day 30: St John’s to Winslow, AZ

“Go in peace,” the priest replied. “For the LORD is watching over your journey.”

Judges 18:6

95 miles – 2,415 ft climb

Bruce took off around 8:30 this morning. It was 37 degrees again when we woke up, but had warmed up to 52 degrees by the time he left. When he leaves in the mornings I always take his picture, pray for him and the other drivers to be alert and attentive and then video him riding off. This way I will have a current picture to show if he gets lost. Haha. Thanks to Find Friends, his mom and I are keeping our eyes on him electronically. I highly recommend this app! Anyhoo, as he rode off the manager of the RV Park, Kay, came over and asked me about his ride. When I told her what we were doing and that it was to raise money for Parkinson’s and MS, she said, “stay right there!” and ran back in to her camper. She came back out with the $25 I had paid her last night and said, “You can stay for free. I want you to use this for your trip.” So nice!

We chatted for a bit and she told me a lady had come through a few years ago who was riding her HORSE across the country. Oh. My. Gosh. Horse trumps bike. I don’t even know how that would work because they can’t stay in RV Parks or eat fast food. Or make pb&j’s. Wow!

When I first started my walk, all I could see was how much, shall we say “less financed” this fairground was than the ones in Mississippi. Dirt & weeds everywhere rather than pavement. Just generally less than. But then I started looking at what all they DID have. Two little baseball fields, a few outdoor arenas for horse shows (one even had a separate kind of dirt track around it to run your horses, I guess), a playground, a swimming pool (unopened this year due to Covid), and a walking path. It takes a lot of walking to get in 3 miles, so I checked out pretty much every inch of the place. In one area I even found 7 horses and 2 cows in tiny little pens. Kay told me later that the cows were being fattened up awaiting slaughter. That’s a bummer! Walking here made me think about how when I focus on the negative, that’s what I see. But when I look for the positive, it’s right in front of my face. I love when God teaches me little lessons in the midst of everyday life. Because sometimes I focus on the negative. Which brings us to the showers. Um… let’s see. Look for the positive…it had a shower curtain and hot water. But honestly it was exactly what I had thought an RV Park shower would be like, when I started this trip. Before I was spoiled by the bathrooms in the south.

By the time I left it was 11:30. I am regretting having left the sewer hose elbow at the park a few days ago. Walmarts have been a little scarce. I unhooked the water & electric and dumped what needed to be dumped. I got gas and then ran to my old pal Dollar General to grab some milk and candy for the biker. So in total transparency his energy appears to come from Bit of Honey, Jolly Ranchers, Stacy’s chips and pb&j’s. But I guess it works. The plan, you know, in the original well laid out worksheet, was to stop at Holbrook tonight. But since we started in St John’s, Bruce wasn’t ready to stop in Holbrook and so biked to Winslow. Yes, we do plan to stand on a corner tomorrow.

Bruce had a great ride today. When I asked him, he said, “I was in the zone. I just felt good today. I could have gone another 40 miles.” He started out in some hills, climbing over 1,000 feet in his first 12 miles. And thankfully very few cars on those back highways. And beautiful views. I didn’t catch up with him until Holbrook. Because I left 3 hours after him. And because he’s fast.

The ride in Harvey was pretty good. There was a long section that looked like it had recently been paved, but it seemed to have waves. Kinda fun actually. It felt a little like galloping on a horse. Thank goodness for Harvey’s good shocks.

Bruce and I both stopped separately, since I was so far behind, at the Petrified Forest Museum and Gift Shop. Neither of us took the actual drive through the forest because it was an additional 24 mile loop. But we saw some petrified wood in the parking lot and in the museum part of the gift shop. We met a really nice lady, named Lori, who ran the shop. Bruce had met her first and talked to her for awhile. He also met Wayne who is a fellow biker and his wife, Barb. When I told Lori that I didn’t want to take the tour because my husband was biking across the country and I needed to catch up to him, she said, “Oh! You’re Pam!” Why, yes I am. I felt like a celebrity. Or maybe the wife of one.

Holbrook is a little town on Old Route 66. With a pretty cute little strip. By the time I got there Bruce was in the parking lot of Romo’s flagging me down. He had a hankerin’ for Mexican, believe it or not. And Romo’s did not disappoint. Which is a good thing because he’s having it again for dinner tonight.

After dinner we took pictures of the “iconic” dinosaurs in front of the Rock Shop and then drove over to see the Navajo County Historic Museum. It was in an old Court House and included a jail that would be a good incentive not to break the law. The county used the jail until 1976. I think when they moved to the new courthouse they didn’t feel like moving everything and so just left it. Which was cool to see all the old stuff pretty much right where it had been.

When we found out that Bruce’s route included quite a few miles on the shoulder of I-40, we tried to find other routes from Holbrook to Flagstaff. The one we settled on first was for me to drive him for a latitude only move up to Indian Wells and then he’d bike as far as he could on highway 15 towards Flagstaff. This would be completely on Indian reservations. And sleeping spots were questionable. When I talked about this with Lori, she did not recommend being on an Indian reservation at night. She said they were dangerous. OK. That creeped me out. So we talked to an Indian man at Romo’s and he recommended this dirt road that went all the way from Holbrook to Flagstaff. I was all in. Bruce was not. He thought he could take Old Route 66 most of the way and just be on the I-40 shoulder a little. I headed off to see a little more of Holbrook. He headed off on Hwy 180/Old Route 66.

I decided to also stop and see the jackrabbit that is another Route 66 icon. I was a little underwhelmed, but I took pictures anyway.

After a few miles on Old Route 66 Bruce’s road turned into a path in a field. Undaunted he continued on. Soon it was totally gone. He could see I-40 from where he was, but was separated by a pesky barbed wire fence. You’re probably thinking, “what a bummer that he had to turn around and go back” But no. Bruce was not about to be thwarted by a little barbed wire. He followed it a few yards and found a spot that he could shimmey under. Well not really shimmey. More Army crawl. Soon he and his black steed were tooling along on the shoulder of I-40. As shoulders go, this was a very nice one. Wide and smooth with rumble strips way over to the left. And the wind was his friend today. Whatever that means. As he finished the 25 additional miles into our Winslow RV Park, it was starting to get dusk. Time to be done.

I passed an interesting sign today which reminded me of some other funny signs I had seen. The problem with funny signs is that by the time I read them it’s too late to take a picture. The one today was a street called “Buckets of Blood”. Yuk. How would you like to put that on your Christmas card return stickers? The other one was a sign that said, “Rough Road Ahead” followed shortly by another that said, “this road will not be cleaned or patrolled after a storm.” You’re on your own. Take your own risks. A few days (or was it a few weeks) ago I saw a sign at the edge of a small town that said, “Hitchhikers may be escaped convicts”. Oh, by the way. Just to let you know. No “Warning!” or “Call 911” or “Hide your wives. Hide your kids!”

Tonight we are staying at Take It Easy RV Park just outside of Winslow. It’s fine. With the windows open we are able to hear the sweet sounds of the interstate. And see the pretty lights on the trucks. Look for the positive, right? And hey. We can still take it easy… Oh my gosh! I just got that! Take it easy. Like the song. About standing on the corner. In Winslow, Arizona.