Four nights into a quick five-day get-away to Ruidoso, NM, I'm sitting here reflecting upon the time since my last post, the one covering my wonderful time in Bosnia and Montenegro. This afternoon, when I talked to Dan, owner of Lost Hiker Brewing Company, it once again became so clear to me what an amazing life I am leading. One day here, the next day there, living it all to the fullest. Wow. And just yesterday I had come to the same realization after a hard mountain bike ride that ended up at Sierra Blanca Brewing Co.'s taproom here in town, when I talked to a 29-year-old local who's going to turn 30 in a day or two and is still recuperating from an emergency appendectomy, barely escaping the grim reaper. Maybe I gave Justin a few words of wisdom over the beers we shared.
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| Road riding north of Ruidoso,NM. These mountains used to be covered by trees. |
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| The Rektek got me up all inclines, thanks to a 30-tooth cog |
Since my time in Bosnia, my friend Andrew has experienced a few setbacks, but I am sure he will bounce back. We all have these things happen to us. We all live our lives, sometimes connected, sometimes not. It all goes on, whether it's nice and pleasant or not. I've been very fortunate over these past few months, but one always is just a split second or a moment's inattentiveness away from disaster. I thought about this today on my mountain bike ride in a remote location on a trail far away from civilization and outside of cell coverage. Same thing yesterday. So, there were a few spots where I got off the bike and walked for a few feet, thinking, I don't need to be out here breaking another something.
But we all know that breaking shit has not much to do with the precautions we take. It's a matter of circumstance and mojo, and some--actually, many--of my friends would say, the intervention of a deity. And so we carry on, hoping against good sense that luck will continue on our side. Every time I get on that bike I think about it, sometimes scared shitless but also knowing that going forward is the only way, albeit with caution and prudence, if a 62-year-old can be said to have that when doing 30-mile-loops through New Mexico's hinterlands.
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Sometimes a paved highway does provide a certain sense of comfort,
especially with storms approaching |
At least the aliens haven't abducted me yet. Lots of them out here in the grander Roswell area! They're only outnumbered by wooden bears--as if it takes another reminder of the devastating effects of the Little Bear conflagration in 2012. And let's not forget that Smokey the Bear will celebrate his 75th birthday next year. I learned that on my long ride down to Lincoln.
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| Alien and spaceship |
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| He's benign, just doing his job |
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| We barely dodged that abduction and instead sought refuge at ... |
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| ... a friendly brewery, of course! |
Just two weeks ago I put the finishing touches on blog entry #300, and since then I returned from Bosnia to spend a few more days with Sabine, then arrived in the States, unpacked, re-packed, and left for Colorado to work a four-day stage race, returned to Lubbock and got ready for this quick trip to the place of the Noisy Waters, as Ruidoso translates into the English vernacular from Spanish.
Colorado this year wasn't all that much fun. I hate to say it, but for once work felt like work and didn't make me think "this is so great!" No, it certainly wasn't the organizers or my co-workers--it was just simply that in those five days up there I really didn't see a clear blue sky. Like so many states in the western US, Colorado has been having to battle devastating wildfires, and they're still roaring. Denver's sky looked like that of Shanghai; Vail was washed out and hazy. It didn't help to spend four out of five nights in a hotel close to the Denver airport, in what one charitably can only call a desert. I didn't really get to see my colleagues from the officiating side, and so the whole trip was rather blah. OK, I spent a bit of time after one stage in downtown Denver, walking around, gawking at the green-cross dispensaries and collecting a few new breweries, but that was already the most fun I had.
Lubbock has been a damn hot place this summer, whether I was there or not. No exception during those few days between Europe and Colorado. So, I decided to use some of my timeshare points and invest them in a getaway in the mountains. Ruidoso is only about four hours from the Hub City, yet it must have been about 20 years since my last visit, OK, maybe 15. The place has expanded, and as I have learned it is the fourth-fastest growing city in all of New Mexico, right behind Corrales and Albuquerque. Whew!
So, I put the bike rack on the Beemer, put a mountain-worthy cassette on the Rektek road bike and lubed the Moots mountain bike, and left for a mid-week, pre-Labor Day retreat to the mountains. My somewhat dated accommodations at the Pinecliff Village (hey, it's RCI points, Dumbo, what do you expect?) are more than adequate and actually surprisingly comfortable, my stash of wine has carried me through nice evenings, and the weather has been close to perfect. What could I want more?
Between the road and the mountain bikes I have been logging around 130 miles over the past four days, and my body feels it. Elevation is real out here, and the rides go mostly up, or down, rarely flat. But man, that's what I came for, and I've been having a wonderful time. Tomorrow I'm driving back, but maybe I'll sneak in just one more 20-miler, just because I can. And I'll watch out for the aliens, too.
Jürgen
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