The last state hunting ride of this trip was this for NM & TX ( already had TX). This was not on the original plan yet after talking to Sonja about it she agreed that we could come this way down to Las Cruces, NM to get this NM state. Thank you Sonja. From Collinwood, TN, we drove to Super 8 Henryetta, OK for the night. Along the way we opted to go to Tupelo, MS to see Elvis childhood home ( Elvis Presley Birthplace). Nice spot. Then we ate at Johnnie's Drive In and had their version of bbq which was hunks of meat. I was not a real fan. After that 1-night stay in Henryetta, OK, we then headed out to Las Cruces, NM Days Inn. On this leg we stopped at White Sands Nat Park, a place Sonja had never seen. Of course she took a little stroll to the sand. This made for a long day since the drive was 11 hours! Yet it went by fast. Got to the hotel before sunset! Had a room next to 2 guys that were sitting outside their room eating, talking, and relaxing. The next morning Sonja agreed to drive me the ~6 miles to my new start of the the bike ride. At first I was a bit disoriented of what exact road to take, but I figured it out. What a nice route, mostly, except for the I-10 frontage. Lots of pecan groves, various styles of homes. Not sure where the name chili pepper challenge comes from. Had a dog that came out and just wanted to run beside me at 20mph for almost a mile around mile 25 & 33.9. On the return trip of 33.9 I pushed the dog and me to our max of 23mph. He even took a tumble once and got right back up to run. On way down he came out of an irrigation ditch to run. On way back N he was with another dog, running in among the pecan grove an the other side of a barb-wire fence. Eventually he ducked under the fence and came out on road and crossed to other side to run. Fun time with these dogs! Back to TX border! There was no sign of the border. Now after looking closely at Google Maps, I see that mile 27.2 - 37.9 of my route I was passing in and out of TX, many times as this is where the far W end of TX butts to NM. The turnaround was in TX. I would change the route to miss the I-10 frontage if do this again. Not sure how, but there are 2 levee roads one might take to get to the control in the middle of the frontage and then go from there.