Saturday, April 9, 2011
Safford to Duncan, AZ
41 miles per google maps. My odometer freaked out and only recorded 30.

I got up early to take advantage of the morning calm, and Libby saw me off.

When I got to Safford, I had to make a choice between continuing on the slower scenic, mountainous route, or taking the potentially quicker, flatter, dustier desert route. After gathering the opinion of every one who would talk to me in town, I decided on the flatter route, mostly because I just didn’t want to climb a 6,000 and an 8,000 foot pass. I feel like I could have, but I could possibly get to Las Cruces in three days instead of six, get on a train to Austin, and move on to an entirely different part of the country.

As I have been relating, the wind seems to not have agreed with my choice. Should I be paying attention to this sign? Was I meant to go into the mountains? I guess I’ll never now, because I headed into the desert anyway. Though I have released my time expectations for getting to Las Cruces.

I was so happy to get past the point where I had turned back yesterday! By then, the wind was blowing across the road, about 40 degrees shy of a tailwind. It wasn’t helping, but it wasn’t the worst headwind, either. And it wasn’t really gusting like the day before. At first.

I rode on, pretty slowly. Not that that’s unusual for me. I wondered if Libby would just come pick me up and drive me to Duncan. I noticed my pedal stroke and my breathing were a little uneven. I stopped and put on my jacket. Maybe I was too cold. It did seem to help. Riding distances like this, especially in less than ideal conditions, is often more of a head game than a dramatic physical challenge.

Ideally, I’d ride 70 miles to Lordsburg today, but that seemed unlikely. I watched the clouds roll over the mountain. Would I get rained on? I have a great raincoat. As long as it’s not a torrential downpour, I’m more worried about wind than rain.

As the day wore on and the wind shifted and the road wound, the angle between me and a tailwind decreased tantalizingly, even as they sky grew darker with clouds. And it looked dustier up ahead.

Every once in a while, I would catch a tailwind for a bit. Once, I had a tailwind and about three miles of downhill at the same time! That was tricky, though, because every time I’d reach a break in the rock walls lining the road, a gust would blast through crosswise.

Then the road would turn or the wind would move, and I’d be riding against the wind again. It took about 5 hours to go 40 miles. The only seriously blowing dust I encountered was from a construction site in Duncan, though I could see more dust blowing in the distance.

Duncan is a dying town, but they do have an RV park and a B and B. The RV park was not ideal, as it expected you to bring your own bathroom. They really did not have the facilities for tents! (I saw the shower house at the one in Safford! It was visible from the road.) The owner thought it would be fine if I pitched my tent in the town park. There was a bathroom there, and she figured no one would be around to check on me on a Saturday!

I asked a man walking by what he thought, and he offered me the use of the RV in his yard!

It was great to get out of the wind. It definitely got stronger in the afternoon after I arrived. Gary introduced me to Deborah, who runs the B and B, which backs up to his yard. He brought me a dvd player so from the house so I wouldn’t be bored. He told me (and so did everyone else with whom I spoke in this town of 600) that he thought Hilda’s had better food than Joe’s Grill.

I went to both groceries in town just to see. The shelves were sparsely populated with random things. I had a friendly but uninspiring turkey sandwich at Hilda’s. Some teenage girls came in and ordered the fried zucchini, the fried mushrooms, and the fried mozzarella sticks. I think that was the bulk of my diet when I was a teenager, too.

There were several closed shops, but a small shop featuring local crafters was open, and had also recently taken on the responsibility of being the visitor’s center as well, since they were open on a daily basis. I was happy to find some homemade lip balm. My lips and nose are pretty chapped from the wind and sun, so I’m hoping it helps! The helpful artist taking her turn staffing the store fretted about the boys following her niece around and looked at the New Mexico map with me. She gave me a lot of accurate sounding information about the road ahead, but so have many other well-meaning people, and car information is just not always the same as bike information. But it’s a start.

After exploring the two blocks of Duncan, I retired to my cozy RV to write and do a little yoga. I also watched the goat run back and forth across the yard on its stubby legs as the church bells chimed. I think they played “Edelweiss.”

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