Day 8 – Sunday 01st May 2011 – Albuquerque NM – Rest Day

With today being a rest day, we had the luxury of sleeping in until 7am. The hotel had a standard breakfast including microwavable bacon & egg bagels, quiche and corn dogs. Just after 7am the breakfast area was overrun with a school sports team with people everywhere.

After breakfast we did the laundry. The hotel laundry room was full of cyclists all waiting their turn but we timed our run well to not have much waiting.

A local cyclist, named Andy Moss, who has ridden the Fast Ride before came to the hotel around 10am and drove some of us to the local bike shop. With the forecast of snow tomorrow, I bought a pair of long cycling pants for a price less than a pair of cycling shorts in New Zealand.

Despite the weather today being cold with the threat of rain and snow, we walked down to Old Town but it was uninspiring. We had lunch at a Dairy Queen before going to the Natural Museum which had large exhibits of dinosaurs from the area, USA space flights and the personal computer revolution. As we left the museum for the 45 minute or so walk back to the hotel, the sky started to close in and threaten heavy rain and or snow. Luckily, only a few stray rain drops hit us as the cloud level dropped so low that we could not even see the surrounding mountains.

Walking out of the hotel at around 5pm to go and find some dinner, a light drizzle was falling but blue sky was appearing from the west and the cloud was lifting. As we had dinner at the Village Inn a short walk from the hotel, including a special pecan pie for dessert, the sunshine moved over us and further to the east as the mountains began to appear from under the cloud layer. Hopefully the cold front has all cleared out before we start riding the 135 miles to Las Vegas early tomorrow morning.