DAY 20 – Pueblo Pintado camp to Pie Town camp (133miles)

I’m awake early and set off as the sun rises. My earliest start by far as my usual alarm is set for 7am. The road is flat and pavement and my speed is good, but the heat and a headwind quickly pick up cutting my speed considerably. This miscalculation in speed and early morning temperature means I run out of water before I get to Jay’s Bar. I’m pretty desperate so have to wait 45 minutes until 11am when it opens. I take the opportunity to grab a well needed powernap in the shade on the porch. When the bar opens up I grab a few Cokes and press on.

I stop for lunch in Milan a few miles shy of Grants and then go to the supermarket there for supplies. I make my call-in and set off about 2pm, but don't even make Grants before I have to turn around. It’s just too hot for me to function; the humidity has risen and the wind has died off and I literally feel like I am cooking. I have to sit it out in the shade for a few hours, and drink whipping cream outside the supermarket until the afternoon thunderstorms arrive and I set off under dark skies for Pie Town and get a soaking. At least it's cooling.

The road out of Grants runs alongside a beautiful rock outcrop. As I’m drying out cruising along the flat pavement road, a woman stops her car and asks if I’m in the race. It's a bit of a shock when people do this. She lives in Pie Town and knows Matt Lee from previous years. In the middle of a sentence she pauses and looks me in the eye and says, 'You do know your crazy, don't you?', then carries on with offering me her porch to sleep on in Pie town. Straight through the stop sign and it's the house with the toasters on the gate. Makes a change from animal skulls out here I suppose!

As I reach the dirt road to Pie Town I panic to see big puddles at the side of the road and wonder if this is going to be a long walk with a heavy mud covered bike. Luckily I manage to keep the wheels turning and although it’s harder work I’m grateful it’s not worse. I’m about 18 miles short of Pie Town when it gets dark so I pitch up in a nice camp site sheltered by the trees from a strong wind that has picked up.