Day 18 [Deming, NM]

It wouldn't be a cross country bike trip if I didn’t wake up to a flat tire some of the time.  It’s always a nice little surprise for me when I load up the bike and then realize that I have a flat.  So I unloaded it, patched the tube, and reloaded it.  I am starting to get pretty quick about fixing these flats, this being my third one of the trip thus far.  For some reason it’s always the back tire, too.  I guess the front one is just a champ.  Once on the road it was an absolutely awesome day.  63 miles @ 14.7 mph without a single ache or pain anywhere in my body.  I also stumbled upon the Ritz Carlton of RV parks for this evening.  It was a bit more expensive than the rest at 13 bucks, but I was glad to pay it.  They have cleaner showers than most of the motels I’ve gotten and they even have stake-able ground for my tent (a rare occurrence for me given the terrain I’ve been riding through).  On the ride today I ran into David and Nancy again, the couple I met yesterday that’s biking cross-country on a tandem bike.  We enjoyed a nice treat at Dairy Queen together, swapped e-mails, and then were back on our way.  Good luck to you two if you’re reading this!  For dinner  I’m going to sit at the bar of the restaurant across the street and watch March Madness ensue.