The difficult thing about staying in a very comfortable and reasonably priced hotel that serves great food and wine is checking-out! We are of course on a vacation with a purpose! So when we unwittingly fall into total relaxation mode it causes us great pain to wrench ourselves back into the saddle for a 6-hour workout. Today was one of those days where we just weren’t looking forward to another day of battling against 30mph head and side winds and scattered rain …but as usual we donned our Pearl Izumi’s, made our way down to breakfast for our early morning feast and then set out onto the very busy roads of El Paso.
Before escaping the hustle and bustle of the city and into the beautiful countryside, we made a short stop at ‘Crazy Cat Cyclery’ to purchase some more Butt Butter for Kat and glove liners (in preparation for freezing temperatures in Arizona) for Anthony. Whilst there, Claudia and Alex took great care of us, pumping up Trusty and Steed’s tires with a proper high pressure pump, and kitting us out with some great new water bottles (we’ve been using the current ones for 4 months now, so it really was time for a change), and a few other bits and pieces. Big thanks the Claudia and Alex!
Back on the bikes, we carefully made our way through the busy city and eventually found ourselves commenting on how stunningly beautiful New Mexico is and were amused to see a road sign saying “Anthony 11; Las Cruces 34”. We didn’t pass through Anthony, which was right on the border of New Mexico and Texas, but found the fact that a nearby town was called Anthony, very amusing.
Despite the wind being a pain in the neck (and face) everything else was just fine and dandy. We passed through acres and acres of amazing Pecan Farms, which astonishingly produce over 76 million lbs of Pecans each year from New Mexico. We also crossed the Rio Grande and experienced first hand the drought that everyone has been talking about…check out the photos, the river was bone dry. Approaching our final destination of Las Cruces, we passed through the beautiful wine region of Mesilla; it was a thriller!
We completed the short 46-mile ride from El Paso to Las Cruces in just under 4 hours and were soon ready to recharge at the local Appleby’s with some tasty Sizzling Chicken Fajitas and a mammoth Jalapeno Burger …and wine!
We have rest day tomorrow because SNOW is forecast!
Us x
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