HITCHIKIN'

 

 
 

On Monday (the 20^th) we made an executive decision to hitchhike. I’ve picked up many people thumbing a ride, and so has Zach so we figured our karma was good—even with the bikes and all our gear. We made some signs, I brushed my hair, we put on a smile and off we went to hang out by a truck stop on I-10. It’s kind of uncomfortable at first but eventually we got into it and pretty shortly a trucker named Joe picked us up. We strapped the bikes behind the cab and threw our stuff into these little side compartments in the truck. I’ve never been in a rig like that, bed and everything! It was pretty cool; we got a little glimpse into life on the road in Man Land. He took us out of Texas and into New Mexico, FINALLY! A new state. Texas, it was good to know you—but you are BIG. Too big perhaps. He let us off and headed west, we headed north. We had to ride about 10 miles to get ourselves to another good spot and we stood with our thumbs up as the sun went down on Las Cruces NM. North Please!! Victor, kind rock-climber, stopped in his little red Subaru and crammed us in. Bikes on top, me in back making PB + J sandwiches.  311 miles in one day. That’s 5 or 6 days for us on the bikes….pretty sweet for a change of pace.

Hitching was definitely the right thing to do. We’d gone 75 miles straight into 25mph winds on Sunday, totally exhausting ourselves, and there was no sign that it was going to let up. Hitching is perhaps a little impure for some cycle-tourists but we love to be a little bad.  And the point is to have fun. Riding into the wind isn’t fun (for us at least). There’s always more than one way to skin a cat. Santa Fe, here we come!