07.20 Santa Fe, NM

I had the most amazing day today, which was much needed after yesterday (sorry for the depressing blog entry, but such is life). I started off the day determined to finish the ride and have a good day. Thankfully, the ride was fast and not too hilly and the weather and scenery were spectacular. We stopped for lunch at Pecos Historic National Park and saw some great pueblo adobe huts. I worked my butt off after lunch and got into Santa Fe before 2pm…coming to the crest of that hill and seeing the city in the valley surrounded by mountains cannot be described. The afternoon was full of delicious treats thanks to care packages and cards from Ashley, Marie, Katie and Aimee!!! We have a great location in Santa Fe…we walked 4 blocks to a bike shop and Trader Joes and after a fabulous dinner of enchiladas and ice cream sundaes provided by Josh’s mom, a bunch of us walked about 10 blocks to downtown. I had no expectations of Santa Fe and it is more amazing than I could have hoped. Everything is adobe and cultural, and the downtown is a quaint few blocks of shops, bars, and restaurants. Some people went straight to a bar but I explored with Rachel. We saw some great views of the perfect sunset, found an independent bookstore where I reserved a copy of Harry Potter #7 that comes out tomorrow, browsed some amazing art galleries and got into a jazz festival for free. I will never forget this jazz festival. The Toumani Diabaté’s Symmetric Orchestra was playing. Toumani Diabaté is from West Africa and is considered the world’s finest kora player. A kora is a 21 stringed instrument…he plays the bass with one thumb, the melody with the other thumb and uses his index fingers to improvise…it is amazing. He won the 2005 Grammy for Best Traditional World Music Album. The 45 minutes of the concert we saw were just a rush. I have never seen so many people over the age of 40 get their groove on…and I’ve never heard so many coyote calls. It is the kind of music that just fills you up so that all you have left is the music itself and your thoughts. If you can relax your mind, your body can just go. Rachel and I danced like I’ve never danced before…you just move to this music…it’s impossible not to. For the encore, we got onto the stage and danced with the musicians and it was so liberating to just let go and move naturally…especially after all that time on a bike! Needless to say, I had a great night, which was made even better by the star-filled sky on the walk home. It’s 10:45pm and I don’t even feel very tired, which is a first for me all summer. Can’t complain…:)

P.S. I hit the 2000 mile mark today. Now, instead of people being surprised that we’re riding all the way to San Francisco, they’re amazed that we’ve ridden all the way from Florida. Feels pretty good.