We left our nice hotel in Lordsburg, NM just after 7 a.m. in the morning, and made our way back the way we had come the previous afternoon, using U.S. 70 West until it hit N.M. 90.  Along the way, we passed our first Border Patrol Station, which I had not noticed yesterday.  Once on N.M. 90, it was a long, long climb with no help at all from the wind.  And after having ridden for 4 straight days, I was not a happy camper to have to immediately start climbing.  But after our second rest stop, Mark cheered me up.  Check out this video to find out why! 🙂

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A little later, we came upon a historical marker, which seem to just suck Tim in so that he can read them.  So here is a clip of Tim reading to his apparently illiterate brothers! 🙂

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Our next major event was when we reached the Continental Divide, at an elevation of 6,335 feet, meaning we had climbed almost 2,500 feet.  Here is a short video I took when I made it to the Continental Divide.

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By the time of our next stop, the vegetation along NM 90 was way different from what it was at the junction of NM 90 with U.S. 70, all the way back in Lordsburg.  The terrain is again “Kansas grassy” with some evergreen trees popping out of the ground, and lots of cactus plants mingled in also.  Here is a picture of the fields along NM 90 about 20 miles west of Silver City.

We made it to Silver City and our hotel shortly after 1 p.m. for our earliest arrival time yet.  Still, it took us 6 hours to ride all of about 49 miles and climb 2,500 feet.  Silver City is at an elevation of 5,938 feet, so we ended up about 400 feet lower than our highest point at the Continental Divide.  But for me, this was the hardest day so far on L2.

After showering and changing, Beth drove us into the downtown area of Silver City.  We visited Twin Sister bike store, where I purchased a better rear view mirror for my helmet, a better pair of sunglasses, and a new seat for my bike (at the insistence of Tim, Mark and Beth).  Tim and Mark both feel I expend too much energy standing and pedaling to help save my sore butt.  Hope it’s not too difficult to install on my bike – Tim promised he would do that, so we’ll see.

After our visit to the bike store, we walked across the street to Tre Rosat Cafe for a real nice lunch.  Here is a picture of the inside of this Cafe.

We had salads and pizza for lunch, with some good brews also, of course!  Our servers were the husband and wife owners of the Cafe, who were both incredibly nice.  But see for yourself!

She is a native of British Columbia and he was born in Oregon and they met in Southern California.  They’ve been together for six years and married for the last year and a half.  The atmosphere was cozy, the beers were great, and the food was delicious.  So if you’re ever in Silver City, I recommend you stop in for a bite!

After leaving downtown, we took a driving tour of Western New Mexico University, which is just a few blocks from downtown Silver City.  Then it was back to our hotel, which has a cactus garden right out front, which was too nice for me to pass up! 🙂

Beth, bless her heart,  is in the process of washing our dirty bike clothes, while Tim, Mark and I take naps and/or work on our homework, I mean blogs.  Yesterday I mentioned how sunburn Tim’s legs were getting, but it’s happening to all of us, even though we continue to slab on the sunscreen religiously each morning.

We’re meeting at her room for our nightly ritual of Tim reading about the next day’s ride while we continue re-hydrating ourselves with some good ales!

We left Safford, AZ at about 7:45 a.m.  It was only 39 degrees but sure to warm up quickly so, for a change, I did not put on any extra layers and did not regret it.  Here is a video of us at we first started out.  Based on some comments about the videos, I tried to narrate them today, as much as I could.

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As usual, we made our first stop about an hour into the ride.  Here’s a shot of Tim at that rest stop, which was about 12 miles into the ride.  Notice the hat under his helmet and the long pants.  We have all gotten quite sunburned on our legs, so Tim kept those pants on the entire ride, even though it eventually warmed up to about 75 degrees today.

Our next stop was at a historical marker erected by members of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, in memory of two of their congregation who were killed by Indians who had stolen 45 of their horses.  Listen as Tim (yes, Tim, believe it or not!) reads from the words on the historical marker.

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Not too far from the marker, the vegetation seemed to change and the hills became grassy and similar in color to the hills of Kansas.  However, unlike the Kansas grasslands, there were trees and bushes and even some prickly pear cactus, as I show in this next picture, taken at our third stop of the day.

It was after this stop that the grassy nature appeared, as I tried to show and to discuss in this next video clip.

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We made it to Duncan and met up with Beth, who had passed us along U.S. 70 about 30-40 minutes before we got there.  We had a nice lunch in Old Jo’s Cafe, which seems to be the only place in town where people can eat out.  We got there just before church let out and the place filled up with locals, most of whom gave us the typical strange looks we get when garbed in our biking outfits, all except Beth, of course.  Here is a shot of Tim and Mark at Old Jo’s Cafe.

After lunch, we had about 36 or so miles in front of us.  At this point we were blessed with a strong tailwind, that took us into Lordsburg, NM in just about 2 hours, even with one more stop.   You come upon the State of New Mexico, shortly after leaving Duncan, AZ and here is a picture of Tim under the Welcome to NM sign.

Here is a video clip I took in appreciation for the great tailwind and the newly paved surface of U.S. 70.

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We made it to Lordsburg at about 3 o’clock, a distance of about 78 miles including a climb of about 1500 feet. Were it not for the tailwind, this would have been a much more difficult ride.  Tim and Mark went for a swim in the hotel pool (they didn’t get enough exercise? go figure!) while I showered and took a nap.  At 5 o’clock we met up in Beth’s room at our Comfort Inn and Suites (our nicest hotel thus far), to drink some beer, eat some snacks, and listen to Tim read about our next day’s ride in “Conquering the Borderlands.”  At about 6 o’clock, we went to dinner at Kranberries, a family restaurant not too far from our hotel.  Here are a few pictures I took at dinner.  Beth is talking to Marcia (Tim’s wife) in this next picture.

Tim ordered liver and onions for dinner.  Nancy and I remember eating with Tim at a restaurant in Upper Darby by the name of O’Malley’s, and he would always order liver and onions for his meal.  I remember it being very pungent, so whenever the restaurant was out of that dish, Nancy and I were glad.  But just for old times’ sake, here is a picture of Tim’s meal for tonight.

Tomorrow we ride to Silver City, NM.  It’s only about 50 miles but we’ll be climbing about 1700 feet from our current elevation in Lordsburg and about 3000 feet from our lowest elevation during tomorrow’s ride.  Hopefully we’ll have another tailwind!