Saturday April 4, 2014

For some unknown reason the iPod alarm went of at 6:15 this morning. Ralf got up and showered and I looked at the clock. It was only 6:15 so Ralf got back into bed for another hours snooze. We had our usual breakfast of oatmeal and yogurt and I went to get the ‘free’ coffee provided by the motel. It was the worst coffee we have had since arriving in the US. It was so weak you could see through it to the bottom of the cup!

We decided to leave the hotel at 10:00 so that we could go to the post office and mail some things back to Canada, all of our electrical connectors that we don’t need are on their way home. It lightened our load only by 3 lbs, but it was worth it.

We left Silver City at about 10:30 and climbed 383 metres up and away from the City to the Continental Divide. We saw a roadie heading down the hill, head down and peddling fast, Ralf had a moment of envy, wishing he was on his Trek Madone and hurtling down the hill and not his Trek 520 fully loaded pushing up the hill.

We got our reward after crossing the Divide it was downhill all the way and a tail-wind. Today we descended 713 metres and hardly peddled for 10 kms. Two personal bests – fastest 40 kms (1 hr 20 mins) and fastest downhill speed (57.46 kph) scary.

On our way to Buckhorn we met Dacks who was from Seattle, he had his head down and peddling hard into the wind. I felt for him. He had some climbing to do as well as battling the head wind.

We arrived in Buckhorn at about 2:30, we found the RV site, it was not difficult as it was on the main road. Not very much in Buckhorn, the RV Site which was behind the post office and some sort of store, it was closed and further down the road the Last Chance Liquor Store which sold beer and pizzas and other hot sandwiches.

After we had set up the tent behind the post office, we had a shower and then relaxed with a couple of beers.

A fella came by at about 4:00 (Walt) we chatted to him for about an hour, shooting the breeze about all sorts of things. His time in the army as a German translator, his other jobs of teacher, care giver, and finally he decided to do something with less stress and worked in a call centre.

He was an interesting old fella, he made us laugh when he told us his dad referred to him as his kid. “I’m 72 Dad I’m not a kid” I think we all know how that feels.

As is usual when we are camping we are in bed and asleep by 9:00.