2026 route 66

 Today was an interesting day.  It was described as a bike and hike, which we did.  We rode on some OLD Route 66 pavement(?), ducked some barbed wire, went around a closed road sign (most if not all of this is legal).  It helped break up the stretches with strong cross winds.  We rode most of the cross wind section as a group of 4 which we did by each of us pulling for a mile at a time, and the other 3/4s of the time you were practically adjacent to the lead person enjoying the break from the wind. We rode through Seligman and Ash Fork and ended in Williams.  This was the first day where the temperature only very briefly got as warm as 70 and sank back to the low 50s when we were done.  We also got a little rain when we were cleaning off our bikes at the end of the day. Tomorrow is a rest day.  We are taking a train to the Grand Canyon.       I like that they are proud that they are the last town bypassed by I 40.  an interesti...

 Well, we made it out of California.  We crossed the Colorado River and entered Arizona.  We had 10 miles of flat road (with a headwind) followed by a 17 mile climb. It seemed like the rest of the ride was still uphill, as you can see from the profile at the bottom of route below. When it wasn't a headwind, it was a cross wind.  Although it was about 1/2 as long as yesterday, it seemed like a harder ride.     There was a sign that said donkeys in road next 8 miles, and on cue there was one in the road.         It seems that this is biker week or something in Arizona (not the pedal kind -- think more like Sturgis).  We saw and were passed by a number of bikers and the town of Oakman was decked out for them.  It was like an old western town with bikes all over the place and every store had signs welcoming them.     Here are some other photos from today... they include some road signs, some scenery inc...

 Today's route took us from Ludlow CA to Needles.  It was very nice -- a tailwind and downhill for most of it.  Once again, very nice weather. If you are curious about who is leading the tour, his name is Lon Haldeman.  Here is a link to his wikipedia web page.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Haldeman . One of the many interesting notes is that he was the first person to ride across country in under 10 days by bike.  When I started work, Bell Labs gave us 10 days to drive across the country...  We saw many freight trains, and managed to get caught for 2 of them at railroad crossings.  Many of the train cars had very good graffiti.  It is tough getting pictures of them when they go by at 30+ miles an hour.   The ride did have its share of adventures such as the support trailer got stuck in the sand at the first rest stop.  They managed to get it unstuck by borrowing a tow rope from a nearby construction crew.  There were...