Pie Town and a Trail Angel

 

 We got up at 4:30am, had breakfast and packed up, heading out just on six.

There was no wind, and the ride was pretty gentle, just the usual washboards to deal with.

 At one point we saw some elk on the road...one of them looked taller than me!

I lost the cap off one of my aero bars...no great problem. I might replace it with a cork if I can find one. 

We kept riding north, across rolling country, and after about 48 km we reached the highway. We were supposed to reach Pie Town at the junction with the highway, but there was no town there -- we had missed a turnoff and were about 20 km too far to the west. 

 So we had to ride along the highway back to town. Fortunately, we reached a convenience store about 3 km out of town, where we stopped to eat, drink and buy supplies. 

 I was surprised how good I was getting at buying food at convenience stores...we look for food with a high calorie-to-weight ratio. Anything with lots of fat is good stuff.

 Greg arranged for him and Pete to be driven to Albuquerque to fly out...they had run out of time. I bought a Pie Town T-Shirt, which Greg would take back to San Francisco with him.

We left the convenience store and rode into the town, where we reached the famous Pie House. Burgers, fries and pies. Delicious!

I tried a New Mexican apple pie with green chili and pine nuts, which was spicy and delicious.

I also ordered a second burger and another pie to have for dinner, as the Pie House closed at 3. My second pie was a peanut butter cream pie. Both pies were delicious...why try a pie you can get in New Zealand?

We were very, very glad to have made it to Pie Town. The journey was painful, long and amazing. I saw some incredible places, wildlife and people. We had planned to camp for two nights, and it ended up being three nights / 4 days. We had to deal with strong winds, long distances, wrong turnings, scarce food, fuel and water. What an incredible trip...and it's not over yet.

We rearranged our gear, Greg giving me back my red Gas Tank, and also his bladder to replace my stinky one, and Pete gave me his electrolyte and some muesli bars. I gave Greg my heavy polypro, arm warmers and gloves, as I didn't need them. He's taking them back to San Francisco, where I can pick them up on the way back to New Zealand.

We said our goodbyes to Greg and Pete, and rode off to find the Toaster House. It literally had toasters all over the front fence. It's run by a lady in her 60's, Nita, who used to live in the house but now lives nearby and lets hikers and walkers stay there for free. There's power, water, and a big fridge out the back filled with pizza, beer and other food. Incredible!

We did our laundry (there's a washing machine too) and had showers at the RV park just down the road.

 Nita came back and gave us a guided tour of the town.

 She showed us the huge radio telescope just out of town, and the windmill museum. It's all very Wild West-ish and a lot of fun.

 Nita describes herself as a "trail angel", and that's exactly what she is. The place is amazing, an oasis on the trail.

We ate and drank some more, and dried our washing on the verandah. A bit later on, another Tour Divide rider showed up, Tim Hinderman, from Montana. He looked in his 50's and rode a Specialized bike with a very similar setup to mine. He even had the same aero bars!  Tim had ridden from Beaverhead camp in one day, covering twice the distance we had. He looked tired...he's racing.

 I found the riding a bit hard today, and was glad it was a shorter ride. I think the long hard day yesterday wore me out a bit. But my body is definitely toughening up, and I'm getting a lot more used to this whole bikepacking thing.  I get to sleep on the couch tonight.

Looking at the map, we think it'll take us two days to reach Grants. We're heading out in the morning.  Jill, has reached Cuba tonight, it will probably take us 4 days to get there.