This trip unfolded beginning May 12, 2016. (Day 1)
Let's let the commentary below each photo tell the story of the two brave cyclists.
Fresh, clean brothers full of energy standing in the rather empty parking lot of the convenience store in the once booming railroad town of Ash Fork, Arizona.
Ash Fork desperately clings to life these days, fed poorly by the meager crumbs thrown its way from occasional tourists begrudgingly pulling off the off ramp of Interstate 40 so they can purchase gasoline, buy a Coke, and/or use the restrooms (or washrooms, as we refer to them in Canada).
Typical view of our day (with a few notable exceptions you'll see in a moment).
Most of our pedalling occurs on the wide paved shoulder of Interstate 40.
I-40 replaced most of Route 66 in this part of America as the primary roadway by the mid 1980's.
As a general policy, cyclists are not allowed to pedal on the Interstate. But when no other secondary road exists in the area to get a bicycle from point A to point B, the Higher Powers of the State of Arizona mercifully grant us permission to roll along its pavement.
(Numerous signage along the way remind us to "Stay On the Shoulder" just in case we get the urge to roll in the right hand lane with the tractor trailers.)
Upside to pedalling on the Interstate shoulder: Wide. Smooth. Straight. Direct. Beats walking.
Downside: Very noisy (cars, trucks). Hotter than ambient air temperature because of engine heat. Kinda boring. Flat tire potential (You can't see them with your eyes, but they are everywhere on the pavement -- small, stiff, 1 cm, 1/8 in. long wire fragments left over from years of blown out tire shrapnel. They assault us for our entire trip, resulting in over 20 punctured tubes needing changing and repairing.)
Though it doesn't look like in it in the photo, this entire trip today is essentially uphill. In 3 hours and 10 minutes of pedalling time today, we will climb 1,800 ft (548 meters).
How's this for a total opposite of I-40?
Awesome historicalness. A very very very old segment of Route 66. So old hardly any trace of pavement remains. A road seldom used. Actually goes nowhere. A problem for us to deal with eventually.
These constitute magical moments on Route 66. Time Machine Moments. On this vanishing road weaving among aging pines on the edge of the Colorado Plateau High Desert you can almost see and hear the Joad Family ("Grapes of Wrath") rambling by.
While dreaming about the Joad Family, I nearly ran over this forest creature. You've heard about the Arizona Diamond Backs? They manifest as more than just a baseball team. This guy chills in his sun bathing. Decent camouflage. Rather stick like appearance.
Coming around the corner of the old road, I see this. I figure Bro Mark has either been bit by the snake and now dies, or he rests. He rests. (It would have been a major pain to haul him out of here.)
I rest too. Plenty warm today. Temps in high 80'sF and low 90'sF (low 30'sC and up).
Our old scenic road abruptly cut off by rusty barbed wire fence. Purpose of the fence: keep all the people (not) wandering through remote forest from accidentally walking onto the Interstate to become roadkill statistics. Fence also makes difficult bicycle travel.
We proceed to do the first of what immediately becomes my most unfavourite trip experiences -- unloading all the stuff off the bikes, then one of us climbs over or under or through the deadly tetanus barrier, so the brother on other side of fence can lift over fence all the gear and each bike. O Joy. What fun.
Back pedalling on the Interstate. Nice place Williams. One of the few towns encountered (among the many ghost towns we crept through) on Route 66 successfully capitalizing (A Great American Tradition) on the rich heritage of 66.
Williams serves as starting point for an amazing train ride on the Grand Canyon Railway, taking visitors to the big chasm. An day long adventure well worth the investment.
Riding an original 1930 Pullman Car with people you love makes for a great memory. (Offsprings Sky and Luke, and I, did the trip two days before this bike ride.)
Four hours later, pedalling 3 hours and 10 minutes, we arrive in Williams. We look a little more "exercised" do we not?
Time to refuel with cheeseburgers, essential side dishes, and fluids.
I love the way we eat on bike rides! Burning between 4,000 to 6,000 calories a day enables such guilt free feasting :-)
Mark's backside as he takes a photo of our eating establishment.
