Saturday August 12, 2017 Continental Divide New Mexico Day 20
Last leg to the Mexican border day 20
We left the motel parking lot in Silver City this morning about nine headed south on this road, a rather nice road with only a little slippery stuff from the rains.
We passed cattle here and there as it was open range.
Making the right road choices
Our leaders mostly made the right choices and took the right roads after a bad false start from Silver City in the wrong direction.
Crossing under Interstate 10
We finally made it to Interstate 10 and went under it to the frontage road on the other side.
On the other side of 10 was this tourist trap the ladies checked out while we waited.
A bit of frontage road
We than traveled down this dirt frontage road going east with 10 for five miles or so until we hit the paved road south to Antelope Wells border crossing, a couple hours ride.
Our last Divide crossing
We saw this sign which was the last time we’d cross the Divide on this trip south, about 46 times. The guys are settling down for a picture.
Some lunch
We stopped here for lunch in the little town of Hatchita before continuing on south to the border.
Entering the border area
This was the view as we entered the border area. 
These guys did it
It was good to see three bicyclists that just finished the whole trip like we did. We went over most of the places the bikes went and I was glad to be in a van at my age. We gave them a lot of credit.
We lined up for a picture in front of the sign at the border.
And lined up in front of our rigs for pics at the border.
It started raining on us
It wasn’t long before heavy rain moved us out headed North now.
We went our ways and found our camp
We parted company with our fearless leaders at Hatchita where they went west to Quartzite and we returned North on the road we came down on. We did get lost once or twice on the way, but made it back to this spot in this cattle working area where we made camp for the night.
Spotted a rabbit on a walk
Just before dark I went for a little walk around the compound and spotted this rabbit I jumped. It ran and then stopped for this picture.
Watched storms all around us
We could see a long way all around us. We watched this storm brewing to the east spitting lots of lightning and just a little bit of rain on us. This all went on until after dark.
Raps up the trip
This raps up our Continental Divide Trip from Canada’s border 20 days ago.
To the Mexican border today.
An adventure
It was all quite the adventure with lots of challenges and even some excitement at times. The rigs all ran well with no serious breakdowns. The most serious breakdown seemed to be with my altitude sickness.
We followed the bicycle routes whenever we could. There isn’t just one route as there are alternates for snow and rain and mud, so anyone doing this has to be ready to make changes in plans. We had a fire detour, a bridge out and a snotty roads section and a road closed to name some of the stuff we dealt with.
We mostly have had cooler weather for the trip which wasn’t expected. Quite a bit of rain too on the way down.
Adventures not over yet
But the adventure isn’t over yet, we still need to get back home. We plan to head North for awhile staying off Interstates if possible and also off of any muddy roads and out of the higher country.
A good adventure so far.
Posted from Silver City headed North.
You had a wonderful trip, now just get home safely. Amazing what younger bikers can do and amazing what older folks can do too! You traveled places and on roads we wouldn’t so it was very interesting. Glad you’re feeling better at normal elevation.
Thank you for taking us along!
Congratulations and thank you so much for the great writing and great pictures you shared with us on this journey! It sure brought back lots of memories for me, and you all will have great memories of this trip. I’ll still continue reading your blog, I really enjoy all of it. Thanks again Bob Eyes! Pam in Louisiana