Xenotropic Systems

I got a late start in the morning because I had stayed up later last night visiting with friends. Nevertheless I ended up on the road at around 8:30. I decided not to grab gas in Prescott because I estimated I had enough to get me to Flagstaff without any incident. I haven’t even come close to running out anywhere along the way yet.

In the recurring theme of avoiding freeways at all costs, I took AZ-89A out of Prescott towards Sedona. The road continued to amaze me. There was another section outside of Prescott Valley where there were about 10 miles of 20mph curves. I got bottled up behind some people, but that didn’t make it any less awesome. I think the most incredible part was getting into Jerome, AZ. When I saw the signs indicating the milage into the town, I assumed that it was at the end of the curves. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. You end up rounding a 20mph corner and seeing the “Entering Jerome” sign. The town is built upon the switchbacks back down into the desert. Houses and stores are terraced into the side of the mountain itself, and you make your way back down the desert floor through the town. I should have stopped to take some pictures, because it really is pretty amazing.

The weather started to heat up when I hit the valley floor. Things started to head into the 90s, and I knew I was back in the desert. I stopped at a little store outside of Sedona to grab a Gatorade and stretch my legs. This area is another one of those “this is Arizona?” moments. There are lush green trees by the river, and it actually seems like a livable place.

After the store there were some more incredible curves, but the traffic was ridiculously heavy. Cars were lined up for miles while the Sedona tourist set gawked at the scenery around them. It’s bad enough the road was signed at 20mph, but you had motorhomes that were clogging things up at around 5 mph.

I stopped in Flagstaff for a fuel stop, and then it was back into desert riding again. There are many things you have to fight about this kind of environment. First is that you are essentially in one position for long periods of time. Normally when you’ve got some curves in the road, you have to shift your weight and move your arms to maneuver the bike. Not so on straight desert roads. Your throttle hand also gets more abuse because it isn’t actually working, it’s just trying to keep itself in the same position all the time. You kinda develop some ways of combating this like being able to straighten your fingers while still holding the throttle open, or standing up on the bike for a few seconds to restore some circulation into your legs and ass, but it’s mostly just trying to fidget around to keep your body parts, and you, from falling asleep.

I got another Gatorade in Tuba City. It’s near reservation lands, so it had the obligatory “Injun Smoke Shoppe” in with the convenience store. Outside of Tuba City was my first real worry of the day. On the horizon were intermittent thunder clouds. For quite a while, the road managed to almost purposely weave its way around the rain that I could see falling. My biggest worry was the road being flooded out, and becoming impassable for a motorcycle. My exhaust pipe is much lower to the ground than a large truck or something. I didn’t really hit rain until a bit outside of Kayenta. The rain was falling fairly hard, so the droplets were big and hit with some force. I decided not to don my rain gear because I figured it would be over soon. I didn’t experience much more than three minutes of rain, and the roads stayed fairly sane.

I gassed up again at Kayenta, and grabbed a sip off of the Camelbak. I was going to go to the bathroom, but it turns out they were closed here due to “low water pressure.” I don’t know exactly what that means other than I’d have to hold it until the next stop. I also enjoyed some of the lowest gas prices on the trip. That $4.169 is for premium, not regular unleaded. I don’t know if this is just the price of gas, or whether Navajo Reservation taxes are just lower than State + Federal that you pay on the outside.

I was starting to get pretty fatigued by this point in time, so at Teec Nos Pas I stopped at the post office and got off of the bike for just a minute or so of shaking myself out. You’d be surprised at what just these little stops can do for you. I had intended to stop at Four Corners and take some pictures about 5 miles down from Teec Nos Pas, but I saw the line of RVs and cars going into the place and thought better of it. Most of those vehicles have air conditioning and can afford to stay out in the sun for a while. I’d end up sweating my ass off. Instead, I pushed through to Cortez.

Outside of Cortez there was a little traffic backup. There was a Harley-Davidson there without a windshield and the front end looking pretty nasty. Everyone seemed okay, and they had a flatbed tow truck to pull someone out of there. When I went by, I could see what the situation probably was, because there was a Harley shaped dent in the back of the SUV pulled over at the side of the road. It looked like the Harley rear-ended it for some reason.

I had a snack at McDonald’s in Cortez. Just a few chicken nuggets and a large drink. The Barq’s root beer was terrible because they had the mix set way too low. It turned out to be slightly brown soda water rather than any sort of root beer substance.

There were storm clouds in the distance between Cortez and Durango. I again decided to play a “wait and see” attitude towards my rain gear. This mostly paid off. I stayed dry until around 5 miles outside of Durango. This was actually okay, because after a day of desert riding in the heat, getting wet was a pleasant change. It was only 5 minutes of riding in the rain anyways, so it wasn’t that miserable.

I stopped at a gas station in Durango to throw on my jacket’s rain liner, and zip up the vents in my pants. It was also a good opportunity, since I missed the turn to stay on US-160 through Durango. Everything was pretty good until I had to go travel on the gravel roads to Dawn and James’s house. Normally, it’s not a huge deal, but the rain was sprinkling on me, and making the road surface a little wet. This made the traction even less than it would normally be on a gravel road. Plus, I had to take the roads so slowly that I couldn’t really leave my visor down because there wasn’t enough wind to clear it of the rain. That meant I just had to keep it up, and deal with being pelted in the face with raindrops.

It took me a while to traverse all the gravel, but my TomTom performed admirably and I made it right to the house without any incident. For this reason alone, it was proabably a great buy. I’ll seriously have to look into getting the “Rider” version that’s built for motorcycles. The biggest plus I can see is having a better screen for seeing in sunny weather.

I arrived around 7:00 local time (I lost an hour due to the Pacific to Mountain time change), and had dinner with the family. Unfortunately, Ian wasn’t able to eat with us because he’s become sick. This isn’t the sniffles kinda sick, but apparently the puking all over the house sick. He did come upstairs after dinner when Dawn, James, and I were chatting. James was gracious enough to offer me a couple of beers and I eagerly accepted.

At around 10:00 I trudged my way out to the trailer to set up camp for the next couple of days. As I’ve written before, the trailer is kinda a cool place to hang out. I spent a couple of hours writing and unwinding from the fairly harsh day. Another day closer to Springfield…

Total Fuel Cost: $36.85
Not Budgeted