September 27, 2024
Day 40: to Hachita
Distance: 101km
Climbing: 343m
Yesterday’s afternoon temperature at the RV park was getting north of 35 degrees so we wanted an early start today to beat the heat and the wind. Our Dutch friends were also getting ready to leave early so we all ate breakfast together. Andrew and I got on the road a bit before them and enjoyed the morning light, pleasant temperature, and light traffic.
It was only 5km until we turned off onto a dirt road and we flew along. It was a slight downhill and the surface was good. We had covered 50km by 9:30am which was unprecedented for us. The scenery was quite lovely with tall yuccas, prickly pear cactus, a variety of flowers and bushes, and the occasional juniper tree.
A convenience store/tourist trap at about 60km was a nice break for coffee, an ice cream bar and an early lunch. Another 40km and we were in Hachita by 1pm, the earliest we’d finished a day. Hachita is a desperately sun-blasted, semi-ruined place that might be the most difficult to imagine place to live we’ve passed through. It does have a little store that sells food and cold drinks, and the community center is available for cyclists to sleep in for $10, so we have yet another unusual lodging.
Even though we could have gone farther both yesterday and today we hadn’t wanted to plan for an earlier shuttle pick-up and then run into some problem like a mechanical or a headwind.
We spent the afternoon relaxing, getting ready for our 75km final day tomorrow, and then chatting with the Dutch couple who pulled in a little while after us. There’s a refrigerator so we’re pre-cooling and freezing some water bottles as we expect to see temperatures close to 40 degrees while we wait for our shuttle. Just to be safe we’re aiming to arrive at least an hour before our scheduled pick-up and there’s nowhere to sit in the shade while we wait.
Many people leave their extra food on a table at this community center so we’ve “shopped” for some unique items for some variety for tonight’s dinner. We’ll leave a few extras here too.
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1 week ago
We’re looking forward to finishing, not because it hasn’t been an amazing adventure, but because that’s the stage we’re at. It’s definitely a journey that we’ve enjoyed (almost) every day of, but it’s also a goal and a destination that we are looking forward to reaching. We do this partly because it’s not real life. Returning to real life while trying to bring something of it back with and within us as we rejoin real life is a big part of the process.
Today's ride: 101 km (63 miles)
Total: 4,287 km (2,662 miles)
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1 week ago