City of Rocks to Caballo, Las Cruces, Alamogordo, Artesia to Carlsbad

The day started out good, felt good, nice place to camp. Due to getting a very burnt nose and bottom lip I had to do surgery on my helmet so I could keep it closed with out being so uncomfortable. Cut out some of the foam and it was an improvement but still not quite right. There was a nice winding road on the way to Caballo, lots of nice pine trees like I am used to in BC but to get them I was way above  6000 ft. elevation, no worries with heat up there as it cools down quite quickly after we get to the tree line. The scenery had a very familiar feel to it as it is what I am most used to so it enjoyable and nice to have for awhile. The ride was hard as my hands and wrists are pretty beat up from the journey so are in a lot of pain especially when having to hang on tight, hopefully I will have time to recover by the time I find the nice roads in the eastern states.

ALamogordo to Artesia had another nice stretch of road but by now I am really dragging and having to push myself, hurt all over and feeling sick. The day just didn't go as easy as yesterday for some reason so it makes the ride much harder. All through most of New Mexico I have found Prickly Pear cactus with some areas having fields full of them, other than the high elevation areas where there are trees. There are some areas that I have seen cattle so nice to see some life out there. Having acreage, cattle and a big garden was a time in my life that was very special to me and something that I really miss,  along with the special people that taught me those things and provided a solid foundation to learn and grow. Many very special memories that I will always remember.

 Well I was ready to quite for the day but stopped to rest a couple more times, stopped at Subway, again ( I should have share in the company by now), and managed to carry on till Carlsbad. Stopped at a treeless looking uninviting KOA to check the price, to my surprise they wanted $37 to camp, so that encouraged me to carry on and find a motel which I got for $39. Time to rest, catch up on my Blog and call my wife. Tomorrow on to Carlsbad Caverns, less than 20 miles away.

Just a quick note, I appreciate getting positive and encouraging comments and emails from people, it helps me to keep going, but do to limited time with an internet connection I will not necessarily be able to respond to them, but please don't let the prevent you from sending comments, they are really appreciated.