Day 13-Wet, Cold, & Windy, but great views

Albuquerque to Santa Fe, NM

Miles: 67.5

Time: 5:42

Average: 11.8 mph

Max: 30.3 mph

Total Ascent: 4,547

Est Calories: 4,607

Well, the challenges continued. Head winds and climbing all day! Did I ALL DAY. Yes, ALL DAY. When you are pedalling down a 2% grade an still not able to exceed 10 miles an hour, I do not really want to know what the head winds are (were). While we had a bit of rain yesterday at the start of the ride, today had a cold, gusty rain on and off all day. We were only about 6-7 miles from the hotel, and everything went dark, and it opened up on use, just make the last few miles interesting. The temperatures were in the low 50's but the rain and wind chill made it seem colder then that. Note the picture of the downhill. It was one of the few breaks in the weather that permitted a decent picture and would not ruin the camera with the rain.

You will note that there is very little traffic on this road which really helped on the decents since there wasn't much of anything to ride on outside the white lines. and the winds were buffeting us around.

There was a neat little tavern at the 44.5 mile mark in the town of Madrid: The Mine Shaft Tavern. It had a rustic, bohemian atmosphere that I would have enjoyed otherwise, but we had to just eat and get back on our faithful steeds to climb over 1,400 ft before the hotel. The Tavern had what it had and nothing more. You could get a grilled cheese sandwich, but no ham on it. They were able to add tomato tho.

As we proceded on our way, the additional climbing wasn't just a climb to the hotel. There were some down hills of hundreds of ft that made the net climb that much longer. Fortunately, toward town, the road smoothed out, and the inclines got shorter. My roomate, Bob, does not nap.....that is, until yesterday. He showered first, and when I came out of the shower, he was sitting on the bed with his back on the headboard of the bed, his hands in his lap, and his head down..........you know, OUT LIKE A LIGHT. I was glad to see it, because I wanted a quick nap too, and this was my chance. We did not join the party animals who went out on the town, but only had a couple of beers and ate in the hotel. Good food, and large helpings. With all do respect to the hotel, almost anything would have sufficed, we were starved.

After we dragged ourselves up to our room, I managed to stay await for the Cavaliers basketball game, and while they won, they certainly did not do it easily. So at least it's 1-1 and not 0-2 for the series.

A final thought for the day: when a particular day is the toughest day we've had, we seem to be able get another more "interesting" day of riding challenges. While we continue to get stronger, some of the days throw more challenging weather or terrain, or both, at us. I know that some of the midwest days will be a bit monotonous, but right now, that does not sound so bad. We still have a few more days of hills before miles and miles of American's heartland.

I'm posting Days 12 and 13 on the rest day, so it's time to rest. See ya..................