Pictures added to yesterday's post (from Destination: Albuquerque). Gil's emailed cliff notes (sent this morning) also added.
Gil's cliff notes (written Sat am; added 4 pm Saturday)
Ride to Santa Fe underway at 7:20 am. 52 degrees as left Santa Fe headed due east. Due east into hard headwind and on a mild grade. All uphill the first 19 miles. Difficult. Crawled along at 9
miles an hour out of town and up the mountain situated on this side of town. Finally our route made a turn to the north and we suddenly had a tailwind. The mountains seem to generate their own weather. A simply beautiful day now that wind was favorable. Dark blue western sky with white clouds. Magnificent vistas. Still much climbing as we worked our way towards Santa Fe and a rest day. Rode through old mining town on side of mountain (Madrid) and had a nice lunch at an old saloon. Then resumed riding with 30 miles left to cover. Several large hills that went on and on at a good grade but yea a rest day is in sight. 10 miles out of Santa Fe weather turned threatening. Dark clouds and storms could be seen in all directions. We pedaled hard and reached hotel just before a heavy storm let loose with much hail. Oh, theres snow on the mountain near town. We are at nearly 7000 feet here in Santa Fe. Look forward to going to Old Town Santa Fe this AM. [on Sat, their rest day]Anyway. They had a 67 mile ride from Albuquerque to Santa Fe today. When they left this morning it was very windy; they had a headwind for the first 15 miles as they rode uphill out of Albuquerque. Was very hard with the wind in their face and very slow going - they were crawling along at about 8 mph. Almost immediately upon leaving town they entered a mountain range and started gaining elevation (as one does in the mountains) for 5-8 miles. Then the road finally took a turn more northward and the wind fell behind them, which was good. (Hopefully, all of you smart readers knew that was good, but he made sure to clarify for me so I'm clarifying for you.)
The scenery today was stunning - it may be one of the best days on the tour in that respect. They had great views of the mountains as they rode long stretches downhill then long stretches uphill. Just beautiful scenery with blue sky and white clouds. He got a number of photos and some video.Stopped in "a little town called Madrid" for lunch. It's an old mining town that's been converted into a touristy area, with lots of arts and crafts people, etc. He (and presumably "they," though I'm not sure if it's Pile Drivers "they" or all of them "they") ate at Bill's Mining Saloon for lunch. He had a burger and fries. My guess is that it was a cheeseburger with a variety of fixins, and obviously lots of ketchup. I know you care about these details. The gentleman pictured with Dad is a local he chatted with at the Saloon. "A real character." (Think Dad left his helmet on through all of lunch?)
They spent most of the day climbing to get into Santa Fe, with a net gain of about 4500'. He got in at 3 pm. They're now in Santa Fe and at an elevation of 7200-7500' (the internet tells me that it's more like 7000 ft, but the point is they're high and cool). There's snow on some nearby mountains. They just had a rainstorm with "massive hail," and there are "severe thunderstorm and even tornado alerts and warnings in nearby towns." They're real glad to be in Santa Fe and have a day off tomorrow; today was quite hard but rewarding at the same time. Again, the clouds in the sky and mountains were just wonderful.
Dad'll be going to the bike shop and picking up more ButterButt tomorrow. ButterButt is apparently a very important tour staple. I suspected as much.
In other very important news ("Jane will be pleased to hear this") Gil has switched from diet coke to regular classic coke! He figured he "can afford to do that while on tour" - biking 60-100 miles a day I should think so, and since he just advertised that he's 143 pounds I'd think maybe he could "safely" drink regular coke anyway. He reports that "it's pretty good!" (Big newsflash there.) He may even stick with it after the tour! Mom thinks it's better for him than that "diet crap" anyway, since he drinks a lot of it. Note that "crap" isn't the word she actually used; she insisted that I edit her as to not offend anyone, since at this point we have no idea who might be reading. Given that I really believed that "diet" and "fat free" were bad words up until grade school (what can I say, I believed what my mommy told me; "diet," "exercise" and "fat free" are bad words, Mommy's perfect, etc - Mom wouldn't lie to me!), I think she'd be thrilled to not have to purchase "fake coke" for him anymore.Pictures added 4 pm Saturday.
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