Day 6 Winslow to Gallup--120 miles. I'm catching up after falling behind. I was genuinely "beat" after this leg and couldn't muster the energy to sit and write. By the time we check in, eat, have our daily rap/have your bike adjusted, and then prepare your gear for the next day, the energy levels are down. Nevertheless, here are a few highlights from Friday's ride. When we left Winslow, despite a clear and a million day, almost every rider was either wearing a rain/light jacket or packing warmer protective gear. It only takes one 4 hour journey in horrible conditions (yesterday traveling through Flagstaff)to get us all to err on the side of caution. The ride had lots of interstate riding because that is the only way to move from place to place in the wide open western US. As I've mentioned before, the interstate shoulders are littered with LOTS of steel belted radial pieces and on this day, I picked up lots of them in my tires. After having 5, repeat 5 flat tires, I succumbed and had our ride leader put new, beefer tires on the front and back. I rode almost the whole way with Bruce, a cattle rancher from VA, who is definitely our most talented rider. I think he "pulled" twice as much as I did, but we did work well together and covered a lot of ground quickly despite my 5 flats and his 2 flats. I worked hard to keep my sense of humor through the flats, but as Bruce observed, "Steve, you were close to losing it on number 5." At about the halfway point, we shuttled all the riders and their bikes through a construction area that we were not allowed to ride (7 miles). Using both the vans and their respective bike racks, we transported all the riders forward. Lee, Bruce, Jason and I volunteered to be on the last shuttle, putting us 25 minutes behind the others, but with 60+ miles to go, we knew we would make up the stagger. Bruce and I ended up finishing near the front, catching, Ron, one of our riders who was having a great day. The 3 of us rolled into the La Quinta Inn and in short order we all walked to Denny's to order just about everything on the menu. And about 3 hours later, my roommate, Greg, invited me to a late night milk shake. The waitress and hostess both did a double take, saying, ". . . didn't we see you earlier?" Take care one and all and thanks for enjoying this adventure with me. Stay healthy, Steve