June 13, 2015 -
We wake at 6am to get everyone up and running. Breakfast of pancakes
and syrup, coffee and plenty of water, bikes readied and we are off out
of Holbrook. Myself, Mark, Sidd and Giselle were on route 180 and up
for the day, until yours truly made a right instead of a left!! Enough
said. Twenty minutes later we got a call from Mark asking where we
were, to which I replied that we were waiting for him and the van to
Mark Route 66! We turned round and rode back into Holbrook to find
James and the van and a vintage car rally and fair. What a fortuitous
turn of events because this was a wonderful rally.
There were some unbelievable cars with owners, who just wanted to tell
you all about their car. We met Bud with his old Ford 2 plus 2 – a
driver and a passenger inside and a pull down trunk that had two seats
inside. More cars and chats with everyone around, I think James maybe
even signed up for the National Guard, he certainly got all of us
National Guard T-shirts. A small café was pointed out to us, Joe and
Aggie’s Café, which when we entered we were hit by so much memorabilia
about the Cars movie. This was where the director, John Lasseter, was
inspired to write the movie, and sadly Joe’s wife died but the car
called Lizzie in the movie was in memory of her. Great café, but we
really had to get on and as Route 66 was actually highway 40 we decided
on a circuitous route that still took us to St. Johns the next stop for
us.
A beautiful day, blue skies, some clouds above and what looked like
rain clouds up ahead, but no it couldn’t rain really! Into the rain we
went, but it was actually very refreshing, and cooling. The kids were
mainly riding in relay for 10 miles, then switching and taking the van
for the next 10 miles.
It seemed that we were into the religious belt of the West, there were
many small churches and places of worship along the route, all of very
different in style. It was a good ride not to steep, past some
interesting farms and homesteads by the wayside. In fact we wondered
why these houses where there, something we wondered a lot about as it
seemed a very harsh climate to live in. We passed over many, what are
called, washes. These were run offs for when the rainy season starts
and they would get very high water rushing through them. You are warned
by notices along the way not to drive through any floods. So it really
must rain very heavily at some point.
So maybe God was on Mark’s side, as he took off for the last few miles
before entering St. Johns, but as he was entering the town, literally
opposite a church, he came crashing off. One of his shoe attachments
had come loose he lost his balance and came off, rolling along the road
to a stop. Watching were two adults and after a few minutes they asked
Mark if he was OK and whether he had broken anything. Luckily he had
not, but there were scraps and bruising and some cuts. He also broke
the axel in the back wheel and the back wheel detached. A lucky escape
to say the least.
Meanwhile another puncture on Sidd’s bike and we were now down to three
bikes. We got Mark sorted out with bandages and gel., and ice to stop
any swelling and we also found a Mexican restaurant for dinner, which
everyone enjoyed. Now for camping, and this town did not have any camp
sites! We drove out of town for about three miles and James spotted
some open ground slightly hidden from the road. We drove the van off
the road and got the tent up as quickly as possible, trying the stop
the mosquitoes from devouring us!
Hopefully a good nights kip, but you could hear that coyotes every so
often, and I think the kids thought that they might encounter snakes
coming into the tent!
