Monday - Wednesday, September 13th-15th

John and I needed a rest day in Grants and the new Holiday Inn Express was just the place. It also worked great for Mike Jackson to meet us there instead of somewhere on the route and then camp out. I got all my catch up things done in the morning and waited for Mike and his wounded warrior in the lobby. They walked in about 1:30pm, but it wasn't any veteran with him, Rosie Babin, the founder of Healing Americas Heroes and mom to Alan Babin a purple heart, severely wounded veteran of the Iraq War was with Mike. I could not have been more surprised, for Rosie to get take time off from her incredibly busy schedule to come out to Grants, New Mexico was a treat and an honor. Thanks Rosie, both John and I were really touched as we have been praying and talking to others about HAH for the last 6 weeks and to have you come out to see us was tremendous.

Tuesday the three of us got a late start from the hotel but not too late as to still do 60 miles or so for the day. Clearing town without any dog attacks or chasings, we headed through Zuni Canyon on an old railroad track converted many years ago to a road. We like those type of roads because they have a very slight grade uphill and are easy to climb. Not too far into the ride I got my first flat of the trip, 2100 miles and no flat tires. Had to eventually use a tube on it as my goo was not sufficient to plug it. After lunch the three of us headed on, the road was relatively flat but rocky with volcanic rocks and some sand. We had to go off road to get around a small lake that formed over the road. That is where our trouble began, within minutes Mike had a flat back tire. Fixed that one then his front tire went flat, fixed that one twice as the tube was defective. Got back on the bikes and in about 20 minutes Mike had another flat tire! There were goat heads (spurs) everywhere on the road. Using the pliers the I just bought the day before and just happened to keep with me, we were pulling them out of the tires left and right. Mike had a total of 4 flat tires, I had another flat front tire and the my trailer tire went. John's trailer tire went flat a little later, all told for the day we had 8 flat tires! We still managed to put in 60 miles but at dusk it forced us to camp in a briar-filled (and the usual cow manure) field next to the road. Of course John and I blamed all the bad luck on Mike joining us, as they say in Vegas he was the "cooler". Oh yea, almost forgot, Mike crashed twice towards the end of the day, soft sand in the road took him down as if an NFL lineman clotheslined him trying to run up the middle.

Wednesday we had to fix the flats that were still with us, thankfully the road we were on with all the spurs was only another half mile. To reach our target for the day, Pie Town, was only 35 miles of rolling hills, good terrain for the rookie to get accustom to pulling a trailer and negotiating the varying road surfaces. We made it to Pie Town in time to get lunch at the Daily Pie Cafe and have several servings of different pies, there really is a lot of pie eaten in Pie Town and they take their pie making seriously. John had three pieces, Mike one and I had two. An another amazing thing about Pie Town for those hiking, biking, or motorcycling the Great Divide Trail is the generosity of Nita Toaster who leaves her house completely open for those on that route, just leave a donation and the house is yours for the evening! The three of us were joined by three Canadians from Calgary doing the same route we are but on motorcycles. Great guys to meet up with, we slept inside on the beds and they slept on the porch. We keep saying it but you really do experience the nicest people on a trip like this. Pie Town also is the point on the route where we open our last map, Section 6, for the final 303 miles to Antelope Wells an the Mexico border. Hard to believe we have done 2200 miles of the route!

Paste the following link into your browser to see photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/113862939710452121802/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXlxP_J1Ib2Dw#

http://americasheroes.wufoo.com/forms/ride-the-divide-for-wounded-warriors/

http://trackleaders.com/divide