Speaking of Worse...

So, after flawless weather for the 1000 miles the first day I got nailed again and again by tornadic winds, rain and hail.

I spent 2 hours hiding under an underpass on Sunday avoiding high winds and horrible rain and lightning. The raining frogs were apparently just to the Southeast of me.

Sunday morning I had a great ride to 3 different National Parks with beautiful weather and stunning scenery, but I apparently angered a god or three.

Monday, I spend the day running from bad weather, as well. I stared at vicious black clouds in front of me for hours before Zeus hurled the first lightning strike, at which point I ran my soggy butt to the first hotel I could find. I was in a bad hotel at 4pm, sad to loose so much time, but grateful when the 2 episodes of hail came through.

Tuesday, I got a late start waiting for the sky to clear and the rain to end and spent another day racing the weather. There was a break as I entered the Northeast corner of NM and saw some beautiful stuff. It didn't last long, though.

I had hoped to be in Keystone by Tuesday night ready for the conference on Wed, but the 2 'leisurely' days weren't. I knew weather was gonna be an issue. Things weren't looking good. Despite reassurances from locals that I didn't have anything to worry about, I stayed at the Capulin Volcano National Monument for 2 hours...waiting. Again, hail. Hard rain for a bit. Then it cleared and moved off for a couple hours.



This was the LARGEST CROSS I HAVE EVER SEEN. EVER. Except that this is the second one I saw. I didn't have the camera ready for the other one. This one did have a sign that said 'largest cross in the Western Hemisphere', but it looked the same as the other one to me...



Here are some horses from NM, a graffitti'd train and that cow that said 'I dare you' when I came down from the mountain and wanted to use the road they were hanging out on. It was quite a showdown.



I have tons of amazing pictures that I'd love to share, but you either don't care and will be grateful I don't post them or you're interested in seeing them and would rather not have to leave nose prints on the screen to look at them. I did finally arrive at the conference on Wed around noon. It has been a stunning 3 days here at the conference so far with one day to go. I haven't had much free time since I've been here, but I have to rethink my ride home. One more day here and then I'm back on the road in one direction or another.