Day 15: Rest day in Santa Fe, NM

The road so far:

Miles traveled: 921.41 miles

Elevation gained: 34,798 feet

The road yet to come:

Miles to go: 2,502.4 miles

Elevation to gain: 69,717 feet

Today was our second rest day. Time to get stuff done. For me: laundry, wash my bike, make arrangements to have the stuff I forgot in Holbrook, AZ shipped to our NEXT rest day in Emporia, KS, do something touristy, enjoy some good meals if possible, and, of course, REST!

Part of the routine of tour is to wash our cycling kit of the day so it isn’t disgusting the next time we take it out. Particularly since there just isn’t enough space in our bags for 8 or 9 sets of jerseys and bibs. So, what I wear today, I’ll be wearing again in a few days. So each day, when I get to my room I wash my stuff in the shower (and my socks in the sink), and I hang them up to dry. It works great… except when I fail to check the closet in the morning while doing whatever last-minute packing I have. So lo and behold, I forgot a pair of socks, bibs, and my Mets cycling jersey in Holbrook! When I called the hotel the next evening, I was able to confirm that they had my stuff, and when I asked them about shipping that stuff to me, they referred me to either FedEx or UPS. The person I spoke to said that one of them (she wasn’t sure which one) would be able to schedule a pickup and have the driver bring a small box and a shipping label so the hotel could throw it in the box, tape it shut and send it on its way. So, I figured, today would be the most logical day to take care of that. 

Well, first I checked UPS. I couldn’t find anything on their website regarding making that sort of arrangement, so I called their customer service number. Somehow I mistakenly believed that I would be able to quickly reach a customer support representative who would be able to quickly answer my questions and make the arrangements, all in a friendly and knowledgeable manner. Boy, was I ever wrong!

When I called the number, I got an interactive voice response system that took me through level after level of menu options that were going nowhere fast. Finally, I responded at some point with “representative” because I was getting SO frustrated! By no means was this the end of the UPS nightmare, however. “I understand that you want to speak to a representative. Before I can transfer you, I will need more information about the reason for your call,” followed by about another 15 minutes of prompts and options. I gave up on UPS and hung up, hoping it was FedEx that would be able to get the job done. 

I checked the FedEx website, and once again found myself getting frustrated by not being able to find the specific information I needed. So, the next step was to grit my teeth and dial THEIR customer service number. I absolutely CRINGED when I was once again faced with an interactive voice response system. This time though, I pretty much IMMEDIATELY led off with “representative.” Of course, the system had additional questions, but in under 5 minutes I was actually speaking with a live person! The representative on the phone quickly assured me that they could do what I needed done, but she said I needed to go on fedex.com and do it myself. She said I would need to create an account, link my credit card to that a count, and then when that was done I would be able to complete the entire process online. She even offered to stay on the line with me to help me through it all, but I didn’t think that was necessary - I figured that if I got stuck or needed help, I would once again be able to reach a live person for help. 

So, on to fedex.com I went. I started off just as she had said, creating an account, giving them my credit card information for billing purposes. I then went on to arrange the pickup, even picking what sort of container I needed for the shipment. When I got to the end of the process, I received a link to print out the shipping label, and received instructions that the package MUST be sealed with the shipping label attached BEFORE the driver arrives or they would not be able to complete the pickup. Uh oh - that was NOT going to work….

So I once again called their customer service number. Only now, because of my number coming up in their caller ID, they already knew who I was, and the options were different. Now, the options ran into a dead end - the system actually told me that it had already provided me with all of the available information regarding my pickup, that any changes would need to be made on fedex.com, and it HUNG UP ON ME!!!

So, I next tried the chat bot on their website. To make a long story short, the experience was pretty much the same as their phone system, with no way for me to get any help from a live human being. Talk about lousy customer service! UPS and FedEx, you should both be ashamed of yourselves!!!

Finally, I called the hotel in Holbrook back, and told them of my experience. Fortunately, they were sympathetic, and the manager agreed to put my stuff in a small box and seal it up and attach the shipping label if I could email it to her. DONE! Within minutes, the label was on its way to her!

Anyway, enough of that tale of woe. Cleaning my bike went smoothly, the mechanics on the Crossroads staff were able to (hopefully) fix the shifting issue I was having, and I still had time to do something touristy!

A clean bike is a happy bike!

After the bike was taken care of (which was far simpler and less time consuming than all of the above), I took a walk over to Meow Wolf Santa Fe, an interactive art exhibit that was not far from the hotel. It was certainly “interesting” to say the least, though it will take me the next week or so of digging through their app to figure out the whole storyline. (Basically, the whole exhibit is built around this house where a family moved in and then vanished into another dimension. The house itself was a maze of all kinds of bizarre portals and secret passages to explore, and you pick up clues in their app along the way.) I probably spent about a half hour longer in there than I intended, mainly because I could not find my way back out! (In fairness, I need to point out that at no point was my safety compromised by this confusing maze. There are many doors labeled as emergency exits,,, but they ALSO say that they are for emergency use only, and that an alarm would sound if you open one. I did NOT want to be “that guy” though, hence the extra time inside.

