April 29 -- Gallup NM to Albuquerque NM

Well, it's been 7 days now. I'm still surviving -- sometimes I think to myself "why am I doing this" -- other times I think to myself -- "I feel surprisingly good, considering what I'm putting my body through".

You see -- not only the road has its ups and downs !!

We started off very early this a.m., loading at 6 and on the road by 6:15. We went 8.5 miles down the road to, you guessed it -- Dennys !! However, this was the most welcome Denny's I've ever seen. It was cold -- about 40 degrees, and I was counting on the warmer weather later on so was not really dressed for that temperature. I have real cold weather clothing with me, but I hate putting it on. As long as the temperature is above 40, I prefer shorts to long pants and short fingered gloves to long fingered gloves. It worked out ok though, I was cold for about the first 1/2 hour after leaving Dennys and then it got progressively warmer. By the first SAG stop (30 miles, or 20+ past Dennys) everyone was shedding clothes.

That first SAG stop was at the Continental Divide. Photos were taken -- Bill Reenstra took one of me that I'll get from him later to post. It does seem strange though, we're not that far into the ride and already we are past a major geographical point.

I've never been in New Mexico before. Today's scenery was wonderful -- most of the day we were biking in what looks like an old volcanic caldera -- probably more than 100 miles across -- and we went past areas of black volcanic rock. Most of the riding today was not on the interstate itself, but tracking beside it, so it was much more pleasant.

Bill and I started out together, but then he jumped onto a pace line for a while. I did not care to join the pace line -- it is harder to enjoy the scenery when you are in a line. The disadvantage though, of not joining a "crowd" is that I had to fight the wind by myself -- and it blew in our face all day. One fellow coming into the lunch stop commented that a motorcyclist had offered to trade bikes -- and he was ready, due to the wind. Bill dropped out of the pace line before the lunch SAG and we more or less kept pace through the end of the ride, but not riding together.

A little after the lunch SAG we were supposed to wait by a store to be shuttled around the construction on I40 -- unfortunately I had missed the briefing last night and did not get the details, thinking that it was a) further into the ride, and b) that it was simply from one exit to another. So ... as I approached the construction, I called Mike and got off at that exit. Mike then picked me up along with the other riders in the van. He was able to carry 9 at a time and we bypassed about 4 miles of construction where there was no shoulder -- not safe for bike riders.

The tail end of the ride was a delight -- but there was a lead in -- a hill that we had to climb called "10 mile hill" but it was only about 8.5 miles -- and then a 7 mile descent into Albuquerque -- a very steep run in -- looks like I hit about 38 mph max today, and it was probably on that hill.

Total mileage today was 141 -- would have been 145 without the shuttle. Elapsed time, from 6:15 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. was 11 hours -- from which you could subtract 30-40 minutes for breakfast. Rolling time was 8:54. Yes, a long time on the bike.

It's time to get some dinner -- I did not do very well last night, just snacks. I need something more substantial.