Day 14

Albuquerque to Santa Fe, NM (67 miles) - I work up to find my rear tire flat. How I made it all the way in to the hotel without having to change the tube is hard to believe. At 5:15 am Lee helped me change the tube and get ready to get on the road by 7:15. The forecast for today was for intermittent showers with temperatures in the high 40's to low 50's. About 10 miles out of Albuquerque the rain began and never stopped. I only thought that yesterday was as bad as it could get. At least yesterday, the hail and sleet let up and the rest of the ride -- including a 5-mile interstate climb -- turned out to be a walk in the park by comparison. At mile 18, our friend, Alan Simpson from Santa Fe met me to ride the rest of the way into Santa Fe. After about a mile, I had another flat on the same wheel. I sent Alan ahead and called Lee to come help me change out the tube and the tire. We never found the rea son for the flat but assumed there was something hiding in the tire causing the trouble and changed it out to be safe. My feet and hands were as cold and wet as I've ever experienced on a bicycle. We stopped at a neat restaurant in Madrid (about 25 miles outside of Santa Fe) for a warm beverage and some lunch. After drying out and warming up a bit, we went back into the rain and finished up the ride about 2 hours later. We did quite a bit of climbing today. We actually looked forward to the climbs so our bodies would warm up enough to generate some heat. I had no feeling in my fingers at all so braking on the descents was very challenging. Alan turned off to ride home about 2 miles from the hotel so I braved city traffic and road construction to get to the hotel. After cleaning up my filthy body I tackled cleaning my filthy bike. What a job! We had dinner at Los Petrillos with Alan and Kim, Karen Powelson and her husband, Jean-Francoise and Bonnie Bishop and her boyfriend, Larry. It was a great way to end a yucky day.