Rain on the Plains

We woke this morning to cloudy skies and a chance that we might be able to run to Flagstaff between two storms. That theory worked for about 70 miles and then the rain started. We made it another 75 miles in the rain to Gallup,  NM before we decided to stop and see what the weather was going to do. One of the problems we found with riding 66 is that they just paved over all of the contours of the land so, the water collects in the low spots and we were going through puddles up to the bottom of the bikes. We didn't want to run the interstate and miss 66 so after checking the radar and the hourly forecast for between here and Flagstaff (100% chance of rain for the next 8 hours). We decided to hunker down here for the night.

Pawn Shop

Rte 66 soda counter

We went into Gallup and checked out the local shopping center-a pawn shop that had thousands of pieces of indian art, jewelry and rugs and also an old fashioned soda counter that unfortunately was not serving.

The weatherman tells us that it will clear overnight and so we will get up early and make a mile. Since we missed Flagstaff tonight, we have a 315 mile ride to Kingman, Az tomorrow.

Sure is beautiful country to get stranded in!

views from  the hotel