Day 39: The Finish

Tuesday July 27

Hachita, NM to Antelope Wells, NM

46.7 miles, 202 ft climbed, 2520.4 cumulative miles

We woke up with excitement and disbelief that today we will ride across our finish line. Easy, flat, paved 46 miles to the Antelope Wells border crossing with Mexico.

It was somewhat a mellow morning at the Bike Ranch, managed by Jeffery Sharp, who picks up riders from the border, feeds them, houses them, provides bike boxes, takes them to the airport and generally hooks them with anything they need to transition back to regular life. Jeffery made coffee and a delicious breakfast and we, along with another southbound rider, Mike, who showed up at the ranch yesterday evening, scarfed it down in preparation for our last day of riding. Mike has been about a day behind us and tracking us since Montana.

Jeffery took a picture of us and we were off down his dirt driveway then on the highway to the border. We were chatty, counting down the miles, high-fiving, singing, taking pictures, pumping our fists and just enjoying the last few hours. We carried all our gear with us to the border. There is just something about finishing with what we started with. Mike caught up to us and continued to the border to finish his trip. Jeffery would be meeting us there and driving all of us back to the Bike Ranch.

The border is still closed due to Covid so there was very little traffic, just border patrol white trucks driving back and forth. We waved each time and finally, when we were few miles from the border and gave a big fist pump, we got a honk bank. The border wall spans across the horizon - an odd sight.

We made the final turn in the road and saw the buildings in the distance. These were our fastest 46 miles. We somehow made it all this way from border to border with neither of us getting a flat. Hooray for tubeless tires and sealant!

With a little bit of coaxing from Sarah, Mike took our picture as we were approaching and then we, of course, made him be our finish line photographer.

So much joy! Sarah clearly had a lot of energy left since she did a handstand in front of the border entry sign. Jeffery arrived shortly after, pulling a trailer behind his car for the bikes. He brought a cooler with water, pop, beer, and snacks - he thinks of everything! Bikes were loaded in no time and we were driving back to the ranch. It was odd to be in a car now on the same road back.

At the ranch, we got busy showering, packing, taking our bikes apart, boxing them up, and transitioning to traveling home and real life. It took us a couple of tries to get the bike boxes below the airline weight requirements.

Late afternoon, Jeffery drove us the three hours to Tucson from where we both fly home tomorrow.

Final beers with dinner had us recounting the trip and planning a fun retrospective post, so stay tuned for that!