Monday, June 6th:

Today we wanted to beat the Arizona heat, so we awoke from our slumber at 4:15. Packing quickly, we were on the road at 5:15, headed up towards Colorado. We didn’t really have a destination in mind today, because there isn’t really a town in northeastern Arizona anywhere. The one thing that we did encounter plenty of: Indian Reservations. Going along I-89 North was smooth sailing; we had a strong tailwind, the temperature stayed under 90 degrees, and our bikes didn’t have any problems. However, the one issue that we didn’t foresee was the one that threw us off the most. Sandstorms. After about 40 miles on the road, we were feeling great about the time we were making. It wasn’t even 10:00 yet! But that’s when we noticed that the horizon was starting to disappear… We kept true to our course, and the winds picked up. According to a weather report, winds were over 50 mph throughout most of North Eastern Arizona. Sand and tumbleweed were flying everywhere! But we stuck through it, and after about 10 miles it all cleared up. We ate our lunch just before noon (Since there was no place to eat, I picked up sandwiches in the morning that we ate), and then set back off on I-89. We checked our odometers right around noon, and to our astonishment, we had already hit 65 miles! The one city that had a hotel, Kayenta, was only about 30 more miles down the road! Needless to say, we were ecstatic to realize this, because the temperature was already up to 85, and the sun reflecting off of the black asphalt didn’t help the situation at all. Somewhere along this road, the time zone changed- so we lost one precious hour of our day. Nonetheless, when we pulled into the Wetherill Inn in Kayenta, it was only 4:00, and we had gone 98 miles! We took some time to play in the indoor pool, play hackisack, and eat some dinner at Sonic before bedtime. And then even, the boys convinced me to stay up to watch, “The Bachelorette”- because it is quote, unquote: “Manly”. Umm…. disagree… J