Week One:
Friday Night 5/11/12 (Day -1 or day -3 from actually riding)
Well it's getting late and tomorrow morning we'll be piling the bikes, now in boxes, and the duffles with our panniers and gear into the back of the truck and heading to the airport in Spokane. From there we'll be dong the Southwest Air shuffle on our way to El Paso, TX. Where we'll check into a motel for two nights, Sunday will be spent putting the bikes back together, repacking into panniers, and maybe a trip into Mexico by everyone else as I put the bikes back into order and try and get my head around what we are about to do. Then on Monday morning heading into New Mexico and start the bike riding.
Well it's getting late and tomorrow morning we'll be piling the bikes, now in boxes, and the duffles with our panniers and gear into the back of the truck and heading to the airport in Spokane. From there we'll be dong the Southwest Air shuffle on our way to El Paso, TX. Where we'll check into a motel for two nights, Sunday will be spent putting the bikes back together, repacking into panniers, and maybe a trip into Mexico by everyone else as I put the bikes back into order and try and get my head around what we are about to do. Then on Monday morning heading into New Mexico and start the bike riding.
Day-1
Well we made it to El Paso last night after a day of a truck ride to Spokane(Thank you Chris for doing the shuttle) Flying from Spokane to Phoenix, and Phoenix to El Paso,and it only took 3 planes. Things started to fall apart a little in Spokane as southwest air decided that our plane wasn't airworthy, I guess better to decide that on the ground then when flying though. Anyways we are loaded up and ready to back away from the gate when they made the announcement that we were switching planes and that all of our connecting flights would be held in Phoenix. An hour later we were on our way, once in Phoenix we rushed to the next flight as they were finishing up boarding, then we sat while waiting for our luggage to appear under the plane.
Wiley in the window seat was watching when he shared the bad news, look Dad one of the bike boxes is torn open. the box wasn't just torn open it was destroyed. both ends were torn, and the top and bottom were flapping in the breeze, it took two guys carrying between them to get it loaded on the plane. My heart sunk, the next hour of the flight I spent wondering what happened to the bike and the gear packed around the bike in the box. We flew on, while deboarding the radios on all the "crew" were all squawking about the damaged bike... I felt sick.... In the baggage claim area they were looking for us to explain that our box had failed and that because it was a card board box they weren't at fault. The box came around on the carousel in pieces, with racks and a water bottle following. What the hell happened?
We filled out paperwork for the missing gear, and proceeded onto the hotel where we met up with my mother, Mary who will be sagging us for the first few days. While unloading the shuttle bus I was approached by a member of our flight crew who asked if we were the ones with the bikes and did we know what happened? He shared that the box had been driven over, and that the baggage guys had been on the radio saying how pissed the owner of the bike was going to be. What I/we deduced was in the rush for our luggage along with 26 other passengers rushing to make the flight they had tosses the bikes onto the top of a loaded baggage cart and taken off driving across the airport where the top most box slid off and exploded when hitting the ground from 7 feet at who knows what speed. What is going to survive that? Not a box. The other three bikes boxes survived but the 4th one not so much.
Even though it was late at night I started putting the bike from the broken box back together, it looked like I had crashed at some speed as the stem has a grind mark on it, and the derailleur was bent into the rear wheel and showed marks of a grind as well. I rode it around a little late last night but the wind was howling and it was hard to tell if the bike wasn't tracking due to wind or the bike. I'll head out soon to get the final verdict...
Well it turns out the bike seems fine lets see what happens once we start riding!
Thanks for reading!
Well we made it to El Paso last night after a day of a truck ride to Spokane(Thank you Chris for doing the shuttle) Flying from Spokane to Phoenix, and Phoenix to El Paso,and it only took 3 planes. Things started to fall apart a little in Spokane as southwest air decided that our plane wasn't airworthy, I guess better to decide that on the ground then when flying though. Anyways we are loaded up and ready to back away from the gate when they made the announcement that we were switching planes and that all of our connecting flights would be held in Phoenix. An hour later we were on our way, once in Phoenix we rushed to the next flight as they were finishing up boarding, then we sat while waiting for our luggage to appear under the plane.
