Biking to Las Vegas...........New Mexico

We had a great day off in Santa Fe on Saturday. We enjoyed dinner with our friends, Mel and Lorene on Friday evening and saw them again on Saturday afternoon. On Saturday morning we went to the Plaza in Santa Fe and enjoyed time with Amy, our daughter, her husband Dillon, and Hannah and Ella, our granddaughters.

We also met George and Mae Stoltzfus (good friends from back home in PA) for lunch. They are on their way to Oregon for a cross country biking trip as well. We spent more time with Amy, Dillon, Hannah and Ella on Saturday. Today Dillon rode with us for a little over half of the ride. With all of his mountain biking and running in the Boston Marathon, he is in great shape. It was great to see family and friends over the weekend.

Today was a gorgeous day for biking. We saw several dead snakes along the road as we were biking. We had our only SAG stop of the day in the parking lot of the bar in the picture. They opened the bar this Sunday morning so our group could use the restrooms. By state law they cannot sell liquor until noon on Sunday. The cars really start rolling in at that time.

There were clear blue skies and temperatures in the low 80's when we arrived in Las Vegas, New Mexico. We got into town around 1:00 after 73 miles of biking. The winds were picking up and are now 27 mph gusting to 42 mph. The elevation gain today was 4900 feet, not quite as much as going into Santa Fe on Friday. The hot tub felt especially good today on the sore leg muscles.

Although we try not to look ahead, we do know that there are nine straight days of biking before the next rest day. Tomorrow is a long ride to Tucumcari. It is amazing how one's body does recover........ well almost. We are in bed by 9:00 every evening and are sleeping 8-9 hours a night.