What a difference a day makes...
Day 8 - Kayenta, AZ to Bluff, UT (70 miles and 2,900 feet of climbing)
Yesterday, we did our best to recover after a hard day. We stretched, massaged our muscles, put on icy hot and Voltaren, took some Tylenol, and got a good nights sleep. Today, Shannon rode first because she was hurting the most yesterday, and we wanted to make sure she was ok. We started at 5am and it was soon clear that the pain in her hip and sciatica had disappeared, thank goodness. She rode strong all morning, and had no pain at all.
We rode through the Navajo reservation on the code talker highway, which was named after the secret code that was based on the Navajo language that was used in WW2. Along the road there were many Indian monuments, which were large rock formations. As the sun was rising, it was an awesome sight to see the monuments against a pink sky with a crescent moon in the background. We must have said "wow" 100 times as we gazed at the beautiful rock formations all day. Just before Robin started riding, Shannon and I crossed into Utah, our third state so far.
Robin took over at mile 28 and we continued to admire the sights. We were surprised to see the Forrest Gump scenic view sign, where Tom Hanks was filmed running across the country in the film. We got our picture taken by a kind German who had stopped to admire the view. The ride was mostly rolling hills at 5000 feet altitude, but there was one nice descent where I reached 53mph. The road was smooth and there were hardly any cars the entire way.
We all felt good and had our highest average speed so far. I have read a few books and watched a lot of videos on bike touring. Almost everyone says the first week or two are tough, but then it gets easier as you body and mind adapt. Hopefully, we are reaching that point.