Wiley in the window seat was watching when he shared the bad news, look Dad one of the bike boxes is torn open. the box wasn't just torn open it was destroyed. both ends were torn, and the top and bottom were flapping in the breeze, it took two guys carrying between them to get it loaded on the plane. My heart sunk, the next hour of the flight I spent wondering what happened to the bike and the gear packed around the bike in the box. We flew on, while deboarding the radios on all the "crew" were all squawking about the damaged bike... I felt sick.... In the baggage claim area they were looking for us to explain that our box had failed and that because it was a card board box they weren't at fault. The box came around on the carousel in pieces, with racks and a water bottle following. What the hell happened?
We filled out paperwork for the missing gear, and proceeded onto the hotel where we met up with my mother, Mary who will be sagging us for the first few days. While unloading the shuttle bus I was approached by a member of our flight crew who asked if we were the ones with the bikes and did we know what happened? He shared that the box had been driven over, and that the baggage guys had been on the radio saying how pissed the owner of the bike was going to be. What I/we deduced was in the rush for our luggage along with 26 other passengers rushing to make the flight they had tosses the bikes onto the top of a loaded baggage cart and taken off driving across the airport where the top most box slid off and exploded when hitting the ground from 7 feet at who knows what speed. What is going to survive that? Not a box. The other three bikes boxes survived but the 4th one not so much.
Even though it was late at night I started putting the bike from the broken box back together, it looked like I had crashed at some speed as the stem has a grind mark on it, and the derailleur was bent into the rear wheel and showed marks of a grind as well. I rode it around a little late last night but the wind was howling and it was hard to tell if the bike wasn't tracking due to wind or the bike. I'll head out soon to get the final verdict...
Well it turns out the bike seems fine lets see what happens once we start riding!
Thanks for reading!
1-4
Wow, three days on the road and we are whipped. We loaded up monday morning and headed to the start of the ride. It was good to be back in the desert, Ina and I spent a some-time working in the Chihuahuan desert years ago, Ina actually lived outside of Big Bend National Park for a number of winters. The desert was in bloom, lots of green and color from the blooming cactus, something we didn't expect to see during mid May. We got to our launch spot for the start of the ride and unloaded the bikes. We were surprised by the openness and friendliness of the immigration officials and the border patrol folks. Quite a change from the aloofness, we've come to know living near the Northern border. Lots of good conversations, waving and courtesy on the road.
We rode for a few hours and despite all the sun screen, by the time we made camp we had some pretty good color and burning happening. The pain subsided as the sun went down and the stars came out and we were treated to desert star gazing. A full sky and incredible views. 34 miles in a few hours riding and we are feeling good!
The next day we got going early, trying to beat the heat, and were able to put down another 49 miles before we made camp on the side of a ranch road. Waiting for the sun to go down we endured the dust and grit that comes with the wind that had plagued us most of the day. We are feeling blessed by the sag wagon, as at one point Mary arrived in the heat of the day with a box of popsicles in our cheap styrofoam cooler. That moment became the highlight of Maya's day.
An even earlier start today and we needed it. The maps said we had about 20 miles on dirt road today, the GPS, said 19 miles, and we actually had 26 miles. It was our first day riding dirt roads and between the wind, the hills, and soft terrain by the time we hit pavement for the last 18 miles into town the kids were whipped. Sag wagon to the rescue, not only was our Sag, (thanks mom) waiting for us at the pavements edge but she had ice cream. The kids weren't excited about riding in the heat of the day on pavement, with a good bit of traffic whizzing by and with the option of getting a ride to the waiting motel with a swimming pool, the kids were whisked away and Ina and I continued on. The ride was a bit of a grind on the uphills, (yes we know get use to it) but the great part was the down hills that followed, we had a couple of multiple mile screamers that made up for the shorter but steeper climbs. We rolled into Silver City a couple of hours later to be greeted by smiling and happy kids! A very good thing when the trip is still in it's first few days.
Wow, three days on the road and we are whipped. We loaded up monday morning and headed to the start of the ride. It was good to be back in the desert, Ina and I spent a some-time working in the Chihuahuan desert years ago, Ina actually lived outside of Big Bend National Park for a number of winters. The desert was in bloom, lots of green and color from the blooming cactus, something we didn't expect to see during mid May. We got to our launch spot for the start of the ride and unloaded the bikes. We were surprised by the openness and friendliness of the immigration officials and the border patrol folks. Quite a change from the aloofness, we've come to know living near the Northern border. Lots of good conversations, waving and courtesy on the road.
