Outside of Roswell and east of the Pecos River, the scenery became extremely desolate. About 18 miles in, I captured these two photos at the same spot facing east on Highway 380. The road looked like it would travel forever into the horizon.

There was literally nothing around!

I sat down outside and spoke with a rancher who inquired about the oddity of someone bicycling on this desolate stretch of highway. We talked about the chollas (the "walking stick" variation) that grew naturally in the land, and how some ranchers have them pulled out, cut up and pushed into large piles in the fields, similar to raking and piling autumn leaves.

Feeling a little goofy, I was tempted to advocate from those amazing cacti and inform him I am the proud webmaster of www.CactusLovers.com, a pro-desert and pro-cactus web site. C'mon, sir! How could anyone get rid of those beautiful chollas?! They rock the house! Ahhhh but I was not courageous enough to say what I was thinking. The rancher seemed a little serious and conservative, and I did not want to come off as a wacky "tree hugger" of any sort, so I kept my mouth shut from joking. I already had my long, naturally curly hair flowing and felt out of place as it was bicycling through ranching country. :p)

Ah well, I feasted on a large beef burrito in Tatum in the afternoon, and that beef very well could have come from these very ranches! ;)

Oh and congratulations to Stevie Stroud! :)