I get my kicks on Route 66

Nice fence that i thought you’d enjoy

Continental Divide

Joann taking photos

Dinner at Denny’s

Good evening everyone,

Mike K from our cross country ride in 2012 brought to my attention yesterday that the Oak Creek Canyon area above Sedona Arizona, is suffering from non-contained forest fires. That was perhaps the most beautiful ride of the tour and is a big tourist recreation area. The last that I ride they were deploying a lot of resources in an attempt to contain the fires. Riding up the valley, there are numerous signs regarding restrictions on camp fires. I imagine that if the winds are bad, this is a difficult area to access to fight the blaze. Very sorry to see this development and pray that there is no loss of life.

Most of our ride today was on historic Route 66 made famous via song and TV via the early 60’s show Route 66 starring Martin Milner and George Maharis and a vintage corvette stingray. TheRoute 66 is mostly a sad remnat of its former self. The development of the interstate left many businesses in a situation were few potential clients passed by their establishment. There is no a lot of traffic on the route and that makes it good for cycling. However, many business, motels, gas station, restaurants are boarded up or in disrepair. In the twins some of the old establishments remain viable and proudly display their historic origins.

Part of the route today was on a section of highway that was full of debris and to holes. A number of us took bumps to the first SAG but I think that I was the only one who rode extra miles to equate to the the mileage total of the day which approximated 66 miles. We had almost 40 miles from the SAG to the hotel and the wind was as bad as ever. It came from every direction and my speed varied from moment to moment as a tailwind became a headwind. It was brutal. Pierre commented that today’s ride while almost 30 miles shorter than the last 2 days rides was incrementally more difficult because of the head and side winds that came in gusts.

I sat on the aero bars as much as I could and just battled to get to the hotel as quickly as possible. We did cross the continental divide and much of the scenery was a blur. At our route Rap session, a state patrolman came in to review the laws of riding a bicycle on highways in New Mexico. Seems that a few of our group might not have been in compliance. New Mexico has had quite a few fatalities with bicycles and there is also a lot of alcoholism in the area.

I have a few photos from dinner that I will post that shows our entire group eating at Denny’s. It was a surprisingly good meal and I had pot roast followed up by a stop at local ice cream shop serving Blue Bell Ice Cream. I am consuming an enormous number of calories and will have to curtail my appetite onceI cease to cycle 500 miles a week.

Hope that this post finds you all well. Many thanks for following my Blog. If anyone has any suggestions, comments or questions, please feel free to ask.

Tailwinds

Chuck