We rode for a few hours and despite all the sun screen, by the time we made camp we had some pretty good color and burning happening. The pain subsided as the sun went down and the stars came out and we were treated to desert star gazing. A full sky and incredible views. 34 miles in a few hours riding and we are feeling good!
The next day we got going early, trying to beat the heat, and were able to put down another 49 miles before we made camp on the side of a ranch road. Waiting for the sun to go down we endured the dust and grit that comes with the wind that had plagued us most of the day. We are feeling blessed by the sag wagon, as at one point Mary arrived in the heat of the day with a box of popsicles in our cheap styrofoam cooler. That moment became the highlight of Maya's day.
An even earlier start today and we needed it. The maps said we had about 20 miles on dirt road today, the GPS, said 19 miles, and we actually had 26 miles. It was our first day riding dirt roads and between the wind, the hills, and soft terrain by the time we hit pavement for the last 18 miles into town the kids were whipped. Sag wagon to the rescue, not only was our Sag, (thanks mom) waiting for us at the pavements edge but she had ice cream. The kids weren't excited about riding in the heat of the day on pavement, with a good bit of traffic whizzing by and with the option of getting a ride to the waiting motel with a swimming pool, the kids were whisked away and Ina and I continued on. The ride was a bit of a grind on the uphills, (yes we know get use to it) but the great part was the down hills that followed, we had a couple of multiple mile screamers that made up for the shorter but steeper climbs. We rolled into Silver City a couple of hours later to be greeted by smiling and happy kids! A very good thing when the trip is still in it's first few days.
Today was a rest day, even thou it's a "rest day" we have been busy. Ina's bike has been making a nasty noise coming out of the bottom bracket so the bike was dropped off at Gila Hike and Bike last night for a check out. Today they pulled the bottom bracket apart and took a look, after putting it back together the noise was gone! Yah ho! We love the bikes but issues like this and others have us wondering.. the coolest thing was how quickly the guys at Gila Hike and Bike got to the bike and the price, which was a bargain! I won't share the price here but wow!!!! Great bike shop and even greater folks working there!! Thank you to Jack and Jay!!!
Anyways our day was spent driving to Gila cliff dwellings which was a great side trip. Something we wouldn't have done if we had been on bikes but with a vehicle so close we decided to go for it. Pretty cool to check the dwellings out and wonder what happened and where the inhabitants went.. Then back to town and buying food for our next stretch of the ride where we say goodby to our SAG, and become self supported. We have a stretch of dirt road about 148 miles long(about cause the maps aren't real accurate) with no stores and very limited water. Now in a couple of weeks this wouldn't phase us, as it didn't phase us on our last trip, but right now it does have me a little nervous. We are untested with loaded bikes, I'm not sure what we can do for mileage with loaded bikes on dirt roads with lots of elevation gain and loss( the loss is the easy /fun part.) I guess we'll see how it goes, what some folks will do in 2 days will take us 3 or 4. We are loaded for 4 days of food, with a little extra if we travel even slower than we hope. Time will tell....
We'll up date next time we have a internet connection, Maybe Pie Town NM, or at least in Grants.....
thanks for checking in
Cheers
Anyways our day was spent driving to Gila cliff dwellings which was a great side trip. Something we wouldn't have done if we had been on bikes but with a vehicle so close we decided to go for it. Pretty cool to check the dwellings out and wonder what happened and where the inhabitants went.. Then back to town and buying food for our next stretch of the ride where we say goodby to our SAG, and become self supported. We have a stretch of dirt road about 148 miles long(about cause the maps aren't real accurate) with no stores and very limited water. Now in a couple of weeks this wouldn't phase us, as it didn't phase us on our last trip, but right now it does have me a little nervous. We are untested with loaded bikes, I'm not sure what we can do for mileage with loaded bikes on dirt roads with lots of elevation gain and loss( the loss is the easy /fun part.) I guess we'll see how it goes, what some folks will do in 2 days will take us 3 or 4. We are loaded for 4 days of food, with a little extra if we travel even slower than we hope. Time will tell....
We'll up date next time we have a internet connection, Maybe Pie Town NM, or at least in Grants.....
thanks for checking in
Cheers