I get my kicks on Route 66

I'm a bit out of sync here as I am aware that I haven't posted Death Valley yet... it will come!

I arrived at the south rim of the Grand Canyon around 4pm this afternoon, and I must confess first impression are not good and I haven’t even got into the park yet. First issue was another jobsworth hosts on a US Forestry camp ground that insisted that I couldn’t park my bike next to my tent. No, it had to be on the hard standing. The fact that the ground on which I was parked was completely devoid of any vegetation just didn't register with her. However at least she pointed me to a free camping area just up the road, where I now sit typing this! That is, now that I can hear myself think! Ever since I arrived there has been an endless stream of helicopters flying a circuit around the Grand Canyon and back to the airport right opposite my camping spot. At least they seem now to have stopped operations for the night, but I’m rather afraid that as with the Niagara Falls, commercial interests have just about killed the goose that laid the golden egg. If I wasn’t quite so close to the Southern Rim, to be absolutely honest I don’t think I would bother. Surely the beauty of such a place is awe and wonder, enhanced by the tranquillity. If your ears are being constantly assaulted by the deafening roar of the helicopters it must diminish if not completely destroy the experience, well, for me at least.

Sunset at my camp ground

Route 66 wasn't much better! I've actually only ridden a short section so far, from Kingman to Ash Fork, and even that stretch was chopped into one long piece and one tiny bit that wasn’t worth riding! I did find one little gem of a place, not long after leaving Kingman, Hackberry. All on its own by the roadside, with heaps of memorabilia and gifts, it was quite a little gem. Contrast that with Seligman, where the entire town was turned into a gaudy 66 fest of a place. I didn’t even bother to stop and it really made me realise how much I didn’t miss by riding the whole of the route.

If I’m sounding like Old Grumpy today, it’s hardly surprising considering my start to the day. I went down to McD’s to try to top-up my Post Office Travel Money card… it wouldn’t accept it. So I entered the details of my other NatWest card; it wouldn’t take that either. Both having got right through to the NatWest security screen at the end before bouncing out I don’t think I was too hasty in assuming that NatWest had put a block on the cards as I’d been away more than the allowed 90 days. Between being transferred from department to department and being put on hold for 15 minutes at a time, I was on the phone to them for over an hour before being eventually assured that their was no hold or any other problem with my cards. Thank God for Skype when you calling from 8000 miles away! So it was then a case of going through the same old rigmarole with The Post Office, who then inform me that “ Oh yes, some of our customers are experiencing problems topping up their cards, please try later” Why the £$&X hell can’t they put up a simple message to that effect on the web site and save those customers, me included, a whole head of stress?

Anyway I eventually left Kingman at about 10.30 after popping into Walmart to pick up food and also a new card reader for my CF card in the camera. It’s sooo much quicker that downloading directly from the camera and it doesn’t flatten the camera battery. It was another of those oh so long, and oh so straight, sort of road but the scenery kept me alert with plenty of photo stops, all the time I could see hills to either side of me. Just as I was beginning to think it strange how I wasn’t seeing much in the way of cattle on the grassland, I came across a couple of quite large herds on either side of the road Eventually Route 66 just sort of faded away, shortly after the ghastly Seligman, and I hit Interstate 40 heading east. But even that was not to be a smooth ride. As the song says “Sometimes you’re the windshield, Sometimes you’re the bug!, today I was definitely the bug… An overhead gantry sign flashed up a warning that there was a vehicle fire ahead; the only problem with that was that there simply wasn’t an alternative route to take. So along with probably a couple of hundred truckers I got well and truly stuck. There was only one thing for it… my little naughty up the hard shoulder again, a la Jasper! It worked a treat, by the time I had worked my way slowly to the front of the immense queue, it was starting to move; and oh brother, what a fire it had been, a complete 18 wheeler reduced to a pile of molten junk, plus a few thousand backed melons!!!.

Although I didn’t know it at the time, during my little foray along the hard shoulder I had passed an Aussie lady biker riding a rather nice (and very fast) BMW 1000RR. Coming off the Interstate at Williams for another tiny dose of 66, as I stopped for a photo she caught me up and also stopped. We moved off together with me taking the lead, when after about half a mile I spotted a rather nice ornamental Town sign across the road. As I slowed ready to stop for yet another photo, she stopped too. And so I got to meet yet another really nice Sue. She had flown in to Vancouver to visit her son, bought the bike in BC and set off on a little run around the US. We had a laugh about the bits of Route 66,exchanged blog details and took photos and moved off. I soon waved her through, as there was no way I was going to try to stick with this fast lady. I passed her once more when she stopped for fuel but then she overtook once more and was gone. Although I guess we may well bump into each other at the Canyon tomorrow… if I bother to go!