Roswell, New Mexico

I'm a firefigher, lights and sirens get me going. The morning started off with plenty of lights and sirens as we were led out of town by a 3 car police escort. A couple miles out, the officer in the front pulled to the left lane and rolled down his window. He yelled to me, "Hey, you like Van Halen?" I thought to myself what an obviously silly question that was while I simultaneously screamed back, "Hell YES!" He then cranked some solid rock and we jammed out on our bikes until the song was over and the escort dropped off. What a perfect way to start the day. It didn't remain perfect for long however as the wind picked up and slammed us in the face repeatedly. The sun cooked us through some 95 miles of riding in the open and shade was no where to be found. After 30 miles or so of messing around with a rotating paceline, my knees started to get mad at me for cycling inconsistently, so I just gunned it and rode off by myself to the front of the pack. I still spent considerable time at the lunches, but no one was to be found. Maybe they stopped for a cool detour, except that can't be the case because there was literally nothing around. Anyway, I had some serious prom proposal odds and ends to figure out, so I wanted to get to town ASAP to set everything up. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off when I got there and my secret plan was laid out perfectly. Then at the last minute, extenuating circumstances cast their nasty shadow on my scheme and it disastrously fell apart. Oh well, that's life I guess. So there I was in Roswell with super sore legs and nothing to show for it. What was I to do? I ended up doing the best thing I could have; talk to the lady who coordinates our stay whose name is Rita. Word on the street is that she had more money than God and she let that show with her automobile collection. She decided to keep the '57 T Bird at home and instead drove her Pontiac GTO which she drove with me on a little joy ride. Somehow she forced the keys upon me for the night (she didn't have to do much forcing in all honesty). I accompanied the van and loaded others into the convertable to drive 20 min to the perfect star gazing site. From a sketchy field we could see the city lights and more stars illuminating the night sky than I ever thought existed. It was a gorgeous night of leaning my head back in the car, staring at the sky, and supplementing with intellectual conversation. Plus that car was freaking fun to drive! It was fast and the roads were empty, so I was able to generate some goo speed to make everyones hair whip around. One of the best nights of the trip, yet again.

Ok so we didn't see any aliens, and no one from the group got abducted. The closest we got was the mcdonalds playscape shapes like a UFO. Oh well, we're all nuts anyway, so an additional wild story in the group cache may have ruined our credibility. The build today was top notch. The first task laid out for two small groups was to build two 8'x12' sheds. Shed wars officially began when we cast the idea of safety aside and threw down a challenge to see who could get the most done in a day. What was great about this build site was that there was minimal supervision. We were told to build a shed, the dimensions and rough blue prints were given to us, but beyond that we were pretty free to do what we saw fit. Ryan S. and myself had fun with this. He used to work construction and I just convince myself I can so things I have no real experience in. So we worked through lunch and we figured out angles of the roof pitch, and how to make our overhang and my group that we called the roof riders did some excellent work. There were multiple projects being undertaken in each phase of this construction and with flawless group cohesion, we were declared winners of shed wars 2010. At around 10am the mayor showed up to offer his congratulations and provide some town info on the dairy capital of the southwest. Reporters were there too because rule of thumb, wherever we are, the media is. People were looking around to do the morning cheer but I was nowhere to be found to start it. I had climbed up to the roof and stuck my head out over the frot awning to scream "Who's on the house?" I thought it was a cute little change of pace and I was real happy I didn't fall trying to attempt it. When we got back we took showers and started cleaning and tuning our bikes. I had just recently bought new tires ($90 value) and tonight I replaced my chain ($25) and gave 2 hours of cleaning attention to my bike. When you put a hunk of metal, plastic, and runner through so much stress, you have to put some gentle loving time aside too. The chain and tire replacements were just regular maintenance as they both start to wear after this many miles. At five of five I was swept away to the UFO museum around the corner. Guess what time the museum closed? You got it, 5 pm. So I had just enough time to look at the gift shop and leave. After cycling hard and building hard, I decided I would appeal to my geriatric side and turn into bed shortly after dinner. A solid choice with a 445 wakeup call the next morning. Roswell didn't present us with any supernatural beings, but I have a feeling it changed the current course of my life.