Day 75, October 15th 2007 (Keams Canyon,AZ to Yah-ta-hey,NM)

I wanted to get an early start this morning and figured since I went to sleep around 8 pm that I wouldn't have a problem getting up early and out on the road. When I opened my eyes at around 5 and tried to get out of my tent I quickly jumped back in my tent. It was way too cold to be doing anything outside at this point and I was going to have to wait a little later before I jumped on the bike. So weather I liked it or not I had to sleep in a little longer. I decided at around 6 that I was going to have to endure the temperature at some point so I jumped out with all of my gear on and I started to pack up. I had been told from Joe, the family I had just recently stayed with, that the time was going to change as soon as I entered the Navajo tribe's land. I decided that if the time was going to change and I was going to lose an hour than I might as well put myself one hour ahead to start the day. So when I say I woke up at 6 it was actually going to be 7 only a few miles down the road. I was glad that I had been told that the time would change as soon as I changed over to another tribal land because I had thought that it wouldn't change until I entered New Mexico, some 70 miles down the road. Once I was on the bike and I started to ride, it was freezing. I had just purchased a pair of gloves the night before at the local store and I was glad that I had done so. My hands, even with the gloves on, were still freezing from the wind. I was dealing with a crosswind to start the morning and since there wasn't very much to block the wind, everything felt freezing. It must have been about 30 to 40 degrees at the most when I was riding and I probably should have stayed in the tent a little longer before starting to ride. My elevation was above 5,000 feet and it didn't seem that I was going to be going anywhere lower than that for the day. I was dealing with a lot of rolling hills it seemed and I was going more uphill than downhill. After I finished the first 30 miles of journey for the day I was in the Navajo land. The time had changed one hour ahead and I was starting to adjust to the difference. I was also able to start to warm up a little as well because the sun was coming out. It was around 10 am and I pulled over at a gas station to pick up a couple of things for lunch and to take off some of the extra layers that I had put on for the day. When I sat outside with my lunch it didn't take very long before I decide that I wasn't eating in the best spot. I started eating my lunch and there were two stray dogs that approached me with their puppy dog eyes and they started to lick their lips, showing that they were hungry. I continued eating and didn't really enjoy making them feel starved as I consumed my food, but I didn't want to start feeding them and then have them follow me down for the rest of my journey. Then another stray dog showed up and then as soon as the forth one showed up and I had only consumed two peanut butter sandwiches, I decided to pack up my lunch and move somewhere else. It was incredible to me to see so many stray dogs running around and I wasn't quite sure where they were all coming from, but I didn't want to stay and see how many more would show up. I finished the rest of my lunch a couple of blocks down the road and didn't seem to have anymore problems with any dogs and then I hit the road. I couldn't have asked for a better day to ride at this point. The cold weather was gone at this point and I it was so much more enjoyable to not be too hot or too cold, but to be riding in about 70 degrees. The scenery that I was able to enjoy along my trip was a lot of canyons in Arizona at a high desert. I wasn't seeing anything that was green and everything seemed to be dry and dead in the area. Nothing was growing and everything on the side of the road seemed to be one goat head bush after another. Yes, that's right, the goat heads were back. I believe that they only grow in the desert area and they were the nastiest things to have to see again. I hadn't had any problems with them so far throughout the day and I was glad that they weren't all over the road and in my way. Before long I was in New Mexico and I was able to notice a few differences with my surroundings. There seemed to be a few amount of greater rock formations to look at in the area, and there were also some trees in the area. It looked mostly like a forest area and it was nice to actually see some things growing for a change. I didn't plan on riding too far into New Mexico for the day and I was starting to look for any place on the side of the road to pitch my tent for the night. There was a town just up the road about 15 miles and since I had the wind at my back at this point I figured it would be a nice ride to finish the day. I made it to the town with still about an hour of sunlight remaining and I saw a nice big fairground on my right that seemed to be a perfect place to set up tent for the night. I pulled my bike in and I looked around for a place that was a little hidden from the road and that might be the best place to call it a night. I was starving for some pasta and couldn't wait to eat and then call it a night. I pushed my bike around behind a small shelter and it seemed like the perfect place. What I didn't realize as I pushed my bike along was that I had rolled my bike through about every goat head patch in the area. When I looked down at my tires they were covered with little goat heads over every inch of the wheel. My plans of making dinner were now put back for a little while and a new set of plans were placed in front of me. I spent the next hour taking the little goat heads out of my tires and then having to replace each one of my tubes because they had been destroyed beyond repair. By the time I had my bike taken care of, it was almost freezing outside. It was only 7 pm and the sun had just gone down. So I quickly spent the remainder of my evening fixing dinner and then crawling into my warm sleeping bag to survive the temperatures.
Daily mileage: 90.5 miles
Average speed: 12.9 mph
Total mileage: 4,454.0 miles