Distance: 61.1 miles            Total Distance: 1128.1 miles

Ride time: 3hrs 49 mins       Including stops: 4hrs 38 mins

Ave speed: 15.9mph            Max speed: 42.8mph

85°F

Due to Keith doing extra miles yesterday and therefore having a shorter day than originally planned today, we had a lie in this morning until 7am.  Keith left the RV site at 9am still on the US64 towards Cimarron. 

We drove through Toas Pueblo and passed Kit Carson’s house, which is now a museum and once again climbed up into the mountains.  The scenery for the day reminded us of the Austrian Alps, except for being about 10 times bigger! 

We passed lots of beautiful mountain properties today in Angel Fire, and experienced a vast amount of stunning views.  On the mountain road, we narrowly missed a local gopher, which seem to be as stupid as English pheasants! 

Keith thoroughly enjoyed todays cycling with the gradual climbs, twisty roads and the technical descents.  I even heard him use the word “fun” today!!

We carried on through Eagles Nest, a local tourist town on a mountain lake, where Pam, Brian and I visited the local saloon, for a refreshing sprite!!

At 1:30pm we entered Cimarron and visited the local St James Hotel, where Jesse James and Buffalo Bill both had their names in the guest book.  It had also experienced 26 murders and the odd ghost, since its opening in 1880.

Upon arriving at our RV park for the night we were warned not to go out at night, again, although this time it was in case we met the local black bear that wanders through the town.  Therefore we all decided that we would set up a rota for the evening’s lookout post in order to try and catch a glimpse of it!!

Day Twelve                      Sat 2 August                                   Dulce to Taos                      

Distance: 112.8 miles         Total Distance: 1066.9 miles

Ride time: 7hrs 46 mins      Including stops: 9hrs 15 mins

Ave speed: 14.5mph           Max speed: 46.0mph

80°F

We all woke at 4am, however we decided to stay in bed for another hour or so and get up for breakfast at 5.30am instead!  Keith set off at just before 7am, with both arm warmers and a fleece on, as it was a rather chilly 58°F until the sun came up. 

We drove through the town of Taos and into the mountains, where we remained for the rest of the day.  We crossed the Continental Divide Marker at 7275’ elevation, where any rainfall to the west rainfall drains into the Pacific Ocean and any rainfall to the east drains into the Atlantic Ocean. 

At 9.45am, the RV made another roadside pit stop at the top of a climb, and waited until just before 11am and still no Keith, so we made the decision to back track and look for him only to discover that we had overshot the US64 junction by about 300 yards and had been waiting on the wrong roadside, what a support team we are!?!  We headed down the correct road and finally caught up with Keith about 10 miles down the road, only to find that he had verbally abused another Cruise America RV cousin mistaking them for us!  At least he had taken his frustrations out on them and not us!!!

The rest of the day went well, and we hit the highest point of the trip at 10516’ in Carson National Forest, where there was an extremely rewarding view across the surrounding area. 

We finally arrived at our destination for the day, Tres Piedras at around 3pm, only to find that the local gas station and diner had closed up and there was little else there to class as the town! 

After reviewing the maps and scouting out the cross roads some more, it was decided that Keith would hop back on the bike and head 25 miles further on down the road towards Taos where there were definitely RV sites.

And so it was that we actually finished our day about 2 miles west of Taos at the Monte Bello RV Park, and watched the sun go down over the mountains that we had just been over and celebrated the fact that Keith is now over the first 1000 mile mark!