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| Chili Fields New Mexico |
I should have known it was going to be a brutal day when, at 3 a.m, I was woken up by the RV rocking back and forth.....by violent wind gusts. There was a wind advisory for the area since last night so we knew it would be windy.....but when I looked at the weather again in this morning, things were looking worse. Wind gusts were expected to reach 55mph. The winds were from the North and West. And yes, you guessed it right, we were heading North and West. Oh no. But we were up for the challenge and only hoped that the winds would shift a bit (by the grace of God?) and be at our back.
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| Whipping Winds |
We weren't so lucky. From the first downstroke of the pedal we were in a wall of wind. I got thrown around the road and once was blown off the road. When the gusts were really bad I chose to walk my bike over the bridges. With my luck, I would get blown off the bridge. Kevin got blown off the road a few times too, and he's about 75 lbs heavier than me. There were dust storms in the fields around us and I cannot tell you how hard I gripped the handle bars when a tractor trailer would approach us in the other lane. For those of you who haven't experienced it, the blow of wind that hits you from an oncoming large truck is unbelievable. Add 40-50 mph winds on top of that and its nerve-wracking.
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| Red Hot Chili Peppers |
There wasn't much opportunity for me to lift my head and take in the beautiful scenery today. What caught my attention was actually the smell around us...the smell of red hot chili peppers being processed at local plants. When I was able to lift my head, the chili pepper fields were a beautiful sight and so different from what we have been seeing (cotton fields). In fact, we passed through the chili capital of the world: Hatch, New Mexico. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatch,_New_Mexico
Our original goal was to ride 71 miles today but, after being beaten up by the wind for 4.5 hrs, we had to reconsider. We saw Jim and Jeff about 33 miles into the ride. They too had been blown around in the RV and had come across some sand storms. The forecast called for stronger winds over the next few hours so we decided to make it a short day and stay in Cabello, NM. Tomorrow the winds should die down but boy are we in for a ride: about 4,000 feet of climbing.
