Leg 2 Day 12 Plan - Ride to historic Ft Sumner NM

Today I'll be riding 60 miles to the Super 8 Motel in historic Ft Sumner NM - it seems Fort Sumner is where Billy the Kid was buried... I plan to check that out.

Here's a link to the Fort Sumner Chamber of Commerce website:

http://www.ftsumnerchamber.com/

But before I go I've got some preparations to make - oh boy, there's that preparation thing again - with the exception of the Post Office fiasco (which was lack of preparation and ignorance on my part and stupidity on the part of the Post Office employees in 2 different Post Offices and just bad luck - hmmmm sounds like an ICE chain to me - I'll talk about that in a minute), this trip has gone fairly well.

I mean, come on, I've ridden over 1000 miles on a bicycle across Texas in the winter and through the beginning of one of the worst Arctic blasts in history and the worse thing that happened to me was that the Postal Service sent all my camping stuff back to my house in Lake Jackson....

All I can say is - Thank you God! You're definitely keeping up your end of the bargain.... and I'm trying to keep up with mine - Ease up on the cussin' - Take it easy on the quick temper - Lose the attitude and just Enjoy the Ride!

It's taken 1000 miles on a bicycle to wring some of the mean out of me and let in some goodness but it's happening slowly but surely....

I should've done this a long time ago, but I was too worried about too many things that really aren't worth worrying about...

So 'nuff of the soul searching - let's get back to the here and now!

Oh yeah - before I forget - What's an ICE chain? It's an acronym for an Incredible Chain of Events. It's almost always used in the context of an investigation of a safety incident of some kind like a refinery explosion or a plane crash....

Here's how it works - in the investigation - typically called an RCI - Root Cause Investigation - there is a reconstruction of the incident going backwards from the last event - which is the accident itself. A chronology of the incident is constructed. In every case there are several events, acts or decisions that are made that line up in a unique way that lead to the bad event - it's never one act or decision because typically there are safety procedures or systems in place to take care of at least 2 sometimes even 3 layers of uh-oh's ..... usually you have to have at least 3 - 4 stupid things happen in a row that are linked together to form an Incredible Chain of Events - an ICE chain.

This was definitely the case with the Post Office problem. I won't go through it all but if I was drawing it up on a board the ICE chain began with me not leaving Lake Minerals State Park in time to get to the Post Office before it closed.... it continued with the guy at the Mineral Wells Post Office not checking my labeling of the package for proper ID for General Delivery Pickup.... it continued with me not calling ahead to the Muleshoe Post Office for a heads up to look for my package.... another link was the Mules Post Office guy making the decision to send the package back immediately (the same day it arrived) to the return address - my home in Lake Jackson Tx.

Anyway - it's done - it's over - lessons learned - won't make the same mistake again.

So here's the plan of the day:

• Test the Coleman stove I bought at Walmart.
• Test the Coleman sleeping mat I bought at Walmart.
• Test the Hi-tec tent I bought at Big 5.
• Organize everything and pack the Action Packer and the Backpack.
• Walk over to Taqueria Jalisco and eat breakfast and get 2 breakfast tacos for the road.
• Check out of the motel by 9:00 am.
• Ride to the Clovis Post Office (on the way out of town) and mail a couple of items back home (that should be no problem - that's where everything I've mailed so far has gone anyway - with my luck - the stuff will probably end up in Santa Fe!)
• Ride 60 miles to the Ft Sumner Super 8 and check in.
• Ride to Dave's Cash & Grocery and buy a few items - coffee, sugar, creamer, hot choc for camping out at the park.
• Find Fred's Bar (Traci Ragland told me about it over Breakfast in the Muleshoe "Dinner Bell" restaurant) and eat Mex food and drink margaritas.
• Back to Motel and crash.

Man - it's 7:35 and I gotta get busy.... see you in a little bit!