RT66 Day 6: REST DAY 1 Albuquerque
I rode for five days and rested on the sixth. I couldn't make it to seven because I'm not God...
I love the larger towns along Route 66 — Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Albuquerque, and Flagstaff. They challenged a certain arrogance I didn’t even realize I carried from living in major cities like Houston, Chicago, New York City, and San Francisco.
There’s so much vibrancy in these smaller-tier cities and a kind of “culture” I mistakenly thought was reserved for top-tier urban centers. No, not culture in the traditional sense — museums, symphonies, or major art scenes. While those are commonly accepted indicators of culture, my own definition is much narrower and admittedly more self-indulgent: food and wine.
When I finished my ride in 2019, I found a bottle of COS Frappato at some random strip mall pizzeria near my hotel. In Tulsa, I discovered a wonderfully hipster wine bar pouring numerous wines on tap. This time, in Albuquerque, I stumbled upon a little grocery store called La Montañita Food Co-op. It was adorable — full of fresh organic produce, wild-caught salmon, and bulk dry goods — and reminded me so much of Berkeley Bowl back home.
So what did we do on our first rest day?
I cooked and stretched. My dad rested and slept.
We also made a trip to REI to buy extra inner tubes and look for sun protection for my legs. In the end, I couldn’t find anything that fit properly, so I improvised and bought extra-large arm warmers that somehow fit my meaty little thighs.
While at REI, I also learned about goatheads — those nasty little thorn-covered seed pods that apparently plague mountain and gravel bikers far more than road cyclists. Given my recent flat tire adventures, this discovery suddenly felt very relevant.
