April 22 Tucumcari, NM to Amarillo, TX

Today we started at 7:30am for a 111 mile ride to Amarillo, Texas.  We said goodbye to New Mexico and said hello to Texas. We also crossed into another time zone (Central Time). I'm glad my cell phone knows how to keep this straight for me.
Our ride was fairly flat on a frontage road through farm country. There were farms growing grains, cattle stock yards, and wind farms. Our first lunch stop at Russell Truck Center was a fun one. They had a museum of classic cars and memorabilia from over 40 years of a collection by the Russell family. It was a fun place to visit.
Our second lunch stop was going to be in Adrian, Texas at Midway Cafe a cute 1950 decor diner appropriate for Route 66, however they were closing for the day when we arrived at 3:45pm. That's part of small town USA. We rode on to Vega and stop in at the DQ next to the freeway it was a much needed refueling stop. Vega is an agricultural town with a John Deer dealer a couple failing motels and a lot of abandoned buildings. Them onward we rode into Amarillo, Texas the largest city in the panhandle of Texas.

April 21st Santa Rosa, NM to Tucumcari, NM

Today was a short day only covering 57 miles which was ok with me. It was going to be all done on highway 40 to Tucumcari, NM. We decided to ride the first 16 miles on the highway and then get off and use the frontage road that paralleled the freeway. That proved to be an A+ option as there were very few cars that passed us all the way to Tucumcari. I thought this was going to be a slow picture day, but traveling the world at 12 mph brings an all new perspective of what is around us. I hope you enjoy today's pictures.

April 20 Las Vegas NM to Santa Rosa NM

Today's ride was great after I did some maintenance work on my bike. It was all downhill with a SW tailwind to keep us company, thus our average speed today was 15mph. We stopped at a truck stop in Romeroville, NM and ate at the Subway sandwich shop connected to the store. We met two men from Japan touring Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica in a car. They are travel writers and were quite interested in what we were doing on bicycles. They took our pictures and we said our goodbyes. Maybe we will be International stars!
Terry and I set off on a mostly downhill route to Santa Rosa, NM and saying goodbye to New Mexico mountains. I stopped several times along the way for pictures and to just gaze at the scenery that was changing rapidly. Once we road onto the highway 40 on ramp we had a full on tailwind propelling us up to 40mph. I'm comfortable at 30mph on my touring bike so I backed off just a bit.
We stopped in at the Santa Fe Grill for an early dinner then off to our lodging for the night.

Day 18 April 19 Santa Fe, NM to Las Vegas, NM

Today's ride was 83 miles to Las Vegas, NM. We hit the road using GPS routed for Las Vegas, NM. After a couple of miles I got a feeling something was a miss with the directions. Recalculated using my phone and we were redirected onto the right path out of Santa Fe, NM. We rode 22 miles before we were actually on our route to Las Vegas.
We saw some neighborhoods in Santa Fe that we would never have seen, if not for the GPS.
There was lots of climbing today. I'm feeling like there are no real flat stretches of road in New Mexico. The scenery was beautiful today as we rode on the Old Las Vegas highway which paralleled hwy 25 most of the way.

Day 17 Albuquerque to Santa Fe NM

April 18 Albuquerque to Santa Fe NM

We started our day riding with GPS through the streets and bike trails of Albuquerque New Mexico for 25 miles, and stopping just outside of town at a Subway sandwich shop for lunch. We road onto the Turquoise Trail a scenic roadway that lead us into Santa Fe, NM. It wasn’t long that we were on this road when the rain started to settle in and the temps fell to 34 degrees. We  stopped and put on our rain gear for the remainder of the ride. We arrived in Santa Fe wet, cold and hungry.

Day 16 Resting Today in Albuquerque, NM

April 17 Albuquerque NM Day Off

We love our days off the bike to just recoup and let our bodies revive themselves.
We spent our day off in Albuquerque NM in Old Town visiting the stores and doing a little shopping, eating, and just hanging out.