May 16, 2023
Day 11: Holbrook to Gallup
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Ninety-two miles on the hard-shoulder of the I40. The only way across the desert at this point.
The desert looked spectacular in the early morning light and much the same as always from the road. Apart from a slight climb at about ten miles the road undulated from then on, with lots of false flat.
Everyone was puncturing again, some as many as five times. I’d say we averaged one puncture every 70-80 person miles over the last two days. The crew are going to have to replenish their supplies. The punctures are caused by fine spicules of wire, maybe half an inch long from the truck tyres. It got so bad we took to checking our own tyres for wires every time we stopped.
Second SAG was at an Indian trading centre, where the thing to eat is fried corn bread, with either sugar and cinnamon or cheese. The cheese version wasn’t nice.
For the latter part of the day the road passed between folded cliffs of striped rock. We crossed into New Mexico and the clocks stepped forward a hour. There were irregularly spaced one story dwellings along side the road that became more frequent to form Gallup. This was another hard up town, mostly populated by aboriginal Americans.
This was, in most people’s eyes, the hardest day so far. The combination of punctures, false flats and a nasty headwind for the last 40 miles sapped everybody’s strength and will. I passed the time by reflecting on the hinterland of setting oneself ambitious targets and meeting them vs. effort justification bias. Not sure I’d have survived the last 30 miles after the second SAG if Joel hadn’t asked for a pull. It gave me a reason to work.
Today's ride: 92 miles (148 km)
Total: 748 miles (1,204 km)
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