Day 12 - Columbus NM - Clark TX

103mi








I slept pretty good all things considered. The campsite had a ton of mosquitoes. Before I left I got an excellent burrito!


From Columbus to the outskirts of El Paso is about 60 mi. As soon as I hit the outskirts, I hit traffic. The bike shop I needed to go to was 15 mi in from there. Pretty much all that riding was dangerous with vehicles going way too fast.


There are multiple times I needed to stop and catch my breath and figure out where I was going. Not the best. 


I finally got to the bike shop and they put on my new wheels. While taking my old ones off they found that I had a nail in my back tire, and three thin metal thorns in my front. The tires were still inflated, and functioning.


They put the new wheels on and I was good to go. I rode through downtown El Paso, and got on The road heading out of town. This too was horrible traffic, and very dangerous. Not suitable for a bike.


About 10 miles out of town, I noticed that my back wheel was a little off. It was not centered. I called the bike shop that just installed it, and they said it was fine. So I went down.


I basically rode 30 miles out of town, but still stayed in that horrible traffic. Very dangerous and not fun.


There are very few campgrounds out this way, so I stayed at a hotel. Once I got there I did some quick research and found out that my wheel should not be off-centered. And this is actually a problem. I talked to my aunt & uncle and they confirmed.


So instead of going 30 mi back into town, I found a another bike shop that opens sooner, and is only 15 mi back into town.


So essentially I have to backtrack a nice chunk of miles tomorrow, to fix the wheels that I literally got put on today. Hopefully they can fix it.


I'm currently 10 out of 10 stressed and annoyed. The amount of time, energy, and money I've put into these wheels is ridiculous. It is plain dumb that I need to get these fixed. Like I said I am extremely upset about this.


I'm glad that I found the problem out now, and not further down the road. Let's hope that the other bike shop can fix the problem.

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