Day 16: Homolovi State Park

Oh boy the wind gods where exceptionally good today. It was a lazy start to the day and after breakfast at Macy's on Beaver Street it was a 10am depart from Flagstaff (well worth a stopover for all you Route 66ers). Arrival time in Winslow, almost 60 miles down the road, was less than 3 hours following depart. Like I said, the wind gods were exceptionally good today. However, putting up the tent in near storm force winds was not so easy!

Morever, the cycling joy was curtailed somewhat by the fact that, whilst taking in the Winslow sights, I ran over an item made of glass, so imminently expected to hear the sound of escaping air. Although I did not, and was thinking that my luck was holding out, I arrived at the Tourist Information office only to discover the the sidewall of my front tyre had a split in it through which the inner tube was protruding! Fortunately I had one of the small plastic discs that Creed provided us with on the Trans Am tour for the precise purpose of making a stop gap repair until a new tire can be purchased. Thanks to Creed I was able to continue on.

So I got to ride on a section of the new ACA Route 66. Actually only about 6 miles was on ye olde Route 66, the rest being on Interstate 40. And most of that was in a very poor state of repair.

So tomorrow I will undergo my inaugural adventure into the realms of "Warm Showers". This is where generous folk offer to accommodate travellers, offering them somewhere to stay and, perhaps, launder clothes, get fed, recharge batteries ... you get the picture. Anyway, Rob Campbell (I wonder where his forebears originate?!!), has kindly agreed to be my host at the Hopi Indian Reservation.

Indeed, I am very excited at the prospect of visiting the Hopi Indian Reservation. So much so that by the time I get back on course I'll have made a 200 mile or so detour to make it possible.

By the way, Homolovi in the Hopi language means "place of little hills"