May 16, 2008 - The Start of the Journey

Blog: May 16, 2008
Well, overall today went extremely well. Of course there were things
that didn't quite pan out, but what else can be expected at the beginning of a 3000 mile bike ride.

I had a great last night in the ATL - friends came over, merriment was had in the form of grilled calories of veggie burgers, turkey burgers, watermelon, EtOH, and cookies- I couldn't ask for much more. After my cronies departed, I ran around like crazy to take care of the final touches. Then I obtained about 2 hours of sleep prior to taking off around 4:30 AM. Then the day of traveling began. One leg to Denver, then to El Paso. The bikes arrived fine, except for a severely bent disk brake rotor on my front wheel. Some brute force was necessary to rectify this issue. After assembling the bikes in the airport, getting a strong caffeine fix (triple shot cappucino!!), and answering numerous questions to the local muggles- Mark and I set off out of the terminal on the bikes.

All went great getting out of El Paso- we climbed over the trans mtn road- I can definitely feel the altitude change here. Also the bike feels ridiculously heavy. But cest la vie. Things went well until crossing the pass and then getting rather lost for the next two hours in quasi busy traffic. We learned to not take the advice directly from Shell gas station attendants. We ended in the Anthony, TX police station acquiring the appropriate info to get to Columbus, New Mexico. So we back tracked, and eventually found hwy 9. We never made it to Columbus, so now we're camping 3 miles from the border, next to a road and a barb wired fence- intimate huh?

Tomorrow we should reach Columbus by mid afternoon and then move South to get closer to Antelope Wells, the southern terminus of the Great Divide Route. That's the word. My shoulders, legs, and butt are very sore- I’m thinking like 2 weeks to break the body in. That's how it goes.

Onward we ride into the sunset.

Eat well, Ride hard, Live long.

-Stewie