The rain didn’t last very long but the wind continues to blow! It has eased up a little but it is still blowing pretty good. The sun has come out so things are good. Fortunately today is a rest day so we are not riding. Hopefully by tomorrow the wind will calm down a bit. We had a meeting this morning and the group has agreed to rework the schedule a little for the next week or so. We were staring into 8 straight days of 60+ mile days – the last three of which have between 3,000 to 4,000 feet of climbing up to Santa Fe.
So, we are taking the next three days and breaking it into 4 shorter days in the hope that we will be a little more rested by the time we start into the New Mexico mountains. There is apparently no way to rework the last three days into Santa Fe because places to camp/stay/eat are so sparce – so we are stuck with those 3 tough days. There are many factors that can play into how a particular days ride is going – heat, hills, traffic, weather and roads! Lately we have been plagued by bad roads. Sometimes there are no shoulders and sometimes even if there are shoulders there are potholes, ruts and debris that require a lot of concentration to avoid. It can be very exhausting. That was yet another argument for the shorter rides the next few days. Once the new plan was agreed upon, we left Dave, the tour leader, to work out the new logistics. A few of us walked into town to go to the local Route 66 Museum
and grab some lunch. Other than that, it’s been a pretty slow day – laundry, bike maintenance, catching up on email, etc. It’s nice to have a day off but we’ll be ready to rock and roll in the morning!