DISTANCE TRAVELED: 45.01 Miles
AVERAGE SPEED: 12.32 MPH

          At 7:00, I woke up and ate cereal for breakfast again and then packed up my dirty tent. By 8:30, we were on our way to buy food. Al bought canned Chinese food which everyone loaded up in their gear. We finally left at 9:15 and began to ride on the freeway. The surface was the smoothest of the trip and with the combined tailwind and wind from the trucks, going at 20 mph was an easy task. As soon as we got off, the road was rough again and I could only go 15 mph. I rode with Stu just in my sight for 15 miles to the El Mapais visitor center. Here, we saw where to camp for the night near a windmill. We then looked at the Indian artifacts the visitor center had. Pottery was of all colors and very beautiful. The pots with a scalloped pattern were used to cook in; the painted pots were used to hold water. After taking a lunch break for a few minutes, we rode up the road for a mile to a turn off and then continued up a dirt road for a mile to an overlook of the valley from the top of a rock bluff. (Picture209) As we took another break, the clouds slowly grew larger in the distance. The next stop was a natural arch that was at least 40 feet wide and looked to be strong enough to walk on. (Picture210) A little further down the road, natural gullies were carved out of the sandstone from flashfloods that would occur with heavy rain. (Picture211) After this short stop, we rode on to the second windmill that we saw where we thought that we would sleep for the night. I waited for the wind to pick up so the windmill would turn and we would be able to get fresh water from the well. The water was cold and did not need to be filtered so I drank a bottle. Soon, we determined that it would be the place to camp for the night so I set up my tent before filling the 5-gallon water jug for cooking. As soon as I got back to my tent, rain started to come down. The initial cold drops were good but soon the rain came down hard so I jumped into my tent to avoid getting soaked. (Picture212,Picture213) Just before the rain stopped, the sun came out. Fortunately, the rain stopped soon after since the sun cooked anything that was inside of the tent. This process happened twice during the day. During the second round, one thunderbolt sounded like it had hit a tent it was so loud! Around 6:00, we ate our chinese dinner. The final chore was to fill up with water for the next day. (Picture214) As the sun went down, we watched the lightening in the nearby clouds and even tried to take pictures of it. (Picture215) By 8:00, everyone was in bed since there was no wood for a fire and by 8:30, I was asleep.