Spaghetti Dinner Success

A serious shout out to start this blog post, to my wonderful parents, Walthena & Andrew, & to everyone at St. Andrews in the Fort, as well as anyone else who attended the spaghetti dinner fundraiser last night. My parents were gracious enough to donate all the groceries/supplies so everything was straight profit. The dinner raised, according to my momma's math, $660! That's so awesome. So, while the math is making my head hurt...I estimate that that means about $3,800 has been raised for Bike & Build so far. I'll have a better estimate of my fundraising total in a few days when all the checks make it to B&B. But seriously, I continue to be overwhelmed by all the love & support my friends, family, & total strangers have shown me. While it's true that this money is going to a great cause, and I am solely facilitating this, it still gives me a serious warm-fuzzy feeling to see all the support I'm receiving.

Now, I believe the official count is 35 days 'til I arrive in Jacksonville. I've reached a point where B&B is the only calming thing in my life. Weird to think that the thought of biking across the country would be a calming one. The way I figure, the thought of graduation is petrifying. I mean real life? No thank you. I'll take my spring breaks, lunch time naps and random Holy days off. So B&B is all that stands between graduation & real life. So, thank goodness I've got 78 days that more than likely I'll be way too tired from biking to even think about what's waiting for me at the end. I'll take it. Haha.

The way I've worked out my "training" schedule I'll be running on weekdays, because I usually have to do so as it's nearing dark, and I'll bike on the weekends. For those of you who don't know I'm running the Pittsburgh Half Marathon just 10 days before B&B. Go big or go home, right? So, this weekend look for a post or two about crankin' out some miles. Pictures, of course, to be included.

Now, to start our exploration of New Mexico!

Clayton, NM

• Whoo! Mountain Time! Clayton will be the first city we enter in yet another state I've never been to, and our first city in MST. As I said earlier, while it's exciting to have biked to yet another time zone, I expect we will be more excited as we will pseudo gain an hour of sleep. Our early wake up calls will feel like sleeping in!
• The Hispanic population seems to be steadily increasing in each city we visit. The Hispanic population in Clayton is 51.1% of the total population.
• Clayton is the 1st town on the Santa Fe Trail in the Land of Enchantment (NM) & is located at the base of the Rabbit Ear Mountains.

Mosquero, NM

• The 2000 Census indicates that Mosquero has a population of 120. 77.5% of the population is Hispanic.
• Mosquero is considered a village rather than a city or a town.
• Though this may seem like a small village, a blog post I found while trying to find more info on Mosquero contained lots of pictures & indicated there might be some serious small village charm to be had.

AND...last, but not least, LAS VEGAS!!! (New Mexico)
I originally got SUPER excited when I saw that our route for the summer included a day in Las Vegas. My spirits were quickly crushed when my father pointed out it was Las Vegas, NM. That just seems cruel. Haha. But onward we go.

Las Vegas, NM

• There are two distinct sections of Las Vegas, "Old Town" or the West side, and "New Town", or the East side. The original city was on the west side of the Gallinas River, however, when the railroad was built it was built on the other (East) side of the river, and a "new" town formed there as a result.
• Las Vegas is home to the only remaining Carnegie Library in NM. Pittsburghers, this name should sound familiar, this library was started and built with a donation from Andrew Carnegie, the same Carnegie for whom the museums, CMU, & the libraries are named.
• The Hispanic trend continues. Las Vegas boasts a Hispanic population of 82.94% of their total 14,408.
• Several movies, including Paul, Due Date, No Country for Old Men & Wild Hogs were filed in and around Las Vegas.