Santa Fe, New Mexico
Distance for the day: 514.1 km
Cumulative distance: 5,570.6 km
Top speed: 137 kph
Moving average: 80 kph
Temperature: 25.0 - 42.2
We had a reasonably early start today, on the road at 9:00 am. Had I thought this out at all, (but why would I do that?) I would have elected to stay in Springvale another two nights. We could have taken some of the roads south of us that are popular with motorcyclists, and we could have taken part in the exhibits at Northern Astronomical Radio Observatory. Also, the motel had so much character, it would have been fun to stay longer. But alas, we had a booking at an AirBnB that I had made last night so we were pretty much committed.
Off to a good start, (though the hotel breakfast was modest at best - basically cereal, apples and bananas, coffee and some cupcake-like muffins), we were riding in fine conditions: 25 degrees, rarely above and never below. Perfect riding day with few clouds and little wind. That's o.k. We didn't stay there for the breakfast so it was a bonus.
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| Between Springvale and Socorro, a lot of straight road. But at least it wasn't all just desert. |
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| There is an actual town called "Pie Town" but "Town" might be a bit of a stretch. At the 2010 census, the population was 186. |
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| Guess what they are |
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| The name of Pie Town comes from a bakery that was known for making dried-apple pies. |
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| We have spent a lot of time waiting at road construction. This was on a vehicle ahead of us. |
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| What IF they were open? |
Bombing down the highway, we did come to the NRAO - National Radio Astronomical Observatory Very Large Array. This is a collection of 27 25 metre radio telescopes (plus a 28th in rotation) configured like a three spoked wheel with each spoke being up to 21 kilometres, depending on the requirements of the research being conduncted. All dishes act in unison and their being spread out allows for a higher level of resolution of these radio images. It looks very sci-fi from the highway.
We have a lunch break in Socorro where we decide on our choice of direction: interstate or back road. We have a long way today so the interstate option doesn't seem too unreasonable but nonetheles, we choose the long way which will hopefully give some improved views.
However, due to a lack of signage from our direction, we don't go the intended route so we end up turning around and riding the interestate about 40 km to the turn. That still didn't help much as only occasionally does the Garmin GPS actually do what I want it to do
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| The central facility at the VLA. |
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| I've always had a thing about trains. |
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| The dishes can be moved around via the track to create different configurations. |
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| The village of Magdalen was doing its best to stay relevant. |
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| It is the place closest to the VLA. |
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| If you watch really carefully, you will see the horses move. |
and it takes us through Armpit, New Mexico, ie the worst that Albuquerque has to offer, It is uuuugg-leee. Endles miles of automobile bone yards and derelict other businesses shuttered with fences around them.
So we are riding through Albuquerque in 40+ degree, stop and go traffic whereas I had envisioned a nice ride north through the mountains. This was leaving me with a sour taste in my mouth but when we finally got away from Albuquerque and once again heading north to Santa Fe, we were richly rewarded with some beautiful scenery on the Turquoise Valley Scenic Byway.
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| New Mexico. There has to be Little Green Men. |
The Turquois Valley is very beautiful and it is a great reward for what has been a frustrating afternoon on the bike. We pass through the little town of Madrid, a former mining town that was loosely established around 1880 with the arrival of the railway making the coal mining viable. The town was "founded" in 1895 but never offically incorporated as it was owned entirely by corporations for the next 80 years but when the demand for coal diminished in the 1940s, the mines ceased to operate. Many buildings remain from the coal mining days and are actively used. There are many pop culture connections to Madrid; movie sequences from Wild Hogs, Breaking Bad, The Man Who Fell to Earth and others have been shot there. The community has become a popular artisans destination. It is only about 20 km from Santa Fe and the road connecting the two is popluar with motorcyclists.
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| Turquois Valley. |
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| Despite the disappointment of the afternoon's journey, we realize that we are on the famed Route 66. There were several references to it around Albuquerque. |
We get to Santa Fe and I head out to get some provisions for dinner, leaving Nan to sort out the gear. Santa Fe seems to have a LOT of homeless people. I end up taking the scenic route but it is still not too far away. And after all of that, we skip dinner.
Today marked a literal turning point on our trip: we turned north, which means we are now heading home.
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