Coast 2 Coast Day 13: Northward to New Mexico

It’s a beautiful day for a bike ride. We cannot get over how quiet it is.

More about the ride after we look at today’s stats:
Start city: Douglas, AZ
End city:  Rodeo, NM
Miles: 55
Total miles to date: 688
Pedaling time: 3 hours, 19 minutes
Avg. speed: 16.7 mph (sorry we are so slow, Tom and Robyn!)
Feet climbed: 1300
Fatigue factor: 3.5 (out of 10)
Wind: light and variable, headwind at the end of course
Road condition: 4 out of 5
Temperature extremes: 50 at ride start, 85 at ride finish

We start our ride just before 8am and there are no cars on AZ-80 this morning. There is no wind as we negotiate the 1 or 2 percent grade. 

Once again the scenery is spectacular. Sometimes we feel like we are in a Disney park and the mountains are excellent set decoration!

These mountains are different because they have rock out-croppings.

It’s a big day as we leave Arizona, our second state line crossing.

We  celebrate with photos and enter our third state, New Mexico, our friend Mitzi’s favorite state!


The accommodations are very impressive, but the final 3 miles of the route are on unpaved road and we have to walk much of the way because of unsafe riding conditions.


We are staying at The Painted Pony Resort in Rodeo, NM. It’s hard to believe it’s even here.

Apparently, the McAffee virus software guy built this house before he allegedly killed someone in Belize.

There was a drawing for rooms (which we were not a part of) and we hit the jackpot with the master suite in the main house.

Fancy bathroom, glass doors out to the patio with pool and hot tub!  Do we have to camp anymore?

Tomorrow:  A ride we have been dreading for over a year.

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16 thoughts on “Coast 2 Coast Day 13: Northward to New Mexico”

  1. Looks like there is a dog sprawled across the bed… More likely an animal pelt though!
    So you started at 8, and rode a little over 3 hours. Does this mean you were done at noon and able to relax the rest of the day?
    How many of the 25 riders you are with ride Tandem?
    Sounds like the difficult part of your adventure is accompanied by hotels. This is the 3rd night, right?
    Good luck tomorrow!

    1. A little over 3 hours of ride time, but there is rest time, and there was an early lunch stop AND it got an hour later when we crossed the border. We stopped the bike computers when we had to walk through the sand and gravel. It was 1:50 when we started the unpaved part. We got to the house at about 2:30! There was plenty of time for relaxation (and blogging)!
      There is only one other tandem (our Canadian friends).

  2. No traffic start is a nice gift. You left us with a teaser….Tomorrow! If there isn’t an update…..
    Never mind, we will just check and check and check until we see the daily post. So amazed y’all are still doing this. Enjoy the amenities. :):)

  3. Walking in the heat and sun is awful! Good job, guys, you are our heroes. Enjoy your wonderful room and bathroom, looking forward to the next posts. Following you every day.

  10. What a long and lonesome looking route. Good to know you
    travel “twogether” . Nice ending to that bike walk!

    Stoker D

  12. Some fantastic photos and I love New Mexico as well. Great scenery. Bet that hot tub felt wonderful. Been cold and gross here. (BTW they started putting in the new cable lines yesterday).

  14. 16.7mph up 1-2% after 13 riding days? Apology NOT accepted! You guys are killin’ it! Enjoy “tomorrow”! (As Robyn often says to me “Someday we’ll look back at this and laugh”. As you know, she’s always right.)

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