Post Day 1 July 24

I was pretty lucky with the weather today. Normally July is the hottest month in Phoenix, but there was a front moving in this morning and when I left, the temperature was 83. As I rode north and increased elevation, the temperatures dropped leaving me with about three hours of riding in the seventies. When I entered New Mexico, I dodged rain storms for a couple of hours, but one finally caught me 26 miles from my motel. Luckily, I was in front of a casino just before the storm hit and I took refuge under their overhang out front and sat out the storm in front of a couple of slot machines. After thirty minutes of rain and wind and a parking fee of only $20, I was on my way. The front brought a drop in temperatures, so I rode the last 26 miles in sub 60 fresh air.