Start: 1000 (0600 wake-up)
Finish: 18:00
Travel Time: 8 hrs
Distance: 349 miles
Total Distance: 4411 miles
Day 14. Two weeks in. Antelope Wells, New Mexico was so close we can taste it. In a way this felt like the last day of the trip and in a way it just felt like all of our other days. The real question was, what kind of emotions would overcome us if and when we hit the border.
The motel we stayed at was a one-stop shop. We enjoyed the tacos at the bar last night, and this morning we went over to the restaurant for the most important meal of the day. The restaurant only had one other patron sitting down, but he was enjoying one monster omelette, so we decided to seat ourselves with the hopes we would also get to enjoy. Service was a little slow, but it gave us some time to befriend our lonely companion. He actually worked at the Copper Mine and was just getting off 3rd shift from driving one of the dump trucks in Freeport's massive fleet. These weren't your every day dump trucks, these things were the giant trucks of every little boy's dreams. The funny thing was that the mine was so massive that they looked like matchbox trucks when viewed from the road. He had some great stories to tell and filled us in on some crazy numbers from the mine:
- 1st largest copper mine in the US
- 3rd largest in the world
- on August 31st, 340 thousand tons of ore were extracted
- in the mines prime a few years ago they'd pull 1 million tons a day
- his truck hauls 310 tons in a single load
- there are an expected 100 additional years of mining to be had
He was a down-to-earth guy who put in some hard hours and proud of what he did and we really enjoyed getting to know him. We packed up the bikes and decided to try and get some close-ups photos of the dump truck graveyard just down the road. Apparently we got a little too close and a few of Freeport's finest gave us a warning to get off the private property. On the way out, we giggled a bit as we passed under the "Primary Crusher" and proceeded on our way. If you looked up mining town in Webster's, Clifton might as well been the one-word definition. At this time though, it was showing signs of the reduced production. We said our good-byes and were on our way.
We headed east on Rt. 10 through Lordsburg and pulled off one of the exits to shop for some border souvenirs. We couldn't resist the never-ending billboards advertising this place. I walked away with a rattlesnake skin belt buckle and Yobo picked up a little treat for Brit. We got back on the highway and made that fateful right hand turn that left us with only the Mexican border in front of us. By this point, the Continental Divide had puttered out into a few small hills rising over the desert planes in the distance. The prominence was there but it was it didn't seem like the divide we've grown to know. It was unique and beautiful in its own way. We stopped in Hachita to fill up our tanks at what had to to be the oldest gas stations in the country. I actually emptied my spare fuel tanks that I've carried for over 2700 miles rather than fill up at the station. Our only interaction now was with other people involved the border patrol trucks on patrol.
We headed due south on Rt 81 and soon enough the signs for the border showed up and THEN...the border station was in sight. They were working on expanding the station so there was some construction going on, but other than that it was like a glorified gas station complete with soda machines and candy machines inside and a bunch of attendants sitting around exchanging war stories. We approached and told them about our journey and they told us about many just like it. The one that sticks out though was a couple that did the same thing as your two protagonists...but on unicycles!!!!! This port entry was pretty benign and they said typical traffic was five cars a day or so. They let us proceed to the border to snap some photos and revel in the moment. It was funny because we recorded some videos and we were both kind of at loss for words.
It must be interesting for these border patrolmen to observe different groups of riders both starting and ending their continental divide journey. They get to observe the excitement and anxiety just like we had in Roosville and the exhaustion and overwhelming sense of accomplishment we exhibited in their backyard. This moment was a culmination of once-in-a-lifetime experiences. We ended up with a trail from Canada to Mexico that is unique to us and only us. Yobo and I could do our best to capture it in prose for the rest of the world, but this won't be something we soon forget. Now we just have to get back to LA to complete the story.
We hopped on our bikes and headed northbound for the first time in10 days. And wouldn't ya know it, on our way towards Hachita we saw a bike riding towards us. It was our buddy Kyle. I guess it's not that outlandish that we would run into him again, but really??? We exchanged a few more stories and took a couple goofy pics. We highly recommended he hit up Rt 191 (Devil's Highway) on the way back to Canada. Kyle was a great guy and we both hoped to ride with him again at some point.
The goal now was to get into AZ. We stopped in Willcox, AZ and stayed in a Holiday Inn just off the highway. This was pretty funny because my father had been tracking us on my spot tracker and the satellite images that were available didn't have the Holiday Inn and he thought we were camping just off the highway in a parking lot. After reassuring him we were safe we asked the front desk for a local place to eat and they recommended El Ranchero. It was authentic Mexican in a restaurant with a dining area that looked like my parents living room. We had fun with our waitress, Carmen and she snapped a polaroid to add to the collection on the wall. We were still on a "Man vs Wild" kick, so we enjoyed a few episodes before falling asleep in some comfy queen-sized beds. Tomorrow our last phase begins.
/s/ Goda
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