Route 66 Gallup to Amarillo: May 23, 2019 Day 2 - Grants to Acomita, New Mexico

(Shelley Brothers Cycling Adventure Facebook post composed by Kent at our destination while Mark walked next door to the truck stop to do our laundry.)

Day 2: Grants to Acomita Village, New Mexico 

What’s the best way to experience the removal of a painful band aid? Quickly: Get it over with fast, in shortest time possible. 

That describes Day 2 of our ride. 

A short distance. About 20 miles (37 km). Planned on purpose as a semi-recovery day due to our mega long, cold ride yesterday. 

Not quite as cold today, but even stronger winds (Gusting 35 mph/56 kph), taking turns hitting us from front, side, and rear!

We had a difficult time not being blow over on our sides.

We had to pedal forcefully to move forward, even required to pedal when going downhill. But when blasted from behind, we accelerated like rockets.

Thus, the overall ride speed average of about 10 mph (16 kph). Our fastest speed was about 30 mph (47 kph). 

But it all happened fast: We only pedalled for 2 hours and 11 minutes. (Didn’t seem that fast to me!) The whole trip required about 3 hours. We retreated mid-way into a travel plaza to warm up and eat something.

Now we rest/recover at the Sky City Casino and Hotel. (I might go and demonstrate my expertise at the bingo table tonight 😜). 

And we’d better rest well. Back to more standard touring distances in the morning. About 47 miles (75 km) to Albuquerque. Temps may reach into the high 70’s and low 80’s (high 20’s and low 30’s C). .

Beautiful countryside views today.

Lots of rolling hills.

Very low traffic volume.

On the cool side, with the strong winds penetrating most of our protective clothing.

While a little warmer today, we have yet to experience the slightly higher seasonal norms.

About 37 km (20 miles) from here, one finds the longest continuously inhabited community in the USA, and maybe North America!

The Acoma tribes have occupied this community for over 2,000 years. That's an example of stability and perseverance.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to visit the community on this bike trek. (Photo from our friends at Wikipedia.) It's now on my bucket list.



We pedal up a slight incline to a small plateau and discover remains of a once vibrant Whiting Bros Gasoline Station, Motel, and Grocery Store.

Whiting Bros seems to be about as iconic as Route 66 itself.

The parent company started in 1917 in Arizona with success in the lumber and real estate business, plus a few other ventures.

In 1926, not inconsequentially the same year of the birth of Route 66, Whiting Bros began opening  up gasoline stations, motels, and truck stops along Route 66. At the height of their success, they had over 100 gas stations. About 40 of them were on Route 66, and operated them very successfully until the 1970's.

But the 1970's initiated the not-so-slow demise of Route 66 and the associated business enterprises living off its life energy.

The United States Interstate Highway network, with its construction initiated in the 1950's, had grown and was by then linking together major American population centers separated by great distances.

Long stretches across remote and sparsely populated regions, once the sole domain of the one and only (almost) Trans-America Highway, Route 66, were now being claimed by the faster and time-efficient high speed Interstates.

All of a sudden, it seems, most American motorized vehicle travel became more about the Destination than the Journey.

The Magic of Route 66 began fading in the shadow of higher speed efficiency.

Whiting Bros, as with most commercial enterprises along Route 66 in the 70's, started selling off still moderately viable business locations. (Top brass in the company could see the handwriting on the wall.)

Unfortunately, with time, most of the optimistic new owners would also abandon ship.

Every time we ride by these kinds ruins, I sense a bit of the Magic lingering.

I hear the echo of a time not so long ago when people had a spirit of adventure and connection to each other and to the land and the journey. Something now all too rare in our automated and technologically driven culture. (Perhaps this is why the bicycle seems to at home on Route 66.)

These remains remind me of, and help me rediscover, something of a fading part of our humanity.



We arrive at our destination.

Just like Dr Who's TARDIS,  The Sky City Hotel and Casino is "bigger on the inside."

A beautifully designed and smoothly operated establishment with some of the most helpful and friendliest staff we've ever met.

Arriving early, we weren't surprised to find a room was not ready for us. No problem. We were prepared to walk across the street to the McDonald's and chill out with a McFlurry or something.

