Practice Makes Perfect

Maintaining a blog takes time. Sometimes a lot of time. This is hardly news but staying caught up with my blog has been an ongoing challenge. Between freelance work, lack of WiFi, socializing, or sometimes just plain exhaustion, there isn’t alway time for blog updates. But, with a productive motel stay, I started today completely caught up. It was a good feeling.

With a somewhat short ride on tap for today there was no real reason to get an early start to the day. And yet I did. Not crazy early – at least, not by recent standards – but certainly earlier than my preferred 9:00 departure. I have no explanation.

The morning began with a brief chat with the manager of the Grand Motel Inn. I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed my stay there. Everyone was very friendly and the motel was great – a lot more than I would’ve expected for the price – and they even gave me a discounted rate on my second night. And I was even able to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner (or at least a reasonable substitute).

The official ACA bike route doesn’t lead cyclists through Deming but according to the manager, he’s seen more cyclists along this route in the past year than he has in the past ten years. Clearly, the route is slowly being discovered independently of the ACA maps. It’s also the route that Mari (Warm Showers host in Superior, AZ) frequently recommends as an alternate to the official route.

From the motel I took a quick ride over to Subway. The same Subway as yesterday. I ordered my usual sandwich for the road and was officially on my way shortly thereafter. Seriously, how am I now sponsorship-worthy?

My destination for the day was Las Cruces. A modest 95 km away. And, while I could’ve taken Interstate 10 the entire way, I opted to start on Route 20 which parallels the Interstate but with very little traffic. Little did I know that what it lacked in traffic it made up for with construction. Actually, the construction wasn’t TOO bad but it did require waiting for the pilot truck to lead the traffic through the zone. During the wait, I had a very nice chat with Tracy (the traffic controller) and a guy in a pickup.

It took a while, but the pilot truck eventually arrived and led us down the road. In reality, the truck led the other cars down the road. I was very much left behind – and I was okay with that.

I know pretty much nothing about construction but the length of the construction zone compared to the length of the area where work was actually being done seemed a bit excessive. I’d estimate it was about 5 km before I actually I arrived at the section of the road being resurfaced.

Much to my surprise, the pilot truck that would lead the traffic back towards me actually waited for me to clear the zone. The cars behind said truck didn’t seem to mind as several waved as I passed them.

The surface of the road in the construction zone wasn’t entirely pleasant for cyclists so I was more than a little pleased to clear the construction zone and return to smoother pavement. So pleased that when the next opportunity to get on the Interstate came along I decided to bypass it for a little longer. After all, there was very little traffic so it was like having a huge bike lane all to myself. That said, by 10:30 I found myself back on the Interstate.

As I cycled along Interstate 10, I once again passed through a Prison Area as indicated by the “Please Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers” sign. The last time I saw such a sign was on Monday just before experiencing my first flat tire in over 10,000 km. With my bike now armed with a new tire, I figured I could escape a repeat of such an incident. I figured wrong.

Not long after entering the prison area, I suddenly felt that something was wrong. After over 500 hours on the saddle, you tend to notice when something with the bike is amiss. The something that was amiss was the same thing as Monday – a lack of air in my rear tire. My brand new rear tire. And unlike my Monday I was not at a service station.

As usual, my first step was to try to inflate the tire to determine the severity of the leak. It would seem it was a somewhat slow leak. Clearly not as slow as I would’ve liked but with a service station less than 2 km away, I figured I could make it there before repairs were necessary. I was right. Sort of. I actually had to stop to inflate the tire three times in total before arriving at Bowlin’s Akela Trading Post. But that was better than having to repair the tire on the Interstate.

Inspection of the tire quickly revealed the problem. Another piece of metal (about the size of a staple) had managed to puncture my not-so-puncture-proof tire. I’m not sure where these metal pieces are coming from but they’re becoming a nuisance. On the upside, I’m glad it was a legitimate flat. I say that’s an upside because at least there was an observable cause of the flat. Unlike last year’s “day of four flats” where I was getting flat tires for no discernible reason. That said, it was a bit disappointing that my new tire had failed after less than 100 km. Hopefully, the next 9,900 km will be better.

The repair went remarkably smoothly. It would seem my repair practice on Monday did me some good. The upside to finding a piece of metal in your tire is that it’s pretty easy to determine where the hole in the tube will be. As such, I didn’t actually go through the effort to remove wheel and instead opted to patch the tube with the wheel still on the bike. The biggest challenge ended being the removal of the metal from the wheel. Fortunately I was carrying the right tools.

With the repairs completed, I was ready to resume my ride. Admittedly, l was a bit apprehensive about doing so. Getting a flat so quickly after the previous one tends to shake your confidence a bit. A feeling that was likely exacerbated by last year’s run of multiple flat tires. Things like that are not quickly forgotten. That said, I knew I had to move on and face whatever came along.

Fortunately, nothing bad came along and the rest of the ride was uneventful.

Upon arriving in Las Cruces, I was tempted to get a motel again but ended up at a RV Park. As usual with RV Parks (and campgrounds in general), I feel I paid too much for what I got but it was cheaper than a motel and with more freelance work to do I didn’t feel like wild camping. On the upside, the WiFi connection was very good.

The rest of the day was spent doing freelance work. Freelance work is good since I need to pay for this adventure somehow (Note to Subway: Please sponsor my journey. It’s Fuelled By Subway after all). On the downside, freelance work tends to take away from blogging time. As such, after finally getting caught up in Deming I am once again behind.

A first world problem to be sure.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 95.46 km
Ride time: 3:54:17
Average speed: 24.44 km/h
Maximum speed: 47.88 km/h