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Ty's Ride for the Cure

Los Angeles-Boston

 

 

 

 

Day 16-Santa Fe, NM-Las Vegas

72.1. miles (official miles, mine are always slightly more)

4:28 time, 16.5 average

4,911 feet of climbing

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Well the rest day is over and it’s nine more days until we catch a glimpse of another one.  We headed out of Santa Fe this morning and biked to the beautiful city of Las Vegas.    Unfortunately we aren’t staying at the Wynn or the Belagio, although some of the guys talked about going to the casinos later.  Apparently they thought we were in Las Vegas, NV, but got some blank stares at the truck stop restaurant when they asked about slots.  This is Las Vegas, NM home of Calumet a reference even Google has failed to ascertain, although I have a picture, so our home players can figure it out for themselves. 

At least the hotel is better than yesterday’s hotel.  Now I certainly cannot explain how we could have a better hotel in Las Vegas, NM than Santa Fe, but it happened.  I developed a new rating system for hotels.  The star approach where you can rate a hotel one through five stars seemed totally inadequate.  So, instead I invented the half moon approach.  At check in you count the number of half moons or plumbers cracks (from truckers, etc.) in the lobby and rate the hotel accordingly.  Our hotel yesterday was a 12 half moon hotel.  Not good.  This morning a man (possibly homeless) just walked off the street and had breakfast with us.  Well, I guess if you want to see America you have to see all sides.  There has got to be a TV reality show somewhere here, I just know it.  Call Jerry Bruckheimer.

The ride today was fun.  We had another climbing day with approximately 5,000 feet climbed today.  This is the first of three fairly tough riding days, followed by more climbing and a 108 mile day tomorrow.  The terrain was beautiful today.  We went through Glorieta Pass the site of a famous Civil War battle that was the setting (1862) for the number one ranked western of all time “The Good the Bad and the Ugly”.   This was the attempt by General Henry Hopkins Sibley to move north along the Rocky Mountains and capture the gold fields around Denver.  Here is a good link for you history buffs http://www.answers.com/topic/battle-of-glorieta-pass  Glorieta pass is at the 7,500 elevation level and is the highest point of the tour that we will reach.  It also gives a convenient excuse for those having trouble breathing while climbing today.  We passed through the little village of Pecos where the Santa Fe trail passed through.  The mountains you see from Las Vegas and we pass through are the Sangre de Christo Mountain Range or the blood of Christ in English.  That’s about the history I can provide.

Las Vegas is the home of the NCAA powerhouse New Mexico Highlands University fightin’ Cowboys (boy I do love Wikipedia, and yes I used poetic license in adding fightin’ to the name).  You might also be happy to note that your odds of finding a wife here for the single man is good  as the male to female ratio is 47.5 to 52.5%.  Now I can’t speak for the quality here.  We are also at 6,430 feet of elevation and are still in what some would call the high desert.  I don’t think there is any chance of anyone getting into trouble here today.  Well tomorrow we head out to Tucumcari, NM and will soon get out of the mountains and onto the Plains.

Signing off for another day.

   

Leaving Santa Fe, NM

 
Just a little rest stop for a Kodak moment.
 
In Pecos National Historical Park
   
No Judge Roy Bean here.
 
This is always a good sign. It means we are at the top.
 
For a moment I thought we were in Gibraltar. Its the Prudential rock.
   
Sangre de Christo mountains
 
OK readers, who is Calumet?
 
Downtown Vegas, business by appointment only.