Day 6 Winslow to Gallop NM

It was cold this morning and the people who prepared the breakfast at the motel decided not to come in. Mike told us about today’s ride. Get on I40 in Winslow. Get off in Gallup. Well there was a little more but not much. Then we walked or rode to Denneys for Breakfast. We got on the road a little late this morning. Early on the most exciting thing was navigating flooded streets in Winslow, no it didn’t rain, after a water main break.

There is so little good to say about this section of I40 that I won’t say very much. The scenery is boring, and the few homes in the towns along the road are trailers with multiple derelict cars parked in the yard. In places the road surface on the shoulder is the pits, literally! The winds were mostly in our faces. On top of this today seemed to produce flats in almost everyone’s tires. I got one, my first of the ride. By this time last year I had 6, so that is an improvement. Many riders hade several flats today. One had 5. Riding narrow racing tires on bad roads will produce flats every day. Riding over potholes and tire fragments will cause flats. Riding with a group increases the chance that you will be unable to avoid an obstacle, even if it is called out by the leader. Riding in a group that stops for everyone’s flats slows down your overall pace. Consequently I who rode alone because the pacelines were a little to fast for me today was able to keep pace with most riders because I had less time off the bike fixing flats. I am not sure that I recommend this strategy under all conditions but it worked for me today.

After the last rest stop we got off I40 and rode 20 miles on back roads to Gallup. Last year our motel, likely the worst we stayed at and an absolute pit, was on the West side of town. This year the motel was on the East side of town – add 10 miles to the ride. In total we rode 30 miles into a head wind, I think I averaged 11 mph for that section but that could be high. It was hard. I even had a small longing for the motel we stayed at last year as I went past it. I also was one of the early finishers today.

Gallup is a town that several people have told me they will not be visiting again. The Santa Fe mainline runs through Gallup. It is the first town in New Mexico when going East on I40. There are more rundown motels, restaurants, convenience stores, and gas stations that you would ever want to see much less visit. There are a lot of gun shops. Every one drives BIG cars or BIGGER pickup trucks. If you want to know where gas is being consumed in this country think Gallup. On a per capita basis they must be near the top of the list – they drive big cars longer distances. It is a long way between anything. The other thing I saw a lot of in Gallup was stores selling Indian products. Signs advertised Indian blankets, jewelry, pots, artifacts and fetishes. I haven’t found out what an Indian fetish is.

This year’s motel is a big improvement over last year’s. Unfortunately, there is only one close by restaurant, a Denneys.