Just a few of the unusual sights to be found inside

A few of the sights outside, after I made my escape

After leaving Meow Wolf, I headed to a very small barbecue restaurant around the corner that I found on Google. It was a little tiny hole in the wall kind of place called Uncle DT’s Smokehouse, but the food there was quite good! I had the Santa Fe Brisket plate, with potato chips, potato salad, and their “cowboy beans.” The meat was very tender, the beans and potato salad were very flavorful and delicious, and the potato chips were, well, potato chips. They had two different sauces on each table, their “regular” sauce and their “hot” sauce. I did not try the hot sauce, but I found their regular sauce to be quite yummy. And, as if the great food wasn’t enough, they had live entertainment! There was a bluegrass duet performing tonight by the name of Banjo Joe and Danielle. Although I’ve never listened to bluegrass before, I found them to be quite good, and their banter between songs was quite entertaining! They are from Illinois but are currently touring the Southwest if you are interested. You can find more information about them on their website, https://banjojoeanddanielle.com/home

After all of that, I was ready for a nap! Anyway, that was basically my day today. Tomorrow we continue on to Las Vegas! Well, the one in New Mexico, anyway - not the one in Nevada. First, Madrid, and now, Las Vegas. Oh well….

Anyway, that’s all for today. See you all tomorrow!

Day 14: Albuquerque, NM to Santa Fe, NM

 First of all, a note from yesterday. At the time of yesterday’s ride, particularly during the downpour, I thought to describe it as Infantry weather. For those of you who served, you know EXACTLY what I’m talking about - “if it ain’t raining, it ain’t training!” Am I right? I want to give a special shout-out to my fellow lizards from first platoon. You know who you are. Once a lizard, always a lizard!

Now on to today’s ride. Today was the polar opposite - the weather could not possibly have been any better! Comfortable temperature, light wind, clear blue skies - it doesn’t GET any better than this!

Just like yesterday, I tried heading out early so that I could get settled into “my pace” without feeling any need to try to keep up with a bunch of riders faster than myself. I’m here to enjoy myself, not kill myself! Anyway, it wasn’t very long before the pack caught up with me and passed me. Although it wasn’t exactly what I envisioned, I think I did a pretty good job of sticking to my pace today. 

Albuquerque is on low ground relative to its surroundings, so it wasn’t long before we were climbing. There was a long gentle climb heading east on Menaul Blvd before we turned onto the bike path that ran parallel to Tramway Blvd, followed by MORE climbing once we turned onto Historic Route 66. One nice thing about today’s route though - NO FREEWAY MILES! (No flats for me today either.) Hopefully this will be the start of a trend.

We eventually started heading northeast along Route 14, continuing to climb. At the top of that climb we had a “RAG” stop to take a few moments to recover from the climb before a short downhill, followed by yet another climb. At the end of THAT climb (roughly 10 miles later), we had our official SAG stop of the day, which of course was followed by a descent and MORE climbing. Finally we were treated to a long, steep downhill segment which led us to Madrid. (No, not THAT Madrid - we didn’t go THAT far today! 🤣)

Anyway, during the morning briefing Paula had mentioned that the town of Madrid would make for an excellent lunch stop. And, as luck would have it, I arrived in Madrid right around noon! We knew the climbing for today was not over though, and that the steepest gradients of the day would be found in the run-up to Santa Fe, so rather than a lunch stop we decided to make it a coffee and snack stop at a wonderful little coffee shop in Madrid called Java Junction. 

Some of our group assembled for coffee

After coffee, we continued the Madrid descent before beginning what amounted to a sort of “stair-steppy” climb into the Santa Fe area. Along the way we passed what looked from a distance to be a garden of giant origami statues or sculptures. Well, I passed it anyway - by that point I was ready to finish this last bit of climbing already. I took a couple of pictures of it from afar, which do not do it justice:

Fortunately, a number of the others DID choose to stop, and got some MUCH better pictures of it:

Anyway, after all that climbing, I ended up stopping for lunch about 3 miles from the hotel before finishing the ride, only to have to wait over an hour for our rooms to be ready! Such is life….

Well, tomorrow is the second rest day, a time for me to reflect on the trip so far and the trip yet to come (as well as certain mundane tasks like getting my laundry done, washing my bike, and catching up on sleep). Although I managed to keep up with my blog posts for these last 5 riding days, I’m sure I’ll come up with SOMETHING interesting to say tomorrow - stay tuned!

And of course, it just wouldn’t be a blog post without a collection of some of my favorite pics of the day:

I saw a number of these and thought they looked interesting. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who did, as this was someone else’s picture, courtesy of our photo-sharing group. 

Peyton, once again showing off his impressive skills

And, of course, the video of the day:

And on THAT note, see you all tomorrow!

