Day 11

Day 11: October 9, 2021 (Lordsburg NM to Silver City NM) 

This was a short distance day; only 45 miles.  It was, however, a climbing day of almost 3,900 feet.  We had a beautiful day; sunny high of about 75, and 60 degrees when we started at 7 AM.  Not only was weather nice, the shoulder was in good condition for about 90 % of the ride.  That really helped with the climbing.

I stayed at a hotel last night while Miah and Tim stayed in the RV at an RV park.  This worked out well.  I go to bed at 7:30 PM and I get up at 3 AM.  They are not on the same sleep cycle.  This gives me a good bit of time to write.  We are doing the same thing tonight.

We started today by fixing two flat tires.  One on the recumbent and the other a road bike.  I’m not too happy with my bike shop in Mesa.  They replaced the tire that was flat just before I left.  When I took the tire off to replace the inner tube, the Kevlar liner was folded over itself a few times and only covered about a ¼ of the tire.  It supposed to cover the entire inner circumference of the tire.  They also used the wrong tube.  They used on that was too big and had it folded over on itself. 

It’s fixed now and I had some fun on the recumbent.  The last 10 miles or so into Silver City was downhill with a nice smooth shoulder.  I was able to let the recumbent bike go, reaching speeds of about 40 MPH.  It was good fun.

Along the way, Miah had a flat tire on the Trek road bike.  A thorn.  We pulled the thorn and filled the tire with air.  The puncture sealant worked for about 10 miles until we hit some rough road.  So, we’ll be fixing another tire in the morning before we head out.  Not that I’m counting, but that’s flat tire number 5.  

Also, my clip on my left shoe broke.  So, I have to fix that in the morning too.