Day 6 - June 17, 2015

Following the Old Road.

We turned left.

Resting.

This was an interesting stop.

They are reconstructing the Mission Complex at Pecos National Park.

An interesting stop in Santa Fe.

The present church was built in 1886 and rededicated in 1986.

Day six.  Overnight in Gallup, New Mexico.  Still headed west.

We started the day in Santa Rosa, New Mexico.  The temperature at the start of the ride today was 69 degrees, and remained in the low 70's until near noon.  We eventually saw a few hours of temperatures in the mid 90's, but it was cooler most of the day.

We decided to follow one of the older Route 66 byways which took us toward and to Santa Fe. Along the way we stopped at Pecos National Historical Park.  This is a very old pubelo.  For over a hundred years beginning around 1450 it held 2,000 inhabitants.  Part of Coronado's Spanish soldiers visited it in 1540, and it by 1838 it was abandoned.  The cathedral (built by the Spanish priests) is presently being reconstructed.  The work being done looked like hard work, even with the assist of a few modern tools.  We spent a couple of hours here.

We continued to follow the old route into Santa Fe (pop. 70,000).  The surrounding city is modern, with southwest styling for many of the homes and businesses.  Downtown Santa Fe is picturesque.  It is the oldest capital city (1610)  in the US (long before New Mexico became a part of the US as a territory or a state).  It was also the terminus and namesake of the Santa Fe Trail from about 1821 until 1880.  By 1880 the new railroads across the west, and into Santa Fe effectively supplanted the wagon trains and the Santa Fe Trail.

Route 66 through Santa Fe was short-lived, so there isn't a variety of routes to choose from, as in many of the other larger cities.

We visited The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi is located in downtown Santa Fe.  It is a beautiful old church, tracing its history to 1610, when the first building was build and it was first established.  The priests that accompanied the Spanish Colonist who migrated from Mexico, and began an expansion of The Catholic faith to the new world.

After this stop we had lunch at one of the restaurant's in the downtown area, and then we were off toward Albuquerque.  We followed the Turquoise Road  much of the way.  It is a beautiful two lane, well maintained highway.

In Albuquerque (pop. 555,000 - the 32nd largest city in the US) we were back on I-40 for much of the ride to Gallup.  We did spend some of the time riding the old road, but other than the most beautiful scenery there were no landmarks of note.

The sun was directly in our eyes as we traveled the last hour of our ride late this afternoon.  That made enjoying the countryside impossible and the ride difficult.  But it was a good ride nonetheless.

Another good day.