Tucson, Arizona

We had a broken nights sleep at the border. One of the border control staff lives there with his 23 dogs. Yep you read it correctly and I didn't type it incorrectly, 23 dogs!
They had barked for a while when we arrived and not long after getting into bed one came over to growl at us. But at some stage in the night a pack of Coyotes must have come close and the ensuing bark-a-thon was just so loud that it was funny. Eventually the coyotes must have moved on and the night was silent. Cool experience.
We got up and went to the border to have the obligatory photos etc. The staff at the border are the friendliest American border control staff in the world. They even cooked us breakfast as we waited to see if we could catch the Shuttle. This is the quietest crossing in the States with an average of about 5 crossings per day!! They get bored we reckon??
At about 9.30am a Shuttle arrived that passes through Tucson on the way to Phoenix.
Thankfully they had room for three smelly cyclists and their bikes.
We are now in Tucson in a motel relaxing.
We will post some more photos tomorrow.

DAY 65 - Long day to FINISH!!

We all enjoyed a good nights sleep and woke to a beautiful morning.
In theory we had a shorter day today before the final push to the border tomorrow.
It was about another 5km of gravel then we had pavement all the way to Mexico, the terrain was also pretty much flat so we made good time. There was a gentle climb to out final Continental Divide crossing.
We stopped at Hachita for lunch and to again fill up our water bottles/containers. It was pretty hot and, surprise surprise, quite dry in the desert!! The road from here was long and straight. I think we rode for about 10km without a bend in the road. Long, mind and bum numbing!
We reached our day's goal destination at about 3pm. We all decided to push on as far as possible that day making the last day, tomorrow, as short as possible. It was hot and was getting tough as it seemed to be never ending straight roads. With 32kms to go we stopped as Scott was hanging out for a coffee. It was great to have a break, but getting going again was hard.
We decided that we would do another 10km and see how we felt then. At this point we decided to cook dinner, then either do the final push or set up camp.
After some real food rather than muesli or energy bars, we all felt a little better and made the decision to knock the bugger off today!
Our final 20kms went by in a flash, apart from stopping twice to check out two beautiful Rattle Snakes basking in the last of the days sun.
We arrived at the Mexican border at dusk. The border crossing was well and truly shut (only open 8am-4pm). No photos just a warm sense of achievement, congratulations all round and a cup of Spiced Apple drink to celebrate.
Three years in the dreaming. We had done it. What a blast!

DISTANCE: 114.9km
AVERAGE: 17.4km
RIDE TIME: 6.35hrs
ASCEND: 250mtrs

DAY 64 - Silver City to near Separ

We went out for breakfast before hitting the road.
The ride today was paved for the first 30km before turning off onto a dirt road which up-dulated for the next 10kms where we crossed, then rode along, the Continental Divide for a while.
We ended up stopping for lunch at the nights designated campsite so decided to push onto Separ at 82kms.
Separ as it turns out is nothing more than a truck/car stop on the side of a really busy Interstate highway.
The gentleman behind the counter had stepped out of the movie Deliverance to serve us!!! Every second tooth was missing and the remaining ones were a lovely shade of brown!!!! The shop was full of crap souvenirs and an awesome supply of fireworks. Fireworks which are illegal to set off in this county, but not in the county 5 miles away, weird place!
After enjoying a cold beverage and topping up our water we pushed on for another 5km or so to find a place place in the desert to sleep.
It had been a hot day and we were all quite tired so had an early night.

DISTANCE: 93.2km
AVERAGE: 17kph
RIDE TIME: 5.28hrs
ASCEND: 520mtrs

DAY 63 - Another rest day

We got up and enjoyed a shared breakfast before saying a final good bye to Alan, Charlie and Dave.
We realsied we had done nearly half of our ride with Alan, so we were sad to say bye!!
The three of us headed back to Silver City after stopping at the Gila Visitor Centre for a little shopping.
We did catch up with Barrett and Divide on the way out. Again we gave them a little food and water. We think that Divide is going to be Barrett's new dog for good which is cool.
When we got back to Silver City we found a motel closer to town then dropped the car off.
The rest of the day was spent chilling out, food shopping etc.
Back on the road tomorrow with only three days to the border.

