Tribulus Terrestris

Better known as the goathead weed and nemesis of bicycle tubes all over the desert southwest (who knew?). So that’s probably why we’ve been getting all the flats and we should be OK with our slime-filled tires and also pedaling out of their habitat.

Very nice ride today and the aforementioned 9K altitude turned out to be 7.5 at most. The manager at R.E.I. who gave us that information must have been thinking of the tops of the mountains or something. For people like Darryl that live at over 8000 feet, it's no big deal, but for normal people who live at or near sea level, riding around in the clouds all day gives new meaning to sucking wind. Whoo boy!

We passed through a very cool little town called Madrid. Kind of a ghost town turned hippy enclave tucked away in the mountains about 15 miles south of Santa Fe. There was a very pleasant feel to the place and right away you knew you were somewhere special. Well worth a look-see.

We're camping in a public parking lot about three blocks away from the Georgia O'Keefe museum. No chance to visit, but next time that will be on the list as well as the 2,000 other museums and about 150,000 galleries. There are more artisits in Santa Fe then you can shake a paintbrush at.

The clear highlight of the day was the gift of a massage from former peace marcher Nancy McManus Miller. Fantastic!! She'll be coming to the reunion with her two little ones in tow and we're hauling a massage table for her to use there. Better start lining up now. Thanks again! She's also participating in the Army Men Project after seeing it mentioned on this web site. We were able to give her a few sheets of the stickers to put on the army guys after learning that she was writing them by hand! She's giving them out in bags of ten or so to local students and says the reactions has been very positive. Also, thanks to Louise and Beth, Alice is now adorned with a number of peace-related bumper stickers such as 'Real Conservatives Don't Start Wars' and my personal favorite: 'Worst. President Ever.'