Home for the night. Simple. Clean. Relatively inexpensive. Doesn't really matter how bad the mattresses might be. We sleep like logs in a state of seniorly exhaustion.
We unpack and repack every day. Just the way fitting everything in the bags and on the bikes goes.
So ends Day 1 of our Adventure. We pedalled 28.9 km (18 mi). All uphill. Except for a little brief dip down on the Interstate that propelled us briefly for a few moments to a speed of 42.7 kph (26.5 mph). We averaged a speed of 8.8 kph (5.5 mph). Rather slow. Even for old guys. But gravity proves difficult to overcome no matter where we ride.
Day 2 Williams, Arizona, through Flagstaff, to Twin Arrows Navajo Casino, May 13, 2016
Forget the Interstate Pavement (mostly) today! We ride on vintage Route 66.
We both ride different types of bikes this trip. Left our skinny tire Road Bikes home. We ride Cyclocross Bikes. A blend of Road Bike (similar, but shorter frames with standard ram horn handlebars), Hybrid Bike (forget those high pressure skinny tires jarring bones and bruising butts), and Mountain bike (Gotta love the insanely low and wonderful gears which allowed me to climb 1,800 ft yesterday without knee failure or heart attack!!).
Cyclocrosses make great touring bikes. Stronger frames (for carrying heavy riders and heavier equipment loads). Wider tires for stability and impact absorbing and better traction). Lower gearing (for old guys).
Means bumpy road and lose gravel isn't a real problem for us.
Oh boy. Another fence across the road. (Good there's no audio recording.)
When not pedalling along old narrow road bordered by tall Pines, we experience typical High Desert scenery.
Ground hogs. Or is it Ground Squirrels? Whatever. Camera avoidant creatures.
Occasionally we encounter signage on active segments of Route 66. These signs affirm we are not lost. Notice I wear Super Hero leggings and arm warmers. Mornings cool at 6,000 ft (about 1,800 meters) elevations. By noon days get plenty warm.
Vintage Route 66 gas station refurbished and modified as a Cafe. Still functioning as a gas station. Impressive. Parks, AZ, I believe.
Old stretch of Route 66. Concrete. Not asphalt. Probably from the 1920's or 30's. Amazingly good condition.
Our Twin Arrows Navajo Casino room. The most luxurious place we stay on trip. Possibly on any trip. But here's a funny thing. With all these opulence, they didn't have washers and dyers for guests. You pay to have your clothes dry cleaned. We didn't.
Our longest day ride on this trip. About 60 miles (100 km).
Important Note To Reader: On Day 2 we rode through beautiful city of Flagstaff. You'll see photo of Flagstaff later in the blog. I had difficulty with photos captured and stored on three different devices. I'm not taking the laborious time to rearrange and place them in chronological order. You reader, are worth that effort. I just need to get this done today so I can attend to other matters in my life. So in the name of expediency, I ask your forgiveness for this journalistic failure. Thanks.
Day 3 Twin Arrows to Winslow, AZ. May 14, 2016.
After a long ride along the shoulder of Interstate 40, we arrive at the gateway to Meteor Crater. (More chronologically challenged pictures of the Crater coming.)
Arrived in Winslow later in the day. Finally we find a place to wash our very odorous clothes.
If you were young in the late 60's and early 70's, you know the song. That's a statue of the recently deceased Glen Frey of the Eagles who co-wrote the song "Take It Easy" with (one of my all time favourite singer-songwriters, Jackson Browne. I actually checked off a bucket list item only 3 days ago when I saw and heard Jackson in concert in Prescott, AZ. He sang this song as his encore. He really didn't have any choice did he? This song could qualify as Arizona's state anthem. In Phoenix,"Take Me Out To the Ball Game" is the State Anthem).
Glen Frey and Brother Mark.
Notice "there's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowing down to take a look at me," reflected in the window?
The musically significant corner awash in the nostalgia of Route 66.
And here it is again. Just because we can.
Several hours down the road from Williams, the day before, we found ourselves looking at this preserved train in Flagstaff, AZ
Following this modern bike path in Flagstaff we find ourselves on a preserved segment of Route 66. "Keeping the Legend Alive."
