We left the Days Inn in Chambers and promptly got lost! We were supposed to cross the Interstate and spend most of the day on side roads, all within site of the interstate. A much quieter ride, although alittle more bumpy! Once again we had a side wind of 12-15 mph. Although the weather was sunny and 80 ish. We crossed into NM today. Another state down. For such an easy day to Gallop it sure seemed to take forever. There are stands/stores everywhere along the road with huge signs of "Indian jewelry here, blankets, trinkets, t shirts, and much more. That's one good thing about bike touring there isnt any room for souvenirs, although I don't think we would buy any anyway. We stopped at one stand (that said on a big sign that it was the best one!). We had ran out of water. They were selling Indian Tacos so we decided to eat lunch. An Indian taco is a usual taco with beans on Indian Fry bread. Not the healthiest thing to eat, but not much choice. As it turns out they were awesome (except for the unhealthy part). I talked to the lady making them, and she was just making fresh bread. All the ingredients were super fresh. Maybe the fresh tomatoes rule out the fried bread? I don't think so.
We became a tourist attraction!
After we at we became a tourist attraction. Several people asked us if they could take a picture. I said sure, but we charge for them! We had a great time just talking to people as we ate.
The scenery is changing to more rocks, cliffs, buttes and scrubby trees (maybe
pinion trees? Not sure). Much prettier than what we have been riding in. The wind
was really whipping from the side so it made for a long day in the saddle. We ran into some road construction. But Hap says those signs are just guidelines, so we went through hoping we didn't have to backtrack. As it turned out, there was a slide area that was active. Two guys in trucks were sitting there, I guess to watch the rocks slide... not sure, but they told us we could go through just watch out for rocks. Thanks guys! In Gallup we stopped at USA RV campground. One of the nicest campgrounds we have ever stayed at. Very clean, and the owners and all the people were very friendly. We had so many people stop to talk to us. More than usual. One thing we noticed is people seem to be surprised at where we are going. Both of us noticed it and as we talked about it we decided it's because we are OLD. It just seems like we have met the nicest people on this trip. As long as they are not in their car of course! The campground had a dinner/cookout so we had barbecue chicken and fixings for dinner. In the camp office there was a big screen tv, so we asked if we could watch Dancing With the stars final and they said sure!!
Gallup NM-Raman NM
We woke up to a beautiful sunshine day! Warmer than it has been. In town we stopped for breakfast. After that we stumbled our way out of town. I.e. We got lost! When we got on the right track, we started a pretty serious climb which became the theme of the day. Before leaving town we stopped at a bike shop. Somehow Hap's gloves got misplaced. Not sure how that happened. We have been really lucky in all our travels. There are only a couple of items in 31 years of touring that we "missplaced" something. Not too bad. Hap got new gloves and we continued climbing for the rest of the day. The route took us off of Interstate 40 onto some back roads that went by the Zuni Reservation. There were only a couple of services/stores the whole day. Once again we had a pretty good side wind along with the climbing. There was also a lot of traffic on the two lane road. We couldn't figure out where everyone was going out in the middle of nowhere. We stopped for a cold drink at a convenience store. In Raman we stopped at a
little cafe The Stagecoach Inn for a late lunch. We were both starved so we had
cheeseburgers and fries. They were delicious. Food tastes so much better when you are starving.
About a mile after we stopped to eat, all of a sudden we started wobbling really
badly and Hap started yelling stop. It was scary thank goodness we were climbing and going slow. We managed to get to the side of the road and stop without crashing. Whew! That was scary. What happened was we hat a flat tire in the front tire. It didn't take long to get the tire changed. Once again we found another tiny wire from a shredded car tire. We got started riding, climbing, again and a big truck went by and blew his horn really loud as he went by. Not a friendly toot either. Hap said "I hope Angry Bird doesn't come this way again!"
Not sure what was up with that. He had plenty of room to go by. Oh well no harm done. After awhile another truck coming from the other direction did the same think. Mmmm.... wonder whats up with that? We weren't even on his side of the road. Just before we got to the campground at Raman, there were two people standing by the road (by their car) and they yelled "Hey Hap!" I'm thinking how does he know.......oh it was Ken and Jill. Two of the cyclists from California we met and road with last week. Ken was riding to Albuquerque and Jill was driving and they were on their way home. It was so good to see them again! Fun!!
We got to Ancient Ways Campground and found the cafe/registration was closed. But the instructions said set up and pay in the am so thats what we did. Several campers came by to talk as we were setting up. A lot of nice folks. We set up camp, had showers and decided we were still full from the cheeseburgers so for
dinner we just made some Peanut Butter tortillas and had a can of peaches. Yeah I know, but it was tasty! We were both pooped from the windy, hilly ride. We only lasted 10 minutes into the movie I had on the IPAD.
Raman-Grants NM
We had a fantastic breakfast at Ancients Way Cafe before leaving. The ride today was a long twenty mile climb over the continental divide at 7800 feet. We had an amazing tail wind today so that helped a lot. The scenery is beautiful in this area. Lots of trees, mountains and cliffs in the distance. There were no services at all today until we reached Grants. When we were almost to Grants, there were a couple of signs that we have never seen before "Zero Visibility Possible" and
"Use Extreme Caution". Huhhhh.... About that time we hit some severe cross=winds, blowing sand and just scary windy. We slowed down and sort of picked our way across the two mile stretch. It was really scary and like the sign said EXTREME. With the crazy wind the last few miles into Grants was pretty exciting. We stopped at a McDonalds just to get out of the wind. And to have our "annual" Big Mac. We passed a campground, but it was so darn windy we went to a hotel instead. Smart move. We had trouble just trying to push the bike.
At the hotel I asked for a ground floor room and the lady said she didn't have any. And they didn't have an elevator. Nice! I said do you realize we have a 150 pound bike? I don't think she cared. Oh well, so for our last chore of the evening we
unloaded everything on the bike and carried it up the stairs. Then we walked over to Walmart and got salad and turkey meat for dinner. Now we are officially tired! Tomorrrow we should be in Albuquerque. We are hoping to find some place to play pickleball, so we bought some tennis shoes at Walmart just in case!