But just before we did so, the helpful and friendly staff suggested we let them guard our bikes, while we rested our tired and chilled bodies in their............



HOT TUB! So we did. (I'm the Cool Dude with the Shades :-)

Today's ride.




Today's ups and downs and fasts and slows. 

Route 66 Gallup to Amarillo: May 22, 2019 Day 1 - Gallup to Grants, New Mexico

Brother Mark's entry in our Shelley Brothers Cycling Adventures Facebook page today:

Day 1: "Top of the World"-Over the Continental Divide

Rule #1 of Bicycle Touring--Be flexible, because RARELY does a trip go as planned.

Well...this time that happened om Day 1.  

Because of major road construction on I-40 and "iffy" conditions on that stretch, we had originally planned on following the Adventure Cycling Association's route south through El Morro and El Malpais National Monuments.  But we woke up to forecasts of near freezing temps tonight and high winds throughout.

We agreed that our "3 season" gear probably wouldn't do well in these elements, so we revised our riding plans and stayed true to Route 66 to Grants, which was 10 miles further than we planned to ride today.

The road conditions were indeed NOT great, but the construction crews allowed us to ride where they were working, separated from traffic.  Although the riding was harder ( dirt and sand), it was definitely safer.

We made it over the Continental Divide at 7245 feet above sea level, then another 35 miles into Grants, for a total of 64 miles today.

Winds gusted up to 35 mph, making our ride a bit challenging.

We're spending the evening eating pizza and trying to raise our body temperatures back into the normal range.

Pedalling out of Gallup with the sun clearing the eastern horizon we are are treated to beautiful iconic Southwest vistas.

Also notice the almost constant train track feature more often than not paralleling Route 66 in this region.

So grateful for the thoughtfulness of the construction workers permitting and encouraging us to ride on their road-building-in-process.

Those transport trucks would be way to close if we were riding on the other side of that barrier.

The mostly hard packed gravel road not really a major problem for our slightly-wider-than-usual cyclocross tires.



About 70 km (43 miles) literally "up" the road we cross the Continental Divide; the geographical watershed for the east and west of the USA.

Water falling on the east side of this area flows towards the Mississippi River and down to the Gulf of Mexico at New Orleans.

Water falling on the west side of this area flows towards the Pacific Ocean.



Mark stands right on the Continental Divide.

Even though the mid-day sun shines upon him, notice Mark dresses for warmth, typical for the first few days of this trip.



Pick your elevation of preference.

This sign, just across the parking lot from the previous photo informs that we are now 30 ft higher.

Who knows?

Such elevation deserves respect, but this won't be our highest elevation on the trip. Nor will today's mountains be our steepest and most challenging. (Notice nothing screams "Mountains" in today's photos!) That adventure comes in a couple of days.



For the next 35 km (22 miles) Route 66 gets designated as a Service Road for the Interstate. Low traffic and safe. We like it.



Kent wins the prize for first flat tire of the trip. An expert flat tire repair person, he quickly and skillfully dazzles the non-existent crowd of onlookers with his professional prowess.



We love this part of the USA as it provides a continuous feast of natural beauty for the eyes.



102.3 km (63 mi) along Route 66 finds us at our vintage motel for the night.

Clean, simple, warm. All we need.

We climbed 368 m (1,207 ft). We averaged 15.7 kph (9.7 mph).

Getting warm and eating pizza for supper now priority #1, then shower and rest up for tomorrow's adventure.



Today's route.



An almost symmetrical elevation profile for our ride.



The riders on the bikes speed up and down throughout the day.

Route 66 May 2019: Gallup New Mexico to Amarillo Texas: Day 0 - Getting to the Starting Line

Day Zero - Getting to the Starting Line
May 21, 2019

Shelley Brothers about to hit Route 66 again.

Our Goal: Pedal from Gallup, New Mexico, across and through Texas, to Oklahoma City.

About three weeks of cycling delight.

But first, I must find my way from Ontario, Canada to Arizona, USA.

Southwest Airlines helps me get to Arizona from the Wayne County Airport in Detroit, Michigan.

