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Day 8: Sunday April 20 - Sedona to Grand Canyon,
Arizona
Silence is golden. For all the incredible beauty that there is in
Sedona, there are some visitors who are unable to shut up long enough to
gaze quietly and take it all in. Shame - for the surroundings are
spectacular and I enjoyed sitting on the highest mesa at sunset,
overlooking Sedona and across to the other ranges of shadowy mountains -
while a black American names STAR played his home made digeridoo
"in tune with the earths vibrations" he told me. (oh and of
course in between selling copies of his CD! Where else but commercial US
of A could I be?!)
Feeling a little bit trapped - maybe there was just too much cosmic
energy for my liking, or maybe it was something to do with the other
guests staying in the Healing Centre, not that I had really met them,
but I got the feeling that they were a little weird...I left Sedona
early for the ride to Grand Canyon.
Soon after leaving, winding through Sedona's Oak Creek Canyon at 6000
ft, more snaking twisting turns ( I am getting the hang of those)
through the Coconino forest, less than 20 miles from Sedona at 7000 feet
and one turn in the road there looms ahead a huge snow covered mountain
topping 12000 feet with Flagstaff at its base. Needless to say it was
cold - damned cold. The next 78 miles to the Grand Canyon were across
high plateau at 8000 feet, with snow on either side of the road, forests
of pine, silver birch giving way to low lying saltbush and scrub. Yet
another battle of me versus the wind, at times riding at 40 degrees
angle to the road...my tires are wearing out on one side! Temps dropped
to 50 F (10C) which doesn't sound cold till you have it blasting you
head on, sneaking in the gap between the helmet and jacket and freezing
your hands into the grip position.
Interesting experience...after prolonged riding one loses the sensation
in ones hands. So that I can't tell if my hands are in the same
position. It often seems like one hand is lower than the other and I am
not sure if they are palms down or up. Odd!
Dropping down to 6000 ft to enter the Grand Canyon park, you ride for a
while awaiting that scene. When it appears, it is a spectacle beyond
belief. Vast - words fail me. Here you can truly find a place to
sit, on a cliff edge with 4000 feet of nothing below and survey the
surrounds from what seems like the top of the world. For all the
climbing I did in Sedona, often unable to reach the top, GC has the
answer. Silence and a great sense of humility is evoked by the
timelessness of the surroundings here.
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Day 9: Monday April 21 - Grand Canyon Arizona to
Cortez, Colorado
3 STATES - 1 DAY !
It wasn't going to be such a long ride but somehow I got the riding bug
today and covered 350 miles - a new record. I left Grand Canyon
late at 10:15. Man that is one awesome place! I left for the ride to
Monument Valley in Utah. Along the way stopping at the Navajo
National Monument, where an ancient tribe (Hopi) settled in the 11th
century, building tiny brick houses in huge caves under massive domes of
red granite and sandstone. I swear Arizona has it all! No sooner
do you leave one spectacle than another looms ahead. Monument Valley is
that. I crossed the Utah state line into Monument Valley - another
awesome sight. Maybe one of the most photographed parts of the USA
and I can see why. Dinosaurs roamed here and left there marks to prove
it.
Red sandstone towers rising 1000 feet into the air, in
the middle of red dusty desert. Oh the wind storms were amazing... I now
know what riding across the Gobi desert must be like. I moved on
whizzing across an ever changing landscape from yellow sandstone cliffs,
open plains of saltbush, green fields, dry areas and cows grazing,
desert again with prickly pear and pigmy conifer (I learnt this all at
the Indian reservation). The Navajo have a reservation here that covers
27000 square miles! Also learnt that they were instrumental in helping
win the Pacific theatre of WW2 with their Code Talkers...a unit
especially devised to send signals in Navajo - a unwritten phonetic
language that the Japanese had no way of deciphering!
I made it to Cortez in Colorado at dark, with huge lighting storms ahead
making further travel ominous. Boy was I tired !
