Approach into Albuquerque

We rode 84 miles today, mostly along Old Route 66 and I-40.  Today was a difficult day for me physically, perhaps as a result of yesterday’s long ride or maybe the wear and tear is starting to catch up with me. 

We are staying at a really nice Hotel in the Old District of Albuquerque.  We are planning on departing tomorrow morning for Santa Fe, which should be a nice ride along Highway 14.

We had a visit tonight from Tim and Vicky Arnold, old friends of Dan and avid cyclists.  Tim and Vicky have lived in Albuquerque for a year and both have completed cross-country cycle trips. They were extremely helpful on all fronts, but particularly directing and advising our route through the remainder of New Mexico.  They came over with their maps and prior trip routes which helped us in forming our plan for the next few days. 

We came up on a terrible series of accidents today along I-40.  It was very sobering to see multiple cars, including ones that obviously were traveling families, upside down and completely totaled. Seeing the damage on a ground level disturbed me. the traffic was completely stopped on the Interstate for 20 or 30 minutes,  while we just cycled by.  It was interesting to see how quickly all the traffic returned to their race-car mentality once the bottle neck was relieved. We were 4 or 5 miles down the road when the roads was re-opened and the “hounds were released.”  Didn’t seem to slow anybody down, for whatever that is worth.  

I am having a hard time getting the image of a full-size RV laying on its side, crushed, with all of the family’s belongings strewn along the highway. One of the medics or state trooper had tied the family dog, which appeared to be unharmed,  to the remains of the RV.  I didn’t want to examine the scene after seeing that on my approach.