There was only one mountain climb remaining before I reached the smaller hills and the flat land that lay ahead. I started with about 5 miles of flat land and then started my ascent. I was climbing up for a good while, but I knew that this was it. The last mountain I was going to face on my trip. I plunged forward and with every pedal forward I was more and more anxious to reach the top. I had left late enough in the morning that it wasn't very cold outside and with working up the hill, I was actually working up a sweat. I finally reached the top and was at the summit at 6,940 feet. I wasn't at the top long enough to say I was even there because it followed right away with a plunge down. I flew and didn't look back. This was the beginning to a few rolling hills, but not a single mountain would lay ahead. I had finished the hardest and most difficult part of my travels, I thought. The rolling hills that faced ahead of me were easy to get through with the wind that was almost at my back the entire way. It was a slight cross wind, but mostly a tail wind and I was going fast enough to feel like I was going to make it to Roswell fairly early. By the time the afternoon arrived, it had started to get a lot hotter outside. I wasn't sure what the exact temperature was, but it felt fairly hot. One hill after another, it seemed like I had left the mountains but was now in for a lot of rolling hills. It wasn't too bad considering that I was mostly moving towards a lower elevation and each downhill was a little longer than the following uphill. By the time I had made it to about 30 miles outside of Roswell, I could see the city. I had just climbed a monster of a hill and I was now looking down at the city and flat land. Everywhere around the city was completely flat and there didn't even seem to be a bump in the terrain. It was great. I was in Roswell,NM by 3:30 in the afternoon and with it being so hot and the fact that I was done with the mountains I decided that it was time to celebrate. I checked into a motel and the lady gave me an incredible deal. The room was supposed to be 35 dollars but since I had arrived on my bicycle she told me that I could stay for around 30 dollars including tax. It was the cheapest motel I had checked into, but it had everything that I needed. I put my things away and decided to take care of the second order of business. I was hungry and had seen a buffet for only 8 dollars. I pulled in and after 5 plates of food and about an hour later, I left to go back to the hotel. I was stuffed and could only lay down at this point. It felt great to be able to be inside and out of the heat for a little while. I was able to see the weather for Roswell and I was able to see what was going on. It was about 90 degrees today and for the next week the temperature was going to be in the low 70's. I had apparently come at one of their hotter times. After coming to terms with the situation and resting for a little while, I went to check out the rest of Roswell. I was a little surprised that I hadn't seen any UFOs flying over the city, but it seemed like they were everywhere in the city. Every little shop had some martian in the window and aliens seemed to be the topic of the town. It was a large town because there was a college in the area, but it really didn't seem like the 50,000 that it said it had. I rode my bike up and down and around the area for a little while and then pulled into a restaurant. I was able to talk with a couple of guys who were going hunting and they were both very curious as to what I was doing. They learned that I was biking across the country for an organization and they were very helpful. They picked up my tab and then went on to donate money towards the cause. It was great to see such great hospitality from a couple of guys that were probably only a few years older than me, and I followed this by going back to my hotel room. I was looking forward to being able to ride on some flat lands tomorrow and I couldn't wait to see if the wind would be at my back again. The hotel room was great and the mattress was even better.Daily mileage: 101.2 miles
Average speed: 16.2 mph
Total mileage: 4,860.1 miles
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