I had slept well at the Hampton Inn in Kayenta, NM and when I looked out the window there was no blowing sand, but I could tell from the trees that there was still a pretty good wind blowing. I got ready slowly waiting for the temperature to raise a few degrees. When I went for a walk around the building, the wind was much stronger than I thought and little white things began floating by. IT WAS SNOWING!


I went back to the room to make up a plan. I had two choices: 1) slog my way in 20 mph winds up to Monument Valley, a beautiful place, but something I had seen before, and it would take about 3 hours or 2) head eastbound and use the 20 mph wind to push me along. I chose the later and headed east on AZ 160. I wanted away from the snow and a tailwind is always better. I really wanted to take Scoot to the Valley, but it was not to be. Here are pictures of snow in the mountains and a some of the monuments in Monument Valley.

As I rode along all morning on the left side of the road was snow and overcast. On the right, crystal blue skies.

In Teec Nos Pos US-64 begins. If I stayed on this road it would take me to my Mom and Dad's house in North Carolina and on down to the Atlantic Coast.

About 30 minutes out of Farmington, NM the overcast caught me and it got real cold. I pulled into AJ's Diner and parked out front. When I walked in you would have thought I had lived there all my life. Almost everyone spoke and the waitresses came over and we immediately started talking about my ride and they knew I was cold and bought coffee. I lingered for a long time warming up and feeling right at home. Everyone that came in Barbie, my waitress, and the other waitress, told them I had ridden across country. Barbie came out to say good bye and Scoot and I headed out of town.

For the next hundred miles or so, again there was nothing but beautiful vistas. The skies had also cleared and though it was cold, it was a lot better than when the clouds had caught up to me. There was very little traffic in my direction but in the opposite direction there was a constant flow of large trucks and dozens of white pickup trucks. This is gas and oil country and I think most of them were related to this business. I later learned the traffic was because of a wreck that had closed the road for 4 hours.

We entered the Apache reservation and eventually rolled into Dolce. It has nothing but a few small casinos and the headquarters for the Apache reservation. It is in the middle of nowhere but a very lovely location. I just cannot figure out where the people come from to gamble.

I stopped at the continental divide at over 7,000 feet. This area is in the high plains with lots of green in the valleys.

I pulled into the visitors center in Chama to inquire about accommodations. The girl there told me that there were several in town, but if I went across the street to the hotel I could walk to the restaurant. I decided that was a good idea, but first I would ride into the town to see if anything was there. I was pleasantly surprised to find a small down town area with old restored buildings. The main attraction is a restored small gauge railroad that runs up to Colorado and back over a 6 hour period. The place felt good so I checked into the Chama Inn for the evening.

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We waited around until after 8 AM  for it to warm up.  Had breakfast coffee with an Australian couple who had come over for 2 weeks for a wedding. Their economy is doing great as unemployment is under 5% again and mortgage rates are on the way up.

Paid our $12 to Toll Troll and headed out east on AZ 64.  First overlook we met some long distance riders, too. Mark is from Myrtle Beach, SC and riding a Harley..  His riding partner is much prettier than mine. Her name is Ann from Sweden, though I believe she lives in SC, also.  She is riding Scoot's big cousin, a Ducoti, a fine Italian machine. Cruised on down the rim and took lots of pictures, but I will spare you the pain and just throw in a couple.

Riding in the park was fine as the high trees blocked the wind. Leaving the Park the large flag was standing straight out.  It is at half mast because a Park Service employee died on the job in Utah. The trees started to disappear and the wind picked up. The good news is that it was mostly a quartering cross or a tail wind. The bad part about going down hill is you have to go up hill.  The wind helped a lot today.  On US-89, a major north-south route, traffic was pretty busy, but thanks to the wind I could keep the speed up.

We turned on to US160 and headed for Kayenta, Az. and Monument Valley.  In Tuba City we saw some old Jag's and I pulled in.  This is a picture of Mark and his 1953 Jag.  We could not get a better picture as the winds were trying to push Scoot over.

Back on the road it was another wild ride.  Winds blowing 25 to 30 and gusting to 50.  Visibility was down to 1/4 mile with blowing sand.  There were some interesting pictures to be taken, but were missed as Scoot could not stand up on his own in the wind.

The plan had been to check into the hotel in Kayenta and then ride out to Monument Valley for the afternoon. After hours of sand blowing up my nose and holding on in the strong winds, the plan changed. New plan: stay upright until we get to the hotel and then go find some cold beer. Well, we did the first part, but we were informed that the reservation is dry. Well, it will be suitcase gin in the room.  I found a corner to hide Scoot out of the winds and retired to my room.

