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November 13, 2017
Day 1 [Monday 11/13/17]: Conifer to Santa Fe
Starting Odometer: 4,603 miles
Ending Odometer: 4,961 miles
Today's Mileage (projected): 326 miles - 390 miles.
Today's Mileage (actual): 358 miles.
I am alive and well and resting in santa fe new mexico at the Villas de Santa Fe, a property of Diamond Resorts International hotel located at 400 Griffin Street, Santa Fe, NM.
So, I got away later than I had hoped. So much crazy work to get done to prepare for this trip it's insane, really.
Planned on leaving by 10:00 a.m. Finally broke away about 11:30.
I got all packed up, asked the neighbors to shoot some "before" pics of me. Then rolled out to Conifer, only to realize I was hungry and stop and Wendy's for lunch. Finally left Conifer about noon, I think.
At first, I'm a bit cold, as I sort of intentionally wore one less layer of thermal underwear tops than I had been riding with. The thought being that Monday would be warmer than Sunday, and, even if I was cold for a bit, I'd drive out of it at some point.
But as I'm leaving conifer, I'm so cold I seriously consider turning around and driving home and putting on more clothes. But, as this point, I just decide to keep riding. Damn the torpedoes. Full steam ahead.
By the time I get to Kenosha Pass, I'm thinking that there has to be a Wal-Mart somewhere....maybe in Fairplay, and I'll go in there and buy about 7 more shirts to put on. But after I come down Kenosha pass, it warms up enough that I think that I'll be OK so I keep on riding.
At Buena Vista, I turn south, and I start thinking about what I'll do when I get to Salida. Salida is kind of a funny little town because it's off of Highway 285 about 5 miles. But I stayed there one time, and I saw a map that's bother me for some time. It's gnawed at my brain over the last several years, and now I think that it would be great if I could remember where I stayed, and then just pop in there, find the map in question, and take a photo of the map.
What was odd about the map is that it basically explained why they call South Park, "South Park". Because, the odd think about South Park is that it is not, in fact, in South Park County. It's not even close. It's in North Park County. That's where all of the hay is grown. The South part of Park County is, in fact, hilly, covered in trees, with twisty mountain roads. So, the area that we know as "South Park", is not in South Park County.
And, the map that I saw in Buena Vista explained this lie. Because, if you look at the map in the Buena Vista motel, it shows "North Park" as being in Northern Colorado. And South Park as being in Northern Park County. So, it sort of explains (or alludes to) the reason for the names of North Park and South Park. It's the only hint at the reason for the names that I've ever seen.
Of course, I can't recall what the name of the place was. Only that it was a hotel on the left as I was driving into Salida from Highway 285 and they had a sign advertising their natural hot-water springs (which were out of service, I'd learn after I checked in.)
So I roll through town, but I don't really see the place. Nothing jumps out at me. And get to the east end of town, and turn to go back. On the way out, I see this hotel and I'm like...."That's the closest thing to the hotel that I've seen. If it exists, that's probably it." And I park and go inside and see the map on the wall.
I try to explain to the man behind the counter that I want to take a photo of the map, but he speaks no English, so I take a few photos and leave.
Like..I wish I could tell you how long that's been bugging me.
It's kind of weird to realize that I was just here, like....a month ago (September-October) on the KTM, riding back from California. Steve convinced me to check the forecast, and I learned that I-70 was closed due to heavy snowstorms, so Steve diverted me from Grand Junction, down to Delta, then Montrose, then east from Montrose on US Highway 50 through Gunnison, Monarch, and then down to US Highway 285, where I turned north without ever seeing Salida.
Now, I'm rolling south of Salida, and here, the road is less familiar. The last time I was down here was with Wendy, I'm pretty sure. We went down to Santa Fe for the weekend. Like...she's as crazy as a mad hatter, but she was good at getting out and doing things. So, this is the route that we took to Santa Fe.
Like, I can't really recall why we went to Santa Fe, but I do recall that there was an old downtown section and that we walked around and checked it out and all of the art galleries. It was a pretty cool spot, as I recall.
