Birthday Bash in the Works

Upcoming 71+ mile ride route
My 71st birthday is coming up, if I survive another couple of weeks.  Since I rode 70 miles last May for my 70th birthday I thought it cool enough to try it EVERY birthday so long as I'm able - - and so long as I continue to have birthdays.
Of course, Google is my friend, and I spent a couple of hours trying to find a flat route that would get me 71-something miles without causing me to stop having birthdays... :0)
The bestest flattest route I could find was via old US Route 60 from Vaughn to Taiban, which is a gradual downhill ride all the way.  Route 60, for those in the know, was actually a REAL Coast-to-Coast highway back in the early days of automobiling... It ran all the way from Santa Monica CA to the Atlantic coast in Virginia.  Route 66 claims all the glory of early 1900's travel for some odd reason.... even though throughout its history it had frequent route changes and NEVER went east of Chicago, which hardly qualified it for a nationwide highway.  Route 60 still exists, with most of its dying towns and roadside villages now almost totally abandoned, with very few service stations or rest stops still existing.  Someday we're going to drive its entire route in the RV just for the heck of it... or maybe I'll try a once-in-a-lifetime coast to coast cycling ride the same distance.
This year, howsomever, I'm sticking to a 71+ mile ride and we'll see how it goes.  Route 60 is flatter and has a couple stations along the way where I could take soda and pee breaks, but I decided to take the McAlister highway (156) from Santa Rosa to just north of Taiban.  A bit more hilly, but it will take me through the bustling metropolis of House, NM, where my grandparents and my Dad are buried and where I have fond memories of visiting when the "Folks" still lived there.  As far as I know the only store I'll encounter in the entire trip is where I plan to start:   At the Love's Travel Stop in Santa Rosa.
I haven't ridden at ALL in the last few weeks, having spent all our time frantically rebuilding the floor and walls in our empty house-for-sale.  That project has been completed, and only lacks a couple more trailer loads of trash and odd pieces of lumber to be hauled away so we can leave our wonderful "Redneck Palace" (Jeff Foxworthy defined as '2 acres and a Doublewide') to the realtors.
Wish me luck and pray for me....