Day 16: Santa Fe, NM to Las Vegas, NM

Distance: 73.49 miles

Elevation gain: 4,077 feet

Avg speed: 14.9 mph

Max speed: 43.2 mph

Moving time: 4:56:31

Today marked a couple of milestones for the tour. First of all, it is the first day of the longest stretch of consecutive riding days in the tour. We will be riding for nine consecutive riding days, and will not be getting another rest day until we reach Emporia, KS. It ALSO marks us officially reaching the 1,000 mile mark in the tour. 

Posing for a pic with the thousand mile sign at the second SAG stop

We had a moderate amount of climbing on today’s route, but in a couple of days those sorts of days will be coming to an end. Today, tomorrow and the next day all include at LEAST 2,000 feet of climbing. After that though, it looks like we will not be doing much more climbing until after the next rest day. 

Our first SAG today was at the Pecos National Historical Park, the site of several interesting ruins. 

In addition, there was a rather interesting warning sign….

And they MEANT it, by the way….

Some views we saw along the way:

A Dairy Queen seemingly located in the middle of nowhere

Finally we arrived in town:

And reached our hotel, the historic Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas:

This hotel has been used for location shots in several movies, including No Country for Old Men:

Many celebrities have visited and stayed at this hotel, including the following (to name a few):

And, of course, what would my blog entry be without including my ride video of the day:

And, as is so often the case, it is getting late and I am tired, and we have a big day ahead of us - tomorrow we ride 109 miles to Tucumcari! See you all tomorrow!