Route 66 Day 18

 Today we rode from Santa Rosa to Tucumcari.  Temperatures were similar to most other days.  The winds although not crazy, they were from the wrong direction, contrary to the weather report -- a head wind or cross wind.  Again, we descended more than we climbed.  We are acclimated to 5750 feet and are now down to 4080 in Tucumcari.  It is getting easier to pedal (especially when we draft other riders :))

Today I started with a flat in my rear tire even before leaving our hotel room.  We think one of the patches had a slow leak.  I replaced the tube before we started the day.  The initial ride had a stretch of over 5 miles that were as straight as an arrow (picture below), followed by an old section of Route 66 which is now gravel and broken pavement (we looked forward to the broken pavement parts after some of the deeper gravel). (pictures)  Lon said that it has deteriorated since the last time he rode it and wouldn't have taken us on it if he knew.  It wasn't that bad and we have been on worse roads earlier in this trip.  It was pretty and in the middle of nowhere.  Needless to say there was no traffic.  There was just one small section of walking, but there was a lot of picking and choosing where to ride.  It was down to just a one lane road (not one lane in each direction) interesting that sometimes the place for the car right tire was better than the left, and then it would change. Next came some frontage road with a lot of drafting, and then a section on I40.  Some people got flats on this section today (neither of us).  There was an amazing amount of truck tire debris on the shoulder.  We skipped the last mile plus by hoping the fence (picture below).  

The town is big into murals -- supposedly 15 around town.  Also there are many motels on business I40 -- maybe 1/2 are closed.  Business I40 is 4 lanes, similar to Santa Rosa, which also had its share of closed motels. I would not have been surprised if I saw tumbleweed go across the road (there was one piece sitting on the side of the road.)

 We are staying at the Blue Swallow Motor Court.  It is supposed to be the last motor court.  A motor court is a motel where each room has its own garage.  It is furnished with a lot of the original stuff from 1939 and 1940s (pictures below and on their website https://blueswallowmotel.com/ ).  We ate dinner at Del's Restaurant which has been serving since 1956 -- I'll leave it to the reader as to the significance.  While we were eating dinner (in doors), we had the first rain of the trip -- pretty amazing!

 

our straight road of over 5 miles.  Looked a bit like Arizona -- flat and deserty

 

Then came the gravel on Old Route 66 

 

getting off the interstate.  bicycles go over.  some of us climbed at the corner, others found a place to slip through the barbed wire

 

Just one historic marker (2 sided) -- this is why New Mexico appears to be progressive wrt women.
 
 

Welcome to Tucumcari.  Was pretty impressive.

  

 

Murals in town:

  

scenes from our motor court.  each of the garages have murals in them and 1950s chairs outside 










our room
 
it has dial tone and everything.  Dial 9 for outside line, 1+ for long distance. 

 

Dinner: 











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