Day 52 Ash Fork - Kingman,Az - John's Half -N- Half Adventure

October 13, 2018

Day 52 Ash Fork - Kingman,Az

The Weather guessers were right, just not on me

Today was going to be a long day on the bike, took off at 6:30. The first 22 miles were on the interstate. I pulled off I-40 and rode into Seligman it was 3 miles off the interstate. I figured I'd get a second breakfast, I'd fixed oatmeal before I left. Pancakes was what I was after and the Roadkill Cafe delivered. I had what they call Flat cats, all the menu items had some kind of reference to Roadkill. My flat cats and coffee hit the spot. While I was there I talked to some guys from the fire department about the shoulder closed signs I had seen on I-40. He said it's for the new bridge it's not open to traffic yet but I could use it. They also told me that I-40 had some big hills on the way to Kingman, after the hills and Kentucky really how bad could they be. I had planned to go on I-40 anyway. The business 40 Loop wasn't a loop I'd have to backtrack 3 miles to I-40. The day was going to be 93 miles on I-40 or I could take Route 66 which I figured roughly 114 miles.while I was talking to the fire department guys they said Route 66 was pretty flat and that I-40 wasn't. After cruising back through town taking pictures, I made a Command Decision to go on Route 66. I did this for three reasons

1) One of my goals was to do a hundred mile day.

2) I thought Route 66 would be quieter and more peaceful.

3) The Hills on I-40. I figured if I'm going 11 or 12 miles an hour all the time I could make better time instead of climbing at 6 or 7 miles an hour for an hour and then going 20 miles an hour down the other side. Backtracking the three miles to the interstate and then starting out I figured I could be 6 or 7 miles up the road by the time it would take me to backtrack.

I'm glad I went on Route 66 it was beautiful and mostly flat with some good descents, the miles ticked by, with good scenery. The last 25 miles were hard and not so much that they were the tail end of a hundred and Ten Mile day. The shoulder had bumps like frost heaves about every 30 feet I'd ride in the road so I wouldn't have to deal with it, but then I have to keep an eye on my mirror, and what's coming at me. I ended up riding with the bumps more than I would have liked. Finally about 5 miles from my destination the shoulder smooth out, but by then the damage was already done and I was shot. A shower and a meal solved a lot of the issues.

The weather guessers were right about rain it just never rained on me.