Racking Up the Miles

A second 70+ mile day today going from Grants to Albuquerque. Must be something in the New Mexico water. It was 33 degrees when we got up in the morning. Ugh. Darryl promptly bought some cold weather gear tonight. It will be cold again tomorrow, but we’ll heat up pretty fast going from 5000 feet in elevation to 9000 before settling in around 7000 in Santa Fe. Double ugh. The Trek is fully functional with some new and improved inner tubes (that have some sort of slime in them) and will be pressed into service in the a.m.

We were joined by Beth today who will be helping out and hopefully riding along between here and Denver. She knows her way around Santa Fe from any number of rock climbing expeditions to the area, so hopefully she knows where to find the best cup of joe.

2006 is Albuquerque’s Tricentenial. A pretty intereting history. It also hosts an annual Balloon Festival - the largest in the world. On our way into the city we were greeted by a huge sign that said “Welcome to Albuquerque – The only city in the United States with more than 400,000 people that has two Qs in its name.” Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue and kind of hard to fit on a bumper sticker, but who am I to second guess the Chamber of Commerce?