John and Bethenie: Bike Trip

Next on the agenda after getting back home was to relax for a few days. Dad and I along with one of my mom’s cousins headed out for 5 days. We packed up the bikes and took off West. There is just something so relaxing about riding on the back of the bike, just me the wind and the road, and dad driving of course. I just get to sit there and take in the scenery. We were on I-40 for most of the first half of the trip. We made it all the way across the top of New Mexico and into part of Arizona before calling it a night. We spent the night in Holbrook, AZ the first night, a very small town but a pretty decent hotel and restaurant.

There was a wreck on I-40 that had traffic stopped for as far up as you could see

It was a good time to rest our legs

By the time we took off again traffic was stopped as far as you could see the other direction too

There were storms all around us but luckily we missed all the rain

Fixing to start going again

Dad and I before we got to move

Some little rest stop right after getting into Arizona, they had random animals on the side of the mountain

This was some weird painting on the side of the mountain

The next day we took off on I-40 again and stopped at the meteor crater. The crater is a HUGE hole in the ground and it was really cool to see. It is supposedly 50,000 million years old, and my favorite fact about it, there can be 20 football games on 20 different football fields going on at the same time on the floor of the crater. That is just how big this hole was, and then there can be 200,000 spectators around the wall of the crater watching. When we left there we headed up to Flagstaff, AZ and cut up towards the Grand Canyon. We ate at some little Trading Post in Cameron, AZ and it was actually really good and really fast. Then we finished our way to the Grand Canyon. This was amazing, I had never been there before, just saw pictures, and they don’t do justice to this place. We left there and went to some little town a few miles out and watched and IMAX movie over the Grand Canyon then went to Williams, AZ where we called it a night.

At the Meteor Crater

Walking around Cameron Trading Post in Cameron, AZ

A really old bridge, kinda sketchy glad we didnt have to cross it

A lookout point between Cameron and the Grand Canyon

The watch tower

The Grand Canyon

I don't know how some of these rocks don't fall

Day 3 we took historic 66 from Ash Fork, AZ to Kingman, AZ. This road was a fun rode to ride on, it was windy and had some really old towns along it. I love the movie Cars and in one of the town’s along Route 66 I found a winch truck that looked just like Mater, so we had to stop so I could take a picture. By the time we got to Kingman it was like 96 degrees outside and if felt like a lot hotter than that. We continued on and went to the Hoover Dam. We spent a few hours messing around there and took the power plant tour. By the time we left there it was 106 degrees, then we got to Boulder City and it was 114. It was flat miserable; I really thought I was going to dehydrate before we got to the hotel in Vegas. It was so hot dad almost couldn’t grab his grips to shift the bike. Once we made it to Las Vegas it was 111 degrees and I was so ready to be in the hotel with air conditioning. Vegas was a lot of fun, even though we were only there for the day/night. We were able to see David Copperfield, which is my favorite magician and eat dinner at Margaretville.

On Route 66

I took this picture for my granddad, he collects Texaco trucks

Some weird, huge bug

My names Mater...like tuh-mater without the tuh...i love that movie

Notice the sign.."NEW COLOR TV"... this sign has been there a while

All the old Route 66 signs

Made it to the Hoover Dam

We where in and out of 6 different states so I have a picture in front of each state sign

The new bridge they are building at the Hoover Dam

Looking down at the bottom of the dam

I smiled for the first one....

but it was way to hot to keep smiling

I was so glad to see this sign, it ment we were really close to air conditioning

The next morning we were up before sun up and on the road so we could be in Utah before it got really hot. Utah was really pretty, especially when we went through the Zion National Park. I would love to go back there and spend a few days hiking. We went back through Page, AZ then back up into Utah. We drove though Monument Valley which was really cool too. It was completely flat land then out of now where there are these huge rock formations. We made it all the way to Cortez, CO before calling it quits for the day.

We made it to Utah before it got hot

Driving through Utah

Driving through the Zion National Park

Over a mile long tunnel we got to drive through

There were holes in the middle of the tunnel

The end of the tunnel

Monument Valley

The last day we headed out through Durango, CO and Pagosa Springs, CO before heading into New Mexico. We stopped to look at the huge rock in the San Antonio Mountains, and at the Gorge in Taos, NM. We made it home that day at sunset, and had put a total of 2086 miles on the bike.