March 3, 2024
Day 12: Columbus to Lordsburg
Another long, eventful day. Jude said this was the longest day of his trip yet. Highlights included an 8am church service, three popped tires, riding 40 miles in the Interstate and, oh, that relentless wind.
Morning began in the beautiful pre-dawn light of the desert, bouncing off the mountains as we rode by. We were aiming for the 8am church service at Deming First Assemblies of God Church. We needed to do 30 miles in just over two hours. We hadn’t averaged 15 mph since last week with a tailwind. Since it was morning, the wind hadn’t picked up to the 20-30 mph that it would in a couple hours and somehow we made it just as the service was starting. We joined in for the lively music and prayer time and then listened to Pastor David preach on the Sermon on the Mount. He greeted us afterward and was keen to hear about Jude’s journey. He made sure we got loaded up with fresh water bottles and we made sure we ate as many donuts as we could!
Next up was 60 miles into that headwind. We ended up having more services than at first expected, but the first 20 miles was on a bumpy frontage road with countless cattleguards. We stopped for snacks and lunch and FaceTimed Elizabeth and the girls as they were headed home from church. Between the bumpy road and headwind, our pace was about 9-10 mph. The frontage road ended and we had to get onto I-10 for 7 miles. The shoulder was smooth and appeared to be mostly clear of debris. We got used to semi’s passing us at 75 mph, and our speed increased to 11-12 mph. I must say, after driving countless miles in interstates all over the US, I’ve never seen so many semi’s, they outnumbered every other vehicle 10 to 1 and we didn’t have more than 5 seconds between the next vehicle bearing down on us. Despite our blinking tail lights, hardly any of them moved into the other lane for us. Between the wind, the pace and the traffic, we had to shout louder than ever and we still had to repeat ourselves. Thankfully, there were exits to deserted county roads every 6-7 miles, so we took the exits and took our breaks slightly away from the noise. For lunch, we laid on the exit ramp and two freight trains went by, so much for the break from all the noise! A man had parked his RV on the exit for a rest break and he came over to chat with us and hear about Jude’s trip. As he drove off, we remembered his RV from the rear as one who had honked a “friendly” honk a few miles back.
After lunch, Jude popped his eighth tire while on the interstate. We moved over and changed it together. This one had a metal wire in it, presumably from a blown semi tire whose pieces get strewn over every highway in America. Shortly after, I popped my first tire just after we had come off an exit to a western souvenir store. The same metal wire was in my tire as well. While Jude’s tires are hard to get back on, mine are stubborn trying to remove them. Jude finally figured out the trick and got the tube and tire back on in no time. In our haste and excitement on getting it back on so quickly, we had forgotten to check for any other objects poking through the tire. Two miles down the road, I got my second flat. This time we checked all the tires and found multiple wires and thorns sticking out of our tires. Every 6-7 miles that we stopped, we would pull out 3-4 more wires and pray that they hadn’t gone all the way through to the tube since we had just used our last new tube.
As our shadows grew long, I pushed the pace to attempt to get us to our campsite before sunset. We did get to the Circle K right as the sun was setting. We went to the bathroom for the night since there wouldn’t be any facilities at our campsite. We also filled our water bottles with cold water and filled our freeze dried meals with hot water. One mile later we were at our campsite pitching our tent in the fading light, talking to Elizabeth on FaceTime and eating our dinners.
Jude said he really struggled mentally again from the relentless wind; I worried the most about the traffic and being on the interstate. Despite the long, eventful day, we both kept good spirits and are grateful we have each other. Tomorrow we’ll leave I-10 behind and follow the Gila River northwest. We’re also looking forward to “only” 15-20 mph winds.
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Today's ride: 94 miles (151 km)
Total: 876 miles (1,410 km)
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