Day 28: Moriarty to Santa Rosa (or Flying with the wind)

Today started out wonderfully with good conversation with cyclist Joe and with a home cooked breakfast courtesy of Mike, the owner of the Sunset Motel in Moriarty. (see previous post)

But as the van left to bring Dedi back to Albuquerque and the temperatures struggled to rise above 37 deg. F, Don and I worried.

We waited until around 9:20. Don did a little test loop around the parking lot and concluded it was rideable if the wind kept coming from the West. I put on my windbreaker. Don's windbreaker  was in the van, on the way to Albuquerque.

But Don improvises well. Check him out here:

Yes, that's a plastic bag over his vest, doing the trick. For the record, Don asked me not to post these pictures, but I could not resist.

View behind us as we headed out (Glad we were moving East!)

It wasn't long before the effort of pedaling fat with a strong tail wind warmed us both up and soon my jacket was in a back pocket and Don's bag was in the trash.

The route had us riding mostly along I-40.  Despite the semi trucks,  traffic, and  re-tread tire bits along the shoulder,  it was a nice ride. 

I only suffered two flats, both due to running over re-tread parts and driving tiny wire shards through my tire.

Both tubes were promptly replaced with tubes filled with Stan's stop leak! Thank you Eric!

We enjoyed a good lunch at Mile 38 behind a DQ shop.... Turkey sandwiches Dennis picked up in Albuquerque. He also brought some prime avocado which made the sandwiches extra delicious.. Nice. Thank you Dennis. And thank you Dedi for suggesting this!

Lunch break:

As we approached Santa Rosa around 1:30 pm my guidance system took us off course as I had entered the wrong way point for the hotel. This had the misfortune of giving us a taste of riding west into the wind and being chased by the same dog, two times in a row!

But in the end, we made it to our hotel just before 2 pm. Despite the flats and missed turn, we averaged 25.1 MPH. Not a bad average for an 81 mile ride. Thank you Mr. Wind!

Tomorrow we face one of our longest rides. 111 miles to Clovis NM. Praying for more winds from the west.