Day 234 - 241, Silver City NM to Junction TX

Day 234, 105 km

I had a good and long breakfast with Carl. His wife was not retired yet. She still worked as a teacher and had left early in the morning. 

When I wanted to leave I discovered that I had got a flat tire again...

Finally I left their nice house,

 passed the nice fire station in the same town

 and rode downhill towards Las Cruces, where I had been invited by another member of Warmshowers.

On the way I passed a modern cow farm. The cows did not seem to have seen a human being for a long time and were very curious about me.
Soon after I decided to stop for the day. Although I usually avoided to sleep on private properties I thought the barn I found was so good that I could make an exception. It seemed as if nobody had been there for fifty years.

Day 235, 65 km

Next day I only had to ride a little bit to get to Las Cruces, where I planned to stay at John's place. As most of them (according to my experiences) he also was a retired teacher and his wife also had Swedish ancestors!
In New Mexico I was allowed to ride on the Interstate but in the entrance of Las Cruces there was a big construction area. I was worried how I could pass it but soon a worker came with his pickup and gave me a ride across the construction area.

 Otherwise it would have been impossible for a truck to pass me for 6 km.

 John and his wife invited me to a restaurant called Golden Corral,

where they had a buffé/smörgåsbord with delicious food from all over the world. They knew that since I was a bicycler I could eat a lot but I think I still impressed them when I ate four plates.
They lived in a big house and I got many useful advises from John, who several times had crossed the states by bike.

Day 236, 150 km

Next morning I left quite early to ride to El Pasos, TX. I rode along a quiet road (which John had recommended) through a valley where they grew a lot of pecanuts.
They seemed to be very attractive, so there were fences and signs everywhere.

In El Paso, which already is in Texas, I passed much higher fences along the border to Mexico. I also saw a lot of cars signed "Border Patrol" watching the fences. There were also several bridges to Mexico and I considered to ride over a bridge only to visit another country.

 But I decided that this could delay my trip and did not.
After El Pasos I found even more areas where they grew pecans. Since I did not see any signs I picked a bag full.

 They tasted exactly like walnuts and I loved them. But only after about 100 m I saw this sign:

Spanish seemes to be the first language for most of the people living in western Texas and the English spelling was not always so good.
Another beautiful sunset ended the day.


Day 237, 145 km

As many times before I started the morning with fixing a flat. It was minus 5 degrees (Celsius) when I fixed it and I thought that I should avoid dirt-roads when I was looking for a sleeping place.
I also thought that it had been several weeks since I had met any touring bicyclist. They seemed to be extincted in Texas.

It soon became warmer and in the afternoon it was about 25 degrees C. It was sunny and I had a good wind until noon, but then I suddenly got headwind and four more flats. Often it was thorns or metal-pieces of a tire which caused them, but once I found this common big stone which had gone all the way through my tire! (My advice is not to buy a Continental Contact tire!)

In the end of the day I had fixed five flats!

Day 238, 120 km

The whole day I tried to avoid thorns, fragmented tires and sharp pieces of glass but I had bad luck and got a lot of flats anyway.

In the middle of the day I stopped in Balmorhea, a little oasis not far from some lakes. Natural springs in the middle of the desert filled the lakes. There was also a nice little grocery store with some tables under shadowing trees.

The gentleman to the left sponsored my trip with 15 dollars, which was enough for all food I bought in the grocery store!

 After I had fixed my flats I washed myself in the creek and continued my trip.

 The road was long and the mountains scenic.

In the end of the day I had fixed six flats...

Day 239, 105 km

This day I had no flats but a strong headwind. I passed many places with a lot of oil pumps. Often it smelled like rotten seaweed around them, but sometimes they burned the gases.

On this picture you can see that wind power is coming more and more.

The whole day I watched carefully for all thorns and fragmented tires along the Interstate. I also carried my bike (more than 60 kg!) wherever I passed a median between the Interstate/Freeway and a more interesting farmer road. Even to my sleeping place I carried my bike, because almost all plants seem to have thorns here in Texas.

Day 240, 140 km

Nothing special happened that day. As usual I passed a lot of dead animals along the road. They all had been hit by cars. I counted seven different species which I all documented with my camera, but I chose not to publish them...

Day 241, 140 km

This day I decided to do something for my lips. Because of all sun and all wind I had got serious cracks in them so they hurt a lot. Especially when I eat salt food. I have tried with olive oil, Russian skin softening cream and even with Weleda's "Arnica Wundheilsalbe". But nothing helped. Since the headwind was very strong I decided to test to moisten them with wide scotch tape.  

It really worked! Already after some hours they were much better.

I also found a river (the first one I saw in Texas) where I could take a swim and use my soap.

I stopped at McDonalds in Junction and hoped that the headwind would calm down while I updated my blog but it did not.
Finally I rode some more kilometers in the evening.

Day 227 to 233 Seligman AZ to Silver City NM

In his post I decided to insert many but small pictures. If you want you can click on them to make them larger.

Day 227, 65 km

The owner of the motel in Seligman told me that it had been minus 23 degrees in the night (minus nine Fahrenheit). I was happy that I chose to sleep in the motel. At ten I left the place and followed the long but empty road east.

I passed the beautiful Mount Williams 

and in the town with the same name I asked in the visitor center if they knew a cheap hostel. A very kind guy called Reagan said that there was one not far from were he lived. He offered me a ride in his pickup and drove me there. 

Day 228, 35 km

Next morning It was below 20 degrees again and I decided to take a train 90 km from Williams to Grand Canyon. A return-ticket costed little more than 90 USD, entertainment on the trip was included.

In our wagon we had a funny cowboy singer 

And a guide who actually told very interesting things about a lot. 

