The other day I posted on Kent Peterson's blog about when
touring from Mexico to Canada in 1981 and
meeting a cyclist in Socorro NM who had a stash of 700c tires when I needed
one.
Been thinking about this lately...
Today I was telling Tania about that same ride, but when I was heading to
Mexico via Animas and NM Highway 9. It was June, southern NM and already triple
digit temps. I rode from Silver City to Lordsburg, then to get to the Animas
highway, I rode about 8 or 9 miles of I-10 (that sucked). Made it across the
Lordsburg Playa (dry lake bed) then turned south onto NM 338 towards Cotton
City and Animas (in NM’s bootheel) .
Don't know what the temps were exactly but
it was just after high noon and all the water I had probably was 2 small water
bottles. It was hot (did I say that?) and riding along the edge of the Lordsburg
Playa was like being the rider at the beginning of High Plains Drifter,
everything was all shimmering. I kept riding forward because I didn't really
have a choice. In the distance I could see some trees which were in Cotton City
(Cotton City might have a pop. of 100).
I was hot and getting
desperate and I knew there were not any stores in Cotton City so no place to get out
of the sun. I was going to need water.
I was about 3 miles out and I could make out a building
which was surrounded by trees. My plan was I was going to have to knock on
their door for water. I didn't have a choice.
As I got closer, I could see that
this building was a church and it had shade and a sprinkler turned on watering
the lawn! Small miracle!
I parked my bike and jumped in the sprinkler and
drank. I drank at least a waterbottle full and felt good. As I lay there in the
sprinkler, I actually felt chilled when a minute before I was overheating. I
spent about 10 minutes there in the shade and the sprinkler then decided to
ride to Animas.
It was hot again. I got to Animas feeling defeated.