Scoot and me bolted out of Boulder City at the crack of dawn. We passed the last Casino and descended down to the Boulder Dam and began the climb up the Arizona side. One of the reasons for the early departure is that US93, on the south side of the dam, has 16 miles of mostly very narrow road with lots of construction and it is all uphill.  I wanted to get through that area before any traffic built up because there a only a couple of places to pull off for faster traffic.

We cleared the area with no traffic and hit the four lane.  We were running into 20 knots of head winds and as always, this slowed. us down.  We pulled into Rosie's at 6:30 for breakfast.  The place was pretty busy for this early in the morning. Most were locals and many were buying Powerball tickets.  One guy got $80 worth.  He should have invested $79 in beer and then he would just have just lost a dollar. The breakfast was excellent and large. I did not eat all of it. I asked AJ, the waitress, if I could take her picture and she agreed if I would send her a print.  That is the what she charges everyone.  Last year she got a picture that was taken by a Japanese tourist 15 years ago. This is a small friendly place and there was lots of discussion about my sanity of riding a Vespa across country. The old guys said it was great.  Some of the young ones did not  think it was a good idea.

Down the road at Yankee pizza I came across this sign.  The "restriction" is that no trucks or buses are allowed to cross the dam and are diverted to another route for security reasons.  I found it interesting that Rosie's was rocking and this place is blaming some one else and looking for a hand out.  That attitude may be why they are losing business.

We rolled into Kingman and came across the local breakfast meeting of the old car club.  There was about 8 great cars, but I liked the bus. The body is a 1946, but it sets on a Ford F150 chassis.  This was it's second outing.  Nick, the owner, has been building it so that his daughter, who is in a wheel chair, can go to antique car shows in style. In Kingman we got on Route 66 and headed east.

We stopped in the Kingman airport.  This is where airplanes come to rest or be buried.  There were many more than the pictures show.

Back on Route 66 we came across some Harleys on the side of the road and saw a bunch of guys in green vests.  It was the Desert Rough Riders motorcycle club and they had adopted this part of the highway.  They had picked up a lot of trash. We talked a few minutes and then they went back to work.

Of course we had to stop in Truxton to visit Chuck and Charlie.  This place was very busy today with locals and tourist getting gas.  Two German girls stopped to buy cigarettes. Chuck does not sell cigarettes but the girls were thrilled that he would let them smoke in his store out of the wind.  He told about a lady that stopped in one time and asked if he sold cigarettes. He said "no, we just sell moonshine, marijuana, and unlicensed firearms."  She slid back her jacket and showed her badge from the Arizona Tobacco and Firearms commission. She did not see the humor in it.  Chuck sprayed some cleaner on Scoot to clean up a film of oil from the maintenance shop that had gathered dirt.  Charlie made me a care package of souvenirs. He had other stuff but realized I did not have much room.  We said goodbye again and I am sure that the business will still be here when I pass this way again, with Charlie following in his Pop's foot steps.

Again I say, great people.

I cruised on down Route 66 passing going businesses and some that were long closed. When I had the tail wind we were rippin'.

I got on I-40 about 10 miles before I wanted, but it was not a bad ride, even with the trucks passing by.  I got to pass one on a long climb up a hill, but shortly he blew by me again.


I pulled in to Ash Fork for lunch. A customer noticed my t-shirt and asked that I show it to his wife. Thus I met Hugh and Reba.  They have a small farm out in the country at the end of a 9 mile dirt road. They had had a 1963 Vespa that had all it's parts but did not run.  They had acquired or actually rescued it from a neighbor. He had finally given it to some one that made a table out of it. We had a long conversation about all the interesting things in the area that are not on any map or tourist route. There are old Indian ruins, a cave dug by Chinese railroad workers and lots of other things including a flying saucer. They invited me back any time for a tour of the area.

Ten more miles of I-10 to Williams and I was done with the interstate. Running through Williams I found a large group of motorcycles. I later learned they had turned out for a funeral for a local soldier killed in Afghanistan. The soldier had bought a new bike, but never got a chance to ride it.

We ran up AZ64 to the Grand Canyon and paid way too much for a hotel room at the Red Feather.  But it is the old story, location, location. I had tried the Holiday Inn Express in hopes of waking up smarter tomorrow but it was full.

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