A bike ride in Santa Fe

Arroyo Chamisos Trail 9/24/2015 (Thursday)

At breakfast we met a few of the women who are on our tour and had lots to chat and worry about. Then Bette-Ann and I loaded up our bikes and gear for a ride on the rail trail. We drove the 5 or so miles to find the trailhead and took off on our bikes for a few miles. Not far from our start point there were workmen weed whacking the brush from the side of the road. What that meant for us was that the goatheads would be blowing onto the trail.

 

This is what the plant looks like

 

This is a very blurry shot of one of the thorns from the plant. It will do until I can get a better one. Note all the sharp needles on all sides.

 

Bette-Ann checks her tires for thorns.

We walked through the blown weeds and found several thorns on our tires. Since we had walked and had little weight on the bike, the thorns did not puncture the tires. Even with the tru goo in three of our tires, we were paranoid and kept checking these rascals for most of the ride.

 

 

Typical buildings in much of this area

 

Rain "spouts" from the flat roof. Fences built of nearby limbs and small tree trunks were the norm.

 

There were purple flowers dotted throughout the yellow bushes, but none in this photo ...

 

This is a "rail trail" and there was an actual rail running next to it with the commuter train named "Rail Runner"

We rode the trail all the way to its end in town and came upon this fun and attrative wall of art...

 

Much nicer than...

 

...a welcome sign on a highway

 

Saloon dancers

 

Almost like being on Route 66!

The art didn't end there as we returned to our car and found a bit of pavement art...

 

 

Done with our ride and wanting more insurance for my bike, we returned to "our" bike shop and had tru goo put into my front tube. Needless to say, we have gotten to know the staff here quite well and they are very helpful and very nice to us. I especially liked Rene (with an accent over the e) who took special care of me.

 

Thanks Rene for being such a support!

Now we had fully gooed tires. We are ready for those goatheads!!

Back at the ranch we geared up for our orientation meeting, map talk, and dinner plans.

Part of the group gathers together

 

We made it this far -- to dinner.

Cynthia and her daughter Leslie

Bette-Ann had said earlier that she just didn't want to get lost. Leslie said yeah, she didn't want to die out there alone.

Gotta get to bed now for early morning breakfast, luggage loading and riding tomorrow.

 

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In New Mexico

Bike tube weary -- 9/23/2015

It's a long story that I am not very interested in telling and it is a boring story. But I guess it needs telling Those goathead thorns that I neglected to acknowledge have caused me grief. Grief in terms of now having been to a bike shop three (that's THREE) times to deal with my rear flat tire.

1. Fort Collins put in the wrong size tube and pinched the tube to cause a slit in the tube and the flat I did not know about until the morning after whren we were in Colorado Springs. After a couple of phone calls they are refunding my money.

2. Santa Fe found the cause of my flat (the slit tube) and after much trouble (no presta tire my size in the store, etc.) patched a tube that Fort Collins was going to toss (my old one) but I took from them, just in case.

3. Santa Fe again (same shop) when my tire was flat by the time I returned to our hotel. They found a second hole in that tube and a guy drove to a different store to pick up presta 20" tubes. Wrong size tubes again which had been the problem Fort Collins had by stuffing that one into the tire and causing the pinch flat. Repair the second hole and add "slime" (tru goo in this case) to that tube for resisting goathead (which are prolific around here) punctures.

So far my tire is not flat! But, it's early. If this holds, I may take in my front tire to have a tube infused with tru goo. I will try to find a goathead plant and thorns to take a picture to post, and try to get a photo of the nice mechanic who worked on my last fix. He kept apologizing that I have had such a bad time. He says that around here they say that the state flower is the Goathead, and the state bird is the pop bottle (that flies out of cars).

 

You know you are in New Mexico when...

With my flat tire this morning we did not get our ride in Colorado so will do one on the trip home. Our only longish stop was for lunch -- where the cowboys eat -- so not much in photos today.

Our inn (El Rey) here in Santa Fe is very nice but it is hard to get a photo of it. Here is the best I got...

 

Several rooms in kind of clumps around a courtyard

 

Our front door

 

A garden in the center of the courtyard

Bette-Ann has been such a great support in more ways than one through my tube ordeal. It has been as much an ordeal for her as for me as she has been my transport to these shops and my encouragement that things will be just fine and all will be fixed and well. I'm trying to not be skeptical about that..

 

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Continuing on to New Mexico

Tuesday, 9/22/2015 -- a full day!