Day 10: Tuesday April 22 - Cortez,
Colorado to Chambers, Arizona
AAAGHHHH!!!! New Mexico is called the "land of enchantment"!
Bollocks! What a dump. Compared with Arizona, I am sorry to say that New
Mexico should have been left to the Mexicans. After a hair raising 6
hour 260 mile ride battling freezing gale force winds trying to knock me
off my bike (I have developed such a crick in my neck), at times
pootling along at just 45 mph just to hang on, being passed by semi
trailers doing 80 with their own wind gusts wobbling me all over the
place, , through a dust storm of unimaginable strength that left me with
sand in crevices I didn't know I had, I left that stupid state and
crossed back into Arizona and felt immediately relieved. The Navajo Indians
can have that barren dustbowl. The Mesa Verde National Park and
ancient cliff dwellings of the 12th century Pueblo Indians are certainly
interesting, but it sure isn't worth the trip just for that! I arrived
in this one hotel town and crashed into a hot bath and soaked for an
hour to defrost before having eggs and toast for dinner after some
battle with the kitchen staff (that's breakfast ... what the eggs can't
come out to play until tomorrow ?) and watched movies on cable TV. A
hotel never felt so good.
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Day 11: Wednesday April 23 - Chambers to Phoenix,
Arizona
Chasing the sun is my mission today. With my back to the gray rain
clouds and against the @#!*#@ cross wind that is still trying to send me
into the oncoming traffic, I head south west. The weather in this region
has been enough to tempt my patience and make me wonder why I am doing
this. It's snowed in the past 24 hours in the Grand Canyon (glad I left)
and there've been gales and tornado warnings further east. Although I am
becoming adept at handling wind blasts and riding sideways like a crab,
I am seeking sunnier climes and happier more fulfilling riding days. So
I headed for Phoenix, descending from the high plateau at 7000 feet I've
been on for the past week, down to the glorious sun drenched desert
floor where this city sits at 1500 feet above sea level, surrounded by
mountains trapping in every ounce of heat I need to defrost. The
Petrified Forest and Painted Desert that I passed through on the way
were certainly interesting, but I was so
cold that stopping for long was prolonging the agony and likely to leave
me petrified.
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However the best roads for riding that I have yet to
come across, with long slow descents and ascents around curving twisting
green mountains and through valleys, exist between Show Low and Globe in
South Central Arizona. I would go back there anytime just to do that
again! wooo hooo!! I swear, Arizona has it all. It is the most
magic state with every type of scenery and landscape imaginable! A
night in a hotel with nighttime temps in the 60's, a hot tub and a
really good meal and a few beers in a Scottsdale bar with some nice
people was just what I needed to recharge the batteries and reheat the
body. Tomorrow I am off to see Frank Lloyd Wright's home and then south
and east to the Saguaro cactus forest then continuing east through New
Mexico again (ughh) and then Texas. I should be warm from here :)
Day 12: Thursday April 24 - Phoenix to Tucson, Arizona
85F / 27C hot and sunny
OK so it went from freezing to being cooked in a short period. Riding
along wearing leathers, jeans and a black helmet is like being in a
pressure cooker. But it sure beats the cold ! The ride from Phoenix was
leisurely, stopping to see Taliesin West. Frank Lloyd Wrights incredible
summer house in Scottsdale and now home to the FLW foundation and school
of architecture. WOW! Blending into the mountainside, he created a
perfect home, the true concept of organic living or making a home at one
with the environment. Quite inspiring.
Interesting experience # 103 : how many bugs can splat on your visor in
one day? Hmm sure am glad I went for the full face helmet as those
critters sting when they hit head on at 70mph. And they make a
nasty mess! I now know how a headlight feels.
Tip # 42: If anyone invites you to Tucson, suggest you go together,
somewhere more interesting.
This is cactus land however. HUGE !!! and really fascinating. Off
to Tombstone tomorrow.
