Headed back east through Lake Meade Recreation Area May 17

Friday, May 17----31.31 in 3:29. It is time to stop playing in the Vegas area, and head east, back towards the Grand Canyon, for our Colorado River trip. I did not have plans to ride back to the east, but I needed to do some riding, just for conditioning. I really haven't been putting on many miles lately, and even though I knew I would have quite a climb, into the wind to boot, it felt good to pedal. The day dawned cool and cloudy, for the Mojave in May, anyhow. My first 2.5 miles climbed 500 ft, just to get out of the Lake Meade Valley, and onto the main road, US 93. The total climb for the day was about 2700 ft, but the cool conditions and the absolutely beautiful scenery made it a nice ride. I recrossed the Hoover Dam bypass bridge (Pat Tillman Memorial), and climbed out of the river valley on the east side. I was once again watching for the elusive bighorn as I rode through the mountains, and under the three bridges that were built specifically for bighorns crossing the road. There were none. As I went back past Willow Beach, and left the Lake Meade Rec Area, US 93 lost its beautiful shoulder. The shoulder turned to nothing, if not just some loose gravel. I knew about this, but it slipped my mind. I was left with no other alternative but to cross the road, and ride on the one good shoulder, right against traffic. I have no doubt that I would have died on the other side, with two lanes of busy traffic coming out of Vegas on a Friday afternoon. It was weird, riding into traffic, but the motorists didn't seem to mind. I don't think they knew any better, anyhow. The wind from the head on traffic, along with the natural 20 mph gusts made this part of the trip all of the workout that I wanted. I rode about ten miles on the wrong side, then Pam came by. I decided to call it a day after 30 miles, and mounted up into the Rv. We had about a two hour ride back to Williams, Arizona, where we stayed before the Vegas adventure.
We rode on interstate 40 from Kingman to Williams, which I had never seen. I got my kicks on Route 66 for this stretch when we traveled west. Pam had come this way though. I will say that Route 66 was much flatter and more bicycle friendly than I-40. 40 was very hilly and pretty steep in places. There were some bicycle signs on I-40 though, so I know bikers ride it, because its a more direct route. When we got to Williams, we climbed out of the RV and had a shock as the temp was in the 70's, which we haven't seen, even at night, for over a week. Welcome back from the desert!

On the road again!!!

On Saturday we just chilled out and caught up on some housekeeping. I bought a pair of sandals to wear on the Colorado, and then took a little 20 miler south on Fourth Street from Williams , up into some mountains, past a few lakes and near a ski resort. A dirt road turned off for the ski area, so it may have been for cross country skiing only. The scenery was great, in a ponderosa forest with an occasional meadow ( see the above picture), and I saw ten mule deer. I also saw a lot of atv's, and the sheriffs office was busy on the road, checking for dui's. Other than that, there was very little traffic.