DAY 62 - Gila Cliff Dwellings

Yesterday we organised a hire car so we could head about 45miles out of Silver City to see the Gila (Hee-la) Cliff Dwellings.
We went out for breakfast before stopping on the way back to the motel to pick up the car. The car wasn't ready so we went back and did the final pack up and waited for a call to say the car was ready.
After picking the car up we stopped into the supermarket before heading into the hills. We planned to spend the night up at Gila camping.
Jo acted as Mum, as Scott drove, and made our lunch as we wound our way. On the way we passed a guy walking with a dog who didn't want to get off the road. We stopped to say hi and found out that "Barrett" was walking the Continental Divide Scenic Trail (the walking equivalent of out ride). The dog had been following him for about the past 100miles!! He had named him "Divide" and they had really bonded. We gave them some water and a little food. Barrett was a really nice guy who had no idea about dogs. He was a really innocent, almost naive bloke. We left them hoping we might see them again tomorrow on our way back to Silver City.
We eventually arrived at the Cliff Dwellings and pretty much went straight up and did the walk around them. They are really amazing and it was great to have Chris along for the ride to act as guide and personal interpreter!
After we had finished our wander around we went and bought home made ice cream which was super yummy.
We set up camp and enjoyed an awesome meal of freshly made Burritos (actually using fresh food!!) washed down with a couple of beers.
After dinner we had a worrying few moments when a skunk decided to come and have a "sniff" around. Luckily it didn't spray but the odour lingered long after he had moved on. Very cute, but really stinky!!
We were just about ready to hit the hay when Alan, Charlie and Dave turned up. Alan had finished his ride earlier today and they had driven about 4 or 5 hours to catch up with us in Gila. That was super cool to see them and to hear about the last section of the ride.
We eventually hit the sack after much laughing and story telling.

DAY 61 - REST DAY - Silver City

Happy Birthday Nadine - although it is only the 6th here today.

Neither of us slept well last night - woke at 6am & watched cable till 7:30am when we got up to get ready for our final breakfast with Alan as he was heading out this morning.
After saying our goodbyes to Alan & waving him off we did what we do best in towns - go shopping!
The Walmart here is massive & just down from the hotel so that kept us entertained for a few hours.
After lunch we biked into the actual town center & had a poke around.
We have decided to take another day off tomorrow as we are well ahead of our schedule & we do not need to be in Tuson till the 14th latest & we only have 3 days riding left to get to the boarder.
So we have managed to hire a car which we pick up tomorrow & we (along with Chris) are going to head up to the Gila National Forest to see the Cave Dwellings which are apparently fascinating.

DAY 60 - Silver City here we come

The day started with a 4.5km steep climb - not time to warm up the legs so it was brutal at 1st.
After another 10km of steep ups & downs we encountered an even bumpier & steeper descent into Rocky canyon, this was but far the roughest section of the route we have ridden so far. But would have been awesome downhill on a full suspension unloaded.
Unfortunately what goes down on this route ALWAYS goes back up!! lucky the extremely steep climb out was not as bad as the down hill we had just experienced.
From the top we dropped to another continental divide crossing & had then had a nice rolling descent for 20km down to a town called Mimbres where we were heading for a late lunch, we only just managed to get into the only cafe for lunch as they closed at 2pm & we arrived at 1:30 - Phew.
After a belly full of burgers & fries ( the great USA staple diet) we knew we had another 40km to get to Silver City & a couple of days off.
The road out of Mimbres was cruel especially with a belly full! We had 15km of hills ahead arriving at the sealed part of the day at a HUGE mine - Incredible!
Once again the wind was not in our favour.
We all decided that this is due to out discussion several night ago about Gods belly button & now we are being punished with daily strong gusty head winds!
We now have a packed on with the 4 of us - not to discuss belly buttons or god again...
We limped very slowly into Silver City which was on a 4 lane, very busy highway, with very big rolling hills the entire way to town.
Allan's friends Charlie & Dave have arrived also to escort Alan to the boarder & then give him a ride back to California.
We all checked into the 1st motel we found heading into town & enjoyed hot showers!
Went out for dinner & a few quiets - sleep!
Rest day tomorrow - lovely!

DISTANCE: 90.27km
AVERAGE: 14.4km
RIDE TIME: 6.13hrs
ASCEND: 1235mtrs