Day 16: Santa Fe to Las Vegas (New Mexico)

May 21, 2023

Big day of a different kind. First, the weather forecast had predicted storms, especially as the day progressed. Secondly, at nearly 7600 ft of altitude we were going to reach the highest point of the tour. That’s more than twice the height of Snowdon and with a fast descent afterwards we feared the cold that had affected so many of us on Friday. Accordingly, we all dressed in layers. I had winter arm warmers and gloves, toe covers and a gilet.

As a summit was involved, the descent had to be preceded by some climbing (1200ft). This was broken into two halves and as it was still quite early in the morning none of us got too sticky. Barbara and I held hands as we crested on a brief section of interstate shoulder.

We were soon at the first SAG, in a rest area next to some Pecos ruins. I’d assumed that ‘Pecos’ came from the Spanish Picos, whereas the name was from a local tribe of farming people.

Since leaving Santa Fe the landscape had been much greener. Although the ground was still quite scrubby, there were many low trees. At times it had looked as though there was a mess above us, and at others there were small discrete hills taking the shape of spoil heaps or plugs of rock.

It was only 17 miles to the second SAG. By now most of the descending was over, leaving only 26 miles of up and down, so I put all my spare layers in one of the vans, hoping to finish the ride before the worst weather set in at 1pm.

We were back on route 66, with a number of us quite close together. There were times when I could see five riders ahead of me spread out along the road.

It turned out that the forecast had been slightly out as there was a spectacular thunder storm a mile to our left and another over our right shoulder. The winds came up and there was light rain about ten miles out so I stopped to put on a rain jacket. The weather finally caught up with me six miles from home with heavy rain hitting us sideways. One particularly strong gust nearly blew Todd off the road. The showers and squalls were very localised. Others had to shelter from hail.

Everything calmed down at five miles to go. Mark B, Todd and I cruised into town fast enough to start to dry out. Our route took us round the houses to an extent through run down areas of town, past tin shacks and trailer parks. The last half a mile though was between two-storey, old shop fronts leading onto a beautiful square surrounded by similar buildings highlighting our taller and much grander old-west Plaza hotel.

Famous people have stayed here and the hotel was used in ‘No Country for old men’. The rooms have high ceilings and there is a feeling of faded grandeur.

I had nice lunch with Diamond Dave (https://www.davehosley.com/) in the hotel. Later the sun came up so I went for a walk round town and came across Todd and Mark S. in Stella’s cafe. We drank beer, ate good lasagne and were joined by Ron, Barbara and Mark B later. I’d live in this cafe if it was near home.

Today's ride: 73 miles (117 km)
Total: 1,037 miles (1,669 km)

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