We woke early to get our panniers packed before heading over to the main house to have breakfast with Erec. We were still faffing about trying to fit square pegs into square holes and failing miserably when Erec came over to the cabin to ask what we would like for breakfast.
We joined Erec on the short walk back to the main house. Thankfully there was no wind, but the air was well below freezing again. Soon we would be back camping, so the so far unused hot weather clothes that we have hauled across the country will finally prove their worth.
We enjoyed breakfast together, with Erec sharing several poems that he had written, together with one written by an inmate at a prison that he conducts creative writing workshops at. Both poems delivered a powerful and thought-provoking start to the day.
With panniers loaded onto our bikes, it was time to say our goodbyes to our amazing host for the last two days. The experiences that we take away from the past 40 hours will stay with us forever. We sincerely hope that we will see Erec and his friends again, together with the person we heard lots about but unfortunately didn’t meet, Erec’s wife Megan.
We cycled down the long gravel drive to a few noises coming from the bikes that they shouldn’t be making, but a few twists of the mudguards and the handlebars and we were back in business.
I had driven to Ramah yesterday, so thought I knew what was coming. Unless someone had built a few hills overnight then I clearly wasn’t paying attention from the passenger seat of Charlie’s car yesterday. In hindsight, they weren’t big hills, but our legs muscles complained more than usual after a day using them to climb in El Morro rather than a more circular motion.
Apart from a provisioning stop off at Family Dollar in Ramah, the cycle to Gallup was uneventful, although we received a greater than the usual number of enthusiastic waves and horn honks of encouragement.
There were some 10+ mile ups and some equally long downs. Without a headwind, the ups weren’t too bad and the downs allowed a little freewheeling for a change. Without much traffic, on the road, we cycled side by side chatting most of the day, which always makes the day go by faster.
We made it to Gallup at around 3:30 pm, a fast run by our standards. Our mobile signal had been dead for over two days, but it thankfully came back to life in Gallup in time for us to locate a cheap hotel for the night.
We had received bad reviews from most about Gallup but took Erec’s advice to approach it with an open mind. We didn’t spend much time in the town, but one block from rejoining a very industrial section on Route 66, parallel with a train yard, we dismounted and walked the bikes along what appeared to be a high street of sorts to take in some of the atmosphere of the places before heading to our hotel on the edge of the city.
As small US cities go, Gallup isn’t too bad.
We rejoined Route 66 in the Middle of Gallup, which at this point has a two-lane highway in both directions, with a large hard shoulder for us to cycle along. There were quite a few tyre shredding obstacles to manoeuvre around, but we made it to our chosen hotel with 30 minutes, cycling through the industrial part of the city.
We chose a hotel on the very western edge of Gallup to give us an easier escape in rush hour traffic and to reduce tomorrow’s mileage to the Petrified Forest National Park.
The Red Roof hotel was listed as $52 on booking.com. I tend not to book in advance just in case the hotel won’t allow the bikes in the room, instead of asking reception if they can beat the booking.com price once I have confirmed their bike policy.
Bike policy confirmed the lady behind reception offered me a room at $59 plus tax.
Me: The room is $52 on booking.com (showing her the unconfirmed reservation ready for the ‘reserve’ button to be pressed). Can you match that?
Reception: No.
Me: Okay, I’ll just book it online then.
Reception: Go ahead then.
Me: Okay (pressing the reserve button and showing her the confirmation number).
Reception: That may take up to two hours to process.
Me: No it doesn’t. It takes 5 minutes at the most.
Reception: That depends on the computer and this one is slow.
Me: No it doesn’t, it is processed online, on the internet. If you have access to the internet you will be able to see the reservation on your booking.com access page within minutes.
Reception: How do you know?
Me: I have used it myself before.
Reception: Okay, I can see your reservation now. Ground floor rooms are for people booking direct, so you will need to carry your bikes to the first floor as we don’t have elevators.
Me: 🙄
Checked in, we carried the bikes up to the room, headed across the road to Family Dollar to buy food then settled in for a relaxing evening of food and television.
Friendly hospitality. Sorry.
Gallup, another not favourite town of mine….