Day 15 - Shiprock, NM to Turley, NM

Daily Stats:
Distance: 89.63km
Time: 3h02m12s
Avg Spd: 29.4km/h
Climbing: 737m

An easy riding day today meant most of us could take our time leaving camp this morning, and stop along the way. The Top Guns were the last group to leave camp before the sweep team just before 7am.  We rode hard for 45km before arriving in Farmington, NM, which is a beautiful little farming community.  I could tell it was a farming community by the number of tax preparation companies on the main drag.

Farmington is also an oil & gas town.  I could tell by the number of massive pickup trucks with flag-whips on the road - it reminded me of Calgary.

It was about 8:30am when we rolled into town, and we trucked down Main Street until we saw TJ's Downtown Diner.  This place was perfect.  Everyone inside was dressed in plaid, and the country music was playing.  They served greasy breakfasts for relatively cheap.  I doubt this place has ever seen as much spandex as it did today.

I ordered "The Heap", Karel had French toast and Brandon had the One Car Pileup...  so much food for so cheap!  I wish we could go back to this place.

One flat tire along the way, at around 81km, was caused by our first encounter with a goathead thorn.  Apparently these plants are a noxious weed around here, and the seeds have three sharp barbs - two on the top like horns, and one on the bottom like a goat's beard.  They're too small to see, so there's no avoiding them.

Our accommodations for tonight are amazing!  We are graciously being given camping space at the Wines of San Juan, a small winery (5 acres of grape vines) quite close to Navajo Lake.  It's a family run business, and they have probably 40 acres of land in addition to their vineyard.  They have three peacocks, a dog, an emu, chicken, geese, a pond and a cool wine processing facility.

We were given a tour of the wine process, and sampled a few of the wines.  My favorite was the Sweet Cherry Pie white wine.

This place is beautiful, nestled right off the river, and almost in the shadow of a giant mesa.  There are trees galore, and wonderful shaded patio to relax on.

The only downside to this place is the facilities.  We're using porta-johns and our outdoor shower is back in business.  Nothing like needing a shower after 3 hours of riding in 35 degree heat to rid any shyness about soaping down in the middle of a field...

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Terry Barnes, one of our tour organizers, for finding this place when it was decided it was not possible to go through Colorado because of the fires.  All of us are sincerely disappointed that he is unable to be here with us to enjoy this place, especially when he put in so much time and effort to figure out a new route.

The other excitement for today was the Fireball Adventurally discovery team stopped in at the winery to do some reconnaissance for their upcoming season.  Link to Fireball website.

Tomorrow we start climbing.  Rumor is the route is a tough 87 miles with some 6,000ft of elevation gain, but we'll find out for sure this evening at peloton.  A few riders in camp are talking about riding Pikes Peak on Saturday, when we near Colorado Springs.  It's not part of our route, but the road to the summit was recently paved, and this is the first year that it is open to cyclists.  A few of us crazies think it would be a good idea to climb it.  Why?  Because it's there...