Route 66 day 17

 Today was pretty simple ride from Las Vegas to Santa Rosa -- 43 miles on a nice downhill road, followed by 20 miles on a dirt portion of Route 66 (needed to duck a fence to get to it), followed by 5 downhill miles on I40, and then into town.  Even getting another flat and a half didn't put a damper on things (the 1/2 is that after changing my flat, it seems that I had a slow leak (which we still can't find) so I call it a 1/2 because we dealt with it at a rest stop before it was a full flat).  According to Garmin, we are acclimated to 5600+ feet of altitude and we are now at 4370.  You can really feel the difference in effort you can put out as we are getting lower.  The weather was similar to yesterday but when the winds picked up they were mostly tailwinds.

We left Las Vegas riding with the owner of the hotel we stayed at.  He didn't hold us back to say the least.  

The 20 miles on the dirt road felt like riding through a painting -- picturesque and calm.  The other highlight of the day was the World Famous Blue Hole. (pictures below along with some of its characteristics -- no, we didn't go swimming, but we could have).  We did find a bakery in Las Vegas (second day in a row; forgot to mention it yesterday) but for sweets today's wasn't really worth it (according to my opinion).  

More descriptions included with the pictures below.   

note that today we descended 1700 more feet than we climbed.
 
Us waiting for the breakfast place to open.  Across the street was a mural.  The 3rd picture is the declaration included in the center part of the mural.  In the 2nd picture above the mural there is a horn antennae -- didn't realize they were still in use.
 
 
 
When we left the hotel with the owner they took the following picture.  He's the one in the long pants.  It also came up that in the hotel they have one of Teddy Roosevelt's bathtubs (not in use today).
 
 
 Scenery from the 40 plus miles of downhill on Route 84.  One direction looked like the NM we have been riding through.  The other looked more like the desert in Arizona. 
 
 
scenes from the dirt road section (we did have to duck a fence).  The picture is of Barb on the other side of the fence.  To make things more interesting, there was a cattle grate under the fence).
 



What's a trip through NM without a Historic Marker.  Again highlighting women.  I don't know where they would put these in NJ -- on the Turnpike?  I guess they have them in the airport now. 


some cows ignoring us at one of our rest stops...

In Santa Rose, they had these markers 


Some pictures from the World Famous Blue Hole (which I had never heard of before).  It was neat -- The brown sign below lists some interesting things about it.  It was tough to get a good picture of it, but the water was pretty clear and blue.





Dinner -- seems appropriate for Cinco de Mayo
and what is dinner without some after dinner ice cream at DQ

Comments

  1. LauryMay 6, 2026 at 8:13 AM

    Very much enjoying the daily updates so thanks for sharing your adventures. A bakery that "wasn't really worth it" must be really bad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousMay 6, 2026 at 9:54 PM

      It was a blueberry scone and it was dry and had little taste. The server asked me if I wanted it heated up, and contrary to my usual reply (does it need it), I said no thank you. I didn't eat until our second rest stop which was 2 + hours later, but still...

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