Day 7 Rest Day in Seligman, AZ

Seligman, AZ is a wonderful little town on historic Route 66 to spend sometime in and soak up all the nestalgia you can hold. We decided to hold up and take a rest day here because a rain storm blew in, and it coincided with us needing a rest after a week on the road. We ate, slept, and wondered around to pass the time and refresh ourselves. We stayed at the Canyon Lodge and we can't say enough about how clean and well kept this little gem is. We were treated well and they even locked our bikes in their storage room. 

Day 6 Kingsman to Seligman April 7, 2016

Thomas from Germany

Day 6 was uneventful, but we saw some interesting sites and we met some interesting people and animals.  

We got started about 9AM and immediately encountered a barking dog charging from his yard.  I rode ahead and Mark got off his bike and confronted him.  Since dogs like to chase moving people the dog became confused and ran back to his yard.

Later at the top of a Hill next to Hackberry we stopped for water, met 2 motor bikers from George and Denmark.  After a cool drink we were visited by Thomas Jurs from Germany who had been riding from New York and was headed to the west coast and eventually San Francisco where he had friends.  

Carol modeling a DeSoto

Then, we passed a turtle rock.  This must be someones art work.

Riding on in the high desert we discovered more animal life

Beautiful wild horses

A deer, every state has a deer

The rest of the ride was nice enjoying the cooler weather of the high desert and riding up to 5,242 feet.

Day 5 Needles to Kingman April 6, 2016

Goodbye Needles

Day 5 was supposed to be an easy 50 to 60 mile day, but:

It was going to be so easy so we left Needles at 11AM. We rode about 7 miles and came upon a wild fire burning out of control.  We decided to go through the smoke and continue on our way.  Our way was blocked by CHP and were permitted to ride along the freeway (Rt 40).

Stopped at Topak

We entered Arizona, crossed the Colorado River and tried to get back onto Rt 66.  It was blocked. We did not get permission, but we decided to get back onto Rt 40 to ride all the way to Kingman.  We pedaled in the 105 degree heat the additional miles with a headwind free of charge (as Mark put it).  We got to the hotel after dark again at 9PM.

Entering Arizona, a big deal

Crossing the Corado River

Nice sign, no motel

Day 4 Ludlow to Needles April 5, 2016

glad to leave this flea bag

We were up early at sunrise to embark on 111 miles to Needles and the Mojave heat. We gladly left the motel that we had to clean before doing anything in the rooms.  The road was long and the temperature hit 103.  We stopped at the Amboy Crater and at Roy’ gas station with it gun carrying manager in Amboy.

great Root 66 Beer here.

As we rode we were happy to stop to see abandoned eateries and gas stations.  The stops helped us endure the temperature. 

We met a very pretty Russian lady named Ana who was out for a photo shoot. She graciously agreed to have her photo taken with me.  Mark came up and I gestured to him to join the shoot. 

It is amazing who you can meet in the middle of nowhere

Moving on we met David Hicks who was finishing a route 66 ride he started last year and did not get to finish.  We chatted and cheered him on to Santa Monica.

On and on in the hot desert heat.  Here is Terry riding that long and lonely pocked road.

We finished the ride after sundown, but decided we had kicked the Mojave’s butt (it had kicked ours a bit as well).  Mark and I agreed that the desert is brutal, but as we finished our ride we agreed that it was a beautiful place especially at sundown.

Day 3 Barstow CA to Ludlow CA

Cancer Patient Story

This morning while we were eating breakfast at the hotel a woman named Jamie came in to the dining area and struck up a conversation with us. Jamie noticed we had our cycling clothes on and was interested in what we were doing. She was with her mother who has late stage Pancreatic Cancer and was driving her mother to Arizona so she could visit where she had grown up one last time. They dubbed their trip "Driving Miss Dixie".  Jamie's story made it very clear why we are   raising funds through our bicycle trip for the Lazarex Cancer Foundation, in Danville, California.

