZ. This place is never going to win awards, but if you are ever hungry in Duncan, AZ, I would recommend it highly, lovely ladies, and no nonsense food, produced well
Supper - Grilled Chicken, rice and veg - Kranberry's Diner, Lordsburg. Not going to set the world on fire, but did what it said on the tin. I was happy.