 

Our bike ride in Wyoming would have to wait until we were on the road for a few miles, and we found somewhat of a gem of a place to stop -- the town of Douglas. As we pulled in to the parking lot of the Chamber of Commerce, that we had found by chance, a welcoming woman met us outside the door with brochures and information about the train cars we must visit. (my friend JPD should be here!!).

 

 

The locomotive is a beauty

 

The Dining Car

 

The Sleeping Car held lots of interesting sights

 

The bed rolls out from the wall

 

Your roommette has it's own toilet...

 

...the lid of the toilet (in front of the bed here) closed to become a seat -- wise use of space.

 

1800s wardrobe

 

The Day Car

 

Seats could face each other or...

 

...be easily switched to individual seating.

Each of us spent a good amount of time strolling through and taking pictures of the three cars that are open on display. Except for the sleeping car, there has been a lot of renovation done on these cars. More is in the plans and seems to be an ongoing endeavor.

We finished up with the train cars and returned to the visitor center. We wanted to know of a good place to ride our bikes for a few miles and we learned of the Heritage Trail that runs alongside of the North Platte River.

 

Becky told us all about the trail and gave us a map to follow to get there

 

End of the trail

 

The North Platte River in Douglas Wyoming

 

A "struck" tree

 

Bette-Ann found a different tree to photograph

 

My bike is in Wyoming -- amidst some goathead thorns I had forgotten to protect her from

The first little glitch in the day -- a punctutre in my rear tire. When I pulled out the thorn I could hear the hiss (slightly). It was a small puncture and I was able to ride back to the visitor center. I did not want to spend the long time it takes me to change my tire, so we stopped in Fort Collins (hi Lucie) and found a bike shop. I was so happy to now have my tire fixed so we could ride tomorrow morning.

We found our way out of Fort Collins and continued on our way into the heavy commuting traffic of Denver. The second glitch of the day as we spent at least an hour making our way through Denver. It was so frustrating and boring that the two of us ate a whole box of cookies. And I had not even known we had cookies until B-A said "I think I need a cookie". COOKIE? I somewhat yelled. We have cookies? And so we ate them.

A little south of Colorado Springs we found a motel in the town of Fountain where I also found -- the third glitch of the day --- my professionally repaired bike tire was pancake flat!!!!

What I can say is -- we had mainly a good day with a few challenges thrown in. We remain in good spirits through it all and continue to have a great time. (I will be taking my bike to a bike shop in Sante Fe tomorrow, and have called the shop in Fort Collins for a refund. They will be getting back to me, and they assure me that they will get a refund to me but the bookkeeper is not here right now and they themselves do not know how to do this.)

That's all.

 

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Heading to New Mexico

On the Road -- September 21, 2015

I had to leave Susan at home as she is still not retired, though chances are that she would choose to not join me on this adventure. So yesterday (Monday, 9/20/15) my friend Bette-Ann and I took off from home in her car to head for a bike tour in New Mexico. The first day of driving took us more than 700 miles to spend the night in Butte Montana. Though a nice drive and very good company, this day held driving only with a stop for lunch along the way, and no sightseeing or photo ops.

I "collect" states that I have bicycled in, and have convinced Bette-Ann to begin her own collection. So, this morning we got on our bikes for a short ride around Butte for her first ride in Montana. It was a clear and sunny morning with the crisp feel of fall in the air and made for a delightful start of our day. The ride was short but we enjoyed seeing the neighborhood, watching the little boy run to catch his school bus, and befriending two goats.

 

You hear about goats eating "anything" including tablecloths, but until you see it actually taking place...

 

One of these friendly goats would rather have some tree leaves. She couldn't reach them, so Bette-Ann gave a little help

Back to our motel to pack up our luggage as well as our bikes, and soon we were off to the east. We picked up a picnic lunch at a travel center (as in truck stop) and found the perfect spot at the Custer Battlefield Trading Post in Crow Agent, MT to enjoy our midday meal.

 

 

That's berries and cream for dessert ;'-)

 

Log cabin is a gallery but was not open

 

Could have bought this headdress at the Trading Post, but we have no space for carrying it

 

Landscape is flat, sky is bluer than it looks here, and clouds are not threatening

 

You can buy a teepee here for $363.00

 

Teepee entrance

 

Looking up from the inside -- where the smoke from a fire would escape

A fine and fun travel day. Tonight we are staying in Casper Wyoming and it looks like there is no good place for us to bike tomorrow morning (major highways surround us). The plan is to stop at the first little town that looks good to us (before exiting Wyoming) and ride around that town so that Bette-Ann does not miss bagging this state. The only new state for me this trip will be New Mexico, but the actual places we are biking in the other states are new areas for me on my bike.

 

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