It was really nice this morning not have an alarm to wake us and therefore Keith and I slept in until 10:30am.  Pam and Brian had risen earlier and therefore had breakfast by the time that we got down to the table!

Pam, Brian and I went up the road to the motel in order to spend a couple of hours beside the pool, while Keith took advantage of not having to be in the sun and stayed in the cool house writing up some notes about the last few days.

Day Eight                                 Tues 29 July            Between Tuba City & Cow Springs, AZ to Bluff, UT

Distance: 123.8 miles                Total Distance: 752.9 miles

Ride time: 8hrs 25 mins             Including stops: 10hrs 13 mins

Ave speed: 14.6mph                  Max speed: 42.3mph

115°F

Wanting to make up the 12 miles that were not ridden on yesterdays planned route, we were up and in the RV for breakfast (in the hotels parking lot!) at 4.30am and back on the road to the restart point.at 5.08am MST.

Took about 30 mins to drive back to the restart point before Keith got on the bike, although the bikes front tyre had lost 50% of its air overnight and therefore we had to re-pump before actually heading off.  The road surface was really bad throughout most of the day, which doesn’t give for enjoyable riding. 

We are finally a little more settled in the RV and have had chance to charge up my MP3 player and therefore for the first time on the trip, we have actually had music on while we have been travelling.  You don’t realise how much you miss it!

Drove through Kayenta at 9.50am, where Brian managed to pick up some puncture repair kits, which seem to be holding better than the previous ones. 

We then take the US163 towards the Utah State Line (18 miles) and head through Monument Valley.

At 11.50am, we met up with Keith on the side of the road, where he was talking to another cyclist.  We gave Jim some water and chatted to him for while.  He had been going through the desert for a few days but had had to take a couple of days break due to having severe heat exhaustion and so had only just got back onto the road today.

We headed down the road to the Utah border and snapped some piccies, before going through Monument Valley.  We had difficulty working out at one point whether it was Keith or Forrest Gump in the road ahead of us!!

Temperature has well into the 100s today and the heat has been radiating out of the rocks along the roadside making it feel even hotter.

During the next pit stop along the roadside, we made chilli, ready for tea tonight, although at the time we didn’t realise that we were about to head down a steep 8% decline, so Pam was on chilli watch duty for the next couple of miles!

Next stop was at Mexican Hat, before heading onto Bluff, Utah for the night.

By the end of Keiths cycling day at 4.45pm, it was around 115°F, and he had contended with extremely rough roads all day so he wasn’t best pleased when we told him that the motel that we had pre-booked did not have our booking and that they were fully booked tonight!!  Thankfully the owners had realised their mistake of booking us into the wrong day a couple of days ago and had held us their 4-bedroom rental house, so we headed down the road to the house.

Due to the house being so nice, Keith having had a really hard day cycling and the next few days riding consisting of going up hill, we decided to make an early rest stop, so booked in for a second night at the house.

Day Six                                     Sun 27 July                        Williams to Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

Distance: 62.1 miles                    Total Distance:529.2 miles

Ride time: 3hrs 52 mins                Including stops: 4hrs 12 mins

Ave speed: 16mph                       Max speed:32.5mph

82°F

A shorter day today, 60 miles to the Grand Canyon National Park.  Keith started cycling at 8.40am.

Due to the amount of punctures that have occurred in the last few days, we head into town for to visit the local shop, only to find that it has been turned into a coffee shop, so we buy coffee instead of inner tubes!!

We passed 11 touring cyclists coming in the opposite direction today, completely laden with heavy looking panniers - can only imagine how hard that would be.

Temperature was at a more acceptable level today, as we passed by Valle airport, next to the Flintstone Theme Park.

The RV arrived at the Grand Canyon National Park at 11.20am, and the weather was beginning to close in so we took the 0.6 mile walk to the rim, in case it got stormy later and we couldn’t see the Canyon, as Pam & Brian have never been here before.

Keith arrived at 12.45pm, and met us at the RV park inside the National Park.  We had some lunch and some chill-out time and watched the storm pass over, before heading to the rim in order to watch the sunset over the Canyon.