Arrived in El Paso yesterday, the traditional lands of the Manso and Suma indigenous peoples of the Mogollon culture, and later the Mescalero Apaches—and which my Airbnb host tells me was put on the map for European descendants by the brothel madams of the late 1800s. It was raining when I got off the plane… Continue reading Starting Point: El Paso

Day one: El Paso to the New Mexico desert After stopping for coffee and a doughnut, getting out of El Paso went smoothly, despite being on a busy road lined with strip malls for most of it. A cop car was lingering in the next lane for a bit, then blasted “Bicycle Race” through their… Continue reading Wind, snow, and a flat tire

Waking up to a flat tire was not how I wanted to start the day, but since I was inside (though without heat) I figured it would be a good time to replace the tube and tire that had been giving me trouble and to be done with that annoyance for good. My fellow hostel… Continue reading Century ride from Hachita to Douglas

Spent two nights in Bisbee, Arizona, an old copper-mining town in the Mule Mountains and near the traditional lands of the Ópata and O’odham peoples. I’ve fallen in love with the century-old architecture, the narrow streets and public stairways that climb and wind through the hills, and the creative community that now lives there. Being… Continue reading Bisbee be stealing my heart

Day eight The few days after leaving the BLM land off of highway 82 were delightful. I packed up camp and put on shorts for the first time, and after a relatively short ride I passed by The Café in Sonoita and decided to take a break on their empty patio. Seeing how quickly I… Continue reading Arizona Highways

Day eleven I set an alarm for the first time in a very long time. I’ve been getting up with the sun for most of the trip, or at least waking up with the sun and taking my time to heat up coffee, make breakfast, and pack up for the day. I wanted to get… Continue reading A long day

Day twelve I woke up without a plan. The Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument was to my south, but I eventually needed to make my way north to Gila Bend, where Interstate 8 was the only way I saw of continuing west without crossing into Mexico, or taking the unpaved and unmaintained Camion del Diablo… Continue reading Up and down highway 85

Day fourteen It was less than five miles of riding west on Interstate 8 from Gila Bend before I got a flat tire. I don’t know why there had been a heavy-duty staple on the shoulder of the highway, but one prong was now lodged deep into my rear tire. Always the rear tire with… Continue reading The Interstate

Day seventeen The internationally-recognized official center of the world is located in Felicity, California—a city that was founded in the mid-1980s with the idea that it would serve as a museum of history and the center of the world. I learned this while watching an introductory video as part of my $8 private tour of… Continue reading Three surreal days in southeastern California

Day twenty While I’m glad to have made a detour north to see the Salton Sea, I was looking forward to putting the alien landscape behind me. My plan for the day is to continue my counter-clockwise loop around the body of water, then turn to the west and camp a few miles into the… Continue reading Climbing, with an interruption from the wind

Day twenty-three My motel room does not have a coffee maker. Some have, and some have claimed it’s a COVID risk. I think this motel has never had one, so I use my camp stove to heat water for instant coffee. I ran out of stroopwafels about a week ago—I thought they would be a… Continue reading San Diego