Day 13: Grants, NM to Albuquerque, NM

 Today was our first truly bad weather of the tour. It was funny, because in our morning briefing Paula mentioned that the first segment is her absolute FAVORITE part of the entire ride, and gave a great explanation as to why. Unfortunately, it was in this first segment (which WAS otherwise beautiful) where the skies opened up on us!

One of our other riders, Steve, stopped during the rainstorm to take pictures of us as we went past. Thanks Steve!

Anyway, for ME at least, it was the weather that provided today’s challenge. By the way, my flat count is up to 5 for the trip. I brought 7 spare tubes with me. So one more flat and I’ll have to start buying spare tubes from Crossroads. (Before the tour, they had us submit information about our bikes, which included the size of our tires. They have a supply of spare tubes AND Gatorskins tires available for purchase at their cost, should we need them.)

I think somewhere around 20 miles into the ride, it started to pour. And, of course, it was a COLD downpour. This introduced SEVERAL challenges: being soaking wet, being cold, and poor visibility, ESPECIALLY for those of us who wear glasses!

I’m going to backtrack a bit here. If you watch today’s video, you can skip over this part. This morning, I signed out before the briefing, and headed out as soon as the briefing was done. This actually worked very well for me, as I was able to ride my pace without feeling like I need to keep up with the rest of the group. My pace is a bit slower than the rest of the riders in my group, so I found this strategy to be perfect. I think I’m going to try it again tomorrow. Another part of my strategy today was not to let myself become too comfortable at the first SAG stop. While my fellow riders mostly went inside for coffee or hot chocolate to warm up, I instead chose to get back out into the elements as quickly as possible. This too worked extremely well for me, but for a different reason - it gave me time at the second SAG stop to change a tube that had gotten punctured by one of those little wires we keep finding on the shoulder of I-40. 

Ok, if you are going to watch the video, you can continue reading here. I looked up tomorrow’s route, and it looks like we will NOT be riding on the Interstate tomorrow. WOO HOO! I’m NOT going to say anything about flats tomorrow though, as I don’t want to jinx anything. 

Speaking of tomorrow, it looks like tomorrow will be another climbing day. It also brings us to our second rest day. I am SO looking forward to sleeping in on that day!

And, of course, here are my favorite pictures from today, in no particular order:

A shot of the Rio Grande flowing through Albuquerque

Not me. One of the staff members, who apparently has MAD cycling skills!

Me, sprinting past Alena

And, of course, today’s video:

Bye for now - see you tomorrow!

Day 12: Gallup, NM to Grants, NM

 Today was an amazing day. Yes, I realize that they have ALL been amazing days, but I think today was a true standout. 

The ride today was not a particularly challenging one, but it was certainly fun and rewarding. We reached the highest point on the tour (elevation 7,295 feet) and crossed over the Continental Divide. 

As you can see from today’s elevation profile, it was pretty much all downhill for the second half of the ride. Not particularly steep, but enough where you could just relax, roll along at an easy pace and enjoy the scenery. And that is EXACTLY what I chose to do! When I left the Continental Divide, I was pretty much by myself on a well-paved road with very little traffic, which gave me the opportunity to enjoy the quiet, the calm breeze, and take it all in. To our north there were beautiful rock formations in the distance, to our south there were pastures, and there were mountains off in the distance. But, you know what they say - a picture is worth a thousand words!

By the way, we have a group on WhatsApp for photo sharing, and I am deeply indebted to my fellow cyclists, because while I rolled past many beautiful picture-taking opportunities, I chose instead today to just enjoy the journey and get lost in the moment. 

Of course, all good things must come to an end. Although I was certainly in no hurry to get to the hotel, for I knew that with the time we were making on this ride I would have a long wait for my room, as I rolled along it began to rain. It was very light drizzle at first, so I continued to glide along at an easy pace. As the rain began to come down harder, I started to pick up the pace a bit. The rain started to let up, so I slowed back down, despite the heavy dark clouds just off to the south. Once again it began to drizzle, and once again I chose to ignore it… until the wind started to pick up, the rain started to fall harder, and thunder began rumbling behind me. According to my computer, I was still about 2 to 3 miles from the fast food area we had been told about, and I think that may have been the fastest 2 to 3 miles I’ve ridden in a long time! When I got to McDonald’s, I ran into another rider from our group, and we decided to go inside, have some lunch, and wait out the storm. Afterwards, it was a quick, short ride to the hotel (where we had to wait a while for our rooms anyway).

For dinner tonight, they brought in a food truck from Albuquerque that specialized in Caribbean food, so I had jerk chicken and sweet fried plantains for dinner. It really hit the spot!

Anyway, tomorrow we continue on to Albuquerque, followed by Santa Fe the next day, where we will be enjoying our second rest day. It’s hard to believe it, but we were talking about it at dinner, and we are already about a quarter of the way through this magnificent journey of ours. Well, it’s nearly 10pm now, so time to pack, lay out my stuff for the morning, and get some rest! Tomorrow looks like it might be a wet one. Oh well, that’s why I trained for this - to build up that mental toughness you need to get through the rides when the weather isn’t so pretty. See you tomorrow!