Today I didn’t ride, but instead “sagged.” Sag duty includes waking up extra early to make breakfast, waking up the team, getting all the good packed into the trailer in a timely manner, preparing rest stops every twenty miles, and cooking dinner if necessary. Daniel and Kathryn were my sag partners and it looks like we made it through the day alright. We woke up at 3:45 am to et our things together and woke everyone up at 4 am. The reason we’ve been waking up so early is because we want tot beat the NM heat and also b/c the winds for whatever reason are not nearly as strong yet. After our bags were packed, team was full, we left the church at about 6:15 am and headed out in search of clean water for our team at the rest stops. We bumped into some policemen at the nearby Valero and being such a small town, the policemen made personal phone calls waking people up to try and find us ice and water. They called the manager of Valero, the city mayor, the county sheriff, largely b/c they were up and wanted others to be up as well. Nevertheless, thanks to them, we now have 5 extra cases of 24 water bottles. Sagging was definitely a good opportunity to rest my legs a bit, give my sores some time to heal, and serve my teammates a little bit. 80 miles later, we cooked dinner for our team for the first time: spaghetti, fruit salad (with leftover fruit), mixed vegetable, and garlic toasted bagels. It was definitely a treat. It’s only 5 in the evening and nearly everyone is tired in their beds. Some of my friends are blogging, others reading, and others are of course sleeping. Encino NM is truly a small town (with one out of service gas station and a population of less than 100). All in all, I’m thankful for this day of rest for tomorrow will be a longer harder day as we bike nearly 100 miles to reach Albuquerque. It will be exciting visiting our first big city, and as our team lead would say, “our morale is at an all time high.” Thanks for reading, keep in touch!

P.S. If you want me to send you a post card, email me your mailing address at ericbrianchen@gmail.com. Thanks again for your support!