If you were a small child in the late 1950's and early 1960's travelling to Texas to see the Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles and Cousins almost every summer as brother Mark and I were, you would have seen and remembered this iconic Twin Arrows "trading post" in all its glory. Not much left of it now. Emptied. Fenced in. Falling apart. Back then there was no Interstate 40. Just a two lane lonely Route 66 weaving through the desert.
I take pictures of these places because I doubt very seriously they will be around for much longer.
Welcome to the new Twin Arrows. A significant upgrade. You'll see. (We stayed here last night.)
Even modern attempts to sustain business along the Interstate struggle with the "let's not stop and just get where we are going" mentality of modern transportation systems.
More high desert riding. A very nice change from the non-stop lower desert we have pedalled along on previous Route 66 trips all the way from Los Angeles to Ash Fork, AZ.
Mt San Francisco. Highest elevation in Arizona. Geographical landmark for city of Flagstaff at its base.
More really old Route 66.
I love seeing these really old places along the way.
Homesteader's cabin? I think someone still lives in it.
Vintage station.
Check out the old pump.
Bro Mark getting some kicks (or jolts) on old Route 66.
I truly hope you enjoy the nostalgia of old pavement as much as I do.
Oh poop. Another fence across the road. Come on, man. Lift that load!
Bro Mark illegally trespassing from the old Route to the Interstate.
If you pee on the ground here, some of the pee flows east. And the rest flows west. It guess the Arizona Highway Dept just wants you to know that. We didn't test the theory today. Even better to know: Remainder of our ride through Flagstaff to Twin Arrows all downhill.
From yesterday: Almost to Flagstaff. Enjoying what will be the beginning of a long downhill pleasure.
Flagstaff train station. Still in use. In fact, we ride back here on the Amtrak train in the near future,
This is not the train we will ride on. Wish it were.
A old section of Route 66 preserved as part of a bike path in Flagstaff.
On the east side of Flagstaff we discover an old Route 66 bridge. This bridge protected as a historical site.
Another view of the now defunct iconic Twin Arrows trading post. (Near the new Twin Arrows Casino we stay at.)
Old Twin Arrows
Twin Arrows
Introducing the NEW Twin Arrows
A beautiful room to park our bikes in.
Interestingly, we appeared to be the only people to park our bikes in the lobby.
Another once Route 66 attraction. Appears to have been a zoo of some kind.
Vague memories of this as a child.
How does Bro Mark keep finding these ancient stretches of old Route 66? Pretty sure they're not on the map. But then again, this beats changing flat tires on the Interstate multiple times per day.
Cruising along singing my song. Probably a rendition of Gene Autry's "Back In the Saddle Again."
Meteor Crater. One of the best preserved meteor impact sites in the world. Well worth a visit if you are in the Winslow, AZ area.
The largest meteor rock excavated from the site. A true piece of Outer Space.
Determined tree rooted and grounded in the rock.
In our travels eastward across the desert it is in this area that we encounter our first sightings of weather shaped sandstone.
Another out of business roadside attraction.
Bro Mark back on the Interstate doing what he does best -- replacing punctured tubes. At the end of each day we always had entertainment awaiting us -- patching all the tubes punctured during the day so we could use them again tomorrow. I think we each carried 6 or 7 tubes. All got used. And patched. Multiple times.
Our motel in Winslow, I think. They all start looking alike.
End of Day 3 (Twin Arrows to Winslow).
Very old building in Winslow, AZ. Now a "mission" church.
Doesn't this Winslow building scream "history!"?
Old Winslow church.
La Posado Hotel in Winslow. A beautiful preserved and still commercially successful hotel in Winslow. Harvey Houses provided high class accommodations all along the trans America railroad line before automobile travel was affordable and practical. Most of these amazing structures fell to ruin when the automobile relegated the trains to mostly freight transport. But several have been reclaimed and restored by their communities and are museums and restaurants. Pieces of living history once again. Check one out if you ever can.
