Early arrival in ABQ

Last night at our "route rap" we reviewed Thunderstorm precautions. The weather forecast indicated a 65% chance of T-storms in ABQ in the early afternoon.  That combined with high headwinds made for a potentially challenging Thursday.

On return from dinner @ local Denny's, we received a text from tour manager indicating that our departure times had been moved to half hour earlier. At 6:30, seven of us decided to form a pace line to fight the headwinds and hopefully beat the T-storms to ABQ. The restaurant staff even came in early so that breakfast was ready by 5:45. We've really had the best of luck so far.

The pace line worked its magic despite an issue with an aggressive dog (one rider got his ankle nipped but no broken skin), and despite a flat and a chain derailing 5 miles out from the Hotel, we arrived early (before 2:00)!

Picture above is just as we start descent into ABQ. Following picture is a few more miles down the road as we got into town. The weather being overcast, kept temps down to the 50's & 60's. My kind of riding weather. 

 One more observation. We've been  traveling  through Navajo Territory. The past few days. As we stopped into roadside stores, I found the people very welcoming and friendly to us folk dressed like Space Aliens.