Tom Week – Artesia to Las Cruces

11/12/20 – Adventures in Artesia

We are in Artesia New Mexico. The first town I’ve ever seen that has an oil field downtown. We stopped in a grocery store that had every flavor of Jarritos Mexican soda. They also had Mexican Fanta Uva(grape) Soda. Heaven.

Then I was in McDonalds and they had a wet floor sign with text in English, Spanish and German. German? The Wikipedia entry for the town has no mention of Germans, but many of the streets have German names.

Also, it turns out that the park we stayed at in Carlsbad was built on an Apache settlement. Yeah, that actually happens.

11/13/20 – Finally Roswell

We pulled into Roswell on Friday the 13^th. We’re at an RV park with only 12 spots. It’s great. There are plastic and paper mache aliens everywhere.

11/14/20 – No Flats

Roswell has some nice wide bike lines and a couple really nice bike trails. I managed to do 11 miles with no flats. The new tires come on Monday.

11/15/20 – A View Of The Organs

We are on a hill west of Las Cruces New Mexico with a beautiful view of the Organ Mountains. Never expected that one.

11/16/20 – Beware La Llorona

I went for a bike ride today along the Rio Grande. It was the La Llorona Trail. A nice pleasant name until you look up La Llorona. Turns out she’s a ghost that wanders waterfronts wailing about the children she drowned. Good plan.

11/17/20 – New Tires

I know, you’ve heard that one before. This time I bought a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Pluses. The toughest tires available. They are admittedly less comfortable, but that’s little sacrifice for not getting a flat every other ride.

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