Thursday, September 17
Days are starting to run together. This morning, we were writing some postcards
to the grandkids and had to consult technology to get the correct day/date.
*Google search….. Woke up to a
cooler morning than yesterday, but it is sunny…and we are at a higher elevation
in Santa Fe and surrounded by mountains.
Last night we wondered what mountains we were in….this is what Wikipedia
has to say on the matter:
The Sangre de Cristo
Mountains (Spanish for "Blood of Christ") are the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains . They are located in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico in the United States..
The name of the mountains may refer to the occasional reddish hues
observed during sunrise and sunset, and when alpenglow occurs, especially when the
mountains are covered with snow. Although the particular origin of the name is
unclear, it has been in use since the early 19th century.
Which prompted another search on
Alpenglow:
Alpenglow (from German: Alpenglühen) is an optical phenomenon in which a horizontal red glowing band is observed on the horizon opposite to
the sun. This effect occurs when the sun is just below
the horizon. Alpenglow is easiest to observe when mountains are illuminated but
can also be observed when the sky is illuminated through backscattering.
Since the sun is below the horizon, there is no direct path for the
light to reach the mountain. Instead, light reflects off airborne snow, water, or ice particles low
in the atmosphere. These conditions differentiate between a normal sunrise or
sunset and alpenglow.
Although the term may be loosely applied to any sunrise or sunset light
seen on the mountains, true alpenglow is not direct sunlight and is only
observed after sunset or before sunrise.
Wandered into Santa Fe to check out the
Harley dealership; from there we knew we wanted to take a northern scenic route
to Raton, NM. Espanola is north of Santa
Fe, so we decided to stop there for lunch and figure out the rest of our route.
But we need Phil to get us out of the
city and onto the highway. He takes us
through the back streets of Santa Fe, eventually to a roundabout. Side
note: I don’t like roundabouts…never have…I don’t know that I ever will. We enter the roundabout, circle it completely,
then start around again but use the exit that allows us to cross an overpass. On the other side of the overpass we
encounter another roundabout. Again we completely
circle the roundabout and exit the way we came to go back over the overpass, where
we enter the first roundabout again.
Three quarters of the way around, we exit to the highway. We basically did a figure eight in roundabouts. And, it’s
very hard to make it look like “Yeah, we meant to do this” when the person
leading the way is throwing his arms up in the universal gesture that means
“What the hell are we doing?” J
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Cruising the back streets of
Santa Fe, I noticed there is a very eclectic mix of housing styles. There are the traditional pueblo style homes
with adobe exterior…there are modern homes with adobe exterior…there are modern
homes with regular siding…and there are single and double wide trailers. However, along the highway, homes and
apartment houses visible from the highway tend to have the southwestern look
with the adobe coloring. And the
overpasses on the highway not just boring cement but are painted with the muted
colors of the southwest and are decorated with animals, figures, geometric
designs….but I don’t know if the designs give homage to the Native Americans or
the Spanish heritage of the area.
----------
Two miles down the road from
the roundabout shenanigans, Kim pulls off on the shoulder, gets off his bike
and says, ‘I lost the electrical.
Blinkers, speedometer, radio…all stopped working.” He was hoping it was just a fuse but getting
at Bernie’s fuses isn’t a quick, easy process on a packed bike So, he’s sitting on the ground by the bike to
change a fuse….my bike is behind with the flashers on….and no one, including
bikers, stopped to ask if we needed any help. But, later in the afternoon, we had stopped by
the side of the road to take pictures….and a woman passed by, backed up and
asked if we were okay. **As Kim starts
taking things off the bike to get at the fuses, I heard him mutter, “Yeah, we
sure have great adventures, don’t we?”** J
----------
As planned, we ate lunch in Espanola so we
could plan our route. Told Phil to take
us to Raton, NM; he gives us three route options…different mileages and
different types of road. We’ll take the
scenic route for 161 miles, Phil.
