Lumberton, NM

This was a pretty crazy day that started off all uphill! I rode with Laura all day and then Colleen and Dusty joined us after lunch. After going uphill for a very long time, we starting having lots of steep up and down hills so, even though I was having fun with Laura, I was having a pretty tough time. Lunch was at a restaurant where an alumni works and had offered to give us a bunch of desserts and drinks for free! I originally said I wasn't going to eat lunch there but by the time I arrived, I couldn't help myself and I tried out a lamb burger for the first time. It was actually a really awesome sandwich but it put me to sleep.. And I ended up sleeping with my head on the table for about 30 minutes on accident. During this day, we also had the sweep challenge "this is why I'm single" so we were going crazy doing a lot of really weird and hilarious stuff. Colleen, Laura and I definitely submitted the most stuff and they were pretty funny. After lunch, I had a really great ride until there was about 20 miles left and we stopped at a gas station for a bathroom break. While we were waiting, it started to storm out of no where and then all of a sudden was hailing like crazy! We waited for a break in the storm and then got out as fast as possible. Unfortunately, there were storm clouds on all sides of us and they were closing in super fast. We got about 15 miles out from the host and it started hailing and storming on us again but there wasn't anywhere for shelter. Eventually, we came across a storm drain that passed under the road and as we were crawling in, a car pulled up, offering to let us sit in his car until the storm calmed down, which was so awesome! He was do extremely nice and gracious towards us as we soaked the inside of his car. Luckily, he was a government employee in his government car, so he told us that it gets cleaned anyways. Once the storm finally calmed down, we made out way out again and then about 7 miles out, Colleen and I both got flats at the exact same time down a huge hill, while it was raining. We were both so freezing that we had the hardest time even getting to change the flats. We were both so so cold and wet and miserable that the situation actually became hilarious! Katie and Shayan rolled up on us after a while and we still hadn't change the flats so they helped us out while telling us about that 10 mile detour they took and accidentally went to Colorado. We were all so freezing and crazy that we couldn't stop laughing and we just wanted to get into the host! We eventually, finally made it in and were greeted to an almost immediate hot shower and mail! It was a good way to end a crazy day. We stayed at a school where all the teachers are volunteers who get a small salary and get housing and some meals for free. A lot of their volunteers are kids like my group that come teach elementary school kids. It was a pretty cool place to be!