Running south!

Day 4

I woke up yesterday morning to 22 degrees in Gallup, NM! I had breakfast and hung out until around 10:00 a.m. when the temp finally hit 30 degrees. Visions of a warm ride into Phoenix prompted me to ride into the 30 degree morning. Needless to say, I stopped quite often to warm up.

I branched off the interstate onto exit 311 for the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. What a breathtaking place! The pinks and cream colors looked like someone had poured cans of pastel paints over the landscape. It reminded me of how the Grand Canyon looked 4 years ago on a similar road trip, just in miniature form. According to the sign at the lookout point, I was seeing a mountain range over 100 miles away as I gazed into the horizon over the desert.

Further into the National Park, there was an old rusted out car alongside a row of vintage phone poles with no wire connecting them. Although the road itself had long since been removed, the old poles mark what used to be historic Route 66. I'll do a whole other post later on the vintage Route 66 places I encountered along this pathway.

Finally, I thought as I started heading south, I'll get out of these low temperatures associated with altitude. 50 miles into it I realize that not only am I not descending in elevation, I think I'm climbing again! Just as my fingers turn totally numb, I see a sign that confirms my suspicions- Elevation 7700. Are you kidding me?! That's higher than Colorado Springs!!! Note to self...next road trip get a map that clearly shows elevations!!!

Finally, I find myself roaring downhill! By the time I roll into Phoenix, I'm out of the rainsuit and head stocking and enjoying a warmth I'd been longing for for days. I find Eric's house and roll in about dinner time, so we head out to a restaurant for some food and a cold one.

Ironically, I hadn't seen Eric since my last road trip that took me through Arizona 4 years ago. As we reminisced about old shipmates from our Hawaii days we realized that Eric is one of the few of us who still work on airplanes. Eric has his private pilots license but is "between planes" at the moment! So he calls one of his friends who meets us at the airport in a half hour (with his dog Schmedley!) and before I knew it we were flying over the lit up Phoenix landscape. We did something I hadn't done in over a decade: a touch-and-go!!!!

So today I'm hanging out in Phoenix and enjoying the warm weather. I'm in no rush to move on since the wildfires raging in my new home base have everything shut down, including the highway I was going to come in on. I'll roll out of Phoenix tomorrow, though I'm not quite sure where the next destination is yet!