We arrived at the GC Caverns with plenty of time to set up camp, shower, do laundry. We went in to pay for camping and the girl told me it would be $40 (I was expecting $30). I said $40 to put up a tent? Another women standing in line behind me looked at me a said $40. We didn't have much choice at that point. The girl then said, well the sites without hook ups are $30. Ok, do they have a picnic table? She said, I really don't know I never go out there. OK. Can we move the tables. She said yes. Then we asked where the sites were and she said you can pick any spot that doesn't have an electric box. Mmmm.... does that make sense? What are we missing? So let's get this straight, we can pick any place to camp, may not have a table and you don't care where we go? She said yes that's it. I said where is the laundry ( I knew they had one)? She said by the showers. When I asked for laundry soap she said oh they sell that at the store ( a mile away, back by the road). Well now that makes a lot of sense.
We had a great night camping. It's just kind of a pet peeve of ours that places charge the same
whether you are in a big rig or a tent. But it's all good. It was a nice campsite anyway.
We left the next morning about 9 am after eating breakfast at the restaurant / store. Today's weather changed to very windy, overcast and much cooler. It snowed in Flagstaff where we are heading. The wind was blowing around 20 mph from the side. What a long day, not much to see today. Mostly had our heads down and pedaled. One of those days! We stopped and at lunch at the Roadkill Cafe in Seligman. Before we got to Ash Fork, I looked at the price of the campground versus the Ashford Inn and found that we could pay $30 to camp or $38 to stay inside. Mmmm.... Good thing we stayed inside. It rained and the temps dropped big time. It was 38 degrees the next morning! Brrrr....
The ride to Flagstaff was another tough one. The winds were swirly (that means mostly from the side, sometimes from the front and sometimes from the back!. It was downright chilly all day in the 50's. I ended up with my jersey, long sleeve wool shirt, heavy shirt, windbreaker and then my down vest! We stopped in Williams for a late breakfast. After Williams we got back onto I-40 and the shoulder really started to deteriorate. We have ridden on Interstates quite a bit on all of our travels. This was by far the worst. There were so many cracks, potholes and gravel that Hap had a lot of trouble navigating around it all. You also have to watch out for the little wires that come from all of the broken tires. They can be deadly on tires. We stopped several times to check the tires. Sure enough we pulled out a couple little teeny tiny wires. We were both more than ready to get to Flagstaff. I had us booked at a Motel 6 for a couple of nights. We planned to restock, regroup and recharge for the next section. There are several places that have over 100 miles without services. But we'll be ready!
