Monday, September 8, 2008

anniversary ride to SF and back

Jill's mom and dad gave us, as they do each year, a weekend hotel stay for our anniversary. Also, as per usual, we delayed a good bit in booking it. This year, the plan was to ride from ABQ to Santa Fe on Friday and ride home on Sunday.

We've done this ride a couple of times, so we didn't stop to take pictures at the most beautiful places along the route. We wished our camera was at the ready when a bear passed us riding in the back of a truck -- it was stuffed!

The following picture did seem worth taking for some reason, showing that it's not all majestic mountains and evergreens between the two cities. But the plains don't last long before the mountains in the background must be ridden over.

The Lone Butte General Store (and gas station) is the last major milestone before reaching Santa Fe along route 14. It's also ingrained in my memory because I left my gloves on the planter behind our bikes on Friday. Not until about 3 miles north of the store did I realize it. There was no decision, we were 40ish miles into the ride and the gloves cost $9 and they were getting slightly worn. They were left for dead!

On our return trip, I looked everywhere in and around the planter for the gloves to no avail. But guess what. About 1/4 mile south of the store one lonely glove was lying on the shoulder. I stopped to pick it up, but its mate was no where to be found. For the rest of the ride I hopefully scanned the roads for the left glove so as to end my Michael Jackson glove wearing method. It was never found.

Back in the wild west days, this is where the bad people were kept. We the people built a new modernly institutional prison across the street. I think it would be more of an honor to be locked up at the old place, but maybe the cattle rustlers' ghosts keep the prisoners awake all night.
When you're in Santa Fe, what you do is that you eat good food. We ate at:
Tortilla Flats
IHOP (twice)
Guadalajara Grill
The Whole Hog Cafe
Maria's (best-in-the-world chile rellenos).
We had one more eventful activity in Santa Fe, but it will be reported in an upcoming post. How's that for a cliff hanger?

2 comments:

Judy said...

Bet I know what it is....

Tarik Saleh said...

Hotdamn the suspense is killing me, and elena too. Oh the drama,