Unwillingly Riding in Snow

No Tracking Today since there's No Radio Coverage in Tijeras Canyon

We had planned to ride early today but it began raining almost immediately and continued until around noon.  I loaded up the trailer and hauled trash to our local transfer station and by the time I got home the sun had come out and everything was sunny and mild.
I told Jacque I thought we could still squeeze in a trike ride and she quickly changed into her riding duds.  By the time we drove off it had clouded up a bit again but it didn't look threatening.  We decided to try a different route than we usually do.  We thought about driving through Albuquerque and riding our favorite Bosque Trail but it seems silly to drive 20 miles so we can ride 10 or 15 miles on the trike (Athough we do exactly that several times a year).
We decided to park in Tijeras and ride old Route 66 into Albuquerque and then come back.  (I was reminded after we got home to look at our Internet track that there is rarely any beacon coverage through that deepest part of Tijeras Canyon, and there was no coverage today.
As we rode west from Tijeras to Albuquerque, we could see some clouds building up out west of Albuquerque.  The closer we got to Albuquerque the closer and darker these clouds appeared.  Just after hitting the city limits we turned around with great vigor, as President Kennedy used to say, and hurried as fast as we could go  to get  back to our vehicle and shelter.  Which wasn't very fast, since it is mostly downhill coming TOWARD Albuquerque and obviously mostly uphill going back.... and of course we realized we now had a headwind.  We made it a couple miles without much more than a drop or two hitting us and I thought we might make it safely ahead of the storm.  However, I noticed off to our right in the canyons and hills of the Sandias surrounding us almost a solid wall of white stuff, and within a few minutes we were getting an irritating amount of rain in our face.  Various businesses and homes were just off the side of the road but I noticed none with an open carport or overhang of any kind we might take shelter in temporarily.  As we topped one long slow hill I noticed a sandstone rock outcropping just next to the road and at first thought it offered little or no shelter for us but as we passed by it directly I realized it did indeed have enough overhang to at least partially protect us.  Passing it with renewed vigor and hoping to make it to the I-40 underpass just ahead (in which to shelter from the rain), it started SERIOUSLY raining... and snowing ... and SLEETING.  We stopped and I ordered Jacque to get off and walk quickly back to the overhead rock shelter, since it took a few more minutes for me to turn the trike around and ride back to the shelter with the doggies.  There wasn't enough overhang to protect the trike but the 4 of us (Jacque, Tinkerbell, Jazzy, and I) were able to stay relatively dry under the overhanging rock.  We decided the storm wasn't going to clear up anytime soon, so I tried thumbing a ride.  We were only a few miles from Tijeras where our vehicle was parked AND it was 4:30-ish quitting time and lots of traffic, but no one was interested in stopping for a soaked old biker with a soaked puppy strapped papoose-style on his belly.  I finally tried calling a few potential friendly rescuers and finally caught my son Jake still at work, which was only a  few miles from us.  He agreed to come rescue us and was there within 20 minutes.  The rain, meanwhile, had slowed and almost stopped and then started up again.  The trike and panniers and accessories were well soaked.  Jacque chose to stay with the trike and pups and protect them from all bad people and I rode with Jake to Tijeras.  It probably took me 20 minutes to get back to Jacque, and we loaded up the soaked trike and gear in jig time. 
We were disappointed not to complete our ride as planned, but we got several miles in anyway, and we absolutely cannot complain about rain and snow in our parched climate.
Trip Started: +- 2:00 PM    Trip Ended:  5:55 PM
Lowest Temp  37 F      Highest Temp:  50 F
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  8.77
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  6.7 MPH                                9.0 MPH                    39.7 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour  19 mins                     58 mins 31 secs           20 mins 29 secs