The road to Tucumcari is one of my favorite rides.  We follow highway 104 all the way from Las Vegas to town.  I tell the riders that anyone who gets lost today will definitely be identified as navigationally challenged.  We have one turn, then follow 104 all the way to the motel.  It's a fairly narrow state road, but you only see a car about every 10 minutes.  What's more, the scenery is magnificent and I took over 280 photos today of riders as they pedaled through the vistas. 

The ride starts out with a gentle climb for probably a 1000 feet to the top of the Las Vegas Plateau where the terrain rolls and the roads are fairly smooth.  If the beauty of the high rangeland isn't enough, the road drops into a canyon at about 33 miles where the screaming descent opens up spectacular views of the valley below and the surrounding mesas.  It's really hard to concentrate on maintaining control of your bike when the views are so beautiful.  After the descent, it's a mix of flat to large gentle rollers all the way to Tucumcari.  There was one steep 0.7 mile climb at mile 67 (below right) that got everyone's attention but the rest of the climbing was mostly graded under 5%. 

The views before descending off the mesa remind me of Wyoming.  On both sides of the road are vast pastures with a small homestead about every 10 miles.  From about 15 miles up the road, you can still see Las Vegas perched at the foot of a snow covered mountain range.  Our only audience was an occasional cow as we pedaled our way along the mesa and the melodious songs of Meadow Larks serenaded us as we marveled at the vastness of the area.  Everyone enjoyed the views from the top of the mesa but the scenery in the valley was beautiful too.  The effects of more water could be seen in the lowlands by seeing more trees and wild flowers blooming along the highway.

As we neared Tucumcari we passed another historical area where Kit Carson had an influence.  It seems we've seen several markers ever since we left Los Angles...that guy really got around.  We passed the site where Ft Bascom was built to protect the area from Comanche Indians in 1864.  Kit led a campaign against the Indians in this area in 1868 from that fort.  The fort also served as protection from New Mexicans who were trading illegally with the Comanche.  The fort stood from the early 1860s until it was abandoned in 1870.  I tried to imagine living in a fort in this territory...tough life to say the least.

Tucumcari is a small town of 4000 people and is situated in the eastern part of the state along I-40 between Amarillo TX and Santa Rosa NM.  The legend of how Tucumcari got its name was told by the great Apache Chief Geronimo.  Wautonamah was an Apache chief who had a daughter named Kari.  He was interested in her marrying one of two braves, Tonapon and Tocan.  Both were worthy of his daughter's hand and who ever married Kari, would be the future chief.  Wautonamah decided they should fight with daggers for his daughter's hand.  Kari loved Tocan, and hated Tonapon.  As luck would have it, they fought to the death and Tonapon was the victor.  Upon seeing this, Kari rushed forward and grabbed a dagger and killed Tonapon.  After that, she took her own life and fell upon her love Tocan.  The grieving Wautonamah also took his life when he saw the two lying together dead and as he died, he cried Tocan...Kari.  I guess if it had been the other brave, the town would be called TonaponKari.  I wonder if it would have caught on? 

In spite of this being the shortest day so far, the headwinds made it one of our toughest days.  The winds were relentless and beat us down pretty hard today.  I spent the better part of the afternoon dispersing water to riders who were out much longer than they had anticipated.  Speeds of double digits were hard to come by after lunch.  Tomorrow we have an even shorter day and historically it's a pretty easy day, but it looks like we'll have unfavorable winds again...we'll see.  What ever the weather, we'll see you then.