May 18, 2018 Bowie, AZ to Lordsburg, New Mexico

53.34 miles.... Riding the interstate is supposed to be boring, today's ride was very sterile....no excitement, no surprises, nice tailwind, no major climbs, even though I did go over a decent pass. More than half my ride was on the Arizona side of the pass, and I had not known of the tremendous agriculture along the San Pedro basin, which was to my right. Previous trips were earlier in April, when nothing was growing. There were mountains on both sides of me, even though I was riding a valley, except for the passes. The area seems to be known for pecans and pistachios, but I also saw some grape vines. There were dust storm warning signs on the Arizona side, but there would be no dust in the air today. It was beautiful, starting out in the 60's and topping out in the 80's, with a tame 10 mph tailwind. There was no place to stop for food or water, even though there was a nice rest area before leaving Arizona. The town of San Simon, which I remember as nothing more than a ghost town, had a Loves truck stop with a Subway, which may not have been there before, according to my previous blogs of the area.
Once over the pass, descending into New Mexico, is where the serious dust storm capabilities really amped up. The ground was as flat as flat could be, and nothing existed besides dried up prairie grass and dirt. There were actually a few cows out there, somehow surviving. I think they  really need to know that there are better places in the world to be a cow, and they were really being "bull"ied. Nevermind, it wasn't funny.
Once again, Pam stopped  along the side of the road to feed me lunch when I was getting pretty hungry, about 13 miles from our destination. She pulled over onto a wide, specially paved area where  vehicles could pull  way off the road during dust storms. Many pictures exist in previous posts of mine through the area, so I didn't do many pictures. We rolled into Lordsburg, after losing an hour from Pacific to Mountain time. We had to run an errand to the Family Dollar, because I was craving Chef Boy R Dee ravioli, our control box to our satellite dish died, and we needed to get cable so we could plug into the campground cable until we can replace it. After dealing with those priorities, we lounged at the pool, which had just opened, and the water was really really cold. I love being out of the Phoenix desert heat!