Downtown Stanley, I Presume

My Ruler-Straight-Line Tracking Today
Jacque liked my description of the ride to Golden yesterday so she took off on her trike that-a-way while I decided to go east, young man, and ride out Frost Road to its end at Stanley, NM, a small nearby ranching community that recently lost its post office,. although it still has a volunteer fire department.
Last night we had heavy rains, several thundering storms, and multiple  power blinkages.  We had a report from one of our friends who got trapped in exceedingly deep hail, a foot or more, due north of Edgewood at Frost Road and NM 344.  I was disbelieving when I rode close to that intersection this morning, seeing a mile or more of white stuff off in the ditch next to the road.

 It was hard to believe my eyes, but it was several inches of HAIL left over from last night's storm.  A few miles further I noticed huge  mud puddles all over both sides of the road, with huge blocks of mud scattered everywhere.  After I got to Stanley and turned around, I got to wondering about the mud-blocks, thinking perhaps they might be blocks of hailstones.  Sure enough, they were.  This is a muddy block right next to the road:

 This is what was exposed when I kicked off the upper edge with my foot:

A solid block of ice, packed hailstones all together, almost 12 hours after the big storm that deposited the hail, after 1:00 PM.  Such stuff was everywhere... quite the storm leftovers.
I really enjoyed the ride today.... wide open spaces with very few cars.  As I rolled past one isolated ranch entrance, I heard the familiar  noise of a dog barking.  He turned out to be a huge Pyrenees-style dog, and I was glad he was on his side of the fence.  Within a few seconds he was out in the ROAD, almost upon me.  I never even saw the gap in the fence.  He kept coming but preferred thankfully to just come close, chase me and bark, rather than try to bite or attack.  He ignored my commands to GIT and Go Away.  Finally he seemed to tire of the chase and trotted back to his side of the fence.
I turned south at Stanley, intending to ride the 10 miles south to Moriarty and loop back home along Route 66.  When I pulled over for a water & snack break, I noticed the time and quickly realized it would take several more hours than I'd hoped if I completed that loop.  I still want to make this loop but will have to get an earlier start for such an adventure, so I merely turned around for home.
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.0   Ending Voltage:  12.5
Lowest Temp  62 F      Highest Temp:  82 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:     41.35
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
7.9 MPH                                 9.9 MPH                   34.8 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
  5hours 16 mins                    4 hours  11 mins         1 hour 4 minutes