When we arrived at Grand Canyon we only had to walk about 100 m to see this view: 

 Everybody was completely quiet when we saw it for the first minute. It REALLY was breathtaking.

I took about hundred pictures but they never can show you the truth.

 You have to go there by yourself to make the experience!

 Of the Colorado River I only saw this much. It was 1500 meter below me and to walk down would have taken a whole day. Actually I read that you never should plan to go down and up on the same day.

 There were also huge Junipers along the edge.

 And tourist from many different countries.

this is my third south Korean "girlfriend" on this blog!

In the afternoon I took the train back to Williams.

  It was only 6 pm when I arrived there. Since the forecast promised milder weather I decided to ride some kilometers in the dark and then sleep somewhere in my tent.

Day 229, 110 km

The forecast was not right. When I woke up in the morning it was minus 18 degrees (zero Farenheit) and the blanket I had over my head was frozen. Also my contact lenses and all my waterbottles were frozen. Soon I found a McDonalds were I could warm up. Then I rode through Flagstaff, were I ate lunch outside a shop. I ate all fruit and vegetebles before they were freezing. I also bought some warmer shoes in a thriftstore.
Not far from Flagstaff I decided to visit Walnut Canyon, which was a detour of only ten kilometers. In this canyon once Indians had lived in the steep rocks.

I also decided to visit Meteor Crater, which was about a detour of about twenty kilometers. It was a huge crater, actually the first proven and best preserved of the world. Astronauts had been exercising there in the sixties before they were sent to the moon.

 The diameter was about a mile and the depth about 180 m (550 feet)

 There was also a museum where you could see and touch the biggest of the three pieces which were found.

 Behind me you see the screen with a photo of the whole crater in the desert.

It was almost dark when I came back to the interstate (actually I was allowed to ride on the interstate that part of the route). After only one mile I found a public rest area where I could cook my dinner inside the restroom.

 Considering the sign above but actually mostly because of the dropping temperature I decided to sleep inside the restroom as well. My bicycle and and my tent fitted exactly in one of the toilets for handicapped people.

Inside the restroom it was 13 plus-degrees, outside minus 18 in the morning...

Day 230, 145 km

It was a cold morning but sunny as every day since a week. I rode downhill most time that day. Around Winslow there were many shops were you could buy petrified wood. 

 They made really nice cuttings out of these trunks. The biggest of the world was claimed to be this one:

The owner told me that it was stuck nine feet into the ground and all pieces around belonged to the same tree.

I rode until late in the evening.

Then I spent another night in my tent. Although the lowest temperature was "only" minus 15 I was freezing a little. Maybe because had become so icy (from my condensed breath) during the nights before so it did not warm so much any more. 

Day 231, 80 km

At 6:00 am somebody in a farm close to my tent released his dogs which found me and started barking. They would never stop so I decided to pack my things and leave the place. Although the dogs were around me all time, they did not bite me and were happy that I left.

It was not much water in the high desert. I had to ride about 80 km to the next place. Still I was happy because the cows behind the barbed wires could not find any water.

 They only could lick the ice.
At another lake I decided to climb up on a 10 m high hill.

 The view was beautiful!

On the top of the hill I found a strange crater, about 20 m in diameter and 8 m deep. I think it must have been a collapsed cave.

In the afternoon I arrived in Springerville, where I decided to stay for the night. I did not want to sleep another night outside so I went to a thriftstore and asked if they knew a place where I could stay for the night. A guy called Don who volunteered there, invited me to stay in his flat. He worked in a hospital although his home was in New Orleans. After thirteen weeks of work he flew back to his family and stayed there two weeks. He told me that there were no jobs in New Orleans.

In the evening I planned to update my blog but I had problem to transfer my pictures to my computer. Suddenly all seemed to be unreadable. Don tried to rescue them with his computer. It took several hours but finally he succeeded! I am very grateful to Don because I really liked the pictures I took at Grand Canyon!

Day 232, 120 km

I left Springerville to go south on route 180, to Silver City. There I was invited by Carl and Damie who were warmshower members. The had written that if I could make the 240 km before next day 3:00 pm I could join them and see an Indian powwow (dance event). I really did not want to miss it, so I climbed quite fast up on the "White Mountains", which were 2600 m high (8550'). 

Along the road I passed some lakes where many ducks were resting in the part which was not frozen. 

For the first time since Siberia I also saw some birch trees. 

 But they did not look like the Swedish birches. I think it is another species. Due to a bad map I accidently chose the wrong road. I passed a huge area where there had been a forest fire.

Finally (after 17 km) I discovered my mistake and had to go back  which was very annoying.  This detour on icy roads

took 3,5 hours (the region was very mountainous  that's why I was so slow).
I continued to New Mexico.

Late at night I thought that it was impossible to see the Powwow in Silver City. Only if I got a lift it would be possible. Some minutes after that thought actually a pickup stopped and offered me a lift!
I slept under a bridge in my tent that night and I slept very well.

Day 233, 80 km

It was "only" minus 12 degrees in the morning, for me this felt very warm.

I continued to Silver City, which was mostly downhill. In the end it anyway was uphill again and I passed this sign. It means that the rainwater beyond the sign goes to the Atlantic ocean.

 Carl drove me to the Powwow where I met many Indians in colorful outfits.

 They were dancing in a huge hall to the rhythm of drums and singing men.

Carl and Damie were working there as volunteer crew and manager.

 It was amazing to see the dancers

 and their suits

 There were Fancy Dancers, Grass Dancers, Warriors and many more categories.

 Some dances were for women only

 And some faces really looked special Indian

 One of the warriors posed on a picture with me. He had a lot of feathers of Golden Eagles.

 In the evening Carl and Damie made a wonderful dinner for me. Damie had ancestors from Sweden and we drunk swedish beer!