Winter 1998 - San Diego to Cincinnati
Journals - 17 February 1998
Day 20
17 February 1998 (Kayenta; mileage = 77.2) -- X - Our take down was much
improved (<1 hour), and we got going right away. Right away, we started
climbing. We had a nasty head wind, which made riding feel like plowing a
field. It was also bitterly cold at times, and we wore our face masks
sometimes. We got to Tonelea and we found a post office and a box and
mailed back some dead weight. I also bought some groceries, in case we got
stuck somewhere. The real story at this tiny grocery store/P.O./gas
station/etc., was the horribly pitiful dogs who roamed around begging. One
had much of his fur (50% or more) burned or scraped away. His leg was
naturally healed from a serious fracture. They were so pathetic in the
freezing cold. Later on, we saw a horse and then some sheep wandering near
the highway (unrestricted). We had a couple of snack stops and a Pepsi at a
remote gas station. We finally hit the pass after about 6 hours of grunting
uphill. We finally got to Kayenta, where we stopped at the tourist info
place. The woman there recommended we camp behind Burger King. We ate at
BK, but 2 encounters with odd (retarded?) guys made us leary. We decided to
ride out of town. About a mile out, a stopped cop truck was there, so I
asked the two female cops what they thought. They suggested the (so-far
unknown) "RV park." So back to town to this place that was mostly a
laundromat but had RV plugs. There was noise and beer-bottle glass and dog
shit. What a mess! There was a cattle guard by the adjacent mobile home
park that was making racket. There was the obligatory, pathetic Navajo dog.
And we even had two (probably) drunk guys, who were pleasant, though
suspicious, talk to us. By this time, it was dark. The traffic had really
picked up; with so many (obviously) drunk drivers in this area, I didn't
feel safe on the roads. With 8 zillion acres of wasteland out there, there
was nowhere I felt safe enough to sleep. So the only game in town was our
only solution, the Holiday Inn. $66. I thought the Grand Canyon was big ...
I thought that RVs were big ... but this fee was huge, like the N. Dakota
rest stop turd. Just like it. This Navajo "nation" sucks. This town sucks.
This hotel sucks. I am not having fun now. Riding time = 7 hours, 40
minutes!
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