First Ride from ABQ to Home: Surprisingly Enjoyable

Great tracking with APRS today...
What a wuss I turn out to be.  For the last several years, since beginning regular bicycle-commuting, I have avoided the dreaded trip home from Albuquerque, east on Route 66, thence North on NM-14 from Tijeras to Frost Road and then the last 2-something miles east on Frost Road to home.  I at first feared making the OTHER trip direction from home to ABQ but - once tried - it's become rather a favorite trip for me.  So why haven't I tried coming back the other direction?  Lots of hills, that's why.... going TO Albuquerque from here has about 4 miles of very steep climbing, all at the first, and then pretty much a downhill ride most of the way through Tijeras Canyon into town.  I've thought for years that "Someday" I needed to make the return trip, at least once, so I could at least say I did it, at least, once.
Well, today I was scheduled for some lab blood work for my next week's doctor appointment.  I decided that in spite of the windy warning weather reports, I would ride TO town with Jacque, since I was supposed to not eat anything prior to the lab tests, which makes it a bit difficult to ride the bike 20 miles TO the lab, don'tcha know.  She was to do her regularly scheduled water aerobics and I would get my blood work done, chow down and break my fast, and ride home on the bike... weather permitting.  Going to ABQ through the canyon was a bit worrisome because I could feel the wind buffeting us as we drove through the canyon.  However, I kept watching the treetops and bushes along the highway and could see little evidence of high winds... I could see no swaying of the vegetation at all.  So I unsaddled the bike and all my STUFF at the old Anna Kaseman hospital/lab and sent Jacque on her way.  In no time at all I was done with the lab and outside eating my oatmeal/chocolate chip bar, a tactic designed to get me to the nearest  Circle K so I could get some serious junk food stuffed into me for the 20-mile trip home up the canyon.  Since there are TWO Circle K's on the corner of Constitution and Wyoming, only half a block from the lab, I fared OK in the food department.  Constitution has a nice bike lane all the way to Tramway, and I only needed to ride to Moon, turn south and engage Easterday which leads to the bike overpass crossing I-40 at the Los Altos Golf Course, and then the bike path parallels I-40 up to Tramway and Old Route 66, which then takes me to Tijeras and home.  What wind there was turned out to be a bit cold, BUT more importantly, it was a TAIL-wind, which lessened my grief considerably going east through the Canyon.  I made quite a few rest stops this trip, including at least half an hour at the Tijeras Subway Sandwich Shoppe.  I enjoyed their chocolate chip cookie but was underwhelmed with their "new" Buffalo Chicken Sandwich.  I gave it a good try, needing to carb up for the uphill ride going north, but had to throw about half of it away.  I didn't like the spicy sauce on the meat for some reason.  I WAS pleasantly surprised when I started climbing NM-14 north out of Tijeras:  Those long hills I've been avoiding turn out to be much less steep than expected.  I ALMOST rode on  farther east on 66 to Sedillo Hill and back home  via Vallecitos Road, but Jacque expected me to pick up the mail at Sandia Park Post Office AND I still needed to do this route at least ONCE, so I rode due north, and am very glad I did.  These northbound hills are long-ish but not bad at all.  So I will be riding that route more in the future, now that I've "swallowed the frog" and found it tasted like bacon, so to speak.  Just sayin'
Advice to car drivers who think nothing of squeezing close by a cyclist in the right hand lane..... you might check your paint job when you get home.  Rumor has it that SOME idiot cyclists actually SPIT on cars that come too close .... Just Sayin'.   If you find a gobbet eating away your shiny paint on the right side of your car and the DNA matches mine, I have no idea how that could happen.....
Pre-Ride BG:    71                                Post-Ride BG:  164 (with lots of snacks in between)   
Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.6                Ending Voltage: 12.3
Ride's Lowest Temperature:  44 degrees F     Highest Temperature: 55 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 20.85
Overall average speed                    Moving Avg                       Max Speed
04.7 Mph                                          7.1 mph                             33.4 mph
Total Trip time                               Moving Time                      Stopped Time
 4 hours 36 mins                             3 hours 1 mins                   1 hour 34 mins