Forced to spend an extra night in Wickenburg while waiting to receive our Adventure Cycling maps to take us to the Grand Canyon, we decided to live it up a litte, and act like a couple of normal people.
We checked into the Westerner Motel, stashed our bikes, and relaxed in the small, eclectic, room that we had rented. Having a place to keep our bikes and our stuff we were free to explore the town. We both changed into our civilian clothes in an attempt to blend in. Jeans and a cotton T-shirt never felt so comfortable (and no padded shorts!). We walked over to the Wickenburg Historical Museum, "the most western museum in the country!" Our only regret was that we did not give ourselves enough time to enjoy it more before closing time. It was a lot of fun and there were many really neat exhibits to check out!
After walking back to the hotel and relaxing for a bit we headed across the street to Qorri's Pizza resturant. We had a delicious experience :)
After a delicious breakfast of leftover pizza, I made a trip back over to the Post Office on my unloaded bike while Emily looked over our route for the day and packed up some of our gear. Eventually we were on the road again and headed for the Grand Canyon! We did not make it too far before we encountered a pretty serious delay.
We saw signs ahead of us that warned us that there was "Fresh Oil" on the road. The street next to us had just been repaved and it looked like there was a film of oil on our area of shoulder. After riding through this without any signs of trouble, we came to a different area that was covered, not in oil, but thick sticky tar. Before either of us could do anything our bike tires were covered. The sticky tar on the tires was picking up and hurling other pieces of sand and rock at other parts of our bikes and on us! Had it not been for our fenders we may have been done. Instead we pulled over at a gas station and assessed the situation. The bikes were in bad shape but the fenders had protected the most important components fairly well. The employees at the gas station were very helpfully. They provided us with cardboard and rags to clean our bikes with. Someone passing by suggested that we try using WD-40 to get the tar off of our bikes. This proved crucial to getting us back on the road. Without it we were not able to get even the smallest splatterings of tar off of anything, but now we were at least able to make some progress. After two hours of cleaning, a frozen coffee drink, fries, chicken tenders, and a chocolate dipped cone from Dairy Queen, we were back on the road. This was a very difficult and frustrating experince for both of us. We were unable to take pictures of any of it.
It took a while for us to recover. The bikes continued to make some noises that they should not have been as a result of the incident. But, soon, we were both just feeling better because we were on the road and moving in the right direction. It was a little unfortunate that the direction we were headed in was up!
At first it seemed like we must have been missing the mountains in California so much that we had to go out of our way just to find a new one. Then, we were missing the California mountains because they were not as steep, winding, or difficult to climb! Our ride for the day, which brought us into a campground at 7 PM, after starting late and having to stop to clean the bikes, took us only 26 miles. However, we climbed over three thousand feet! Most of this climb was in the last nine miles of the trip! It was tough, but the views as we climbed out of the desert valley into the mountain air were incredible! By the end of the day we were both proud of what we had accomplished as we looked down at the valley that we started in and admired the steep cliffs that the switchbacking roads took us through.
Our dinner of tortillini with pasta sauce was an excellent way to end the day.
Note: even the flowers are tough in the desert! (Thorns!)
Location:Wickenburg, AZ to Yarnell, AZ
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