Grants New Mexico
Breakfast at Earl’s Family Restaurant at 7:30. The original Earl’s was founded in 1947 right across the street from the current location. The service and food were excellent.
After breakfast we returned to the El Rancho hotel to pack up. One difference today, we load bikes first then bags in the trailer. After everything was loaded we all climbed into the vans and headed toward the Continental Divide.
In this portion of New Mexico bikes are allowed to ride the shoulder of freeways and can enter the traffic lane
briefly to avoid hazards. Well this construction obstruction was at least 5 miles long and it would have been insane to ride this section. Unfortunately there were no alternative frontage roads, so we did a van hop to the Continental Divide.
There was a nice pull out at the Divide and we unpacked the vans and set up the bike racks so we could fill our bottles and get ready just like we would as if we were starting at the hotel
The manger of this store noticed us and came over to find out what we were up to. We explained our ride and she thought that was awesome and offered us the use of the restrooms. I took her up on her offer and was impressed with the quality of the stuff in the store. Her colleague was very nice and greeted me and asked me to sign the guest register. We discussed kids, grandkids, and great grandkids and then I realized I should probably get going.
Yikes, everyone was gone and Lon was packing up the truck! There was only blinking tail lights way in the distance. It was slightly downhill 0-1% all the way to grants and I was expecting cooler temperatures on the descent and had on too many layers, and was overheating. I had almost caught the last rider but decided to pull over and strip off a layer quickly, and take this photo.
Dan was about a half-mile up the road and I slowly closed the gap and reached him with about 12 miles to the van stop. I recovered for a minute on his wheel, then put my nose into the 20 mph wind and yelled, do you want to work together? He was all for it, he said, ‘if I can keep up.’ I said no worries, we’ll work together, and we did. Between the two of us we could pick up our combined pace, I just took slightly longer pulls, and was able to recover on Dan’s wheel.
We just about caught Mike before the van stop at 20 miles and the rest of the crowd was there also. I figured a large train would be leaving and I asked Dan if he wanted to make it a quick stop and get going. He said you go on!
Just out of the van stop we formed a group of six and shared the work for the next 15 miles to grants.
We had strong riders in the group, like Charles here. But they kept the power and pace consistent, the stronger riders took longer pulls. It really makes a huge difference riding with skilled riders that know how to ride in a pace line. The only problem; it’s hard to drop off and take a picture of something, ‘cause that train ain’t stopping’ and once you’re off the back, you’re gone!
Entering Grants with only a few miles to go I decided to drop off when I saw this restored log cabin motel that appeared to be a craft brewery. Turns out it’s Uncle Roy’s Small Batch Craft Cannabis Co!
Nice Route 66 sign on Uncle Roy’s! I’m ok on cannabis for this trip so I pressed on!
The frequency of Route 66 restorations picked up as we entered town,
Nice Vietnam Memorial downtown, notice the flags straight out, and the wind was easing off here!
Happy to be in Grants; what appeared to be an easy 40 mile downhill ride was anything but! It was great to ride with others to share the work and put some tough miles in the rear-view mirror!
I caught up with Matt and Rich in the downtown area and we rode to the Denny’s just past the motel, and Jose joined us for lunch. We were back at the hotel at 2:30, keys were ready, and a ground floor room to boot!
We have had many days of excellent conditions, so its pay back time. More cold and wind on the nose tomorrow for the 80 mile run to Albuquerque, choose your partners wisely!
Breakfast at Dennys (where else) at 6:30, load at 8:00 and go!
Steve
