Day Sixteen - 5/09/2003

Landscape

ERIC:

Day 16 - (5/9/03) Today we rode from Santa Rosa, NM to Tucumcari, NM.  The riding was good.  We had wind again today at our back which made the riding fast and easy.   Part of today's route was on I-40 and part on Route 66.  The riding on Route 66 was great.  We rode for 19 miles without seeing any cars.  Unfortunately during the part of the trip on I-40 we both got flat tires.  We saw someone picking up the ripped up tires on I-40.  They pick up the large pieces but the freeway is still full of the small metal bits that make their way into our tires.  We commented today on how the weather has been great for our trip so far.  A little windy at times but not too bad.  Each night we watch the weather on TV and it seems the entire U.S. is having rain, wind, tornadoes, snow, hail, floods...etc.  Tonight we are staying at the Safari motel.  This is another unique motel.  It has the highest pool slide in all of New Mexico.  There is no water in the pool so I don't think we will be trying it out.  Tonight will be another night of indoor camping.  We don't have a phone line so we won't be able to update the web site until tomorrow.  Tomorrow will be another long riding day, over 100 miles.  We will be crossing into Texas and spending the night in Amarillo.  I saw a billboard today that offered a 72oz. steak for free if it is consumed in less than an hour.  It was a sign that we are getting close to Texas where everything is big.

Santa Rosa, NM to Tucumcari, NM 59 miles. This day starts at 4550 feet and ascends to 5050 feet then mostly downhill to 4100 feet.

TOM:

Day 16 - Santa Rosa, NM to Tucumcari, NM 59 miles. This day starts at 4620 feet and ascends to 5050 feet then mostly down hill 4100 feet.  This trip was a very nice trip. It was short, down hill and the wind was from behind.  We covered the distance in 3 hours and 20 minutes riding time at an average speed of 17.7 mph.  A little over half of  the trip was on Route 66.  The first segment was 4 miles.  The second segment was 21 miles, and the third segment was 7 miles. On the twenty one mile segment we were the only users except for one car.  At the end of this segement we took our second and last break.  I noticed that my rear tire was somewhat flat. We removed the tube and replaced it with a spare only to find that the spare had a bigger leak.  The second spare worked fine.  This is the first flat for me in two days.  The scenery today was more varied than yesterday but still not as spectacular as two days ago. We arrived at the motel about 2 pm and discovered that we could not get Internet access after trying for about 20 minutes.  We spent some time cleaning our bikes and patching tubes. Then we went to dinner. 

Lucille:

May 9 - Friday - Today's first stop after I left the Best Western Adobe Motel in Santa Rosa was the Route 66 Auto Museum in Santa Rosa.  I enjoyed talking to the friendly lady who ran the place.  They had a large room full of shiny restored old cars.  They were beautiful.  I then drove through downtown Santa Rosa.  There was roadwork on Route 66 through the entire town.  I got on Highway 91 and drove 10 miles south to see the little village of Puerto de Luna.  I crossed the Pecos River as I approached the village.  There is a pretty little church there.  I couldn't find the other 2 buildings that I had read were sites of interest.  This village was once the most thriving village of the area, but when it was bypassed with the coming of the railroad, it was the beginning of the end for the little town.  We've seen so many little towns along Route 66 on this trip that died when Highway 40 replaced Route 66.  This is the first one with bad luck because of the railroad route.  Lately so that we have a definite meeting place at the end of the day, we have started making motel reservations the night before we get to a town.  We had picked up one of those coupon booklets that are at most visitor centers and we made reservations for a very cheap motel.  It was listed as AAA approved so we figured it must be ok. Actually it is clean and satisfies all of our needs for the night except we couldn't get Internet access tonight with their phone system.  That's why our journals for May 9 won't reach you until tomorrow night.  Things are so much more casual at the little mom and pop places than at the chain motels.  When I arrived to check in, the office was closed, and a calm big black dog was on the other side of the locked glass door.  The very friendly maid who calls me Sugar saw me and upon hearing that I had a reservation opened up room 19 and said that the manager was out but would be back shortly and that she assumed from our needs that this is the room he would assign and that I could go ahead and move my stuff in.  Since she couldn't offer me her master key and couldn't get the room key because the office was locked, I had some lunch while I waited for the manager to arrive (almost an hour) before taking stuff out of the car.  Tom and Eric arrived at around 2 o'clock.  We had a good dinner at Del's Restaurant, the place the manager recommended.

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Cows

Flowers

Total Trip Distance: 1397.27