May 23, 2018 Isleta Casino to Edgewood, NM

43.76 miles. Climbing out of Albuquerque is a challenge, even in a car sometimes. The casino sat at about 5000 ft of elevation, which is as high as we've been, but to get over the mountains to the east, the climb is to over 7000 ft.
I got a late start to the day, rolling out at about 10 o'clock, knowing that I was only going to do a little over 40 miles. Ahh, but what miles they would be. I had to go about 15 miles due north to get into Albuquerque, and that was in residential roads and some nice bike trails. Eventually I hooked up with Central Ave, which is historic RT 66. Basically, once u get east of town, it parallels I 40. The trip from downtown, right by the Rio Grande, started to climb instantly, once I turned east. My legs were having a little hangover from yesterday's antics, but I also remember how heavy they felt last time I had to get acclimated to elevation. So, I'm gonna blame the dead legs on the elevation. Yea, elevation. US 66 is now officially known as NM333 in these parts. It is a beautiful road along I 40, sometimes higher, sometimes lower than the interstate, but it's climbing the same mountains. The shoulder is great, and the bicycle traffic is pretty busy. The crazy thing I noticed was the optical illusion that I was going uphill, when it looked like I was going downhill. It happened several times, but all I had to do was ask my quads, and there was no doubt I was going uphill, no matter what it looked like. The miles went by very slowly going up that 14 mile hill, but my elevation gauge was dancing on my Garmin, so I watched that instead of my speedometer. The total climb for the day was over 2600 ft, but it's not the same climbing to 7000+ ft as it is climbing to 2200 ft in Phoenix. The scenery was so beautiful, and the weather so wonderful ( cool, tailwind), that it was an easy climb, considering that it was so hard. Think about that for a while. My belief that I would rather climb a mountain all day than fight a headwind all day was once again, undeniably confirmed.
I got to the campground in Edgewood, NM, "Where the mountains meet the prairie", before Pam did. We've been having some TV trouble, so she took the Rv to a place to have the satellite dish, and controls looked at. I checked us in, and I am typing this as she is getting ready to fight Albuquerque rush hour, hopefully to get here before the temperature gets down in the forties, where it's going tonight at this elevation. I haven't felt that for a long time!