Day 16

Santa Fe to Las Vegas, NM (74 miles) -- Today was perfect in every way. I started out riding this monring with two good friends who live in Santa Fe, Kim and Alan Simpson. Lee and I met Kim and Alan about 3 years ago when we did a ride in New Zealand. Alan makes me laugh so much! He's originally from New Castle, England and is a physicist working in the Santa Fe area. Too bad he's not smart or anything! Kim is a webpage designer (and a former handbag designer) and they came to visit us last year for the inaugural Big Dam Bridge century. We love getting to spend time with them. They rode the first 15 miles with me and turned around when we were getting on the interstate to ride over Glorietta Pass, the highest elevation on the whole tour -- about 7,300 feet. The weather was just perfect: clear skies with white puffy clouds, winds out of the SW at 15-20 mph and tempe ratures in the 60's when we started and near 80 when we finished. One couldn't have ordered up better conditions than today. Alas, a great day in every way. Alleluja! Today is the first day of our longest leg of the tour without a rest day -- nine days in a row. Tomorrow (Memorial Day) is a going to be a long one -- 109 miles from Las Vegas to Tucumcari. We'll surpass the 1,000 mile mark tomorrow! Tuesday we'll do 95 miles and cross into Dahlhart, Texas for one night. Then one night in the Oklahoma panhandle and the next 6 nights in Kansas.