Despite heavy focus on “low stress” cycling and residential streets here at BB, I’ll admit my single favorite stop in all of Albuquerque is at this marker on a State Highway far from any residence.

The “Lola” Historic Marker is on NM-556, i.e., Tramway, as it climbs from I-25/Sandia Casino to County Line BBQ. Most/all of you reading this know that. It strikes me that one actually reaches the sign by dropping several inches from the asphalt of the highway (shown in far top right corner above) in true hostile bike infrastructure fashion. When you’ve huffed and puffed quite a bit coming up the alluvial fan, that drop requires more effort than you would think.

Nevertheless, hostile bike infrastructure be damned, that drop, the story of Lola, and having almost finished the climb from I-25 closer and closer to the Sandias combines to make it my single favorite spot in town. I try to make it up there every once in a while from home way down in the Far South Valley, and it served as milestone yesterday on my 62 miles for a 62nd Birthday.

If you get a chance, or haven’t had the chance recently, go “see” Lola.