GDMBR Day 01
Start: Mexican border
Finish: Columbus, NM
Miles: 3 miles
Odometer: 3 miles
I decided to crush the first day by starting at the Mexican border and riding all of 3 miles up to the Los Milagros Hotel in Columbus, New Mexico. Roughly translated into English, Los Milagros means “The Milagros”.
Columbus has an interesting history. In 1916, Pancho Villa and his band raided Columbus, burning down buildings and killing some of its citizens and some of the military personnel stationed here. The US sent 10,000 Army troops into Mexico to track Poncho Villa and his band down. Pretty stupid though because everyone around here knows they perform every Tuesday and Thursday in the back room at La Casita Restaurant. In any case, after a year of searching the US Army was unsuccessful and returned home. Today, if you want a little Pancho in your life you can walk over to the Pancho Villa State Park located on the very site of the old Army base. Insert snarky ironic emoticon here.
Today’s other supposed fact: In the early 20th century, Columbus was the largest city in the state of New Mexico. Currently, it’s a small town of about 1600 people. And well, Albuquerque has a Costco. And the winner is…
Highlights:
- My shuttle driver, Michael, arrived at the El Paso hotel in a 1999 BMW sedan. I questioned whether we would be able to fit my bike into his tiny car. Although his car was very small, his optimism and enthusiasm were quite large. He said, “No problem, I do this all the time” and he helped me take my bike apart and load all the pieces in his backseat. During the hour long ride, Michael gave me a history of the border area and shared his positions on current events (political science, economics, and healthcare). He has been driving for 30 years, mostly airport shuttles, and listens to Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, and other conservative news radio personalities which qualifies him in all of the aforementioned subjects. He is confident that a border wall will indeed make America great again. I sat quietly gazing out on the desert landscape. Like I said, I liked his optimism and enthusiasm.
- The Los Milagros Hotel is a gem. The proprietor, Phillip, has been running the place for the past four years and takes great pride in customer service and quality. He spent his career as a furniture maker and now he and his wife run this hotel, and enjoy hosting cyclists touring through on their way to somewhere else. We sat in the lobby drinking tea discussing one of my favorite subjects: time restricted feeding. He’s a 16:8 guy.
- In postal news, it is never too early to ship items home: one of my 3 external batteries, one of my two filters, a dry bag, and some reflective straps. I’m getting lighter every day.
- The weather today was delicious.
Lowlights:
- None