7th September 2010

Utah Mountains; Heading Out of Moab

We were slow to get going on this day. I was awoken at 09:15 by housekeeping rapping on the door. We didn't leave town until 11:15; after popping in to an electronics shop to see how much of my go-pro memory card was left (more than half so he didn't get to sell me another), swapping some dollar notes for shiny brass looking dollar coins (for Amy and Eric) and trying to find the Pancake House (which was closed when we got there so didn't bother with breakfast).


Bill Admiring Scenery

We headed out of Moab on highway 86; the way we had come in. We stopped to take a photo of the mountains on our way up a hill. Our next pause was in Monticello, where we stopped at the hippy cafe: "The Peace Tree". I suppose I will have to admit that I dropped the bike outside the cafe. Or rather: laid it gently to rest after finding that my short little legs weren't in touch with the ground on the right hand side, due to the extreme camber of the road. Still, only my pride was damaged after the lad ran out of the shop to help me pick it up. We had a coffee here but the menu did not tempt us so we moved on towards Aneth, our destination being the "Four corners", where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet. We stopped for fuel at Aneth and noticed that the community in and around were more Native American than not.

The road through to Aneth and beyond was boring. The terrain in South East Utah is not pretty and we have been exposed to so many excellent sights that the ride through the rocky desolate land was uninspiring. The fact that a blanket of black clouds were covering where we were heading did not help. We soon got showered upon so I put my rain suit on.
We reached the Four Corners monument, which will be nice when it is finished. For now, building work continues to ensure that this is a tourist attraction worthy of the location (and probably a raise in admission fee). I took my rain suit off as it was baking and the skies suggested that we had seen the last of the rain. There were a number of stalls, all populated with native Americans selling all manner of overpriced articles: authentic arrows and jewellery, dream catchers, inscribed pieces of Four Corner rock (with a Sharpie) and some of these with magnets stuck to the back. A lot of it was tat and obviously using the location as a selling point and as a reason for inflated prices. I should also say that the Native Americans we spoke to were really nice. We spoke to Robert, who makes his own arrows from twigs that he straightens by hand, by running them through a holed block to make them straight, before they dry. But he also sells cheaper arrows made with dowel bought from the hardware store. I also helped an old Indian who was climbing, with difficulty, on to a table to get one of his rugs off the wall as it had become stuck on a nail. I took it down for him. I bought a wholly inauthentic fridge magnet for Jane and some postcards. Bill bought a magnet too. After photographs of me sitting in all four states simultaneously, some lovely lemonade and some Navajo Fried Bread with cinnamon sprinkled on it, we set off for Kayenta in Arizona, which was only 74 miles away.

Highway 160 was not overly interesting initially, especially with several roadworks slowing us down. Again we appeared to be heading into the blackest set of clouds ever (edit: Carlos told us later how he had taken a similar route to us and had been drenched in the storm). Before long it started raining again but it did not last too long and it was not too forceful. I put my rain suit on again, much to Bill's chagrin. He suggested that I just "Leave it on next time". I told him that he was a grumpy bugger sometimes.

We got to Kayenta around 16:30. It was good timing really as more black clouds were gathering; very black clouds. We popped into McD's for wifi usage and asked Valencia, an employee of no stars, if there were any motels in town. Unfortunately, there are only three hotels in the near vicinity of Kayenta. We could see the Holiday Inn from where we sat and, as all three hotels were priced above average, we elected to book in there. It was starting to rain again as we left McD's. I was shocked at the $154 cost of the hotel room. It is surprising how much you can charge for a hotel room when there is little competition. I am rapidly coming to appreciate Motel 6 even more so. The room was adequate; nicely decorated in parts and then spoilt slightly by tiny, badly decorated bathroom. Certainly not a patch on the Motel 6 we had stayed at the night before, for one third of the price. The internet says that average rainfall for Kayenta is .8 of one inch. It tipped down since we got in to the hotel room.

Holiday Inn Kayenta



Raining Arizona

As I write this at 21:03 (actually it is 20:03 as we seemed to have slipped back a time zone. Edit: Actually it was 21:03. The clock in the hotel was wrong  ), it is thundering and lightning outside.  I should think that we have had at least September's rainfall already tonight. The bike odometer reads 47227 miles, which means that we have travelled 231 miles today. We only have 9 days left to ride.