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Day 6: Springerville, AZ to Socorro, AZ

153.1 miles / 8:55 hours moving, 1:04 stopped / 5748' climbing

19.5 mph avg, 41.2 mph max / 7608 calories spent

Breakfast: Banana bread (from my mom), 3 sausage links, oatmeal with fruit and milk, yogurt, OJ.

Snack 1: (skipped, we were doing great)

Snack 2: Banana with Nutella.

Snack 3: Oreo, cup of coke.

Lunch: Grilled cheese sandwich, grilled asparagus, corn & black bean salad, chips, coke.

Snack 4: just water.

Pre dinner snack: Small vanilla shake, small fries.
Dinner: Spinach salad, meat lasagna, vanilla cone dipped in chocolate.

6 days done, that's a third, but distance-wise we are only a quarter of the way there.

Long day that started fast with a nice paceline, after a couple of hours, the crack in the pavement cracked my spirit (and my crack) so I had to drop back a bit and do my thing, which is to have more butt breaks, shift positions, etc. All things that are not kosher in a paceline. After lunch and some serious Ibuprofen  things got much better and I got cranking. It was all well until we hit some nasty head wind at about mile 130. Fortunately the road changed direction and it became a nice 10 mile downhill from 7000+ feet to about 5000 feet which also allowed us to breathe better. I know, sappy story, but that's what we are reduced to around here.

Temperatures have been great and the change from the desert scenery is a welcomed relief. As you may have noticed, I'm eating more now; the heat really was messing with my appetite.

PS. Help is Socorro in Spanish...

New Mexico at last (that's not my bike, mine is much nicer and way more expensive).

Pace line in the morning.

Check out the titillating action, the form, the intricacies and technique of the paceline. Awesome!

The protagonist (I'm a trained professional so I can do this while riding).

There are all kinds of junkyards.

Why is that National Forrest signs are still in the 50's?

Around here, Batman nicks you and he can tell you blood alcohol level. Don't mess with him!

Road hazard: Had to wait 20 min for them to let us go by.

They said it would melt our tires if we got too close, I wonder what happens with the rest?

It looks like London, but it ain't.

Lunch. Delicious.

Sight seeing.

Hard to make out, but these are huge radio-telescopes. Several sci-fi movies have been filmed here.

Just a beautiful day.

Well deserved dip in the pool.