Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Alien invasion--Bike & Build edition

August 4, 2013
Protales, NM to Roswell, NM

This morning I woke up with a flat!  I forgot to mention a while back that I got my first flat on our ride to Joplin... It was actually really exciting and I knew exactly how to change it, which was cool since i've never changed one before.  (i've watched a lot of people change them at this point).  Anyway, I had to change my tube this morning, but then didn't have any problems with it the rest of the day, thankfully.  Today was another big day in ME2SB world--we had TWO birthdays!  What are the chances?!  Amanda turned 22 while Kaitlin turned 23.  They both were decked out in birthday attire for their rides and looked awesome.  The day was spent on the same road for the entire trip with very little change in scenery until we reached the Roswell town lines.  Since no one was on the road, we had a dance party in the middle of the road.  


Like yesterday, we played tons of games today!  It really made the miles fly by.  We started with another round of The Valley of Green Doors, but with other rules.  I made up one that wasn't that difficult of a rule, but it was pretty hard to guess--the first letter of the word had to be in the first half of the alphabet.  It took people a long time to figure it out but that's why we were playing the game--to pass the miles.  We also played the celebrity game.  One person would bike ahead so they couldn't hear us and we would decide which celebrity they would be.  That person would then come back and ask questions such as "Am I a female?" to figure out who they were.  We passed a lot of time playing this game as well.  On the road, we passed a church that we stopped in to use their bathroom. The people there were really nice and asked if they could come outside and pray for us.  Usually I would be a little weirded out by this type of stuff, but lately we've been encountering very religious people who have a mission to spread the word of God and Jesus.  


I didn't realize we would encounter so much religion along this trip, but it has been a very interesting thing to think about.  Further along this desolate road, we came across an abandoned and trashed house.  There was chalk outside telling us to go in to find something cool Bike & Build related.  




It was super cool to have this connection with a past group!  Sometimes it's easy to forget that every summer a different group of young adults does this same exact route (for the most part).  After first lunch, Casey and I biked by ourselves and played a riveting game of categories for almost 2 hours.  Categories works where you choose a category, such as food, and then one person says a food and the next person has to say another that starts with the last letter of the one that was just said.  Apparently we know a lot of foods.  Even though it was a long day, we decided to stop at a really cool canyon along the route.  None of us knew that we had been climbing up a ridge so it was cool to look out at least 50 miles.


From there Casey and I made it to second lunch where we filled up our water and grabbed a snack.  We just happened to stop by another abandoned building, but this one was a little cleaner and looked a little more historic.


We could also finally see a mountain in the distance!!  We haven't seen mountains in a long time and we all got really excited, even though mountains means climbing--I think we're all ready for a change of pace. Once Casey and I got to the Roswell town limits, we were coming up to a stop sign when we saw a man get out of his pick up truck and seem to wait for us beside it. When we got close enough, he yelled out that he had water and ice for us. It was amazing and very much needed.  Casey and I thought that he had been there for a while or at least going to wait for other riders but he got back in his car and left after we headed on our way.  It was kind of strange but also amazing at the same time.  We finally made it to Roswell and were immediately bombarded with alien themed EVERYTHING!  It was cool and weird at the same time.  Fittingly, our theme for the birthday party that night was space.  Most people dressed up as aliens, but another rider and I decided to dress up like outer space!  It was really fun making my costume and then walking around Roswell with everyone.


We got lots of weird looks but when do we not get weird looks?! I love this group of people so much.

2 comments:

  1. For you, you are struck by their religious fervor. Perhaps it is analogous to the way you and your bicycle mates play mind games to wile away the time as you ride west. Joseph Campbell defined myth as 'group dream.' For many in our country, their religion is their 'group dream,' their myth. it gives them great comfort, psychologically.

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  2. The vastness of the southwest always me, but at the same time I yearned for he hills and valleys of Penn's Woods, i.e., Pennsylvania.As for religion, all religion is local.

    PaPa

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