Leaving the Flag

We said goodbye to the Pirates and headed off to Grants, NM. I should mention Gosh left his bank card in Needles, AZ by mistake. It was easily taken care of, but leaves me in charge of foraging for food while he sets up camp. (Usually, it's he who heads off to find the markets and such, as he has a better sense of direction.) Off I go into town- a town where I lived! Do you think I can remember where the Smith's Supermarket is that used to be near my apartment? Nope. As I write this, I recall Nimitz Street and the grassy area where I used to walk Wicca but I cannot make that picture meld with what I'd seen driving through town. So much has changed, yet so much looked familiar. It's so strange. I found a package store and the clerk directed me to a Walmart behind some hotels and fast food joints (none of which were there when I was there) and headed home with dinner.

My return was in time for a huge monsoonal storm that blew a transformer and scared the bejeebees out of Kewpie. We may not have had power but we learned our tent can stand up to a helluva storm. When the storm subsided, I headed off to take a shower. Apparently, a well system relies on power to pump the water, so even though I had my light cleverly rigged to find soap and shampoo and all the accouterments necessary, I was left full of soap and out of wet. Good thing there was no power and no other campers in the tent area because Gosh had to take our 2.5 gallon water bladder and rinse me off. Chilly! Yet oddly refreshing. Incidentally, the next morning, I realized I'd been in the men's room showering. Always an adventure, I say!

Painted Desert

The Gosh at Painted Desert and Petrified Forest

Family Photo at Painted Desert and Petrified Forest

Petrified Tree

On our way to Grants, we went through Gallup. There's a hotel, El Rancho, that has housed many actors filing old Westerns. It's quite a place and next time, we might stay there. Lots of kitschy nostalgia to be had and there were plenty of bikes in the parking lot.

We also looped Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. Very beautiful and hard to capture with a small camera. A very long time ago- like millions of years- there was a forest that was suddenly flooded leaving all these trees to be quickly taken over by minerals and leaving them petrified. (I am not a science teacher or an archeologist, so I am doing my best, here; forgive me.) The petrified tree pictured above is interesting to ponder but on closer inspection, the colors and crystals are just spectacular!

Kewpie... what a smile!

Stay tuned, as we are a couple of days of travel ahead of the blog...

Catching Up with Route 66

Welcome! We've been on the road since Wednesday, June 24. It's been a wild ride and we have been surrounded by a myriad of distractions keeping us from posting our adventures... There was a Washoe County School District board meeting, a few blown transformers and a couple of Pirates trying desperately to deter us from using the interwebs.

So Wednesday morning, we headed off to Barstow, CA; a 440+ mile push to get to our starting point on Route 66. (We decided the western end was close enough for later and we were not sure we wanted to be in LA. Hindsight and after a discussion with some Great American Racers in Tucumcari, NM, we will need to check out the end. We are assured the end of Route 66 is at the ocean and there is a big Route 66 sign. He seemed jazzed about the whole affair and I don't want to miss out on that much excitement.)

It was a big push and it was pretty warm (this was before I realized I could check the temperature at my whim while riding on the bike) but still I could feel vacation sinking in and a school year full of highs and lows finally falling away. Perhaps they were melting in the heat.

Barstow to Kingman, AZ was a really hot one. It was consistently 105*. We were beginning to follow Route 66 and there were some really pretty stretches but I have to say the day was marked by the frozen cherry slurpee we consumed at the mini market on highway 58.

Kingman to Flagstaff was outstanding! Route 66 goes through gold mining country and it's obvious what people will do for the shiny stuff when you see all the twists the road will take up and down mountainsides. Hackberry was a great rest stop filled with tons of nostalgia. We are talking about the real deal here. (After going through a few states and seeing Route 66 Museums everywhere, it's pretty cool to see some old guy holding court in a folded up mountain town. There are cars, a preserved garage, signs, gas pumps... you name it. AND cold drinks and souvenirs.) Too, we met a photographer who explained we'd be running opposite The Great American Car Race headed out of Flagstaff. 100+ cars from the 1920's- 1970's make this race every year and this year was Route 66 from Missouri to California. It was awesome to see all the cars headed in the opposite direction and we waved to every one. 

Our weekend in Flagstaff was spent with our Pirate Crew. It was delicious fun and included a hike through Lava River Cave- a consistent 40* romp through an underground lava flow. On a Saturday, it was pretty busy, but we still had moments of sensory deprivation... no light and no sound and cool temps were worth battling the Boy Scouts. Dinner at Beaver Street Brewery and a drink at Mother Road Brewing followed by a leg wrestling match where I consistently beat Gosh rounded out a perfect weekend!

There's more, but it'll wait... Suffice to say it is a wonderful journey and we are having a great time! Stay tuned for more antics from the road... Rubber side down!