Day 28: Socorro, NM

Socorro, in Spanish, roughly translates to "help" or "SOS," which is very fitting for today's ride. Due to some poor scheduling, we were given the impossible task of covering 137 miles by 2:00 in time for a friendship visit. I believe that is far beyond Lance Armstrong's capabilities. And with us being amateurs who lost an hour crossing a time zone yesterday, we didn't stand much of a chance. However, we did get a solid 90 miles in, which includes our conquering of the continental divide today. Overall, it was a wild ride, and we saw tons of wildlife. We probably spotted close to 30 elk, including one our paceline almost collided with and we even witnessed a mother elk pull her baby elk (I'm not sure what they call a baby elk) out from being stuck under a barbed wire fence. We also saw a couple of antelope after we crossed the divide and moved more toward the plains. However, what topped the cake was our paceline's run in with a full grown bear at 5:45 this morning. We turned around a curve in a wooded area and noticed about 30 feet away at the tree line we were being watched. The three of us stopped in disbelief and the bear seemed just as surprised. All of us, including the bear, fled the scene terrified. It was pretty crazy. Later we passed this crazy government facility where they use hundreds of these huge satellite dishes to try to talk to aliens or something. Apparently we pass where they tested the first H-Bomb in a couple days. Gotta love the middle of nowhere! Later we had a friendship visit with the Special Olympians of Socorro. One gentleman named Royce was truly inspirational. After an auto accident in 2001, he lost use of his legs and was ridden to a motor chair. Five "miserable" years later he pushed himself to become a paratriathlete, and left the motor chair for good. In August, he will head to New York City for the Paratriathlete National Championships where he will swim 1 mile in the Hudson, bike 26 miles on his hand cranked bike, and sprint 6 miles in his wheel chair. What a stud! Dinner with the Olympians was an authentic mexican plate of enchiladas. The chiles here are incredible. We are all excited and ready to knock out the next day of the gauntlet. Here are a couple photos: the divide, and the crazy satellites.