Day 01 Aztec to Truth or Consequences

Our journey truly began today, June 2, 2011. Appropriately, we slept in. John and Mary woke early and graciously brought back breakfast burritos. I toured their garden that was looking great and John showed me his new bike, also a 29er. He planned on bringing his BOB trailer to be able to carry more gear, especially water which would be a premium on this trip. I told him we'd rent space on the BOB. John had to forgo the single track trail that Cassi and I rode but otherwise the BOB performed well.

We met Carl, Bart and Ken in Aztec for lunch, our obsession with calories beginning even before we'd started pedaling. We traded adventure stories, ours primarily still to come, then loaded up John's Subaru and headed for the border. Ken, a fellow teacher and neighbor of John, had graciously offered to drive us to the start. He planned on doing some car camping on the way back home. John believed it was Ken's way of escaping the planning for his daughter's wedding that was dominating his house..

We followed the highway south, stopping in Cuba for milkshakes and gas, not realizing how central the little village of Cuba would become in our journey. A viscous headwind hindered our progress as we pushed on past Albuquerque and Socorro doing 75mph in the turbo with 3 bikes on top, 4 passengers and their cargo inside. John had said something about the gas gauge acting up but I thought the quarter of a tank would be plenty to get us to Truth or Consequences (back in the 50's the citizens renamed their town after a popular TV game show) When the Subaru suddenly lost power, I thought again. We spent a pleasant evening on the side of Interstate 25 taking in the sunset over Blue Mt and identifying desert plants, waiting for a tow truck.

After a very expensive 5 gallons of gas and the recommendations of the tow truck driver, we headed for Elephant Butte State Park on the Rio Grande just outside of town. There were nice adobe shade structures but to keep cool we all slept out. John chose the picnic table. Ken, Cassi and I chose the ground. The stars glittering through the cottonwood branches, a cool breeze, some fluttering bats and the sounds of the river accompanied us to bed.