T - Man did it bloody rain last night! I am glad we were under that old shelter. It absolutely bucketed down! Thankfully Mabel stayed nice and dry. That’s the main thing!

This morning though we were greeted by screaming blue skies and a soft warm breeze as we crawled from our tent. It’s always nice to cross into a new place even if it is just a new state! Already the people here are waving at us as they drive past our camp. Friendly lot these New Mexicans!



We packed up camp and then we checked Rosies spokes, again, before heading out. I have placed some zip ties around the crossover points of the spokes in the hopes of minimising any more breakages.

We zipped down the road when Rosie started making a tick tick tick sound from her back wheel. I groaned. Another spoke Rosie? Already? But it was just a zip tie end that had gotten caught in the spokes and was flapping against the swing arm. Lucky Rosie, Chantelle was threatening to dump her in the ditch.







C – I am so annoyed about this spoke situation. We had no problems prior to me slamming into that cattle grid. All could have been avoided if I had avoided that big bump! Poor Rosie. I was determined to not put her under any more pressure and avoid the dirt roads. At least on the bitumen you are much more likely to spot uneven surfaces and avoid big potholes and bumps.

T - We have decided to avoid the dirt roads for now until we can either get the spokes sorted or at least have a big handful of spares. We have ordered some and should have them in hand in Roswell. Hopefully!

We were cruising along a mostly deserted highway today, which was very pleasant. We passed through some tiny little villages some with nothing more than just a post office and some falling down old timber homes.









We had a short pitstop at a tiny little mercantile where I had a Billy the Kid Sarsaparilla! Nom nom!





Then it was onwards to our camp site. Reluctantly we had chosen this one as it was the only one near us out here but it was 12 km’s down a dirt road. Normally not a problem at all! But with Rosies rear rim being an unknown worry we were very wary. But in we went anyways!



The ride was gorgeous! We turned off the bitumen at a little ghost town looking placed called Mills and headed into Mills Canyon. The road was relatively smooth for the most part and it wasn’t long before we turned down into the canyon for one of the two camps here. Then the road got rough. It wound steeply down the face of the canyon, large rocks sticking up out of the road, massive washouts cutting across in front of us. Then the inevitable. It happened.





C – We had two choices here. One was a camp set up for horses on the rim of the canyon, and the other down in the canyon. We both much preferred to camp in the bottom in, but I instantly regretted it the moment we choose that fork in the road. I should of spoke up, but decided if I took it really really slow, we would be fine. I crawled along in first gear, avoiding every single rock, rut and bump I could. Those I couldn’t, I walked her over, worrying about how we were going to get her out the steep climb slowly after camping.

T - PING!

Rosie snapped a spoke.

Damn you Rosie. Chantelle and I stood there. Both of us thinking of tossing Rosie and her stupid rear wheel off of the canyon rim. We turned around and I hopped on Rosie so I could get off and push her up the steeper rougher sections of the road. There was a horse camp at the top of the canyon and we both knew we should have stopped there.







We slowly trudged back up the hill. Me pushing like mad to get Rosie over the rocky stuff. Then Chantelle dropped Mabel. Poor little Mabel. This was becoming a bit of an effort, but I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the silliness of it all!

C – I was annoyed at myself for putting Rosie in this situation, knowing her rear wheel was not up to this and with no spare outer spokes, it was a stupid thing to do. I was fuming at myself about this when I lost momentum on a steep section, went to put my feet down and a rut was there, meaning poor Mable was leaning heavily by the time I got my foot down. I couldn’t hold her and had to let her fall. I then spent the rest of ride up even more annoyed at myself for making such a silly mistake and dropping Todds bike.

T - Finally we rolled into camp. Rosie sulking like mad about her broken bum and Mabel sulking about her little fall.

I pulled Rosies rims off and stole one final spoke from her front wheel. I wasn’t too happy about this but I knew that if we rode her with one broken rear spoke, we would have 7 broken ones by tomorrow afternoon.





With Rosie repaired and back together we watched as a nice electrical storm scooted right over us and then we retreated into the tent before the rain came down.





What a day. New Mexico is beautiful, Mabel is amazing, Rosie is a hag.

C – Poor Rosie, sulking, sitting in the electrical storm getting rained on. Oh well, tomorrow is a new day right?!?!?!?!?!

Tomorrow we continue south to Roswell. Hopefully we should be there in 2 days. It’s only 400 km’s.