Santa Rosa New Mexico
Breakfast is not served at the hotel until 8am, so we walked to Charley’s Spic & Span for breakfast. The food was good, but it did take nearly an hour to get it!
Back at the hotel and ready to ride. Dennis (part owner of the hotel) will be riding with us and his manager wanted a group photo for hotel promotions.
Dennis rolled out and joined the front group. He rode to the first van stop at 26 miles. One of his buddies picked him up there and returned to Las Vegas.
Long rollers are the order of the day today. As expected we had strong crosswinds for most of the day.
The cue card said look for the van stop before the big Mesa mound on the right, hard to miss!
We are back on the Old Route 66 headed toward Dilia
Pecos River just outside Dilia. The Old Route 66 that was cut off in 1937 roughly follows the south side of the river. It has not been maintained and has effectively reclaimed by the high desert. On the lower right of the map belo you can see light dotted lines from Dilia towards Santa Rosa and from Santa Rosa toward Dilia. All that segment is lost and/or impassable.
This map shows the Route 66 in New Mexico. As noted on the map, in the final 31 days of 1926, Governor A.T. Hammett ordered the New Mexico to build a road segment from Santa Rosa directly to Albuquerque. Apparently he had a dispute/grudge with political rivals in Santa Fe and wanted a direct route to Albuquerque. Eventually when the Route 66 was realigned in 1937, the direct section became the official Route 66. Nearly all that segment today lies under the current I-40.
Lon has found a gravel route that crosses the same terrain toward Santa Rosa. We have to ride state highway 84 for 10 miles to get there.
This is County #40 East, also known as Moon Ranch Road. This road will head east toward Santa Rosa
It’s about 10 miles of packed gravel, sometimes smooth, sometimes with washboards, and always up and down.
After 10 miles of shake, rattle, and roll we reach Colonias road. We will head south toward the I-40, but the view to the north was much better.
It’s another 10 miles on Colonias road, about half on the Anton Chico Land Grant. The paved road was slightly better once we were off the land grant.
The road turned due ease about a mile from the final van stop, and our nemesis the crosswind, was now right on the tail! I rolled into the last van stop as the first group was heading out. These cows were curious and very quite vocal about us parking next to their range! I rolled out about 10 minutes after the front group took off.
Because of the 20 miles of gravel and rough roads the group was really spread out. The van would wait for them and not be at the hotel for 2 more hours so we had time to check out some sights in Santa Rosa.
First stop, the Blue Hole, a stunning natural wonder and world-famous destination for scuba divers. The clarity of this artesian well is amazing. It’s 81 feet down to those squares at the bottom of the well! Some scuba divers had just gotten out of the water when I arrived. The well was improved by the Civilian Conversation Corps during the 1930’s.
Not on the todo list, but another example of a business death via bypass!
County courthouse in the main square of downtown Santa Rosa. The north side of the courthouse is being expanded.
Like many towns, the original Route 66 went right through the town square.
Another crossing of the Pecos river! I have lost count how many times over the past few days we have seen this river.
Last stop before we can check into the motel is Bozo’s car museum.
It was worth the $5 entry fee and featured many autos in various stages of restoration.
I rolled into the motel at 3:45 pm and the keys were ready. So I washed the bike, grabbed my bags and headed to my room at the Best Western. Spacious and modern, who knew!
Only three days left to Amarillo! The long term weather forecast says the tailwinds will hold, so it will be downhill rollers with a tailwind to our next stop in Tucumcari New Mexico.
We will follow old alignments where we can, and will take the Cuervo cut-off, a pre-1950s overgrown track of broken asphalt, gravel, and washouts on our way to Tucumcari!
Lobby breakfast at 7am; load and go at 8am!
Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment