67 miles, 4633 feet climbed
Today began with about 6 miles of steady elevation gains. A little downhill respite and then a continued climb to today’s SAG at the 32 mile mark. Melanie, having done a little shopping in Albuquerque, passed me before the SAG and stopped for a visit. Based upon nothing in particular, I’d assumed that New Mexico Route 14 was a canyon with narrow, twisty, roads. In fact, it was a four-lane road for the first half, narrowing to two lanes near and past Madrid, and then busy roads into Santa Fe. The terrain was more medium-sized valley than canyon.
Our hotel is located on the busiest street of all–Cerrillos Rd. It seemed as if the whole town was out in their cars. We arrived early enough that we had to wait for our rooms to be ready. This has generally been the case so far but, to be fair, we do seem to get in pretty early, usually before the normal 3 to 4 pm check-in times.
Postscript: With two rest days (due to the fire near Las Vegas–see my previous post), Melanie and I had more time to explore. We found Cafe Grazie, a short drive from our hotel, for dinner on Friday and returned again on Saturday because we liked our first meal so much. On Saturday we drove to Taos and had lunch at a diner north of the city center.
On the way back from Taos, instead of retracing our steps on the rather boring main highway, we drove the Taos Scenic Byway, which took us through some forested mountain roads to the east. At at least two places where the road forked, the option to go east was closed due to the fires threatening Las Vegas. It was more interesting and would’ve been quite fun in a sportier vehicle. On Sunday Melanie and I had lunch at the New York Deli Southside.
Finally, after seeing several riders using bone-conducting headphones, I picked up a pair, made by Shokz, at Best Buy. The transducers sit in front of your ear and do not block outside sounds. The sound is transmitted by vibrating the bones of the ear rather than through the air. Initial tests suggest that they will work well, both on the bike and for taking calls and zoom meetings (hopefully not for much longer). They won’t replace my custom molded in ear monitors for serious listening and knocking down the external noise on planes and trains but they are good for those other applications.
Heading toward Madrid
A lot of History in that town. It’s the beginning of spreading the horse throughout the North American Indian tribes. Especially Apache, Comanche, Zuni, Arapaho, Souix, Pawnee, Kiowa, Arikaree, Blackfoot, Nez Pierce and ,Taos. They all began to act like bad ass biker gangs. Took place around 1680. After that the tribes and various mountain men began to use Santa Fe as a giant flee market for around 200 years. Spain and the horse. The Spaniards showed up around 1620. 3 years before the Pilgrims. Not a Turkey dinner. The local tribes converted to Catholicism at the point of a sword. This went on for 60 years. Then the tribes colluded and collaborated and drove the Spaniards out. But they left a huge herd of horses. The Indians went hummmmm. The Spaniards came back. However the Indians said, “not so fast.”The Spaniard took control of the local government but they really never had control again over the Indians again. The horse was bigger than the internet.
Hi Paul, This is Gary who rode with you on ABB 2019 north across America. Reading your blog it seems like a pretty nice ride. Couldn’t believe it when you posted picture of Bob he is quite a biker 80plus and still going strong. Hope you continue to have descent weather and have a SAFE AND FUN TRIP. I will be following along.