Day #38: Las Cruses, NM- Deming, NM 56.7 Miles

We left Lodge on the Desert at 8:30am after filling up our water bottles and taking some bagels for the road.  We did not anticipate seeing anything for roughly 50 miles.  We rode on the frontage road running along I- 10 for the first 20 miles of our trip to Deming. When the frontage road ended, we stopped at an Exxon station to ask if the frontage road continued on the other side of the road (it does that sometimes). The man we asked told us that it did not, but we decided to go for it anyway because our GPS told us that it did.  . As it turns out, the man and the GPS were both right (and wrong).  For about a mile the frontage road was paved, but then it turned into an unpaved road for possibly another 7 miles.   We rode on an the unpaved road for about 2 miles, then decided to turn around and head back to the Interstate. This was our 1st and last wrong turn we will make in NM (wishful thinking)!  Riding on a dirt road is rather unpleasant especially when on a road bike with about 30 pounds of gear on it.  While we thought we had been finished with "dirt biking" for the day, we were wrong.  While riding along I-10 there was construction along the shoulder and we were forced to ride on gravel for about 2 miles.  We didn't pass any more places to fill up on water, but we had plenty of extra water with us. We pulled into Deming around 3:00pm, and headed straight for the Walmart! At this point we have perfected our routine in Walmarts.  We know the store layout so well we can practically find exactly what we need while wearing a blindfold - which is pretty good since these are Super Walmarts.  When we pull in, we immediately bring our bikes to the customer service area, where there is a wall  that fits two bikes perfectly.  We then shop and tie the bags to our bikes.  Because we enter the store with such authority the people working there don't even ask us what we are doing.  At the beginning of our trip we would have a 10 minute discussion about where we could, or could not leave our bikes.  When we were in Walmart today there was an announcement on the intercom saying if anybody lost a set of keys please come to the customer service area.  Instinctively we thought about whether they could be our keys.  We then realized that we don't have any keys with us - a strange realization.  We got food for tonight and tomorrow, and checked into the Best Western hotel which was a short ride from the Walmart.


This past week we watched the movie Mersine. It was a great, 2 part movie about a French gangster. We really liked both parts despite the subtitles... we found that the subtitles didn't take away from the movie. We recommend this movie to anyone who likes a little bit of violence, suspense, and classic gangster movies.


Thanks for coming along for the ride!!


Check out our route at the link below:
Las Cruses, NM- Deming, NM