What a day! We woke up this morning at 4am again and had delicious pancakes made for us (special thanks to Bryn, Joel, and Joe). This day was just crazy. We kicked it off with an early morning ride dedication atop a hill which overlooked the red sunrise.

Little did I know of the saying, "red sky in the morning, sailors take warning." We were in for a crazy day of headwind, rain, sunshine, cold and hot temperatures. When we left in the morning, the weather wasn't so bad yet, we say some rain coming down ahead, but the wind hadn't picked up that much yet, and Lance, Steven, and I were cruising through our first twenty miles. I remember seeing this along the way, and singing praises early in the morn:

And soon the storm hit. Zaid and Julian joined our group, and before we knew it we were climbing the shoulder of I-40 in the cloud cover with fierce headwinds and rain slashing across our faces. It felt like bits of ice hitting our face as we pushed through the winds to make it back into the light. Fortunately we made it through scrape-free, and I must confess that this was one of my more enjoyable experiences-- maybe because it was so challenging that we just couldn't relent. Unfortunately, I took no pictures of this havoc, but I did snap a before shot:

Strangely, nearly 10 minutes after getting out of the storm, we came upon sunshine and beautiful skies:

Eventually we made to our second to last rest stop and enjoyed some great food/creations by our Sag drivers, which included a party mix of gummies, powergels, and raisins. I made my own creation... it was delish.

All in all, this was a good day and my day of rest from sagging the day before really helped. Tomorrow we rest in Albuquerque, run a few errands, and take a well deserved break as a team. Remember, let me know your address if you would like a postcard from Albuquerque!