Tina Louise was Right and I Lied!

 

I'm not sure we will see a better sign for the rest of the trip. 

Today was a good day with a few problems in between. It all started with the "breakfast" from the Best Western in Gallup. As opposed to a hot breakfast, we got to pick up a bag. No problem but the bag contained 2 granola bars. Not enough fuel for a decent ride.

As we rode out of Gallup, Route 66 had a nice surface and not much traffic. We were looking forward to a day off the interstate. Then we encountered the sign above and were forced onto I-40. We had 2 short (25 yards) stretches where I-40 was one lane in each direction and a very narrow shoulder. We worked as a team and made it through. Thom was falling a little behind me as we made a steeper climb. I stopped at the top to find out that Thom had fallen behind because he had a flat. Another wire probably from truck tire retreads. We will never look at those pieces of tires by the side of the road with anything but a grimace. So there we were again changing a tire on the Interstate. We are a pretty good team butttttttt.

Right after the tire change our route took us off the Interstate. Yeah!!! We were on old Route 66 seeing some amazing sights. We were also climbing. My GPS said we reached over 7,400 feet. That's what I lied about. The divide in Arizona was not the Continental Divide. Where we were today was. Thom and I stopped several times to "smell the roses" our expression for enjoy the scenery. Here are a few of my pictures. I kept thinking of the Georgia O'Keefe Museum that Claudia and I have visited in Santa Fe. My pictures don't do justice to what we saw.

As we were getting closer to Grants, our goal for the day, the sky behind us started to darken. Tina Louise was right! After a few sprinkles we headed for the Dairy Queen at Bluewater Outpost. Thom saw lightning as we were getting off our bikes. We spent the time in DQ talking with 2 motorcyclists who had arrived separately about the virtues of the Best Western in Williams and several other customers who were fascinated about our trip. Our favorite question was from one of the motorcyclists who asked "Are you the guys riding the pedal bikes?" If you are ever in this DQ wearing bicycle shoes, I would advise you to be careful. The floor can be very slippery. 

A little more than 2 hours later, the weather had cleared, the roads had dried and most importantly the winds had shifted to tailwinds. We flew into Grants going over 20 MPH. I enjoyed the basket street art they had throughout the town. This one reminds me of a basket we bought in Africa.

We asked Claudia to meet us at Laguna and added 30 miles onto our ride. It was great to have a tailwind and not to be on the Interstate. We decided to spend the night in Albuquerque where we are going to spend the next 2 nights as well. It will be nice to spend 3 nights in the same room but it means extra driving for Claudia. 

Here is the ride on Strava. 

Our Progress'

Here it is. We have gone over 1,000 miles and have less than 2,500 miles left.

Tomorrow we are just going to ride from Laguna to ABQ. Then Thom has some work commitments and we all will have dinner with a high school classmate of mine, On Wednesday we hope to spend some time with our son while Thom has dinner with his sister-in-law.