Arizona

Tracee & I were up at 5:30am and on the road just after 6:00am to beat the morning rush hour traffic and take the Freeway out of 'Sin City'. It must have been close to about 40 degrees (100 F) even at that time of the morning. We headed out on the 93 to Boulder City and the Hoover Dam. After fueling up in Boulder we rode to the Dam - very impressive. The Dam is named after Herbert Hoover (31st President). It was built across the Colorado River's Black Canyon and opened in 1935. It gives a reliable water supply to the desert region.

We rode over the Dam and crossed into Arizona. There was a parking area at the side of the road where we got some good photos. There has been some major construction on a huge bridge that spans over the Dam and this is due to open next year. We carried on down to Kingman where we stopped for breakfast and then branched on to Interstate 40 and headed East. The heat was still stifling and we rode past some pretty arid looking country. We made a slight detour off the Interstate and rode through the town of Seligman - which is part of the historic Route 66 Road. There were many stores decorated with relics of the Route 66 heyday (Pink Cadillacs etc). After stopping for a drink in Seligman we swung back on to the Interstate and made our way to Williams where we made a fuel stop.

While at the Fuel Station I could see some very black clouds over the mountain range in the distance and a few flashes of lightening. Just down the road things got a little exciting! We had been steadily climbing altitude and the scenery was starting to look more green and the hills were covered in pine forest. There were quite a few warning signs to watch for Elk & Deer. There was a sudden drop in temperature and a gale started to pick up. We could see the lightening getting closer to us (not good in the USA when you are on a motorbike!). We saw two other bikes ahead parked under the Interstate overpass. We quickly pulled over hard against the roadside barrier (as the Big Rigs were whizzing by at about 80mph). We both jumped over the barrier and stood hard against the supporting struts of the overpass just as the storm moved overhead and the rain came. There was quite a bit of thunder and lightening around us and we must have waited a good 45 minutes for the worst of it to pass over. There were two old bikers (imagine the rock group ZZ Top without the beards) sitting hard up the side of the overpass just under the road in a little sheltered ledge (they only had T shirts on). A couple on a Ultra Classic Harley arrived soon after and joined us. They were from Chicago and had been doing a big tour through the northern States and West Coast & had also left Vegas today on their way down to Texas.

Once we could see the lightening moving past us into the distance and the rain eased to a light drizzel we put some wet weather gear on and mounted up again. It was only a short 20 minute ride down the road to Flagstaff where we decided to call it a day and have checked in to a motel for the night.

Flagstaff is quite an attractive town of about 60,000 people and is about 7000 feet above sea level. It is located in the pine forests of northern Arizona's San Francisco Peaks. The town developed in the 1890's as a lumber centre.

We are both enjoying the cooler temperatures!