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Today was a good day. :)
It was good because:
- we saw our first cloud in 4 days
- we saw our first tree in the same amount of time
- it cooled down to 31 celcius which is cold compared to what we've been through :)
We ambled out of our motel this morning heading for breakfastt and the Rt 66 museum in Kingman, and what a pleasant surprise we got. Right opposite the museum was a great breaky plcae called Mr D's. Not only was it perfectly restored to its rock-n-roll glory days, but it had the most amazing collection of cars given where this plavce is. A GT-40 Ford, an AC Cobra (2 of my favourite cars in all the world), and a 34 ford hot rod. It must have been the regular Sat morn meet for rev-heads.
After breaky we ambled across to the museum and got talking to the lady behind the help desk (who'd been to Aus 14 times) about our trip, and she thought we might have trouble getting accommodation as its the labour day long weekend, so we spent half an hour deciding whether we should go see the Gand Canyon or not (high five to us for deciding to see it), and then calling places to find accommodation. We eventually got a room at the Red Feather (yes we are in Indian counrty) Lodge in Tusayan.
(As an aside, the Santa Fe train in the park opposite the museum is simply the biggest train I have ever seen. Six foot main wheels, 4 of them, and a huge boiler. There's a photo of Dave, at 6 ft 1, standing alongside it for scale. It must have been quite an awesome sight when it was running.)
(Aside number 2 on the train theme: we have been passing a LOT of trains, and I mean 20 to 30 two-mile long trains a day. Today the lady at the museum told us that the containers are being shipped across the country as the ship carrying them can't fit through the Suez canal, so they are off-loaded on the west coast, trained across the country, and then loaded on to some other ship down in Texas somewhere. Should've bought train company shares.)
Now that we knew where we were heading, we got a sense of urgency and jupmed on the bikes without even seeing the museum (but just after visiting the gift shop to buy waaaaaaay too much memorabilia). The Grand Canyon beckoned :)
We stopped at The Roadkill Cafe in Seligman for lunch, another great surprise. :) It was stacked to the rafters with stuffed dead animals of all descriptions! We could have also gotr a buffalo or elk burger, but none of us opted for them.
Today we also bumped into a chick on a Harley who is also doing Route 66, on her own Harley :) She's prety slow so we passed her a couple of times today, and she passes us when we stop for 'ga's. Great to see a chick, on her own Harley, tassles and all, just putting along and obviously having a ball.
Everywhere we stop everyone wants to chat to us, to find out our story, to marvel at how we are actually going to ride across the whole country, and "in THIS heat?" :) Today we got chatting to 2 other guys on Harleys who were quitre animated and fun. :) They wanted to know everything: where we were from, what we did for jobs, all about the bikes and where we're riding. They were funny guys. :) After all the conversations you do get a real sense that we are doing something special even though it seems very real and ordinary to us as we plod along each day.
And EVERYONE rides Harleys... (with no helmets). We have seen exactly 1 Jap bike in 4 days. :)
The landscape has changed enormously today. We started off in Kingman which is on the plains in the Arizona desert. Its just saltbush and rocks. As we rode it became just rocks... miles and miles of just rocks. You could really see that this stuff was just belched up by the earth who knows how many years ago and has just been weathering away ever since. It was like looking at the inner workings of the earth.
And then, within 5 miles we were on the praries of the west. the vegetation started getting taller and greener, eventually fences and the first livestock, and then eventually trees! And the temperature immediately dropped 5 degrees. It is now actually pleasant to ride :) Consequently our 200 miles today flew by and we all agreed it was our most easy day's riding so far.
We are also quite a lot higher than we were this morning. We've come from Kingman at about 3,000 ft up to Grand Canyon at 7,000 ft, climbing steadily across the plains over the course of the 200 miles.
We went to the Canyon to watch the sun set and the colours come out, and it was amazing. It really is pretty impressive. Ted put in in perspective when he said he jumped out of a plane (parachuting) at 3,000 ft, and the edge of the canyon is 4,000ft above its bottom.
All the photos can be found at: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/104094667716148238316/AcrossTheUSByHarley?authkey=Gv1sRgCNCOwOP3qpGlugE&feat=directlink
Tomorrow we are going to try to take a chopper flight over the canyon and get a feel for it from a different angl. I bet the pilot doesn't let me fly :(
After the chopper flight (if we get one), we are off to Flagstaff, passing via the highest point on Route 66 at 7,500-odd feet.
As we went out for dinner (I love ribs :) it was actually cool, so we are looking forward to riding tomorrow. :)
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