Lazarex Cancer Foundation supports late stage cancer patients by helping them locate clinical cancer trials, provide them with transportation, food, and lodging and erasing the barriers that prevent cancer patients from participating in clinical trials.

                                                Donate To Lazarex Cancer Foundation 

Day 3:

We woke up to blue skies and rode with tail winds all day. This was such a nice gift from the weather gods and made our day go fast despite the bad road conditions. These conditions make us very thankful for our heavy touring bikes with larger tires to absorb the punishment. It's a shame that the state and counties don't take better care of them.

It never fails on a long cross country ride that we don't have odd moments. Our odd moment today was a woman in the middle of the desert far away from any town in an evening gown. Anna is a Russian woman who was accompanied by a photographer for a photo shoot of historical places. She was from Los Angeles and was doing the shoot for something in Russia. It was a moment we will not soon forget. 

We also met a gentleman who stop by to chat with us about our trip. He was a Herpetologist and was out monitoring the snake population in the desert. He was very knowledgeable about the area, and roads. He warned us not to walk out into the desert because Mohave Sidewinder rattle snakes are out there and are the same color as the sand. We assured him that we will just be on the rough road. He was a bit of a character and talked about his training the military on shooting out in the desert. We aren't sure how much of that to believe wholeheartedly. 

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Day 2 Fontana to Barstow

THE MOTHER ROAD

                                                 Donate To Lazarex Cancer Foundation 

The day began with a little breakfast at the hotel.  We were on our way at 9AM with a nice warm sunny day ahead.

We knew we had some elevation to climb today and were riding well. We missed a turn about 8 miles in but got back on track to ride toward the mountains.  We noticed a 3% grade which kept our speed down a bit, but no worries.  We had all day.  We stopped at a little store in Devor to get something cold and wait for Carol to catch up.



We were concerned that the road just above us had been closed due to a landslide. Carol arrived and Mark and her drove ahead to make sure the road was open.  I stayed back to watch the bikes  They came back about 20 minutes later to confirm that the road was open.  We continued.



We followed El Cajon to where we were required to enter Rt 15 to travel to the Rt 168 exit where we ran into massive amounts of road construction.  The shoulder of the road had been closed with concrete barricades.  We rode for awhile finally deciding it was way too dangerous.  We moved over to the gravel road being constructed.  It was fine, but about 4 miles in we ran out of road that would require us to return to the main road that had lots of traffic.  Before we ran out of rode a gentleman had stopped in his pickup truck to offer us a ride past the construction.  We declined, but later wished we had taken his offer.



A decision had to be made.  It was 4PM, the road was extremely dangerous.  We were 45 miles from our destination  We called Carol to pick us up.  It was a wise choice as it would have taken us about 5 hours to get to the hotel.  And for safety reasons we sagged in.  As we drove along that scary route we saw a camper who had apparently crashed into a truck and crashed over the side of the road.  we would have had to somehow pass by that mess.

Let's just say that it was a good day  We traveled as much as possible on Rt 66.  The weather was good.  And we were able to see some pretty country in the San Bernadino National Forest.

  
                                           Donate To Lazarex Cancer Foundation 

Day 1 Santa Monica to Fontana

Our day began at the end of the trail (Route 66). It could not have been a more spectacular day for a ride across the Los Angeles region. It was hard to believe that this day actually arrived after many months of planning.

Our route took us east to Fontana 79 miles to the east. It was a long day of LA traffic, stop signs, and traffic signals. We made it without incident reaching Fontana at 9pm. We rode through well kept neighborhoods, and some lessor kept neighborhoods, some lively ethnic sections of East LA. We had a taste of Hollywood, and Beverly Hills.



We passed a couple of gentlemen riding the Southern Tier bicycle route to Austin, Texas. Another motorist pulled his car to the side of the road east of Monrovia, and offered us bananas and soda. He was interested in where we were going and wished us a safe ride.

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