It was one of those weekends. Not one of those weekends, just.. one of -those-.
What the hell do I mean? Well, sit back and listen.
Sunday Kija and I plan to goto Albuquerque. The first part of this was that I needed to meet up with Mike for some work stuff, and the second part is apparently I volunteered to put down a wood floor in Kija’s mom’s master bedroom. Time came for me to go, and Kija is knee deep in a football game. I look outside, it’s 40 degrees and clear. I got a call from Jason in Albuquerque (by mistake, actually), and he said, ‘Yeah, it’s warm and clear down here!’. That’s all I needed. I told Kija I would ride down on the bike.
I loaded her car up with the saw and other stuff I would need for Monday, loaded the bike lightly, suited up (minus my scarf which was MIA), and headed out of town. I had this bright idea to go over the Jemez (‘it has been a while since it snowed, it has been warm, the roads should be all clear now’), and thus I headed out.
Bike was running… alright. It needs a throttle body sync, nothing major, but I’ve spent too many miles on it to say it was running perfect. Not to say that it is any slower right now, dear goodness. I headed up over the Jemez. On the first switch back, I felt the back tire slide a little in the crushed rock that was still on the road, so I slowed back a bit. Chilly, but making good time. I made it to ‘the chute’, the curvy section just before the Caldera that is always in the shade, and thusly, always icy in the winter when its wet. Today was no exception. Snowpack. There was a bit of a two track through it down to wet pavement, and I just took it easy and made it through.
Arrive at the Caldera. In the first pullout there is a minivan, and mom and dad are over at the sign about the Caldera, and junior is behind the van, watching me. He was probably 13 or 14. As I started to pass, he raised his arm… and waved at me. I did the macho flick of the head reply (mind you, i’m all black, so its not like he could see my eyes or anything). Kind of funny.
The temps dropped down to 11F through this section, and the road remained wet with a tad bit of snowpack here and there. I pulled off at the top of San Diego Canyon overlook to walk around and see if I could get some warm blood in my toes. Heck, on the downhill into Jemez Springs I even overtook a pickup that was going way slow.
I ended up pulling off between Jemez Springs and Jemez Pueblo and stuffing some heat pouches in my boots, but I must have the cheap ones, and they didn’t really help. It warmed up as I got the Albuquerque, but I was still glad to have made it.
Monday I spent the whole day putting in the wood flooring. It went in quick, but it was still a lot of work. As the day wore on, the temps dipped lower. Forecast for Los Alamos was down to -8F. With the sun now down, I decided to stay over in Albuquerque instead of following Kija back, ‘cos 10 degrees at night is a whole different animal than 10 degrees in the day time.
Anyway, I left out this afternoon from Albuquerque. 28F on the interstate. I was getting chilly when I got into Santa Fe, but I had business there, so I got a good chance to warm up. Left Santa Fe almost when the sun went down, and had a chilly 23F ride back to the house.
Soooo… I am really sore from the floor and all the cold. I am not sure why I ride in the cold like this. But it’s still fun being on the bike.
Wheee.
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