Day 13-Hard to Say Goodbye

Farmington, NM to Mexican Water, AZ
Distance: 84.8 miles
Time: 4:32:35
Max Speed: 37.5
Average Speed: 14.2

Farmington was much, much too good to us! This morning we were treated to three different kinds of breakfast burritos, fresh fruit, juices, milk, cereal, and more. We also gave our first presentation of the trip, which went well, considering we had not done one yet. Following our awesome breakfast and presentation, we said goodbye to Cathy, who was absolutely amazing, and we were escorted out of town by Farmington police. At the Farmington city limits, the sheriff's department took over on the escort, and then once we crossed into the Navajo Nation, the Navajo police continued our escort.
Being escorted out of town was awesome. We had a whole lane to ourselves, and many people were driving by, honking and waving in support. We were able to make awesome time to the first rest stop, and our escort even stopped at the rest stop to wait for us and then continued the escort. Following the rest stop, we were flying at an average of about 22 mph, and the escort led us almost the entire way to our next rest stop at 40 miles. At this rest stop, a Navajo police car pulled up at some point with Kevin and Elyor inside. We all thought they had been arrested at first, but they had just had some problems and the cop was kind enough to give them a ride.

We had our second border crossing, going from New Mexico into Arizona. I was riding with Oleg, drafting off him as we approached the border. He was still in his granny gear from the previous uphill when he asked "Is that the border?", at which point I saw that it was in face the border and sprinted past Oleg to beat him to the border. It was a cheap move but hilarious and satisfying, nonetheless.
The scenery in Arizona is a great improvement over New Mexico with beautiful red rock formations and what not. It made for quite a good day of riding. There were a fair amount of good-sized hills, but none were too bad, and the scenery was enough to take your mind off the climbing. The final stretch into Mexican Water was amazing, with very smooth roads, mostly downhill, heading into the sunset as it began to unfold across the desert. It was a prefect ending to the day.

Now we are in our campsite next to the gas station/trading post that is the only thing in Mexican Water other than a restaurant on the other side of our campsite. Another one to add to my list of most interesting places I've camped. We had a nice cold hose shower to clean off after today's ride. We have become quite accustomed to and efficient with hose showers. We joke that when we get host families again, we will just use their hose to shower rather than the actual shower. The hose may be cold, but it is refreshing, and it gets the job done. Plus, with Dr. Bronner's biodegradable soap, there are no worries. This is not an infomercial, I swear.

For dinner we had some good tacos and veggies. Tonight will be the first time I have slept in a tent on this trip. Hopefully my tent is still in good condition. So far, so good. Tomorrow, we are headed for Shonto, AZ. I am not sure where we are staying there, probably camping again. It sounds like another small town, but hopefully not as small as Mexican Water (which should really just be named Tequila, it's the same thing).

Peace and Love,
Tequila Tito