The Long Way Home: 07/31/15

Friday, July 31, 2015

The Long Way Home - Day 32 - Good Gates, Bad Gates

Friday, July 31st

Today's plan takes us from Seligman on Route-66, to Wikieup, Arizona.

Leaving Seligman, we got a chance to snap photos of some of the cool shops and buildings on Route-66, like this diner:

Soon after leaving Seligman, we came across this guy. He's just a young one at about 2' or a bit more. We didn't try to pick this rattlesnake up. Crikey!

From here, we headed up into some higher ground for some fun forest trails.

I locked up both brakes when I caught a glimpse of this in my peripheral vision: The perfect tree that we have all modeled our elementary school drawings after. It really does exist!

The gate story continues from yesterday and we found that there are good gates and bad gates (just like Wizard of Oz's witches). This is a bad gate, it's all about big chains, locks, and NO, NO, NO. We came up to this gate from the inside and had to disassemble and then reassemble part of the fence to get out.

This is a good gate. It was unlocked and it used words like Welcome, Please, and Thank You. YOLO (You Only Live Once) Ranch rocks!

After working our way through the maze of good gates and bad gates, we dropped down out of the highlands into Bagdad and had some lunch at a diner. -yes, there is a Bagdad, Arizona.

We even got to park next to an FJ40 Landcruiser

After lunch we were at a lower elevation and it was starting to get really hot. When I say really hot, I mean maybe the hottest weather I've ever been in. I was so thankful that our bikes ran perfectly because if we had to stop, I'd seriously worry about our safety. It was so hot we had to limit our speed to avoid the hot air from penetrating our helmets and jackets but we had to keep moving to have some airflow. I found that if I opened my mouth, it would dry out in seconds, and the first water out of my Camel Back hose was almost too hot to drink. When we heard it was 110 today, it explained a lot. Crazy hot.

I had to stop briefly to take a photo with this Saguaro cactus. There were hundreds of these around here.

Just before our destination, we came across this little town of Nothing. I think they should really work on their self-esteem. You can have All (mart) or Nothing - looks like they chose nothing.

When we arrived at our hotel in Wikieup, we threw our reins over the hitching post, hung up our spurs, and went to dinner at the Trading Post Diner.

Tomorrow's plan takes us to Blythe, California!

Thank you for following us.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

The Long Way Home - Day 31 - Canyon Stop

Thursday, July 30th

Today's plan takes us from Tuba City, past the Grand Canyon, to Seligman, Arizona.

The ride from Tuba City to the Grand Canyon went just as planned. Much of the roads approaching the park and inside the park were paved with no dirt options but we did include the few dirt roads that the park had to offer.

What can I say about the Grand Canyon: Everyone knows it's spectacular.

We even got a glimpse of the Karate Kid

It was a bit hazy today, so the photos don't show the detail as well, but in person, it was as awesome as ever!

I think we've been on the road too long because the crowds at the Canyon were starting to bother us and we got anxious to leave, so we hopped on another of the dirt roads inside the park and headed south. Eventually, we were riding through wide open prairie land and making good time (no more pesky people!).

But sometimes, these remote roads we ride on don't go through as planned: We were on a great pace with only 30 miles to Seligman and we were confident we would arrive around 3:30 pm. First we came up to one of our roads that was completely grown over with waist high sticker bushes. We've pushed our way through some roads like this but this was completely taken back by nature and we could only discern the very start of the road, then it completely disappeared. We could see other roads in the area to route around on so we started down another trail. However, we eventually hit a very well secured gate and couldn't get through. This continued for hours. At one point we tried to just head off cross-country to see if we could meet up with a road 3 miles away but we were thwarted about 2 miles in by more fences.

When we finally gave up and routed around the extra long way, our last 30 miles turned into 120 miles and we rolled into Seligman around 8 pm. The good news is that our new route took us through 20 miles of Route-66 as we approached Seligman.

Route-66 is packed with these old businesses. Some of them are closed but many are still open, giving a very fun, nostalgic feel.

Tomorrow, our target is Wikieup, Arizona. It is really starting to feel like we are on our home turf and we are only one day away from the California border!

Thank you for following us.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?