Day 4: what goes down must come up

Slow start to today, but a fantastic ride nonetheless! Two instances where what must goes down must go up:

1) We got an early flat 4 miles in and broke our bike pump. Thanks to divine intervention, two wonderful people, Chavez and Irene, picked us up and took us back into town to Walmart. After some hurried patching and buying of a new pump, we started on a new route which turned out to be a blessing in itself. We left at 1:30 and got in by 7, but the route was ten miles shorter than our previous route, and had much better roads, leading us to average above 16 miles an hour. God works in wonderful ways. What goes down must come up

2) Our bike route was great for the first 55 miles, lots of downhill, lots of 25 miles per hour. Beautiful views and lovely weather. But what goes down must come back up. The last part of the day was mostly uphill, ending on "the beast". We were forwarned that this beast of a hill was coming by the bishop who let us stay at the chapel last night, he said a casino will signal the start of that hill. There were three casinos at the bottom of hills prior to this last one, always keeping us guessing, but we were ready and knew it was coming. And we made it!

Special thanks to Brant (Kaitlin Lilywhite's brother) and his wonderful wife Lindsey and kids for letting us stay at his place in Albuquerque tonight.