Day 9

A long but very satisfying day - 105 miles from Seligman to the Grand Canyon at an average of 18.5 mph.

An interesting start to the day - a town wide power-out that hit just as we were getting ready - so no hot breakfast for me. This time I managed to find myself alone with Jeff and Joseph (not smart) and, after an unassuming, fairly slow start, the engines ignited and we flew. The first 20 miles was over the remains of Route 66 which, that early in the morning, rode like a bike path. Unfortunately, from there it was the shoulder of Interstate 40 for the next 18 - trucks going by at 70 and crap on the road everywhere. As if that wasn't enough, out Interstate segment ended with a very long climb up to the Colorado Plateau.

We actually peaked somewhere at 7000 feet - weird to think that, just out of the desert, we were at an elevation well above Denver. Off the highway at Williams, we headed to a park for lunch in a beautiful alpine lake setting - then left just as everyone else was arriving. We then took it up a notch as we rode the remaining 60 miles up highway 64 to the Grand Canyon. J & J were ridiculous, and we hit 34 or so several times and averaged 24 before finally stopping for a drink. We were moving so fast we outstripped the support van, which actually turned back because they assumed we couldn't possibly have gone that far. We flew! After a drink the engines started up again and Joseph took yet another long, fast pull. At the end of this he actually looked at me and said "I'm spent" - and I've never been happier to hear two words! By this time, I was still enthusiastic, but had limited ability to maintain the kinds of speeds we'd been doing. We then agreed to take it down a notch and entered the park.

On our way to the hotel (unfortunately a total dump) we stopped to look out over the canyon. As they say - it is grand. It's huge. It's beautiful.

Sadly, our speed got us to the hotel by 1:30, and we had to sit and wait (with a couple of well earned beers) for our rooms until 4:00. Because this area is operated by the Park Service you can't expect any good customer service principles to actually be in play. We celebrated Dana's birthday over dinner and closed out a great day of riding.

After 9 straight days of riding today is a rest day, and I need to do a bit of work, then we'll take a short hike into the canyon. We're now 711 miles into our trek, and only a quarter of the way there! Tomorrow is another 80 miler, which we've started to consider a short ride!