Day 40: On the road to Deming NM, Day 1

I woke up this morning in the motel room, anxious to get ready and get on the rode. It was still dark, so I took a bath and went to the motel breakfast bar, got breakfast,a newspaper, and came back to the room to eat. Before long, the sun was coming up so I got everything packed on the cart and headed across the street to get ice and a few supplies and started out.My next destination is Deming which is about 60 miles away. My goal for today is just to knock out some of those miles. Today, along with the next 5 or 6 days, will all be traveled on Interstate I10. Although I had been told that New Mexico allowed me to travel on the Interstate, I was waiting for the first trooper to see if it was true.

The road was long and the terrain was flat, very little traffic outside of a few 18 wheelers. Out this way you get almost no commuter traffic so trucks make up a large percentage of the traffic on I10. As I traveled along the way I encountered another rattle snack ,although he was ready to be buried. Another casualty of the blacktop. I also noticed that the hoards of grasshoppers were gone. I saw an occasional one, but not like I had seen over the past few days.

Well it wasn't long until here came a State Trooper approaching me with his lights on. He got out of his car and said that someone had reported a person walking down the interstate and he just wanted to make sure I was OK. After that, he told me to just be careful on the interstate but that it was OK to walk there. I was relieved to hear that. But the more I think about it even though I haven't broken any laws, I've been stopped in every state I've been in so far. Wouldn't this be an example of profiling : stop and question all old Caucasian men pushing shopping carts down the road. Where's the ACLU when you need them? Anyhow, I don't mind. I know they are just doing their job and I appreciate them trying to keep me safe.

My first walk of the day was about 12 miles and then I stopped and rested for about an hour and a half. I headed out and wanted to reach Exit 42, which was about 8 more miles away. About 4 miles from 42, I started seeing signs advertising the Continental Divide Trading Post. The signs were sort of like you see for South of The Border on the way to the beach. They were everywhere, saying it was about 4 minutes away. It wasn't 4 minutes for me though. Eventually I got there and stopped in for lunch and rest. I asked a woman where the Continental Divide was. (Students: Do you know what the Continental Divide is?) She told me it was actually about 5 miles up the road and I would see the sign. I left and walked 7 miles to where I was going to camp and still haven't seen the sign. One of several things obviously happened : The sign is down ; The sign is there but I didn't see it ; The woman's distance is wrong ; The Continental Divide has moved. Either I crossed the Continental Divide today or I didn't. I'll know for sure tomorrow.

A couple of other things that I noticed along the way today was lots of train engines pulling long lines of flat cars loaded with containerized freight. Obviously this is coming in to the West Coast from overseas and being transported by rail across the country. For several days, I have been seeing lots of flatbed trucks hauling copper from out of the mines around Superior and Globe.I have also noticed that even though I am still in the desert, I am seeing very little Cacti now. And finally for you motorcycle enthusiast , I saw a three wheel motorcycle fully enclosed with a fairing and pulling a small trailer.

I finally decided to call it a day at milepost 49 and settled in for the evening. About the picture about, I haven't seen any dust storms yet but am going to be on the look out.