Long post alert! The original plan was for Cami and Jessica to drive from Rochester, MN together (had to have a quick Kora sighting before taking off) to El Paso with a couple stops along the way to stay overnight with friends. It was a good and solid plan. However, Cami secretly asked Hudson if he’d like to join for the trip to accompany them, and he was able to get a little time off to do just that.
On the morning of Fri, Sept 13 when Hudson got off his overnight shift he came to our place. Jessica took a shuttle to La Crosse, and Cami and Hudson went to pick her up. When Jessica opened the van door she saw Hudson and said, “Oh Hudson! Great to see you! Do we have to drop you off at home now?” Nope - Hudson was in for the long drive to Texas!
The first night of the road trip they stayed with a former friend and co-worker Susan, in Hutchinson, KS. The next day they left early, to be able to get to Albuquerque before shops were closed, so they could check out the Breaking Bad store and enjoy a little time in Old Town Albuquerque. On Sunday morning they drove around and saw a few of the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul sites, like Chuck’s house and Walter White’s house — then back on the road for 4 hours to make it to Hachita, NM.
Hudson had to fly back home from El Paso on Monday morning to get home by his night shift, but the group and I would finish the last 42 miles of biking Monday morning then get in the van to ride to El Paso and not arrive there until late afternoon.
What to do?
Cami, Hudson and Jessica decided to drive to Hachita, NM to my last overnight stay location and surprise me there on Sunday.
Our adventure cycling group was scheduled to stay overnight in the Hachita Community Center Sunday night — in a town with population 49 and only the community center and a single convenience store/gas station. Cami figured since it was so close to the border and they would not want to be on the roads in the dark if possible they would visit with me for a couple hours then backtrack 45 minutes on desolate roads back to the highway and a hotel for the night.
I was expecting to see just Cami and Jessica on Monday in El Paso. Instead, after driving through a wild rain storm they arrived at the Hachita Community Center around 4pm on Sunday.
I was sitting on a bench in the community center trying to think about how I would get in my tent without the 30 flies on my legs coming into the tent with me. There were more flies inside that community center than I could imagine! We had started to put up our tents inside, so that we could hopefully spare ourselves from them bothering us all night.
What an unimagineably great surprise to see Jessica, Hudson and Cami walk in!!
I can’t describe how great it was to see them and to be with them and be so near to completing this epic journey…
We took a little walk to the convenience store to get a snack…
When I was with Cami, Chet, Kelsi and Kora in August we saw beautiful double rainbows at Hartsell Ranch. On the way back from our walk we experienced a beautiful, full rainbow again…here in Hachita…
Jessica had the great idea that instead of leaving me at the community center that night I could ride with them in the van the 45 minutes back to the motel to stay with them, and they would just get up with me at 5am and drive me back in the morning to meet back up with the group to do our last 40+ miles of biking to the border. Saved from the flies!!! We had a wonderful, relaxing evening together at the Butterfield Stage Motel in Deming, NM.
On Monday morning they got me back the the community center in time to get ready for my last day. I showed them my bike tires. Each wet spot represented where I had ridden over a spiky tumbleweed type of plant…and where my wheel had sealed back up overnight. Amazing tech that I appreciated so much. I only had to change one tire the whole trip!
I packed up some snacks for the day, a few tools and my rain gear…even for these last miles…
Got some final words of encouragement from the family…
Said goodbye to Hudson, as he would be on a flight home by the time I got to El Paso later that day…
Here’s most of the crew…ready to tackle our last miles to the border…
Then a few hours later…Made it!
