Today was our shortest drive yet and I think the previous drives are catching up with us. We were slightly delirious, wandering aimlessly not "shopping"around for hotels. We picked the closest one we see - and it happened to be next to the post office.
El Pueblo Lodge. Outdoor hot tub, good price for a solid bed, clean room and first floor rooms. Convenient to unload everything so we could get to our bikes. We drove around to check out the roads for bike riding and as I mentioned, we were a bit tired. Finally, we drove to Gearing Up Bicycle Shop for road riding advice.
The area is more mountain biking and hiking friendly. Although, she said there are quite a few road riders but when they do loops, they are about 50 mile rides. With Taos at 6969 feet and my fitness below par, I would be lucky to ride 25 miles. There was a taco stand next to the bike shop and I had it in my head I want to eat Mexican all the time. We grabbed one taco as we decided to go shopping instead of riding our bikes (we were delirious).
Brad decided to drive around town again and we ended up on route 64 east which did not have a shoulder but it didn't look as bad as route 68 north out of town. Driving back to our hotel, we mustered up the energy to ride and it seemed doable from the hotel. I figured, we ride many roads at home without shoulders, we should be fine. We rode out and back about 22 (me) to 26 (Brad) miles. The road gradually climbed out of the valley. It was beautiful and winded northeast. Traffic gave us room both out and back. The temperature was about 45F degrees but when we rode through shaded areas, I froze! The dry air made it cold to the bone. We felt fantastic to be on the bikes, taking in the crisp air except our tacos took some energy away from our riding.
