The Turquoise Trail:

The road between Albuquerque and Santa Fe is called the turquoise trail because it was along this route that the Spanish and the Indians mined turquoise. A little know and totally useless fact however there are now hundreds of turquoise shops, galleries and outlets along the road. All of them proclaiming that their wares are made by local artisans. Right!

This morning we set off into a 20-30 mph head wind (naturally it was uphill as well). The best that you could do was about 8 mph. With 70 miles to go it was looking like a long day. The route out of town took us up though this canyon that was very pretty. The well heeled have built these really nice places in the canyon which have great views of the valley below. However after about 20 miles we were out of the canyon and things picked up a bit. I stopped at a store and bought a 24oz energy drink. Did it ever work I felt totally charged and just flew down to the rest stop where I was about 20 minutes behind the leaders. By the 46 mile mark, I was 8 minutes behind the leaders. However it was 11:30 and this historic tavern was just opening for lunch so I went in and had a lunch of Buffalo chili. It was great. After lunch I hooked up with Tom who is this young fellow who is a real power house and he just tore up the last few hills doing 17-18 on the steepest grade. It was great having him to draft. Once we got up the last few flats I was fresh and blew past him. (Thanks for the tip Ann). On this one down hill we hit 47.7 mph.

Tomorrow is a rest day so I think I will get up and go for a run as I haven't done any running for a week and am feeling like I want to stretch out the knots. I also have a bunch of home/office work to do as well as the ubiquitous laundry. I am really looking forward to not riding. Maybe take the bus somewhere.

Today's picture is of a cloud coming over the top of one of the mountains on the way out of Albuquerque. I forgot to mention that we were dodging thunder showers all day, but I never got rained on.

Thanks for visiting my blog and for all the really nice comments.

Terry