As I roll south, the air begins to get warmer. I start to feel as if I might live. Like, it was stupid of me not to bring more long johns....more thermal underwear, but it worked out.
Now, I'm rolling down Highway 285 south, shooting from the saddle, riding with no hands. My planned refueling stop is at Alamosa, Colorado. But I nearly run out of fuel before I get there. I have 2.2 gallons additional in a red wal-mart gas can on my seat, so running out of gas isn't a huge deal, but it does make me wonder what kind of gas mileage I'm getting if I can't even make it 200 miles between fillups.
At 3:00 p.m., I fill up in Alamosa.
4.663 gallons. $12.91. $2.769/gallon.
I've gone 206.8 miles since I filled up in Marshdale.
So, that's 44.3 mpg, which seems low. Maybe due to all of the gear I'm hauling? I dunno.
I take a few sips of my Gatorade. I always carry food and Gatorade with me when I ride. I've been stranded too many times not to.
Then, I take off hell bent for leather. South of Alamosa, there are no other cars on the road. It's just me. Sort of like a post-apocalyptic Mel Gibson movie. Not clear why.
As it gets later in the day, the animals start to move about more. Now, I'm dodging deer, coyotes, crows....like...these are the greatest threats to my campaign, I'd argue. They're sort of unpredictable. And, I know better than to ride at night, but I got away later than I'd hoped. I watch the sun getting closer to the horizon. I pray it doesn't get dark before I roll into Santa Fe.
At some point, we cross the state line into New Mexico, and I stop to shoot some photos at the border. No one is around to take my photo, as there are no other cars on the road. So, I shoot some pics of my bike and roll on.
Just north of Santa Fe, I see signs for Tusuque, which I remember from Bojack Horseman, I'm pretty sure.
As I get closer to Santa Fe, I'm trying to remember if this is the town Wendy and I came to, or maybe if we went to Albuquerque. I can't recall for sure. I pull over and look for the old town center of Santa Fe in my iPhone 6S Plus.
I have to say that, having 2 GPS units with heads up displays on the Ram Mounts is the bomb. Sheer genius. One of the smartest changes I made for this trip. All day, when one of the GPS units looked like it was steering me in some random direction, I'd cross-reference it against the other GPS (like when I followed state Highwy 17 instead of US 285 for some distance between Salida and Alamosa).
Now, I find the old section of Santa Fe and surprisingly, it's only like a half of a mile from my location and, as soon as I roll through the town, I'm like...."Bingo...this is it. This is where we came." Like, this is easily one of my favorite things about traveling. To go back and revisit a place I've been before, and recognize it. It's like, for a brief moment in time, you really feel like you're in control of your destiny,
Now, I have to find a hotel, so I go onto hotels.com and find a place to stay. I drive about a mile away and check into the hotel. They rip me off and charge me an additional fee of like $15 over and above what Hotels.com charged me, plus they took another $100 deposit which I'm sure will never be refunded.
But I check in and throw all of my gear into the room, and then circle back to old downtown Santa Fe. I find a well-hidden little restaurant called The Shed at 113 1/2 Palace Avenue.
So I park my bike on the street. The only thing that's there to be taken, really, is the red gas can with 2.2 gallons of gas in it. Like, it would suck if someone stole it, but it's not like it's worth a lot of money. Maybe $5-$10.
Go inside, sit down at the bar because there's a long wait, and I meet this guy, Devon, who's also a bike rider. Has a KLR650 and been to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Peru. I mention that I'm going to be sailing through the San Blas Islands, and he's even seen them, somehow. Small world, is it not?
Devon also mentioned a few books that I'm somewhat familiar with, but have never read, like:
- Jupiter's Travels
- Ghost Rider
- Anxiety Across the Americas
- Meow Wolf
Go back to the hotel and turn in for the night.
Posted by Rob Kiser on November 13, 2017 at 8:10 PM
Comments
Vaya con Dios.
Posted by: sl on November 13, 2017 at 8:47 PM