Tag Archives: Holbrook

Wednesday 17th July

We didn’t want to leave the comfort of our tepee reluctantly we headed of into the head wind destination Winslow. So all day I’ve had the eagles song stuck in my head. You can drive your self crazy.

40 miles to do and they weren’t easy and the sound of my wheels were driving me crazy. Gotta love ear worms.

The first small town we went through was Joseph city. We were stopped at a crossroad looking up the Main Street for a refreshment stop. When a guy on a bike pulled up next to us, and asked if we were ok. I replied that we were looking for somewhere to get a drink. He invited us back to his, we followed him to his house where he and his wife supplied us with drinks and well needed shaded rest.

Richard and Linda were so kind, they showed us around their beautiful English cottage style garden. What a surprise for in the middle of the desert it struck me funny that they had a hosepipe running and yet back in England where it rains all the time we have hosepipe bans.

I loved chatting to them in a garden that reminded me of home, I’m not loving the desert but can see it’s beautiful and what a great experience I’m having. I love meeting people that I would never normally meet. Both Mike and I our naturally shy so this is great for us.

It turns out that they have a daughter who lives in flagstaff and is willing to put us up. Hopefully we can make that happen we should be there Friday if all goes to plan. we had to leave and on doing so Richard insisted on giving Mike a amount of money we were blown away so kind.

On to Jack rabbit treading post another famous Route 66 land mark it has a giant fibreglass rabbit outside. We looked around at the normal Route 66 merchandise and other cool stuff, but we can’t buy and carry everything we like. We took two cold drinks from the fridge and went to pay. The lovely lady there asked if that was all we wanted, yes please we just need to cool off. No problem on the house it’s hot out there! Wow. Thank you.

We now have to finish the rest of the miles on the interstate. Problem road works, we can’t go into the lane it’s to dangerous nothing for it we have to get off and push our bikes past.

Any one fancy a walk in the desert although I was treated by a coyote trotting happily next to me for a while maybe he thought I was lunch, but he didn’t look threateningly just skinny and hot.

Finally we made it to the corner yep that corner. Gift shop done, photo done, now where’s my motel zzz.

Tuesday 16th July

Today we were faced with a decision, did we cycle 50 miles on the interstate or did we cycle a extra 30 miles ontop to do the national park which was a lovely route through the petrified forest. It was a hard decision to make but in this desert heat a 80 mile ride was out of the question. It’s a shame but we had to opt for the interstate.

We were still treated to views across the painted desert Called that referring to the different colours of sand you can see in the flat top hills. The interstate wasn’t to busy the truck drivers gave us plenty of room.

It was still a hard tiring long hot day but worth it. We had booked ahead a stay in the wigwam motel. A must for any one traveling Route 66. Ok it’s basic and looking a little run down. I had the best nights sleep in the handmade bed, all the furniture in the room was also handmade by the owner. We stayed in a 28ft concrete tepee surprisingly big inside with a small clean shower room, tv and air conditioned. I loved it. I heard somewhere that Oprah Winfrey was going to stay there and backed out because it was too basic her loss.

On arrival we were chatting to a guy waiting to check in. He is traveling across America staying in 50 different independent motels and writing a book about the experience the book will be out later in the year. Sleeping around in America by Andrew Beattie. He is also a journalist writing for travel magazines.

Time to check in there’s no laundry here so Paul the owner let me use his own machine what a star.