Starting from El Rancho Hotel in Gallup, New Mexico, the distance that we've covered so far is 1829 miles.
Today it's breakfast at the hotel at 6.30, and the usual load up at 8, ready to roll at 8.30
below: Ced tries the Goldwing trike for size - it seems to fit him ok
At the end of today's briefing, Gary introduced us to Bob 'Crocodile' Lile, a Route 66 artist fr. Amarillo, who wished us all well.
Today we start by riding Route 66 across town, where it's the main street, and fill up with gas, then we get on the Interstate which takes us to the national park which is the Painted Desert & Petrified Forest.
This park is a 28 mile scenic run with many stopping places and viewpoints. Before we enter we have a quick briefing from Gary explains what we'll be doing (we'll be 'set loose' to go at our own pace, rendezvousing at the other end at 11.00), and gives us some warnings (respect the speed limits as they are strictly enforced with plain clothes vehicles) and (don't remove anything from the park as it's a criminal offence, what they call a 'felony'). Right: Gary explains the way...
At this time we set our clocks back 1 hour as we're now in the state of Arizona (AZ).
We enter the park through the North entrance, and pay $5 (each) for a ticket - we keep the ticket as Gary'll reimburse us later).
It was a pleasant and relaxed ride through the park, where the speed limit is 45 MPH, and we all meet up at the visitors centre for coffee. Everybody was there by 11 but the truck did suffer from a nail in the tyre, but that didn't delay us.
We take Route 66 on to the town of Holbrook, and stop at the famous Wigwam Motel there (this hotel is the inspiration for the 'Cozy Cone Motel' in the movie 'Cars'). # photos to add #
Todays lunch stop is about 90 minutes and is at the old 'Falcon' diner in Winslow, AZ, Mrs. K and I share a sandwich and fries.
Staying in Winslow we move on and stop at the designated corner as "Standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona, such a fine sight to see..." , from the Lyrics of the song 'Take It Easy' by the Eagles. Many photos are taken, and a visit to the gift shop there to get our 'Standing On A Corner' T-Shirts.
below; Taking it Easy...
I take the opportunity to get some more cash from the ATM, emptying the FairFx card and taking another 100$ on the Zero card.
Next up, across town for our second fuel stop of the day.
Our final stop is about 25 miles from the hotel for the night. It was gonna be the local Harley dealership, but as they close at 4 on Sundays, and it's past that, Gary takes us to Bellemont, a location used in the filming of the 1969 movie 'Easyrider' - the bit where Billy & Wyatt (Dennis Hopper & Peter Fonda) show up and the motel sign changes from 'Vacancies' to 'No Vacancies' when the owner see that they are bikers. link
While here we take some photos, and also make use of this closed section of Route 66 to take some stills and videos of us riding down the road. #photos to add #
While we're stopped a freight train goes past, but what a train - hauled by 4 locomotives at the front, then about 250 wagons, and 2 more locomotives bringing up the rear. Yesterday, and especially today we've seen quite a few of these massive freight trains while riding, and often the driver obliges with a few blasts of the locos hooter. #vid. clip#
From here we take interstate-40 into Williams, and our hotel for the next two nights. On this bit of road we see the first road sign for Los Angeles 495 miles. Williams was the last town (1984) on the old Route 66 to be bypassed by the Interstate. Williams is also known as the 'Gateway to the Grand Canyon', where we'll be taking a day trip to tomorrow.
At the Williams Holiday Inn, we park up under the canopy at the main entrance to the hotel, unload, debrief, collect our room keys from Gary, and go freshen up. It's good timing again today, (arriving at 17:40) - but then we did move back an hour so that helped. Mileage today: 245, Trip miles so far: 2074
Tonight in the hotel bar, Gary will be showing the movies 'Wild Hogs'
jump to: Day 12 Day 10
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