Logged 70
miles on Sunday from Las Vegas,N.M. to Santa Rosa. Majority of the route was
along Highway 84, which was pretty desolate and wonderfully downhill.
 |
| Route 66 stamped into concrete sidewalk |
The final
portion of about 17 miles was on I-40. By the time I arrived in Santa Rosa my feet
were melting.
Beau and
Melissa from the First Baptist Church in Santa Rosa gave me a place to stay
Sunday night.
The boys
were super courteous and they tipped their hats and politely shook my hand when
they greeted me.
Just down
the street from the church was a local tourist attraction called the Blue Hole.
It's a circular bell-shaped pool, about 130-feet deep and the water
temperatures in the 60s. A lot of people use it as a local swimming hole and
for scuba diving.
The water
is a deep rich blue color. Some locals say if you dropped a nickel in the water
you'd be able to see it at the bottom. Others say there are 600 miles worth of
caves underneath and that's where the scuba divers explore.
There's
rumor this is where Billy the Kid once swam.
In March of this past year
a Navy veteran and expert diver, Shane Thompson, was scuba diving and exploring passageways. He got trapped
and died in the caverns below. Read more HERE.
Santa
Rosa is a very small community of about 2800 right on the Historic Route 66.
On an
interesting but sad note the old hotel signs with the illuminated pipe neon
lighting are still here, but so many of them are closed and in very poor shape.
