17-04-12 Day 05

Needles, CA to Kingman, AZ

Day 5 brings a milestone and a momentous occasion. We officially made it across The Golden State of California, and, crossing the Colorado River on Route 40 East we entered The Grand Canyon State of Arizona. What a site to See! Still making a good effort to stay on schedule, we set out early with Nate providing support through the desert. Once again Nate proved to be invaluable as we logged mile after mile on the open highway through the Mojave. And while temperatures stabilized as we approached Kingman, the long, steep, climb we faced to enter Kingman sure did get the pistons pumping and the sweat rolling. Finally a down hill section of road and appropriately placed at the end of our day.

Crossing the Colorado River 

Entering Arizona 

The scenery, and constanly changing views in all directions, are amazing and as a matter of fact they are breathtaking. The magnificent expanse of the Mojave is punctuated by awesome mountains that appear to stand proud at the perimeter. Then, as you approach a mountain Ridge and make your way through a pass you find similar beauty awaits you as you enter the next section of desert. WOW!

A SAG stop with Nate. Water, energy products, back out on the road!

A couple of notes missed in our blog yesterday. Randy got a flat rear tire just 75 feet from our final destination yesterday. As it turns out a very, very, small staple found its way through the tire and into the inner tube. A quick change of tubes and all is good. In addition, we wanted to note for bicycle friends who may be interested in riding route 66 as we have, you may want to consider alternate routes especially in Western CA. Tomorrow we intend to try route 66 once again. The local folks here in Arizona say the Historical Road is used more often and therefore better maintained. And finally, a schedule change is in the works. We intend to push back our rest day to Saturday, April 15th. We will ride from Peach Springs, AZ to Williams, AZ on Friday, April 14th. We are making this change so we can spend some time with Randy's aunt and uncle, who live in Prescott, AZ, Friday evening and Saturday during the day.