Data: 109 miles Riding time 6:30 (16.6 mph avg) (44 mph maximum speed going down a steep hill)
I rode hard today, and got in pretty early with two other riders. The first thing we did was go to the A&W for root beer floats. Yum.
The scenery was not too dramatic on our road to Tucumcari. The photo above, today's version of "the road ahead", illustrates what we saw almost the entire 109 miles. We spent the whole day on a single highway, and there were no towns -- not one. There was, however, a lonely little post office out in the middle of nowhere (the Galita Post Office). I needed stamps, so I decided to stop in. My two riding mates said they'd go on slowly, and I could catch back up. Well, the woman could not find 24-cent post card stamps, and kept saying she'd find them. She finally did, but by the time I got back out on the road, my mates were way ahead. I did my best imitation of a time trial and finally caught them. I also rode real hard at the beginning of the day, for about 20 miles, to catch them since they left the breakfast much earlier than I. I felt like I was racing much of the day!
Speaking of our breakfast, here's what a sidewalk looks like when 25 cyclists roll up to a small-town cafe to eat. The woman in the foreground is Karen Bauer, one of the four staff from America By Bike.
The best scenery today was our view of the lower-elevation countryside just before a screaming descent. Here is a picture of two of us shooting down the steep grade. We previously had been rolling along on flat land for as far as we could see, and then we dropped to a new vastness of flat land for the remainder of the ride. From one mesa to another.
Sure enough, we did rolling hills the rest of the way, into a head wind most of the time. Having a drafting group of three helped (Jerry, Geoff, and I). Funny: At one point we came across an official yellow highway sign that said "Watch for Water." At the first rest stop, we had just passed our 1000-mile point, so we got this photo. The handwritten board says "1000 miles - 8 1/3 days". The fourth in the photo is Dave Thompson.
Later in the ride, we encountered Badger Pass, but which our tour leader called "The Wall". It was only 0.7 miles long, but was very steep. The funny thing was, the comments he painted onto the road two years ago, when he last led this tour, were still there, and made it an enjoyable refrain. He wrote things like "Here it comes", "Take a deep breath", "You can do it", "Don't stop pedaling", "It's not far now", and "You've conquered it", and "U R Awesome". My two riding mates and I were the first ones up it, and we waited at the top for each to arrive. Just before we got going again, the support van arrived to take photos of each rider nearing the top. So, I rode down a few hundred yards and redid the top portion so I could get my photo. Here I am reaching the top for the 2nd time.
The wildflowers are out. The cacti had yellow flowers, plus there were other yellows, purples and white ones along our route. Here's a photo of Jerry, Geoff and me arriving in Tucumcari, our first civilization since leaving Las Vegas.
We had our first crash today, but the fellow is okay. On the screaming descent, his front wheel went into some rut and he went over the handlebars. They took him to a hospital once they got to Tucumcari, and he got stitches in his face, plus many bandages. He still plans to ride tomorrow! John Goodman had to stop the ride; two days ago he complained of shortness of breath, and the local hospital in Gallup wanted to keep him for tests. They did find a problem with his heart, so he could not continue. We all signed a card for him.
Since I got in early and didn't need to do laundry, I got back on the bike and rode around the old downtown. People saw me coming and going, and later confirmed my "reputation" for doing extra things on the bike. I think they think I'm nuts.
One final photo from today. This was back after we had descended those cliffs in the background, to the lower mesa. The rider in the front is Kasper, my roommate.
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