New Mexico= My Favorite State/Most Unique/Most Beautiful

If there were senior superlatives (like in high school) for states, New Mexico would hands down win best scenary, most unique, most diverse (both scenary and weather) and just overall my favorite state so far.

Seriously. And thats says a lot because the 8 miles in Kansas were pretty superb!

Reasons why:
-The landscape of New Mexico is SO beautiful. We went from flat desert outside Roswell to beautiful mountains. And the mountains are diverse as well, from green-covered to sandy with cactus. And NM used to have lots of Volcanic activity, we went through one area called Valley of Fire with black, volcanic rock.
-The weather has been hot, but it also cools down in the evenings. Its diverse but lovely. Two days ago we literally biked through clouds to clear skys. We also dodged beautiful thunderstorms and could see the storm and lightning from the distance. Oh, and I've seen two rainbows, one which was at the top of a mountain.
-Yesterday I went an extra 7 miles out of the way to go to a Very Large Array (VLA), a national satellite post with 27 HUGE satallites which record sound waves which give data to computers to help us understand the solar system better. Wickedly cool
-We got to the highest point in our trip yesterday: 8000ish feet. Which was at the top of the continental divide...did you know if you were to pee or pour water at the top of the continental divide, some might flow into the Pacific while part might flow into the Atlantic?
-Last night we stayed in Pie Town, NM: population 60. They made us a ton of pie, my favorites were the tri-berry, cherry, and peanut butter. And there was no light polution so when we got up this morning, the stars were more brillant than I've ever seen them.

And now, on to Arizona. The road crossing from NM to Arizona was beautiful, desolate, with lots of up and down hills. My friends have crowned me the "down hill champ" because I speed by them on the down hills, only to be passed going up.

All for now, except I can't believe that were are three states away from being done. That seems unreal. I know that when I started this trip I thought biking across the country was possible, but now it is becoming closer to reality....whoa!

love
allie