The Big Bad Wolf

Sunday, June 12th.

The first half of the day was perfection.  Almost perfection.  At a gas station I got of my bike and forgot to put the kickstand down.  Embarrassingly, I had to pick the bike back up and put the stand down.  Other than that, the sun was shining, the roads were smooth, and New Mexico provided scenery that allowed me to see thousands of years in the past, layer by layer, in rock formations. 

The second half of the day was not so good.  I met the big bad wolf,  who huffed and puffed, and almost knocked me off my bike.  The wind picked up, and made driving difficult.  As I was driving on a two lane road, I got hit by the strongest gust of wind to date, and it carried with it lots of dust.  A truck was behind me when I got hit with the gust that covered me in dust and moved me from near the shoulder to the center line.  I consider myself lucky that there were no oncoming cars, and that I was able to stay on the bike.  I slowed down and let the truck pass, so I could catch my breath and calm down.  The image of the dust wind wall still haunts me. 

High winds the rest of the day didn't allow me to get as far as I would've liked, and I stopped for the day in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, after 323 miles.