UFOs anyone?

Day 7: Socorro, NM to Roswell, NM
168.2 miles / 8:40 hours moving, 1:09 stopped / 7151' climbing
19.4 mph avg, 40.2 mph max / 8335 calories spent

Breakfast: Yogurt with fruit, 1/2 waffle with fruit, oatmeal with fruit.
Snack 1: Piece of watermelon.
Snack 2: Banana with Nutella, coke.
Snack 3: Banana.
Lunch: 2 hotdogs with onion, guacamole and mayo, 2 hard boiled eggs, chips, coke.
Snack 4: Coke.
Snack 5: (skipped, still too full from lunch and I just wanted to be done).
Dinner: Chicken enchiladas, with rice and beans, cup of soup, coke.
Dessert: 2 small shakes (see below).

My butt was hurting from yesterday so today was a two pair of short and 4 Ibuprofen kind of day. It all went well and I finished in decent shape. I even got to ride with Lon for a bit and he was telling me a bit about how he started racing back in 1981 and then his company in 84; he has seen a lot since then and he is a really nice guy.

Unfortunately we bypassed downtown Roswell as we got into town so I missed the more picturesque aspects of it (Sarah, aspects, is for you), nevertheless you get the UFO vibe everywhere.

Today I witnessed how roadkill is made, and like many things in life (and death) timing is paramount: About 30 yards in front of me a squirrel darted across the street from my side as a car was coming in the oposite direction, had it tried to cross two seconds earlier or later, it would be alive, instead, it froze right under the passing car and tried to run back. It was a quick muffled pop and dinner was served for some bird or other animal. Go tell the squirrel's family about The Circle of Life...

This morning is the first time that I woke up with the alarm clock. Every day before today, I've had a hard time sleeping mostly because my nose is so stuffed that I have to breathe through my mouth, and the airs here is so dry that I wake up every 45 min. Last night I used those breathe-right strips that open you nose, it feels weird, but I slept soundly.

I have to say that when biking this intensely anything you do that is not directly related to forward movement is exhausting, eating, taking pictures (so be really appreciative for the ones I got), picking my nose and even farting. Yes, I have to pick my nose every now and then because the very dry air here makes for petrified stuff inside there. Sorry I had to get so graphic, but you get the point. Now I have to stop this and go put some alcohol in my perineum for the saddle sores, more good imagery for you.

Your typical SAG stop. A quick water/Gatorade refill, sunscreen and some fruit.
I try not to sit, it takes 5 seconds for the legs to turn to lead.

The nuclear age began with the detonation of world's first atomic bomb at the Trinity Site on July 16, 1945. The site may have been named Trinity by J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of Los Alamos Nuclear Physics Laboratory, who said at the blast "Now, I become death, the destroyer of worlds", quoting from the Bhagavad Gita. The detonation of the bomb marked the culmination of the Manhattan Project.

Now I glow in the dark. 

Typical scenery of the day.

More of it.

The only ruido around here is the Air Force jets that go by every now and then.
This is very close to White Sands after all.

Yesterday we passed the Continental Divide, today...

The Machine at lunch stop. The guy with the red and yellow jersey is Lon, the RAAM champion. 

I just love these abandoned little houses in the middle of nowhere.

This is for the younger crowd who played Pokemon  when they were even younger.

Just a beautiful view, except for the f*#&ing  head wind which you can't see.

The sun is intense here.

Some aliens are actually welcomed here.

Couldn't make up my mind: Strawberry-banana or Oreo shake, how about both.