June 24, 2022
Tres Piedras, NM - Antonio, CO
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Breakfast was included with our room today. The cafe doesn't open until 9 AM. We could sleep in! Did I? No, I was awake at 5:30. My luck.
We were downstairs right at 9. Our bikes were outside. Oren was packed and ready to go. We still needed to bring our things down. It took quite a while to get our food. Then we chatted more with Debbie, who came to town special to make us a proposition. We could ride to Chama, she would pick us up and bring us back to spend the night, then she would drop us off again. That was a VERY generous offer. I wish she had made it last night. We might have considered it then. 10:30 was not the time for me to be starting such a big ride. I would have been out the door at near daybreak, had we been riding to Chama. We thanked her for the offer and rolled down the road.
Highway 285 didn't have as much traffic as I expected. We had a small shoulder to start, which soon widened to a large shoulder. The roadway had been repaved, and the shoulder hadn't. It was tempting to stay on the roadway.
I felt quite warm as we left town (70's?), and appreciated the air movement as we bicycled. We had a strong west wind. Jacinto and I assured Oren that had we headed west to Chama, we would have been early enough to beat the wind. As it was, the wind was annoying. It eventually shifted to a quartering tailwind. That was strong enough to push us down the road.
The only thing of note on our short ride was riding through a construction zone. The flagger told Oren it was perhaps a half mile. I watched the odometer. It was more than 3 miles. We took so long to ride through that they sent the next batch of cars. Happily, we found a place to pull over before the cars reached us.
Oren had been riding in his usual point position, then Jacinto, then me. We gathered up a couple of times during the day. Mostly I could see their tail lights in the distance.
We agreed to stop at the first gas station. It was on the edge of town. I told Jacinto I wanted something cold and wet. Preferably a V-8, or a lemonade. He came back and said they didn't have either of those, or anything he liked to drink either. Oren found something. We went on into town to the grocery store. Same story. Except here the V-8 was warm. Jacinto bought a mango coconut water, that he ultimately declared to taste like dishwater.
We went back to the inn. We are trying a new to us place, in town. The Steam Train Hotel. I called to let Teagen know we were here. She gave us directions on how to get upstairs. Our bikes went in the currently unused lobby. The door would be locked behind us. We needed to get our items now. Hopefully getting our bikes back in a timely fashion tomorrow won't be an issue.
There are two restaurants across the street. I think we've tried both of them and neither were any good. Reviews on google aren't bad. Perhaps they have new owners.
I'm going to take a nap. We do have AC in this room. That is a first in many days. We are at 7,800 feet now - a 'low' elevation.
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Spoon
2 years ago
Today's ride: 31 miles (50 km)
Total: 767 miles (1,234 km)
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I really like that area you're in--high-elevation sagebrush country with higher mountains in the distance. Very nice. I like green dinosaurs too.
2 years ago
2 years ago
It would be easy to loop down to Taos.
A key factor would be ordering up the wind in your favor.
2 years ago
If only the wind in this area were friendlier, it would be easier to recommend.
It takes a hardy type to live here.
2 years ago