PACTour Day 18/19 - Last day in NM

Last night we had dinner in a nice TorC New Mexican restaurant.  Lon sternly warning us that there was a "Car Back" as we were all in the middle of the road.  Susan nearly jumped out of her skin and we saw Lon chuckle a little...

Andrea's Hot Stuff - Will Slauson!!

Will loves soccer (he rides the bike to make dad happy.)  We had the single funnest experience of the trip yesterday evening procuring some TorC T-shirts from Dukatt '71.  More on this later.

The back of Will's shirt advertising the Buckhorn burger restaurant in nearby San Antonio, NM.  The Chili Cheeseburger is supposed to be second to none.

Dukatt's signature logo, on the back of Terri's T-shirt.

Will and Jim had a good room today (and most days on the trip.)  Close to the bike stands and breakfast.  They call it Rockstar parking.

Morning peleton was sizeable, split on a little riser, then Jim and Will whistled thru rest stops 1 and 2 with the fast guys on the tour - David, Craig and even Chip for a while.

Millions of these caterpillars on the roads the past 2 days.  We tried to avoid them all, but a few will not become butterflies.

Lunch today, mile 66/80 at Fort Seldon Monument museum.

Our nice approach into Las Cruces from TorC today.  Moderate pace, a little head wind.  Nice ride.  

Garmin demonstrated the gently downhill profile today, nicely countering the constant headwind starting late morning.

Almost to El Paso!!  Tonight we overnight in Las Cruces and the Turk and Jaime showed up to spice up the last nights and tomorrow's ride.  Turk says it's about a 2 hour drive from San Antonio to Las Cruces, NM.  Apparently she was "resting her eyes" quite a bit today.

There was one thing that Terri wanted as a souvenir from this trip - a T-shirt from Truth or Consequences, NM.  As mentioned yesterday there is a fond spot for this city in the Slauson's hearts, although they had never been there.  Will and Jim hit TorC yesterday around 2pm and the adventure began.  They stopped and IGA and Dollar General, but no TorC shirts.  Continuing down into town the went into a store with a few T's but nothing really fit the bill.  The lady there recommended Dukatt 71 where all the local shirts are made.  A couple of blocks away, but Dukatt was out and the shop was closed!!  Jim called his cell phone, but the reception was crappy so the boys headed back to their motel figuring that there would be no T-shirts.

Well the owner and local personality, Jeff Dukatt, called Jim back and said to come by around 5pm - his closing time.  Will and Jim rode back down to the store around 5 and had a wonderful time.  Jeff asked Jim what he was looking for and came up with 2 basic T's for Terri.  Jeff got a loose idea of what Jim wanted on the shirts, lettering style and logoing.  He said it would take a half hour or so to fire up the machine, which was fine.  The next 30 minutes covered the history of TorC and Dukatt 71, the battles Jeff has with the local leaders, the truck that drove into the shop, etc etc.  Jim and Will were laughing out loud.  Jeff decided that Will needed a shirt also, picked out a tie-dye orange/yellow T, and promised it would tone down with washing.  No problem the colors are basically that of Espana, where will was this summer.

Jeff asked Will what else he enjoyed besides cycling, Will said soccer, Jeff thought about it for a minute and said "I have just the thing."  Will's shirt is pictured above and Will absolutely loved it.  Jim loved the shirts Jeff created for Terri (as did she when she got 'em today.)  The man is an artist and master at knowing what the customer wants, for sure.

Tonight there is a little get together for dinner, so we'll say goodbye until tomorrow, the final leg of our journey from Canada to Mexico!!  65 miles from Las Cruces, NM to El Paso, highlighted by a 6 mile 1500 foot climb thru the Franklin Mountains.

Thanx for reading.