Advertisement
Day 8
Kingman, AZ is one of those towns where a monster truck rally is considered a "sport". After battling heat and desolate highways, we find ourselves in Taos, New Mexico, more than 1,000 miles from our starting point.
Getting through Arizona was a learning experience. For instance, did you know that Chinese buffets in Arizona include Cheetos as an entree? Or that AZ desperately needs to update their tourist motto from "Get your Kicks on Route 66"? Despite this, we got some kicks, too much sun, and a lot of flats.
We spent as much of our AZ time as possible on 66- after being warned NOT to bike 4 days through "Indian Country"- or did they say "Injun"? anyway, a huge reservation with no services and non-biker friendly crowds- We hopped from the shadeless Mormon outpost of Jackrabbit (where we tried grape Gatorade for the first time- mmm) to the world's seediest hotel in Ash Fork ("we used to have non-smoking rooms, but everyone just smoked in them anyway"), to the cozy mountain town of Flagstaff. Whenever our stretches of Route 66 would run out, we'd join the big rigs on Interstate 40!! I think that we rode enough miles to have earned our mud flaps and a trucker tan. Unfortunately, the trashy shoulder
Day 8
Back on the road heading out of Lake Havasu, AZ. on I-40 gave us 12 flat tires in a matter of 6 days!!
One morning, we sneaked in a little sidetrip to "Meteor Crater" (famous in North Central AZ)- a well-preserved crater that was formed 50,000 years ago. We decided to ditch our bikes and hitchhike to the crater- not an easy feat when you're a dirt-colored couple wearying spandex shorts and bike shirts, but with no bikes. Mighty suspicious looking... We weren't getting any takers, so we put a wholesome-looking baseball cap on Forest and made him crouch off the road to hide his imposing size. Finally, a Hopi guy picked us up and got us in to the park for free. He's pictured below as our run-up citizen of the week.
We met our first "fellow" bike tourer, Patrick. He was a bit of a strange character - but so are we. We passed him on a searing hot day on Route 66. He was wearing sweats, pedaling a one-gear bike, and sitting atop a pillow (Patrick, we understand that one). He explained that he’d also been riding since the West Coast- he’d already pedaled maybe 1,000 miles before “falling off the wagon” (again??). Anyway, he
Day 8
As requested - Annie on her cell phone while riding. was biking his way back to sobriety- and it seemed to be a rought road indeed. Our helmets off to you!
Yes, Arizona, we had some amazing moments with you... racing a train parallel to the road in a red-rock canyon, getting our first glimpse of snow... however, we were happy to reach in New Mexico.
But we can't recommend the KOA in Gallup, NM. Pitching our tent on asphalt under two large street lights, we wished we had earplugs to drown out the fact that I-40 was just a stones throw to our right and Route 66 and highly active train tracks were just a stones throw to our left. We were ready for the boonies again.
And we got em. We spent most of our time in New Mexico in sparsely populated Navajo lands. Beautiful rock outcroppings, blue reservoirs, high plains... we crossed the Continental Divide 3 times in 2 days (~8,000'). When we did reach the occasional outpost, we stuck out like sore thumbs. The tanner one of us got sent in to do the shopping- and we never asked whether they were stocking sunscreen, though we were running low. Listening to people purchase
Day 8
Long, open stretch of route 66. gas and lottery tickets in Navajo was kind of cool though.
Three days later we rode closer to civilization- north of Santa Fe. We thought about taking a pretty little country road, where the Centurion Church lies (pilgrims drag crosses to this church for hundreds of miles- and this would have made us feel much better about only having to lug bikes), but it was late and one of the locals said, "oh yeah, just take a left at Long John Silver's and you'll find yourself in the heroine capital of the world". Um, pass.
So instead, we biked up along the Rio Grande directly towards Taos, arriving with bad road hair, dirty ankles and arms (Forest won the dirty ankle contest by a nose), and monstrous appetites. We almost started out on the wrong foot with the good people of Taos when we were rebuffed upon returning to the all-you-can-eat breakfast this morning. A waitress intervened, and no one was hurt.
We spent our second day off rafting down the Rio Grande and putting together our latest blog. We'll be getting on the road tomorrow to head north into Colorado!
