Paul on a bike, except when I'm working on the new house...

So did a little picture taking here in Holbrook, and more planning out the route I'm taking, the google is very frustrating, no I'm not constantly looking at the phone, I actually know what a map looks like, and I think I've got the garbage eliminated from the route google wants to send me, why leave a road you are already on, just to go over a block, then turn left for 1/2 mile, then turn left to get back ON THE ROAD YOU WERE ON IN THE FIRST PLACE. Here's the Dairy Queen, nice old neon sign, kind of weird to see it below the brand new one.  The arrow to point to the drive thru is pretty cool.  Shogun Warrior Pow Wow...  So much cooler without the light pole in the way.  This just reminded me of the Sheriff office in the tv show Banshee, where the Sheriff office was in an old Cadillac dealership.  One word describes this place, Diversify, ice cream, knives, petrified wood...  And this is the really cool painted door, to look like an old saloon.

But it was against a headwind, slightly uphill, and then in the last 8 miles I had to nurse a 1/2mile leaky tire, ran over something, and every 1/2mile I had to refill the sucker, made it though. True a flat sucks, but that tube an tire has lasted since Eureka, so you could say it's lasted. I've got another tube, just need to break it out, tape up the inside of the tire to keep it from fraying. Next Walmart I'm gonna have to buy more tubes/tire. And yes, Paul tired, though it could be the lingering effects of that chamomile tea I drank last night, three cups. Tomorrow I'm gonna go to a really old Dairy Queen, maybe have a sundae.  Take some pics of the old neon sign. Snagged some Vileo aloe/mango drink , so good, has little bits in it, total refreshing...

As I have been getting closer to NM, I was checking the directions to get to Coleman, Tx, and on Google there are the 'left' 'right' 'unnamed road', parts that only work if you are looking at the phone, and have service, Google people can't imagine a world in which there isn't a moment looking directly into the phone. I tried Mapquest, another non biking group of people, at least with their info the basically same directions, and at every turn to this road or that, the tagline of "Unpaved Roadway", I asked for bike directions, not MOUNTAIN BIKE directions. So this leaves me on I-40 until Amarillo, then south on I-27 to Lubbock, then it's a crap shoot.

I started the day taking my time, since I had planned to stop at mile marker 225 where there's a little exit, and camp there(Flagstaff is marker 196). But as I was biking along, I just kept seeing the miles fly by, and it couldn't have been noon when I saw the exit for 225, so I just kept going. Woot, mile after mile, just kept flying by, and here I am 58 miles later, a little tired, but feeling good, might be able to do this again tomorrow, on my way to Holbrook tomorrow, just a little 34 mile jaunt... So, as I was biking by saw the twin arrows, then the bright shiny casino on the other side of the interstate(places that are bright an shiny don't come from a bunch of winners).  You would think they could do something for the upkeep of the 'twin arrows' with all the winnings.... Looks to be between paint jobs, this isn't my pic , I was busy pedaling. Then after Twin Arrows, I saw the heavily photographed Two Guns, where there is an abandon KOA camp, ag

Did laundry, and I leave for Winslow tomorrow, it'll take a couple of days, who knows, if camping out goes well enough I might just keep on going, just stock up with fudz. At the laundry there was a really cool old bike with wooden rims, skip tooth cogs/chain. Then I walked around the cool hip an with it part of town, it was okay, few cool things. Took a couple of my trashed quarters to the coinstar, and it ate them, but there was a silver dime(aka $2 worth of silver), so the machine can keep those, also there was about as much change in the coin return as the two quarters the thing ate. Time for pizza and ice cream.

I was a little worried that I couldn't get this far at this altitude.  Yesterday was bad, just was not feeling it. The first five or so miles were bumpy, which led to a little bit of metal working it's way into the drive side tire, but the sun was out and it was a quick fix. So now I have two old tubes as liners and thorn resistant tubes on both trailer tires, hoping this lasts another state or two... Had a little brake cable problem a few miles from the hotel, so walked the bike down the hills, and was able to ride on the flat. Got to the hotel that was supposed to be right across the street from REI, it was about a mile further down the road. Got myself a Bivy, some new brake cables, extra pads, and tonight I'm gonna eat ice cream and replace the brake cables. Along the road I've found several dead animals, usually I just leave them in peace, but I found a bit of antler yesterday, and this morning I think I found an elk or meese skull, fully desiccated, might

And the prices reflect the Polar Express thing going on a few blocks from this sign. A bit of a neurotic morning, kind of got settled a bit in Ash Fork somehow, I was a bit out of it, but managed to get 17 miles down the road, to be ready for the 32ish miles to Flagstaff, now at usual altitude I usually can do 30ish miles in a day, and get there and find a place to sleep. But I'm close to 7000ft above sea level, and there's an 8000ft spot between here and there, so tomorrow is going to be a long day. Looking ahead I see Roswell is on my route, maybe the aliens will take me away like Calgon, but I doubt it, aliens if they could get here, would probably realize what a pain it would be to deal with humans. So no probes for me. I also spotted a nice house in Roswell, so maybe I'll check that out, looks like a nice craftsman style.

Yes, at over 5000' it got cold, really cold, so cold that water started to condensate on the inside of the tent, froze my water bottles, but I'm warm now. True it was a 60 minute tube change this morning, one more little gremlin of a bit of metal worked it's way into the trailer tube.  It's been working so well that the old tube I put in there as a liner had almost fused to the tire, so I put another old tube in there as well after plunking out the 1/4" piece of metal. What was really hard was only getting to do one thing at a time before I had to put my hands into my pockets.  Then a nice trucker lady stopped and I was able to warm my hands on her tires, got it done and down the road I am, here in Ash Fork, Az, for a couple of days of rest. And, well, I had another spoke snap on me, but this shouldn't be too hard to fix as I remembered to bring an extra spoke with me.  Seems the spoke got bent during the Hop past LA to Barstow when it was in the truck.  So

Well since I made it to one side of Kingman, I biked to the other side of town setting myself up for the trip to Flagstaff.  Got the pedals I had looked at on Amazon, only I didn't order them since you can never be sure how long it would take for them to get to the general delivery at a post office. Made a good contact for the properties in Coleman, and I guess I can wait to see things in person, get an inspection etc. So, here's some pics I took in Kingman along Route 66...  choo-choo  each one had it's own name on the car  nice old hotel  ye old train station  more old motel signage and under the street sign is a cool sculpture  Remember the old days when the Dad on some show would say "I'm going down to the Lodge...".  check out that Zenith sign... I think this sign outlived the lounge it advertised, as the building below just looked like a garage building.