Diary

Mileage:  99.61 miles

Elevation Change:  4984 feet

Weather:  hot morning, afternoon storms

Morale:  TIRED!

Incidents:  2 flat tires

Daily Summary:

Today was a lot harder than we thought it would be.  First of all, we were all expecting a 72 mile day,  but that was a misprint on the master sheet and what we actually had was a 99 mile day.   Next, we had to skirt Sante Fe this morning, so were on big roads with lots of traffic for the first few hours, which is never fun.  Also, as you can see on the elevation profile, we went up and up and up once again.  And, the New Mexican roads nailed us for two flat tires before lunch.  Raymond’s brand new rear tire lasted all of 30 miles before it was punctured.   Finally, we are now in the desert, and the heat was definitely a factor for much of the day.   We did play hide and seek with the thunderstorms all afternoon but got lucky again and did not get wet. 

 

But, it was another fun day with great scenery and lots to look at and experience.  As we were approaching the last SAG stop we were pretty beat.  I was leading and Raymond kept falling further back and our speed kept going down.  We passed our friend Joel who was also taking long drinks from the Chalice of Pain.  We limped into the stop and were all pretty discouraged at not being there yet.   Then Raymond got religion.  He decided that he wanted to be done with it so he took the lead and dragged Joel and I behind him at 21 mph for 10 miles.   He was amazing!  We flew to the hotel in no time at all.   I have no idea where all that energy came from!

 

One of my West Point classmates, Donna (Alesch) White, lives in Albequerque so drove over to take us out to dinner.  Her senior in high school daughter Katy came along, which made it a fun night for Raymond as well.  We had some fabulous Mexican food.  Thanks, Donna!

 

Tomorrow is our last century.  We will ride 119 miles down to Socorro, New Mexico.

 

Below you see Lil participating in a popular New Mexico activity:  repairing flat tires.  Next, she clears the top of the hardest climb of the day.  The truck on cheese sign is facing the wrong way, and indicates a steep climb indeed—15%!  Next, some of our desert scenery.  Finally, Raymond powers us home.