Before we leave
Day 9
Patrick is the first "fellow" bike tourer we've come across. He was looking a little hagard and was short of food, so we gave him a sandwich and some cookies. Aparently, he rides because it keeps him sober. Not sure why he got on his knees when I took his picture. Good luck Patrick wherever you are! you we wanted to answer some questions and offer up a few gems of wisdom.
Melanie and Darren: Hm, we have NOT yet had to drink out of cattle troughs, but you give us a new benchmark to meet. It's nice to know that there's a couple out there who has scored higher on the 'yuck meter' than we have.
Brian: My man-calves are fine. Unfortunately, there were there before I started the trip and they probably will be after...
Also, in case you were looking for answers to the following...
1. You should NOT spit off to the side of your bike if someone is biking behind you (Forest!)
2. Little dogs can give just as much chase as the big ones...
3. Don't ride with sand in your bikeshorts (Anne).
Day 8
Route: Lake Havasu City; London Bridge Rd; 95; 40; 66 through Kingman and out to Villa Vista
Road Conditions: Great shoulder, with moderate traffic, on 95 and 40; 66 had a shoulder but it was in bad shape, light traffic.
Distance: ~82 miles
High point: ~3,400
Slept: side of road in Valle Vista
Day 9
Route: Day 9
Yes, this proves that we were "getting our kicks". Villa Vista; 66 through Seligman and then back onto 40 to Ash Fork
Road Conditions: shoulder on 66 was mostly chipseal, but there was very little traffic
Distance: ~92 miles
High Point: ~5,400
Slept: $25 motel in Ash Fork
Day 10
Route: Ash Fork; 40; exit 191 and through Flagstaff on business 40; Townsend-Winona Rd to Winona
Road Conditions: 40 had a big shoulder and moderate traffic, but sometimes the shoulder was choppy; business 40 was good coming into Flagstaff, but was bad once in town; Townsend-Winona Rd was great - big shoulder and little traffic
Distance: ~67 miles
High Point: ~7,400
Slept: Side of road near 40 onramp in Winona
Day 11
Route: 40; 66 through Winslow and again between Jackrabbit and Joseph City.; 66 into Holbrook
Road Conditions: 40 - same as day 10, but we got a lot of flats from debris; 66 was fine except right after Jackrabbit it was in really bad shape for about 1 mile
Distance: ~78 miles
High Point: ~5,000
Slept: Brad’s motel ($25) in Holbrook
Day 12
Route: 66 out of Holbrook, then back on 40; missed some nice frontages roads running near AZ boarder and into Gallup,
Day 9
Racing trains across the Arizona plains. NM; 66 through Gallup
Road Conditions: Same as day 11
Distance: ~102
High Point: ~6,000
Slept: KOA campground edge of Gallup
Day 13
Route: 66; 566; 49; 371; 9
Road Conditions: very little traffic and great roads with wide shoulder. Stocked up at Basha’s grocery store in Crownpoint, only two other small stores along route.
Distance: ~65
High Point: ~8,000 crossing Continental Divide
Slept: Next to road leading to Chaco Cultural Historical Park.
Day 13
Route: 66; 566; 49; 371; 9
Road Conditions: very little traffic and great roads with wide shoulder. Stocked up at Basha’s grocery store in Crownpoint, only two other small stores along route.
Distance: ~65
High Point: ~8,000 crossing Continental Divide
Slept: Next to road leading to Chaco Cultural Historical Park.
Day 14
Route: 9; 197; 550; 96 to La Jara
Road Conditions: very little traffic and great roads with wide shoulder.
Distance: ~89
Slept: Side of road outside of La Jara
Day 15
Route: 96; 84; 74; 68 to about 13 miles short of Taos
Road Conditions: 96 had very little traffic; 84 had a great shoulder with moderate traffic; 74 had no shoulder and moderate traffic; 68 was terrible -
Day 9
Which is somewhere on Route 66 near Ash Fork, AZ. the shoulder was full of sand and later there was not shoulder while it twisted through the Rio Grande Gorge with lots of commuter taffic.
Distance: ~97 miles
Slept: side of road
Day 16
Route: 68 to Taos
Road Conditions: it was better since we left around 6:30 to avoid the traffic.
Distance: 15 miles
Slept: Indian Hills Inn, Taos
Day 17
Day off in Taos and whitewater rafting down Rio Grande
Advertisement
Tot: 0.098s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 16; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0422s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
anonymous
non-member comment
Any Tornado pictures?
Gee, will you have any pictures of tornados on your next update? - Mom B