Cold Morning

After Kingman, I jumped on I-40 towards Flagstaff and no sooner was I on the road when the elevation began to rise and the temperature began to drop. Yay!

Just south of Flagstaff, I veered onto AZ89A to Sedona. What a beautiful road! Set in Coconino National Forest, this twisty, turny ribbon of asphalt begins with large evergreens lining both sides, occasionally receding to let in a meadow or stream. Then come the switchbacks down into the canyon. Sweet! The town center where the HD is (a t-shirt shop basically) is 💲caa-ching💰 😳. But it's really pretty as it sits nestled into the side of the canyon. When the traffic let's you leave town, you pass by the towering red canyon walls. Great road!

Leaving Sedona behind, I headed toward Phoenix to hit its numerous HDs. 9! The first one was in Cave Creek, where a pole was sticking up out of the middle of the road...at every crosswalk! WTF? Who does that?! Luckily, I didn't impale myself or Willie, and we continued on into the city.

Traffic. Traffic. Traffic. We fought and fought, and Willie got me through it all. The last HD photo was at 21:00, and it was just down the street from the hotel in Chandler. Which was excellent because I was beat. I crashed hard...I mean, I went to sleep very quickly 😉. No crashing authorized on this trip 🤞.

I left at sunrise and was just about to jump on I-10 when I spotted a Whataburger! Yay, I got a taquito for breakfast 😋! With that in my tummy, I made it to the Tucson HD at 08:00, where I put on my jacket liner and fingered gloves 🥶. It was a cold morning ride! I also put on my rain gear and covered my bags because of a front just moving into my area and heading my direction.

I only hit some light rain🌧️, but the roads were wet for a while and the temperature never rose, so I kept my rain gear on. It finally started warming up about an hour ago and now I can't take it anymore. The cool was nice, but I think the heat is coming again ☹️.

So long [for now], and thanks for all the fish! ✌️

Day 187 mileage: 689.0 (total 51658.2)Read more