RT66 Day 3: A glorious day with some foreshadowing...
Tailwinds, cool weather (77F), and riding mostly on empty frontage roads contributed to a glorious day! However, lack of services is foreboding for the days to come...
Day 3: Tucumcari, NM - Santa Rosa, NM; 74 miles, 3,570 feet elevation gain
7.3 miles on I-40
Day 3: Planned on Ride with GPS
Intraday Stops: Newkirk Service & Gas (32 miles), Love’s Travel Stop (27 miles), La Quinta Santa Rosa, NM
The purist in me insists on acknowledging that I’m cheating a bit by having a support car. For anyone considering this ride, it’s completely doable unsupported. Still, the support car offers plenty of conveniences: not having to carry all your gear, banking extra miles when conditions are favorable, sleeping in the same hotel for multiple nights, or sticking to a specific diet, just to name a few. It’s also wonderful to see a friendly face intermittently throughout the day.
My adorable 85-year-old dad. His sense of adventure is the foundation of mine.
Last night, after riding, we left Tucumcari and stayed at a hotel in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. It’s a larger town just west of Tucumcari and home to a fascinating geological feature called the Blue Hole — a natural swimming hole filled with crystal-clear blue water. Tucumcari itself, however, is an incredibly charming small town that has embraced its Route 66 heritage. It reminds me a lot of Seligman, Arizona, another town leaning heavily into Route 66 nostalgia. There are several adorable vintage roadside motels, museums, and burger joints. This was one of those times I wished I’d stayed in the town where we finished the ride.
In the morning, we drove back to the Tucumcari convention center. The weather was partly cloudy with a high of 77°F, and the winds were blowing east to west, giving me a nice 7 mph tailwind. I rode frontage roads that paralleled the interstate, which provided a very direct route without actually having to ride on the highway itself. There was one short section where construction had created a large pool of water, and my dad whisked me across in the car so I wouldn’t “get dirty.”
Otherwise, the riding was smooth. The roads in New Mexico are mostly in good condition, though the lack of readily available services is a little disconcerting. There are many stretches where you have to go 20–30 miles before encountering a gas station to refill water bottles or buy food. There’s a nice gas station/U.S. Post Office combo in Newkirk where I grabbed a much-needed Orange Fanta and some postage stamps for postcards to send back to the kids. Beyond that, you’re left with either the beauty of America’s empty vastness or signs of dilapidation.
There’s also a particularly rough five-mile stretch along County Road 2C after Cuervo. I lost my rearview mirror because I hadn’t tightened it enough to withstand all the jiggling. Thankfully, both my tires and my butt survived until the turn onto Highway 156.
One major difference between this stretch — Amarillo to Santa Monica — and the earlier section from Chicago to Amarillo is the scarcity of places to stop where you aren’t completely exposed to the sun or stranded in the middle of nowhere. The Chicago stretch had far more parks, tree cover, services, and, for lack of a better word, civilization. The second half, from Amarillo to Santa Monica, is difficult because of the isolation and desolation. And it’s only going to become more intense as we continue west toward the Mojave Desert.
One of my favorite pairings — sweet and salty. Yes, these are the small pleasures of cycling all day in the heat.
I eventually stopped at a Carl’s Jr. for a much-needed Oreo shake and fries. The refreshment was well deserved because I decided to “bank” an extra 12 miles by riding farther along the interstate past Santa Rosa. Day 4 is going to be pretty unpleasant since it will consist mostly of interstate riding, but at least now I have 12 fewer miles to cover.
The hazards of interstate riding: not only do you have to deal with semis and fast cars, but Nature is against you too.