Vegas Baby!

Today's Google Earth file: http://tomerceg.googlepages.com/LasVegasNM.kmz

The lights of Las Vegas NM are a little different than her namesake in Nevada. More on that later.

Each day I start off the ride wondering if I'll have anything to write about. I don't know why I worry.

We started off this morning from Santa Fe under absolutely perfect riding conditions. No wind, nice and cool, and beautiful roads. For the first time this entire trip we had essentially no winds at all. We had another day of grand vistas, beautiful forests, and pristine riding. I said goodbye to my parents, and off I went. I rode with Ray for awhile this morning and his comment was "this is as good as it gets". I've said that for so many days in a row that I was afraid people might think I was making it up, or I'd run out of things to say. But it was true. The morning was as close to a perfect ride as I'll likely ever see.

We stopped for a detour at the Pecos National Monument. There is a short trail that takes you around the ruins of the old Spanish / Indian settlement. It was well worth the time. We looked inside an old underground Pueblo house.

And saw a 16th Century deserted Spanish church.

By the time we got to the first SAG stop at mile 46 everyone was in a good mood. There was a funky little bar at the stop that advertised itself as "the first bar west of the pecos".

We could see storm clouds brewing off to the north, but they usually don't amount to much until the late afternoon. None of us were worried. It was 11:00 a.m. and we only had 27 miles left to ride. You know the old saying about mountain weather: "If you don't like the weather, just wait 15 minutes".

The storm clouds started moving in much quicker than we had expected. I looked up ahead and thought "I might be getting wet".


Then the lightning started. It seemed to be well off in the distance, but it was definitely in front of me. The wind picked up big time and slowed me from 18 mph to about 10 mph. The lightning became more frequent and seemed to be getting closer. I started thinking about calling for a pick-up. I'm from California, and we get lightning about once every two years. This was new to me.



Tracy was waiting in the van and I pulled over to have a chat. She offered to let me sit in the van for awhile and see what developed. I could also take a jump to the finish and just skip the rest of the ride. There was a gas station / Subway up the road about 2 miles. I decided to high-tail it for that spot and ride out the storm for awhile. I told Tracy "This will make a great story for the blog". She responded "If you live to tell it". It almost immediately started raining. The wind was still in my face. The lightning kept getting closer.

And then it started to hail.

As hailstorms go this was pretty minor. Still, it was stinging my face and uncovered arms. I could hear the hailstones rattling around in my helmet. Things were most unpleasant. I couldn't go nearly as fast as I wanted because of the headwind, even pushing as hard as I could. I desperately wanted to get to shelter. After what seemed an eternity, but in reality was about 10 minutes, I finally made it to the gas station. I walked in, saw Terry, and said "that f*$%ing sucked".

We had lunch, stared out the window, and waited out the storm. The lightning moved through pretty fast. After probably 30 minutes the roads were dry and I didn't see any more lightning. I started the last 8 mile stretch. Mother Nature had one more curve ball for me. It rained, the wind howled, I got a mild case of hypothermia, and saw a couple more lightning strikes. Those were well off in the distance, but I had further incentive to ride hard into the wind.

After a hot shower and a little food Im feeling much better, but I certainly got my money's worth today.