Well what a difference a day makes. Woke this morning to leaden skies and a chance of rain. Bring back those clear blue skies from the previous 9 days.If my GPS could talk, this morning it would have said: "Turn left out of motel. Continue straight on for. One hundred. And. Ten. Point Eight. Miles. You have reached your destination." This was the most remote area I've been to, we passed through three tiny hamlets, but other than that there was nothing for a hundred miles.
They've had freezing fog on this day before, so Mike headed up the road in the van to see how it looked at 7000 feet. He reported it was fine, but I was still wearing three layers of clothing. This increased to four as it started to spit with rain. This is prairie country, as in 'Little house on the'. Wide open grasslands. After about 40 miles we dropped off the high plateau we've been on for the last 24 hours. Now we're down at 4000 feet. Got my first puncture this morning, can't believe I survived all those shocking Interstate shoulders and then catch something on a smooth A road. I didn't see what I hit and we didn't find anything, but there was a neat little puncture hole. Three of the other riders stopped and we (well they) soon had it fixed.
Just before the first SAG we passed through the 1000 mile mark, not bad for just over 8 days on the road. Didn't stop long at the SAGs today, it was too cold.
No photo today, my camera has died. The camera that was bought specifically because it was meant to be indistructable. What a heap of crap.
It was 32 miles from the lunch SAG to the hotel. It was a killer, we were in to a 10 - 20 mph headwind all the way. All that training really paid off. We were in a paceline of six. Three guys at the front setting a murderous pace and three of us at the back trying to hold on for dear life. I held on for over 10 miles before finally being dropped with the two others. We then worked as a three to get home. Holding on for so long made a real difference to the miles we covered quickly and I was very pleased to be able to take my turn at the front on the way in. Didn't feel as strong today, but everyone seems to have good and bad days.
Got into Tucuncari just before 4pm. There's an interesting story about how Tucuncari got it's name. An Indian Chief had a beautiful daughter called Cari. Two young Braves wanted to marry her and the Chief decided that they should fight to the death for her hand in marriage. One was the love of her life, called Tucun (don't know what the other was called, Roy, Adolf) Anyway they had the fight and Tucun was killed. Seeing her one true love dead, Cari killed herself and fell onto the body of Tucun. Hence they called the town Thatdidntgotoowelldiditsville. This was later shortened to Tucuncari. Such a pity he wasn't called Cashun.
My lovely new wheels were waiting for me at the hotel. Mike moved the gearing over and gave me a lesson in how to change a tyre (yes you would think it's something I should know by now, but there's more to it than you might believe.)
Tomorrow is our first sub 100 mile day. Only 97 miles, hardly worth getting my lycra shorts on for. Plus there should be tail winds so we're expected to complete it in about 6.5 hours. So we've got a lie in, don't load until 8am.
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