march 21

Hi guys. We are in kingston, NM in the middle of nowhere. We're at the black range lodge. It's like a big college dorm. We're playing scrabble and rummikub. We had a tremendous turkey dinner.And now I'm at a computer it will be a little easier for me. I was glad I made the decision to SAG the first 26 miles. It was all uphill on busy roads and I would have been too exhausted to enjoy the spectacular ride up to Emery Pass. When Cathy and I got out, we had a beautiful, narrow highway with virtually no traffic. The cars that were there were very observant. We climbed for 12 miles. I pushed quiet a bit and rested a lot. It gave me the opportunity to take lots of good pictures. There were three guys riding up self-contained. One of them was from Turku, Finland. I talked with him for a little bit. Then we climbed to the vista to see a marvelous view of the Black Range and Kingston 8 miles below us. Also interesting was that a forest fire had destroyed many acres of trees last year. You could still smell and see the charcoal. The 8 miles down was not bad at all. There were lots of switchbacks and, I applied my brakes a lot, but I made it down in one piece. Tomorrow we do 88 miles, mostly downhill to LAs Cruces. I hope I can finally find postcards from New MExico there. Most of the stores in these little towns close at 5 p.m. By the time I get in to town, shower and eat supper, I never have a chance to get postcards. I will rectify that tomorrow. _______________ War ein wunderbarer Bergauf bis zum Emery Pass. Bin froh, dass ich nicht die erste 26 Meilen mit dem Rad gefahren bin. Sonst haette ich die Fahrt ueber den wunderbaren Pass nicht so genossen. Wir waren alle am keuchen wegen dem O2 Mangel. Aber wir konnten Meilen weit sehen und ich habe viele Fotos gemacht. Habe auch gesehen, wo ein grosses Feuer viel Hektar zerstoert hat. Das "Hotel" ist wie ein Studentenheim. Wir haben einen Truthahn zum Abendessen gehabt und dann haben wir Brettspiele gemacht. War alles sehr gemuetlich. Morgen fahren wir 88 Meilen bis Las Cruces, unser letztes Aufenthaltsort in New Mexico. Dann kommt TEXAS!!!!!