Flagstaff

Last night we rolled into Flagstaff, AZ around 11 after driving eight
hours straight. The changes in geography are amazing between San
Diego. Heading down Highway 1, the roads were constantly changing
grades and direction but as we crested the mountains, the view went on
for miles. Going through Jacumba, we could see straight into Mexico,
stopping at all the boarder patrol check points where they saw two
white boys in a Navigator and waved us straight through. Catching a
glimpse of the boarder fences, they're pretty sad. No wonder we have
problem with illegals. Traveling 400 miles on the boarder we were
passed by on boarder patrol official surveying fences that I could
jump from a stand still.

Ad the terrain flattened, we drove through the Chocolate Mountains
that appear dark chocolate next to their neighboring red rock
mountains. In Arizona, the sun sets for an hour and you'll see a
mountain range two hours before you reach it.

Deciding to not bother with hotels, we started searching for a place
to park the car and sleep. Apparently there's a huge mountain bike
race here today and we rolled up on a herd of campers and RVs grazing
in the Wal-Mart parking lot, just like home. Opting to join the
watering hole, we slipped between the RV, made our beds next to the
bikes in the back and called it a night. After about an hour, we
started to feel the whole SUV shake and couldn't find the culprit.
Jolted awake, we realized thy the wind in Arizona goes from 0 to 30
mph in a flash... Hope that's to our backs when we ride.

We ended up riding 25 miles yesterday so we've decided to take a real
off day here, finally. The last off day we planned, we road 50 miles
in San Diego. For tonight, we have a house to stay at thanks to
warmshowers and tomorrow we go north for a couple days at the Grand
Canyon!

The weather here is surprising. Pretty cold wind day and night...
Looks like I'll be investing in some pants.