Total mileage: 2736.2 miles
This morning Susan, Kristin, Steph and I headed out to grab some much needed coffee at McDonalds before hitting on the road. Much of the team had the same idea we did and about twenty minutes after wrapping up breakfast nearly half the group had arrived.
Once we were properly caffeinated our group hit the open road. Sadly our flow was interrupted because once we had gotten out of the parking lot Kristin discovered she had a flat. Never fear, we road a hi Escondido down the road and pulled into the Burger King parking lot. This actually worked out quite well because there was a museum inside featuring the Navajo code messengers. This was something that I had completely missed during school. Turns out that during WWII many Navajo were recruited to work with the government as code messengers. At this point in time their language was only spoken; there was no written Navajo language and there was no do Nelson into the English language. All of the codes they sent were perfect and in fact Iwo Jima would not have been as successful as it was without their hard work.
After the flat was fixed and I got my dose of US history for the day we were on the road again. A lot of us have been playing mind games/sharing brain teasers to pass the time. These games are a double edge sword because while they help to pass the time they can be equally frustrating when you can't get them.
The first part of the morning was full of rolling hills and some great scenery. About half way between the start of the day and lunch the shoulder became extremely small and we had to keep a vigilant eye out for the rumble strips. Sadly I missed a lot of what was going on around me because I was so focused on not hitting anything with my tire.
After lunch we pushed off down this newly paved road which was like butter. We did however notice a sizable storm forming off in the distance and sadly the took us right through the storm. While the colder weather was nice we did end up playing the game of is it rain or is it hail because it was kind of painful.
About fifteen miles outside of our host I noticed a sign for horseback riding. Everyone in the group is well aware that riding a horse is on my bucket list this summer so we figured we would try to see if we could DM a horse. I was feeling pretty good about it because we were going to stop for a stretch break at the top of the hill where the sign was located ... I am a big believer in fate and this seemed like the stars were lining up perfectly.
We wandered down a dirt until we were treated by a pack of dogs and eventually the owner of the stable. The woman and her husband run trail tours our of their home and after some convincing we were able to get ourselves on a horse. Nothing crazy ... just enough to take a picture and walk around in a few circles.
After that it was pretty much smooth sailing into our host. We would again be staying on a Navajo reservation in a small church. A bunch of us were pretty hungry after our hill climbing so we stopped in at the general store and picked up some snacks. Once we had gotten our munch on, I proceeded of pass our for two and a half riders; many riders had either napped before the snack or joined me.
For dinner the church members had made us "Navajo Tacos" which had a base of fry bread, beans, cheese and then the normal taco toppings. The man who had made all the bread had also made homemade salsa which we were told was spicy and that was definitely not a lie.
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