I ship my bike ahead of me the week before by UPS utilizing BikeFlights. Just a little easier than lugging all my bike gear (several bags) and a big bike box through the DTW airport and clearance through US Customs.

The photos summarize what happened next.




Having arrived a couple of days before our actual departure from Gallup New Mexico, I get to visit for a bit with my son, Luke, and his partner, Erint. Luke is a Canadian gone Arizonian.

Me, Luke, and Mark manage to squeeze in a Diamond Back Baseball Game in Phoenix. (Photo above.) Too bad there's not much of a family resemblance, eh?

(In Canada we say, "Eh?" - Pronounced like a "long" A at the end of questions so as to open the door for the listener's reflection or response. It's a Canadian thing. American's often say, "Huh?" to achieve the same goal.)



Luke really wanted to join us on his bike. But alas, he had no vacation time off from work.

He'll have to save his powerful wheels for a future ride.

Mike and Heather Davis, two very delightful friends of Mark, graciously transported us on the 5 hour drive to Gallup. 

They delivered us to our vintage Route 66 Motel, the Colonial. (I got to wonder if this motel name is a veiled reference to the national imperialistic North American agenda by Europeans that created so much of the painful legacy among the Native population and the white man's relationship with them that still persists today?)




Mark stands in the motor court, as they once called these places, trying not to shiver.

It is as cold as those clouds are gray.

These very unseasonably cool temps drop below freezing at night, and just barely climb above that during the day, presented an unexpected surprise and challenge for us cyclists.

We were prepared for seasonably cool temps, not unseasonably cold temps.



After supper, we had a few hours "free," so we Ubered to the local theatre and viewed "Avengers: End Game."

Mark's first time to see it. My second time.

I cried for a second time. I won't explain why so as to not spoil the movie if you are one of the few people in the universe not to have seen it.

Whenever we stepped out of our motel, we wore every piece of light clothing we brought.

Our growing realization of this really cool challenge, would lead us to a conversation later that evening resulting in the first of several major modifications we would make on this trip.

There are ALWAYS major modifications to our carefully crafted cycling plans. As Mark's partner, Carolyn, observed, "These trip never go the way you plan them." She's righter than rain. We've grown accustomed to being observant, flexible, and resorting to extreme creativity on our cycling adventures.

In the photo you see my bike loaded and ready to ride in the morning.

If it looks heavy, that's because it is. For me, this was the heaviest load of equipment I had ever carried. I believe Mark would say the same for himself.




Here we are. Packed and warm in our motel room.

This created a conversation about the compatibility of our planned route, and the weather cards we are being dealt by nature.

Our plan for our next day of riding was off of Route 66. The original Route 66 is literally buried under the multiple lanes of the major high speed Interstate 40, and, long stretches of that Interstate were under major repair or expansion construction involving lane reductions --  meaning less road shoulder for relatively small bikes to share with very big and fast cars and trucks.

Our original plan was to utilize Arizona State Highway 53, a two lane not-much-traffic road that would take us to El Morro for our first evening on the ride. El Morro hosts some of the earliest remains of North America's Indigenous  population.

After camping in El Morro, we would pedal on Day 2 to a motel in Grants, New Mexico.

But it would also mean we are camping out tomorrow night in a primitive campground in sleeping bags ill-suited for the below freezing temps forecast.

As much as we wanted to view this unique site, we decided to re-route.

Rather than heading to El Morro, we decided to brave the Interstate Highway up and over the regional mountain pass and pedal non-stop to our motel in Grants.

By Re-routing like this we will also be combining two days of travel into one day, creating one of our longest and most strenuously challenging days for the entire trek, right on our first day.

We are being either courageous or crazy or both in doing this.

Inasmuch as this is the first day of our trip, such long distances are not usually a good idea. The first few days of a bike trip are usually for conditioning -- for finding our leg muscles and adapting to the higher elevation with its thinner air. More a need for me who lives at almost sea level, but not for Mark, who is a mountain dweller.

We are metaphorically choosing to dive right into the deep end without even testing the water. Upon reflection, I think we are being both courageous and crazy. The best of both worlds!

Nothing like adding adventure to adventure.

You'll have to read tomorrow's blog to find out what happens.

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