Day 13: Friday April 25 - Tucson to Bisbee, Arizona 88F
/ 29C hot and sunny
Aaah the most fun riding day ever. Through wide open stretches of
rolling plain, desert and then gentle green hillsides. Climbed again to
5500 feet but it didn't seem like it. I didn't know that there were wine
growing areas in Arizona!! There was a thrilling 45 miles of dead
straight road, so I could open her up and fly. T-shirt and shorts
weather, yey! Saguaro National Park with it's massive cacti was an
interesting and HOT place to stop. Then Tombstone famous for it's
lawlessness of the 1880's and the Gun Fight at the OK Corral.
After leaving Tombstone, I wanted to see Bisbee, an old copper mining
town well known for being the most important in the USA for decades. But
what a surprise...a glorious little village nestled in a canyon, old
brick buildings in late 1800's style. The town was a buzz with
100's of cyclists for the 25th annual La Vuelta de Bisbee, a cycling
event where only the fittest :) riders come from many states around the
country to compete in 3 days of events. Hard going for these guys
...up mountains. To top it off, I got a cancellation in the Shady
Dell trailer park, written up in my guide book, and I can honestly say I
have never stayed in a more fun, funky place in my life. There's
me in an original 40 foot aluminum trailer, called appropriately
"the Mansion", completely wood paneled inside, red and white
vinyl seating, sofa, dining table, bathroom, kitchen, bedroom and
bedecked as it was in the 50's with a black & white tv connected to
a VCR and stash of old 50's movies (naturally I watched Lucille Ball and
Desi A in the Long Long Trailer), an old bakelite radio playing only
50's music and record player with 45's from the era! The park was
full of other trailers of different sizes from the same era, a huge old
bus, NYC yellow cab and classic Chris Craft boat that you could stay in
as well. Not the cab! Hysterical...I have been smiling all day as a
result. The town is full of and is known as a place for hippies
and people from the 70's era in California who moved east and stopped.
Galleries and funky music cafes all over. A real laugh. Well worth
another visit!
  
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Discovered fact: I've noticed that throughout the trip so far,
some 2,200 miles of riding, that in almost every instance there where
there are signs denoting the distance to the town you're aiming for, as
you approach that town, the distance seems to increase, not decrease,
according to the signposts. Sometimes the distance increases by just a
mile or two, but yesterday they slipped in another 8 miles somehow along
the same stretch of road that previously had said 15 miles to go, to my
destination.
Day 14: Saturday April 26 - Bisbee, Arizona to Truth or
Consequences, New Mexico 90F / 30C baking hot!
Left Bisbee and my trailer from the past, after watching the finish of
the annual Vuelta de Bisbee bike race. Touched the Mexican border
at Douglas (why are border towns always so skanky?) and flew along flat
open roads through dry green yellow plain land with low lying ranges on
both sides. No sooner than crossing the state line back into New
Mexico did the wind start up again...this time I am prepared.
Sometime in my past I must have been bad in NM and now the state is
trying to exact its revenge. I have lost count of the number of mini
tornados that i have seen (whirlwinds of dust gathering up great clouds
of red dirt and flinging it half a mile high)...quite impressive until
one tries to do the same to me.
Staying off freeways I zigzagged my way north east up through Silver
City (nasty unimpressive town) and on to Truth Or Consequences. So
(re)named for the 1950's game show that was held there of the same name.
Note to self: just because a place has an interesting sounding
name doesn't mean that it will be so. Apart from a nice setting on
Elephant Butte lake and a fantastic 40's style restaurant with great
seafood (go figure in the middle of Arizona!), the town is not worth a
stop.
Between St Loronzo and T or C I found a new road that is in contention
for best/most fun road, along with the other between Show Low and Globe.
Gorgeous snaking road through mountains crossing the Continental Divide,
through Bear Canyon and around Black Mountain at 9000 feet. Yee hah!
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