Gremlin's Tall Stories

7.30am and the alarm is ringing. I make the mistake of rolling over, but catch myself within 10 minutes and crawl out of bed. Bag down to the van, Kevin isn’t looking so flash (he did admit to 4 jugs the previous evening, and then probably something else) but he’s awake at least.

I’m not awake for long however, back to bed, the alarm set for 9am. Shortly after, I’m up, showering and packing. It’s warm outside already, high 20s. I continue along 89ALT, and as I leave the Connor Hotel Karen decides to have a fit, completely freezing. Couldn’t turn her off, none of the buttons or screen worked, lurvly….

I read Ken’s book on every day, so I had a rough idea of where to go. However, I underestimated how much I rely on Karen. She tells me my USA speed, distance to turns (dictating if I bother to look for overtaking opportunities etc.) and general progress for the day. Doing some mental arithmetic, I know roughly what kph I do, and as I wind my way through 89ALT I try turning her off, taking her out of the cradle etc.

It’s unfortunate it has to happen on this road, as it’s magic. Tight, winding, up and down hills, a really fantastic road to ride that lots of bikers seem to know about already. I conclude the only way to reset dear Karen is to remove the battery, which I can’t do while on the move, or wait for the battery to run dry (which would take hours). I pull over in the shade to remove the battery.

For all the tools in my panniers, I don’t have an allen key small enough for the GPS (mental note to now carry that size) or a flat blade screw driver. In desperation, I try mashing all the buttons together, and surprisingly, the GPS turns off. It powers on like normal, except the route for the day is now missing. Luckily, the GPS somehow keeps previous data you’ve imported, so I can re-import no problem.

Back on the road with a functional Karen, standard operating procedures commence, right onto Highway 89 to head north to I-40 and I find a gas station further up the road. Unlike the daylight robbery of yesterday, this is probably the cheapest I’ve found, at $3.61 per gallon for 91 AKI. North to I-40 and onto the Interstate for a few miles. I recall doing 85mph at one point and being passed by a normal SUV and a shopping trolley. Damn some of the Americans move along at a fair clip.

Exiting on 123, under the Interstate and onto Seligman. I really wanted a Route 66 patch, as Seligman is the start of some of Route 66, so at a gas station that also sells souvenirs I found the best patch I think I would find anywhere. Black and white shield with each of the states Route 66 passes through around the outside.

Mission complete, I could get on with the roads for today, so down through the iconic Route 66. I have to mention however… for an iconic route, bear in mind it’s American. 80 odd miles of almost completely straight road. Still, it’s one of those “must do” things. There was also a plethora of abandoned buildings, no longer in operation.

I didn’t bother stopping until Kingman, which was quite large and took around 15 miles to reach the centre. There was a diner scheduled, and I had seen Harley shop signs before it. Of course, this meant I caught up to some of the group, and they had only been at the diner for 10 minutes. We ordered, I had a Route 66 Cheese and Bacon Burger and a chocolate milkshake. The milkshake arrived in a glass, with the remainder in the metal jug. This one wasn’t quite as thick as the Jacob Lake one, but still not thin enough to be sucked through a straw. These Americans need some urgent lessons.

The rest of the group left slightly before me. I photographed the diner and the ute outside, and pulled out my cooling vest, as the temperature had been 35 degrees entering Kingman and Ken mentioned in the book that the afternoon ride could be our hottest of the trip. The vest felt good, and staying on 66 proved a little difficult, needing a turn down a side street. Karen had messed with my route again, wanting me to go straight to Laughlin, so I restarted the route.

66 got much more interesting after that, and speaking to Roger at the diner, he’d also had major problems getting his GPS to route down the road to Oatman. This was explained by actually riding it. Very rough, with patching creating constant ridges and tar snakes all over the very tight and winding road which topped out around 6000 feet. The officials had even limited the entire road to 20-30mph.

No bikes in sight, I eventually found them in Oatman. They must have made good time, as I wasn’t hanging around through the road (besides the photo stops). Oatman was a tiny town, and kept just like it would have been back in the time “vehicles” were one horse power. Mules or donkeys roamed the town. As Jan said in the evening, the signs well outside town warning of roaming animals were silly. You’d have to be a very dopey donkey to roam outside town, when all the tourists are in town feeding your buddies.

The others had stopped, I felt I’d only been on the road for 10min, so had no desire to stop. On towards Mohave Valley, the speed limit is an unfathomable 45mph down long straights. I’m going a little quicker, when I see two cars far in the distance, facing me. One U-turns away from me, the other comes past. The little voice inside my head warns me, so I ease up, coming up on the car quite slowly. It’s still far enough away to be unidentifiable when the radar detector keeps going off every time there is an oncoming car.

Sure enough, it’s a cop out hunting… one of the first I’ve actually seen operating like the NZ cops. I’m slowly catching up, when he suddenly pulls off, letting me past. Not one to fall for it easily, I continue on, doing 46mph. Constantly, the radar detector gets a small signal, I’m probably being speed checked every now and then. Initially it’s amusing, then it just gets old. Since exiting Oatman and then entering the valley, the temperature had remained above 40 degrees.

I follow Ken’s directions, to approach Laughlin from the western side of the river, apparently it was cooler. The temperature topped out at 46.5 degrees. It was sort of fun, being an experience where you don’t often ride in temperatures in excess of 40 degrees, but wearing full gear, the experience wasn’t fun for long.

Arriving at 5pm, I grabbed one bag from the pannier and my wallet and headed straight inside. Once I had my room, there was no desire to finish unpacking. Stripping, it was straight into the shower for an ice cold one. Feeling much better, shorts and t-shirt were the only option. Heading out to finish unloading the bike I find some of the group chatting in the hallway and end up following Mark and Gerry out to the pool.

This was a fortunate move, as there was a group of 5-6 chicks in bikinis there… I couldn’t hold conversations very well until they left. The pool was too warm to consider a swim, and the only shade was from the Hotel itself (unless you hired one of their cabanas). We headed back inside to find a cooler place, and found one of the bars where more of the group had already gathered. I headed off to unload the bike, and also retrieved my bag from the holding area.

Re-joining the group, my aim for a ginger beer failed miserably (I was even wary to ask for the non-alcoholic version) and after the first sip it tasted suspiciously like beer. Murray confirmed my suspicions, saying it was non-alcoholic beer. Seriously? It tasted like normal beer, and if I had to put up with the taste, you may as well have the alcohol.

I had the second changed by the bartender, getting some coke instead. I don’t think I will bother trying to get another ginger beer until I’m back in NZ. I helped Gail change some settings in her mobile, Anjum with his bank account issues and drinks led into dinner. 8 of us went hunting (Mark, Gerry, Gary, Barbara, I, Murray and Jan and Ken) initially to find the deli, but we settled on the crab shack.

Mark made numerous terrible jokes about crabs and fish fingers, of course I didn’t egg him on at all. Dinner was good, the seafood gumbo Ok, but the steak delicious. Dinner over, we headed back to the rooms. I paused briefly in the valet area to take some photos of all the lighting, then helped Gary and Barbara work the pokie machine (as if I am an expert… there’s only so many buttons to mash).

Back to the room, I watched far too much NCIS, and did some blogging in between, then turned in for the night.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/YAL13WiFHwh3HdaQ9