Day 11 - Portal AZ - Columbus NM

96 miles







Every morning before I start my ride I'm always extremely anxious. I Also feel a little sad. If I stayed with the host that night, it's always hard to leave. This person that I met the day before, spent so much time with, to only leave them the next day. It's weird. Today was especially challenging. Ron is such a great human being and we connected extremely fast. People like Ron are very few and far between.


Once I start riding, things always get better. The anxiety slowly goes away, and I start to focus on the task ahead. Today's task was a little ambitious, but it all worked out! Not 100% of a tailwind the whole time, but more of a cross tailwind. Essentially it still made me go fast.


Today there were two towns in between my start and endpoint. Combined population is probably close to 100. Each town only had one store. One of the stores was literally selling Walmart products! They opened a box of granola bars and put a price tag on each of them! I'm not sure of the legality of this, but Walmart food is always appreciated. 


I asked the lady at the store if they had any chocolate milk, she said they haven't been shopping lately!


After one of my towns I saw two people starting the Continental divide! We talked for about 10 minutes and went our separate ways. They were from Banff Canada.


Made it to Columbus New Mexico around 2:00 p.m.. Stopped at the Dollar general, got some ice cream and milk! 


Went to Pancho Villa State Park. This is where Pancho Villa invaded the United States back in the day.


The showers were out so they sent me to the fire station, where I was able to take a shower. After I took my shower I sat with an 80-year-old firefighter / EMT, and the chief. We sat around and talked for a couple hours.


After that, here I am. Sitting in the shade listening to the birds. I'm going to set up my tent, and then get some groceries at the Dollar general.


80ish miles to El Paso tomorrow. The bike is still holding up fine!

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