RT66 Day 11: A GIANT PIVOT!
A storm, a bent derailleur, and a giant pivot! Cue the sound of screeching tires. In these stressful circumstances, we find little moments of perfection, like the recipe for a flawless Arnold Palmer. All wagons, head to Flagstaff!
Day 11: Chambers, AZ to Winslow, AZ; 83 miles, 1,591 feet elevation gain
74 miles on I-40
Day 11: Planned on Ride with GPS (big pivot)
Day 11: Chambers to Holbrook (direct) on Ride with GPS (Part 1)
Day 11: Holbrook to Winslow on Ride with GPS (Part 2)
Intraday Stops: Petrified Forest exit 311 (22 miles), Holbrook exit 289 (22 miles), Winslow exit 253 (36 miles)
This was a day of significant changes.
The day started with 22 miles of riding on Interstate 40 until the Petrified Forest National Park, yet a significant rainstorm was powering its way toward us. What we would later find out was that this became the wettest day in seven years in Phoenix. The storm just loomed in the sky above us. And for what it’s worth, wet pavement and rain would have been terrible on a day when we had to ride 74 miles on the interstate. The tractor-trailers are literally 5–10 feet away from you, cruising at 75–80 mph. That alone is daunting, but to add pelting rain to the mix? It could be deadly.
Let me rewind.
When we left the hotel, I started shifting through my gears, as I’m apt to do, and realized that my derailleur was hitting my spokes. Unbeknownst to me, during my gravel crash the night before, I had bent my derailleur hanger. As a result, my right shifter wasn’t responding when I tried to downshift. Dan told me that the hanger is designed to absorb impact and can even break, so we should try bending it back. Once we did that, I could ride again, but I still wasn’t able to shift properly until things finally got jostled back into place three or four hours into the ride.
This changed our entire day.
It meant that sooner rather than later, we needed to head toward Flagstaff. There are no bike shops in Holbrook or Winslow, though there is a Walmart in Winslow for Dan’s tire. We decided not to take the 70-mile joyride through the Petrified Forest into Holbrook. Rather than cruise around the park, we made our decisions right there in the parking lot. From there, we would either wait out the rain or continue 22 miles to Holbrook for lunch, then ride the additional 34 miles via the interstate to Winslow. That would put us within striking distance — about 60 miles — of Flagstaff the following day so I could get spare parts for my bike.
In Holbrook, Dan got his second flat.
We stopped at a diner called Tom and Tina’s, which probably had the best diner food of the trip so far. Barbara, our waitress, said her secret to an Arnold Palmer was to pour the tea first, then the lemonade, then top it off again with tea. It was amazing. We also had fried pickles, perfectly crisp on the outside and firm and salty on the inside.
The ride into Winslow was rough. It felt like the town was never getting any closer, no matter how much we pedaled. Then, out of nowhere, Dan’s buddy Noe from Arizona appeared on the shoulder of I-40 just to say hello. We decided to meet up after we all got into town. That lifted our spirits, even though we still had another hour and a half of hard riding ahead of us.
Then I discovered I had a slow leak — flat #3. We just pumped some air into the tire with a CO2 cartridge and kept moving.
We stopped by the famous corner in Winslow that inspired Take It Easy by Eagles. We finally made it to our grungy hotel — definitely the worst on the trip so far — just before my tire completely deflated.
Still, we beat the rain. Dan’s tire didn’t blow out. And my shifter had finally started working again, at least a little.
In high spirits, we got changed and headed to Walmart in search of a new tire for Dan and straps for me, since my seat-post bag kept dragging on the back tire. Afterwards, we spent a lovely evening having a beer with Noe, his girlfriend, and their Great Dane. It all felt like kismet, the way things somehow worked out smoothly despite everything.
Right before bed, I changed my third flat.
The score for the day? Dan and I are now tied at one flat each.
Finally!