Day 12: Continental Divide at 7,275'

Gil and friends left Gallup this morning for their 67 mile ride to Grants, New Mexico. The temperature was cold with freezing rain for the first 1/2 hour. Gil and his roommate rode with shower caps over their helmets to keep their heads dry. I can't wait to see the pictures he sent Jean....I gave him two girlie-flowered shower caps I found here before he left so he could keep his bike seat dry on rainy days. I sure never expected to see one on his head! Here Gil and Richard are in their shower caps. [Jean would like you to know that of all the pictures, emailed and burned to disc, that Gil's sent home, THIS is the one he chose to take at the highest resolution. We can't blow up the pictures we want to to poster size, but we could blow this baby up as much as we want. Fantastic.]

The first 30 miles consisted of climbing with a strong wind in their faces, and then they crossed the Continental Divide at 7,275 feet above sea level (the highest point of the tour). [See photo of Gil at the Continental Divide. We can't blow this one up into a poster. Not that Jean's dwelling or anything.] All that climbing earned them a 45-minute-long gradual downhill ride at 25 - 26 mph with the wind at their backs. They passed a mesa with rock formations under blue skies and scattered clouds. About 52 miles into the ride they stopped for hamburgers at a Dairy Queen and enjoyed all the Indian objects displayed there. His group of riders arrived at Grants, NM around 1:45, and today Gil had NO flat tires. Others in the group did, but they helped each other repair the tires. Another CrossRoads rider, Randy, joined their group today.

Tomorrow they ride 76 miles to Albuquerque, NM. They were told that the first 30 miles between Grants and Albuquerque will be through some of the prettiest country they'll see on this trip. He should be sending us some good pictures of this area in the near future. There will be a fair amount of climbing tomorrow. The temperature is expected to drop to 31 degrees tonight, so at 7:15 in the morning it could be a bit raw. He's hoping that the 35 mph winds tonight die down by morning.

[Dad also told Mom that he may ride the van the first 30 miles tomorrow to get ahead of everyone, thereby getting pictures of the group that's always in front of him and absent from the video/pictures up until now. He's become their unofficial videographer; a lot of riders have been asking about getting a copy of his final product.]

[edited at 12:30 am by Jean, who is anal. Pictures and bracketed comments added.]