We got up to a beautiful New Mexico morning where it was clear, cool, and light winds. The desert was green and flowers in bloom along the road.
In one of the little communities along old Route 66 we got chased by a big dog, which seemed to be good sport as the group of five of us raced to make sure we were not last in line for the dog to get. Later, Jeff, the 80 year old, biked by and he got tangled up with the dog. He took a fall, and skinned up his arm and leg (the dog took off). The biking docs fixed him up and he thinks he will be good to go tomorrow.
Another challenging part was a 35 miles of I -40 we had to ride. A five mile section was under construction with both lanes of traffic squashed into the east bound lanes. Our normal 8' shoulder with a rumble strip was down to two feet and no rumble strip. At least the trucks were only going 45 mph instead of 75 mph. It was unnerving, but with care we all got through. Some people elected to stop and be SAGed through. We are almost done with interstate highway travel.
After we got into Albuquerque, Terry and I got to have drink and trade stories with some long time friends, Dee and Ruth Friesen. We had a great meat meal at Applebee's, which was a welcome relief from pasta of the past two nights.
Tomorrow is down the Turquoise Trail to Santa Fe.
Stats: 80 miles, 2500' climbing, 15.7 mph avg, temp 40 - 70 deg, 5-15 mph head winds.
4 comments:
Sounds like a rough couple days! Dogs tangling up in bikes and hurting knees on cattle guards. Glad you're making it through with no problems. I'm disappointed you chose Applebee's over the local gourmet offering of Frontier though - take in some excellent New Mexican green chili... ;-)
Jim,
It might be a bit late in the game but when I went XC, we all kicked in one dollar each and formed pools; who would go the longest without flatting; who would have the most animal encounters, and the like, including who would get the most flats . . . which it sounds like you might be winning.
Javin,
The resturant priority is decided by walking distance...Applebee's was next door. We rode by the Fronteer, and I am sure it would have been a hit, but was several miles away.
What an amazing adventure you are on. I am glad that you are making it through unscathed.
Love you, Dad.
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