Route 66 - Part X

Hi there

       It was a cold day as we started our ride.Immediately after crossing the service roads we were on the highway.Since it was early morning there was hardly any  traffic .As we cruised along the highway ,suddenly I noticed that the gap between me and the rider in front  has increased   so to keep up with the group I increased the speed,within few minutes I caught up with the group and felt relaxed. I just happened to look down at the speedo ,holy cow!!! we were cruising at 90 miles per hour,god damn it! I had never rode a bike above 70 miles ever.
     
    A  shiver went down my back and hands. I started reducing the speed luckily after about 20 miles or so we had a fuel stop ,as we parked our bikes I spoke to rear group of  riders and all had the same experience as me .However we realized it was actually fun,and all through out, the bike was very steady and since we were riding in a close formation there was absolutely no interference   from any other traffic.

                                                           

     After the fuel stop we rode again on the highway but with reduced speed for a short distance to the entrance of Petrified Forest national park.

     The petrified national park , located in northern Arizona opened to public in 1906.It has one of the largest petrified wood deposit in the world.There is an excellent visitor center were the park rangers give free maps and information on what to see also there is a lovely gift shop ,selling artifacts mostly made up of petrified wood.The petrified wood  is in the form of rocks and there is an entrance fee to the park.

Inside gift shop of the park

Beautiful artificial skull heads 

First view of the park

    After the reaching the  first view point. Richard briefed us about the park also at this point he  cut us loose to ride for almost 30 miles.I decided to explore the park on my own with the visitor center map.The beauty about the park is, all the attractions are located next to the fantastic road.

 Indian sounding name of one of the point!!!

In back ground Painted Desert Inn

Fantastic road inside the park

Petrified wood in Jasper Forest 

1932 Studebaker sits on place were route 66 once cut through the park

Alignment of route 66 as shown by me 

Gustavo

     At the end of the park we celebrated birthday of Peter and he brought Ice creams for all such a relief in the heat .There after it was time to visit the famous Wigwam hotel.

     

    Wigwam was a chain of hotels build in 1930-40. Now only two remaining. In this hotel all rooms are shaped in the form of tipis mistakenly called wigwams(semi permanent dwelling used by native Americans) .While tipis is a cone shaped tent ,cone made up of animal skin supported by wooden poles.The hotel is still in use,it also has  collection of vintage cars.

Modern tipis of wigwam hotel

Unique number plate

   After spending some time at the wigwam hotel it was time to move to Winslow city.The city is in Navajo county Arizona.It become famous due to Eagles song of 'take it easy'.The town is beautiful ,the center of the town has 'standing on the corner park'.

   The railway station in the town has got a great park too ,which is located behind the main street.The town has many eateries and it was also our lunch break. 

   Before we enter the town we halted at a memorial of 9/11 which had two pillars from the towers. 

Paying respect to the fallen at the 9/11 memorial 

9/11 pillars

Winslow town

Railway park

Standing on the corner park

With Mr Ronald J Adamson the person who created the above statue

Nick getting some sunscreen   

   After mesmerizing visit of Winslow city,we were back on the highway to reach our night halt .It was a long ride of almost 70 miles going through pine forest and the temperature kept on dropping.Finally we reached tour hotel in Grand Canyon,but we were to be back on the saddle, to witness the sunset from the viewing point on the grand canyon.

   We reached the grand canyon southern rim ,less Mark and Roberto they both over slept but joined later on with the next group.
   
    All this years I dreamed of  Grand Canyon, seen it many times in movies or you tube and here I was sitting and watching the sun set,what a feeling it was.  

When you have a guide like Richard he will take you through the shortest route, to the best place to view the sunset in Grand canyon.

Nick

Gustavo,Roberto,me and Javier

Me ,Three  Amigos and Richard

Me, Richard and Agnes,Sara and Andrea

Time lapse through my mobile camera

Finally sun set

    Evening we went for dinner to an excellent place which had a lovely Salad bar .As we sat down to eat suddenly we saw Roberto asking us to help him to carry his order and O my God he ordered 3 Huge Pizzas.What happened was, due to his English he was not able to place the order correctly and ended up getting this huge pizzas. When we realized what happened everyone burst into laughter and Roberto was very embarrassed.Thereafter I taught him how to use google translate and decided to help them when ever I can with translation.

    After having a hearty laugh and meal it was time to ride back  to the tour hotel.After changing over I went to the reception to get some coffee,and I was surprised to see Roberto with Javier trying to speak to the hotel receptionist ,basically they were asking for three separate beds as they were three people in one room.But the receptionist was not able to understand than I got into the melley and explained to the hotel staff what is required ,initially they  refused but after some time with intervention of Shane they gave the bed.

  
   But Roberto is Roberto, finally he asked the hotel Receptionist where is my room!!!One can imagine the look on the face of the receptionist-I and Shane burst into fountain of laughter-Roberto had forgotten his room number.Shane fished the list out of his pocket and told him the room number and I took Roberto to his room.
   
   It was time to crash in the bed