Directions come on screen…we continue eating. Kim checks something a minute later and the
route has changed. It’s now 148 miles
and takes us back the way we’d come. So
we go through the process again….pick our route, Phil complies. No kidding, a minute later, the route
changes. For whatever reason, Phil is
changing the route after we set it…we watched it happen several times. By this time, I had looked at the route
enough to know what to do. So, we
started with me in the lead, figuring Phil would recalculate as we went
along. He wouldn’t recalculate, kept
trying to get us to take forest roads to get us over to the other route…so Kim
simply turned him off and turned his music on…we followed the map in my
head. J
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We made a lot of scenic stops today…and when
it became obvious that with the amount of miles we had to go and the time left
until sunset, we’d be setting our tent up in the dark, I called the Raton KOA
to see if we could get a cabin instead of a tent site. Why, yes, we could. That settled, we decided
to eat supper in Cimarron…then rode the last 40 miles in the dark. I don’t like night riding….don’t trust the
wildlife. Pegasus has really good brights,
but if I’m back too far, they catch Kim’s mirrors and about blind him. But we found if Kim crowded the center line
and if I pulled up closer and tighter beside him, being mindful of the trailer
tires, we could maximize the area our bright lights could reach. We’d go back to regular formation when there
was an oncoming car.
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Sun was out all day and the sky
was straight up blue, with only a few wispy clouds at the horizon. But it wasn’t excessively hot because of the higher
elevation. In the mountains most of the
day….the weather was good and so was the riding. Hwy 284 North was spectacular….road stretched
out before us like a ribbon. The view in front of me and the view in my
mirrors were just so scenic. My problem
is wanted to stop and capture it all on camera.
We’d get nowhere fast I did that….and truth be told, my stopping to take
it all in so often is what ultimately had us riding in the dark. Kim is very tolerant, though, of the amateur
photographer in me. J
Stopped at the Rio Grande River Gorge….one
lane traffic as the bridge over the gorge was undergoing its biannual
inspection. There was a truck that had a
long arm with a bucket and that arm would extend over the left side of the
bridge, go under it and come up on the right side of the bridge. Kind of weird to see a bucket with 3 men in
it come poking out from under the bridge.
I wonder if the men in the bucket were doing the navigating. Vendors were out selling trinkets and a man was
along the sidewalk singing for tips.
Don’t know how good he was because we took a shortcut to the bridge when
walking, so we didn’t pass by him on the sidewalk and the bikes were too loud
to hear him when we passed by on the road.
*Google
search….Near Taos, we passed several dirt covered dwellings, with any exposed
part covered with solar panels…one was even a work in progress, so we could see
what they were doing, but didn’t know why.
Then we came upon the Earthship Biotecture Visitor Center. We really didn’t want to visit but were
curious, so it became a Google search.
This is from the Earthship website:
". . . the Earthship is the
epitome of sustainable design and construction. No part of
sustainable living has been ignored in this ingenious building."
Earthships
can be built in any part of the world, in any climate and still provide
electricity, potable water, contained sewage treatment and sustainable food
production.
·
Reduce and even eliminate your utility bills.
·
Get ALL of your electricity from
the sun and the wind.
·
Catch water from
the sky for drinking, bathing, cleaning, showering, washing, flushing, etc.
·
Contain and treat ALL of
the sewage you produce in a healthy and beautiful way.
·
Maintain comfortable temperatures in
your building ALL year long, in any climate. Reduce or even eliminate your
heating and cooling bills.
*Google search (from earlier in the trip):
*On our route through Arkansas into
Oklahoma, signs indicated that the route we were on was a Heritage Trail and
more specifically, it was also known as the Trail of Tears and the Butterfield
Trail. I knew about the Trail of Tears
but the Butterfield Trail was new to me.
This is from the Arkansas Heritage Trails page:
Butterfield Trail: BUTTERFIELD
OVERLAND MAIL TRAIL ROUTE….John Butterfield, a former stagecoach driver from
New York, established the Butterfield Overland Mail Route in 1858 with the goal
of connecting the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean, delivering mail far
faster than by sea. Lines were established from Missouri to Fort Smith and then
points west, and from Memphis to Fort Smith, with a side-run to Little Rock.
The Butterfield Overland Trail was eclipsed by the faster Pony
Express in 1860, and Civil War bushwhackers and hostile Indians in the west
spelled an end for the company by 1861. The Butterfield Overland Mail Trail
Route is currently being considered as a possible National Historic Trail.
Observations
from the road:
*Grasshoppers
hurt when they hit and leave a big mark on your pants
Wildlife
sightings: Mule deer and prairie
dog/groundhog
Today’s mileage: 232 miles Total mileage: 2603 miles
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