Sign identifying this segment of Route 66 as formerly the Beale Wagon Road. Before Route 66 and before the railroad, this was one of the oldest land crossings in America. Even the Beale Road, however, mostly followed ancient Native paths.
Frequent train movement along Route 66 seldom out of sound or sight. In some areas trains pass by every 15 or 30 minutes. Huge amount of freight continues travel by train.
A major historical Route 66 establishment. Bro Mark and I were here when we were about 8 years old.
I fit better when I was 8 years old.
Welcome to the Jack Rabbit Trading Post. This young lady's grandparents operated the store when Mark and I were here as children. A great place for real local souvenirs and refreshments. Once a priority traveler's haven, now largely missed by the speed of the Interstate.
Closed down and fenced in. It appears that many of these places have gone out of business more recently. If you google Route 66 you'll read all about the Renaissance of the Mother Road. While there are certainly a few examples of that, honestly, we have yet to see such renewal as a confident trend. I get the feeling that I am watching history fade.
Once a large motel on 66 Pre-Interstate days, this motel has been converted into a storage facility.
That biker you see in the photo is a criminal. He is about the break the law, and drag his little brother into corruption. He made me lift my bike over the fence and follow him. (He had the only trip map.) A security guard from the nearby electric power generation plant firmly but politely escorted us back to this gate and away from our short but dangerous life of trespasses and transgression. (Be it noted that Bro Mark has been getting into trouble on a regular basis since I was born. What O what is a guy to do??)
You can sleep in a Tee Pee if you want, with your own classic car parked outside for ambiance. We didn't.
Looking out from our very inexpensive motel in Holbrook. The water in the tub never did shut off the entire time we were there. We arrived mid afternoon. We immediately unloaded the heavy packs off our bikes and rode back into town to see movie Captain American: Civil War. Some things guys just got to do.
Old Road. Old Bridge.
Very old Route 66. Very sandy Route 66. An exercise called "Walking Your Bike Across the American Southwest Desert." Not recommended for the sane or faint of heart.
Notice the smooth pavement of the Interstate on the left side of photo.
This is NOT called "Taking the Path of Least Resistance."
This might, with a good imagination, be called an exercise in character development or some kind of equally stupid corporate team building training event.
A sign in the desert.
More signs in the desert.
An old bridge on Route 66.
Not recommended for vehicles of any size.
Tee Pees and dinosaurs. Now the dinosaurs actually make sense. They did live around here. Their fossilized bones scattered throughout the region. But the Tee Pees, not so much. The Natives were and still are here. This area contains the largest concentration of Navajos (and Hopi and Zuni) in the world. But Navajos didn't use Tee Pees. TPs were used by Natives on the American Plains, still a long distance East of here. The Tee Pee however, we are told, is a very effective marketing tool.
I'm not in the photo because I am either taking it, or already in search of the Sparkling Washrooms. (It's a Senior Thing.)
So is drinking Dr Pepper. (Product placement moment)
Another senior drinking Dr Pepper.
Someone scared this piece of wood really bad, and it got petrified.
Something really scary must have happened around here because there is a lot of petrified wood all over the place.
Brother Criminal at it again! "Let's lift our bikes over the Interstate guard rail, climb up this steep bank of concrete with lose gravel on it while pushing our bikes, and then get on the overpass road and we can save several miles of travel and not have to pay to get into the Painted Desert National Park." (What kind of deranged Tourist Guidebook does this guy read anyway?!?!) Woe is me. I was such a nice boy before I started hanging around with this guy.
Let's hope the Arizona authorities do not monitor this blog. Bro Mark will have a hard time explaining this photo to the Judge and Jury, eh?
A cool monument to Route 66 (I see before I probably go to Prison), which once crossed through the Painted Desert.
The only remains of Route 66 in this area consist of these telephone/power lines once running along side it.
A rare photo of the Dynamic Duo, thanks to a fellow tourist.
One is not overwhelmed by shade trees in these parts. Another biker view on the Interstate.
Really? Ya think? How could that possibly be?
Very likely.
Late in the afternoon now. We're eating subs at this travel center off the Interstate.
