Weekend's Ride: 6/23 & 6/24 - Hot times in the big city

Another huge thank you to Carollan and Ryan H for captaining Saturday's ride and to Maria and Ryan E for captaining Sunday's ride.  Sounds like both days were successful - we paired with the Outspoken team for a joint ride after last weekends got rained out. One thing I took away from the weekend is, as much as everyone complains about the 6 am start time, it is necessary when it gets hot in ABQ!

Saturday: From Ryan H: "Today's ride was a success. It became very hot; approximately 100 degrees. We departed at approximately 7:10am with 27 riders. We altered the route to take Girard Blvd south rather than going down to University Blvd to reach the airport area. Rio Bravo was under heavy construction which made it difficult to get onto the trail on the South side of the road. We had to go past our normal entrance, make a U-turn and then carry our bikes onto the trail. Some riders made a U-turn down at the red light at Prince Street. We finally got onto the trail and then stopped at Tingley Beach. We received a report that the water fountain was out of service. I failed to immediately wait at the turn to alert our riders to turn into the picnic area and I lost one so I had to travel all the way down past the zoo to retrieve one rider and then return. Then, we made a brisk pace up to Paseo del Norte. We stopped at the intersection to make sure we had everyone. At that point, Laura and Good Gary broke off to continue to Alameda to get water from a gas station. They met up with us later at the traffic circle at UNM. The riders successfully turned south onto the Northern Diversion Channel Trail. Many riders diverted to go home. At least one was hot and tired. We attempted to set a stop at the circle at UNM, but most people continued because of the heat. Evil Gary and his new protégé diverted to have breakfast at Tia B's Waffleria. Good Gary, Carollan and I were joined by some of the Outspok'n riders for brunch at O'Neill's which opens at 10am on Saturday and Sunday, but only the door on the south side. At brunch, we had Patty, Steve, John, Monica, Samuel, Gary, Ryan and Carollan. Finally, Good Gary, Carollan and I rode together along Southern Blvd all the way to Eubank on our ways home."

Sunday:  From Ryan E: "We had 6 today. Rhea, Maria, Erica, Evil Gary, Bex and Ryan E. We left O’niels at 0715 and did a modified inner loop. We excluded the far south Bosque trail due to the construction on Rio Bravo. Evil and Bex pealed off on Mountain while the rest rode to Paseo and looped back. By the time we arrived back at O’niels, Evil and Bex just returned and we all ended back O’niels at the same time!"

From Maria: ".... Good ride except for that crazy Rio Bravo interchange. Even with low traffic, it felt unsafe with all the construction. Bex & Evil peeled off early and went home via Mountain.  The rest of us went up to Paseo. Lucky sighting of Eric at the volunteer tent for a race that was staging next to Natl Hispanic Cultural Center."