We've been fighting the wind for the past few days. Our schedule has us heading out onto the open plains, to Branson. Wind can really blow with no mountains to stop it. After much discussion, we decided to skip Branson, take a rest day, and ride directly to Raton.

We have checked every weather app known to man. The results vary wildly. Oren likes Accuweather. It says 20 mph headwind, and getting stronger as the day goes on. The friendliest app said a high of 16 mph headwind. It's 20 miles to Raton, all interstate riding. 1,900 elevation gain.

I'm going to stay here for breakfast at 7 AM. I'm tired of oatmeal in the room already. Oren is leaving at 6 AM. Jacinto plans on 9 AM. 

We are all hoping for enough traffic on the interstate to help pull us along. Who would think we want high traffic?

To make things interesting, the entire next week has rain. I floated the idea of combining the next two days. We would ride all the way to Cimmaron in one day, 60 miles, with a strong headwind. 

As we are scheduled, our hard day into Taos is supposed to have an inch of rain. Being from Colorado, that is a lot of rain. Oren is from Arkansas, an inch of rain is common in his area. Neither of the guys were for fighting the wind 60 miles tomorrow. Not that I am either, but I'm also not for having an inch of rain going over the pass at 8,500 feet. The end result is we are hoping the rain forecast is wrong.

So - our visit to New Mexico sounds wet and windy. That is not at all like the previous visits!

My bike is clean and ready to go. Ice in the water bottles. Snacks loaded up. We all appreciated the unplanned day off. The better to fight the wind.