January 3, 2022
San Luis Rio Colorado to Guadalupe Victoria
A pain in the ass, literally and figuratively
When I went to bed last night, I crawled under the covers and there was a definite hard spot smack in the middle of the bed. I promptly moved over to the other bed. Good thing I had an extra! Even though the beds were a bit on the hard side, I slept surprisingly well. I suppose the Ambien helped.
Finally feeling rested, I took my time getting ready to leave as I knew I had just under 30 miles to go. was included at my hotel, so I had some overcooked scrambled eggs with cut up hot dogs in them. Yep, that's a thing here. I decided to do a better job embracing the culture this visit to Mexico so I also had a small scoop of beans to go with my eggs. Yep, that's a thing too.
I had inquired at the hotel last night about the "safest" way to get out of town and to my next destination. I have to go through parts of the Mexicali valley which the US State Department has recently advised citizens to stay out of. Cartel problems. They told me highway 2 would be dangerous because of all the traffic. However, that's the route the US State department allows during daylight hours. I ended up following Google maps car route which mainly kept me on highway 40, just out of the danger zone. I may have read/researched too much because I had a hard time relaxing and enjoying the ride.
I had two different seat issues going on too. My cyclist friend from yesterday, pinpointed one of the problems. One of my rivets on my Brooks saddle is not flush with the leather. That little ridge is not friendly to my butt, but it also explains why my chamois cream wasn't helping. I tried to pound it down a bit yesterday with my Yeti water bottle and I do think it helped, but enter problem number two. I removed my whole seat post from the frame and thought it would be a good idea to grease it a bit. So the first 15 miles of my ride, my seat post wouldn't stay put. I literally was having to stop every couple of miles and raise it up again. I tried wiping off the little bit of grease and applying some sandy dirt, but nothing was helping. Just keep in mind, mechanical stuff is not my strong suit. Finally, at a gas station where I was turning off the highway, I took the screw completely out and readjusted the clamp. Bingo. It appears that was the problem and I didn't need to make any more adjustments. Good thing, because I was getting close to tears as all I kept thinking, "I'll never make my long day tomorrow if this is how the ride goes."
The other thing the guy at the hotel warned me about was dogs. He said there were a lot of strays. I got chased by five different dogs, but nothing too serious as I out pedaled most of them. Countless others chased, but luckily were stopped by fences! Near the end, a few came slinking out bushes behind me and I saw them in my mirror. Luckily, they just looked. Not use to having so many dog encounters in one day!
Not long after I turned off the main highway (I use that term loosely) my directions said to make a right turn....onto a dirt road that was soaked in water and looked very muddy and slick! I started to panic about road conditions, but there was enough traffic that I figured it would get better again and thankfully, it did. Riding on a sandy is also not my strong suit!
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I ended up joining highway 3 for the last bit into the town of Guadalupe Victoria. I saw an Oxxo store (convenience store chain) on the left and also saw a sign advertising a hotel I did not know about. I quickly vetoed that one when I saw the sign advertising "open 24 hours." Let's just say that's not my kind of hotel! I proceeded to the one I had picked out (the only other one in town) where I was greeted my a very mean sounding barking German sheperd that went ballistic. Once again, thankful for the fence, but I'm guessing he's a guard dog, because this persisted all evening. My hotel tonight cost me $600 pesos, about $30 US dollars. There is a great swimming pool, but it was too cold to swim and it wasn't heated anyways!
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I just want to comment too that I was not expecting to see the level of poverty that I did today. Some of the houses were more like shacks and the yards were just all dirt. For the most part, I was riding through an agriculture area today so not tons of houses to be seen.
I got a portable heater for my room as they only focus on air conditioning. The temps are dropping down close to freezing at night and there's a chill in the air.
Today's ride: 27 miles (43 km)
Total: 1,081 miles (1,740 km)
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