I think that most all of the riders will agree that today was our most perfect entire day of the tour so far - a welcomed change after the cold, wet weather we had the last few days of riding. The climbs were not really steep - most were more like the rolling hills of my home state of Iowa. The rolling hills were actually on top of the New Mexico high desert. The roads were lined with low shrub-like trees. The sky was clear, the temps started out on the chilly side but soon warmed up to ideal summer temps and we had light tail-winds most of the day which helped push us up the climbs.
We rode for about five miles on I25, today, and here we are about to leave it. I believe that this is supposed to be our last interstate highway travel for the rest of the tour. One can make good time on the interstates but they are noisy from the passing trucks and then there is the flat tire problems from the shredded truck tire wire. I will say that we have not felt threatened from the traffic. The shoulders were generally wide and smooth and the one way traffic makes it safe.
A view of much of what our roads looked like today - nice scenery and not much traffic.
Scott from Virginia and Noreen from Canada.
Sag stop at the 44 mile point.
A friendly local native at the sag stop.
Ron Wilson from Massachusetts - a very strong rider.
Another typical view of today's route - again almost no traffic. Route 34 route was pretty much a frontage road for I25 which was not far away. We crossed it several times as the frontage road would switch sides from time to time.
My group arrived in our destination town about 1:00 today - not bad for 72 miles. We had lunch at a local mom and pop restaurant - Mary Jane's.Tomorrow will be a 109 mile ride to Tucumcari, NM, with 4200 feet of climbing. Our tour leader says that it has traditionally been a long hot ride - perhaps one of the two hardest rides of the tour. I suppose the hardest was the 115 mile ride in the California desert.
Thanks for the comments,
Bob
