So I left Santa Fe, for the moment, and headed down to Albuquerque. Saturday's demo was out at Elena Gallegos, and I was able to get out there early enough to take a quick spin before i had to get to work. It is always nice to be able to do that because you end up with some sense of trail conditions for bike set up.
The desert. It felt like going back in time.
I had a pleasant spin, then it was work time. A successful demo. People seemed happy. It got petty warm at around 3 so I packed it in and headed east, to Otero. I had always heard of this trail but had never been poised to pluck it, but today was the perfect opportunity.
It was eerily like riding back in Central Texas. Same soil structure, very similar foliage. And the heat. Though it was only in the nineties and blessedly un-humid, the afternoon had that quiet, languid summer feel to it. Sort of Texan, sort of Mediterranean. The heat driven scent of dust. Gnats, white hot in the shafts off light filtering down through the cedar canopy, flitted berzerkly about. Where do they get so much energy? We're in an energy crisis but these little dynamos could power a car with their incessant flitting about. Forget bio-diesel, bio-gnat-diesel is what I'm screamin'.
I did run squarely into the Man further up the trail.
And more ominously:
UXO, welcome back to Southeast Asia.
And so it was. A pleasant ride indeed. I had a lovely dinner down in Old Town and then headed up to Santa Fe bright and early the next day (Father's Day) for a demo up off the Winsor. And from there it was but a hop, skip and jump up the road to Durango. Another demo. The usual two pack of rides. And a game of croquet.
Next stop, Crested Butte.