Bro Mark desperately trying to keep tire inflated until we get to our motel somewhere down the road. We have run out of tubes that don't have holes in them.
On and on and on we go.
Don't think we'll stay here.
But this will do. Chambers, AZ.
The Master at Work, plotting our path for the next day.
We didn't stay here either.
It's a long long trail a-winding.........
Welcome to New Mexico!
Notice darkening clouds in the background. They become a very important part of our story on this day.
Another not so vibrant tourist attraction.
A more vibrant tourist attraction.
Not real. Just real art. Life size. On the mountain side.
See the two bike riders at the base of the sign. They are cheating. They are waiting for the van that follows them and picks them up whenever they are tired or want to stop for the day. Really now. What is happening to the purity of Bicycle Touring?
We are on an old but good section of Route 66, about 2 hours west of our day's destination of Gallup, New Mexico. See the clouds. They are getting darker and lower. And there are more of them that you can't see to the right of the photo. And at 6,400 ft above sea level, the temperature is dropping rapidly on the much cooler side of the thermometer.
No photo to show what happens next. Temperature dropped. Rain poured down. And down. And down. No place for us to get out of it. No homes. No stores. No nothing to get under.
So we had no choice to but to ride on. We have rain gear. But not enough to keep us dry and warm under these conditions. For the next hour and a half I pedalled on. Teeth chattering. Hands turning blue. No joke. Losing feeling in my feet and hands. Whenever I shifted gears or gripped the brake, I felt something like an electrical shock through my hands. I started feeling dizzy and distant to myself. Kind of an out of body experience. I started counting my breath intakes ten breaths at a time. Just helped me concentrate. I kept an eye on my heart rate monitor and made sure I kept my heart beating in the above 90 beats per minute range. I was wondering if a person could get hypothermia if they had such an elevated heart rate? (I still don't know the answer to that question.)
Could this be the Purity of Bicycle Touring? Yuck.
Eventually we reached our motel in Gallup. After showers to thaw out, we ate supper and called it a day. I went to bed feeling relatively good.
But I woke up the next morning with a major sinus infection. I've never come down with one that quickly before. But I had been sick for a couple of weeks about one week before we started this trip. I thought I had recovered. Maybe I had. But my immune system apparently couldn't deal with our two hour freezing in the rain ride.
I went to a clinic near our motel. Got diagnosed and prescribed antibiotics. Here was our plan: We would readjust our ride to give us a rest day. I'd take my pills and drink my fluids and rest and rest and then see how I felt tomorrow. If I felt I could ride. We would continue. If not, we'd catch the Amtrak back to Flagstaff (not too far from Bro Mark's home in Prescott).
I woke up the next morning feeling a little worse. So we aborted our trip. Bro Mark is a most understanding and flexible travelling buddy.
Here's our westbound train pulling into the Gallup Station.
We sat in the nice Observation Car with its spacious seats and large windows for our 3 hour trip to Flagstaff.
As the sun sat before us, we reviewed our journey:
Six days of pedalling. Distance of 445 km (275 mi) in a total of 30 hours of pedalling (seat time).
Ash Fork to Williams: 28.9 km (18 mi) in three hours of pedalling.
Williams to Twin Arrows: 99.1 km (61 mi) in six hours of pedalling.
Twin Arrows to Winslow: 77.7 km (47.7 mi) in six and a half hours of pedalling.
Winslow to Holbrook: 70.8 km (43.9 mi) in four and a half hours of pedalling.
Holbrook to Chambers 79.6 km (49.3mi) in five hours of pedalling.
Chambers to Gallup 79 km (49 mi) in five hours of pedalling.
And now to (kind of) answer your big question: "What will your next ride be?"
The answer still being deliberated. At present however, we are leaning towards saving a lot of lunch money between now and Spring of 2018 and finishing the entire remaining distance of Route 66 from Gallup, New Mexico to Chicago, Illinois in one supersized 30 day long bike ride. My butt gets sore just thinking about it. But awesome it would be.
For updates and announcements please follow this blog and/or follow us on our Facebook page Shelley Brothers Cycling Adventures.
Thanks for reading this blog and cheering us along.
