Day 20 No Flats July 1, 2001

After 4 straight days of @ least 3 flats a day ! had none today. About
damn time. ! did manage to break 2 more spokes. @ this rate ! may have that
wheel rebuilt by CA. The guy @ the hostel lied. He told ME it was 55 miles
max to Grand Canyon Caverns from Red Lake (the one on 64. Not one of the
other 2 that !'ve noticed so far). 81 miles today. He said "I live in Ash
Fork and it's only 13 miles from here. And it's all downhill so you don't
even have to pedal." After 8 miles uphill ! dropped into Williams, AZ on
Route 66. 12 miles @ Denny's. There were 4 tandems outside. They were enroute
from CA to the other ocean. Credit card touring. ! think the 8 of them had
less gear than ! have. Williams, AZ is @ 6,770'. Seligman, AZ is only 5,240'
It looked as though it might be an easy day. A big climb out of Williams and
then a 6 mile descent @ 6%. That's 1,900' to about 5,000' or so. ! got onto
Route 66 again. Then a climb up to 5,700' and a descent to Seligman, AZ. !
wasn't really hungry, but ! was hot so ! stopped @ the milkshake shoppe. It
was a total 50s thing. All outside. Shakes, floats, burgers. And DJs blasting
50s tunes. Lots of old cars out front too. On to Grand Canyon Caverns @
5,500'. The cavern goes down 210 feet. Still, ! was higher than ! was in
Seligman. @ least ! got lower than Denver for a little while. Tomorrow ! head
to Kingman, AZ @ 3,325'. The Grand Canyon Caverns are 40 miles from the Grand
Canyon and 150 miles the way ! came. They get their name because they traced
the source of the air coming into the cavern to the Grand Canyon. It takes 2
weeks for it to make it all that way. The guy that found the cavern thought
it was full of gold so he bought all the land around it. It wasn't so he
started lowering people 150' down on a rope for a quarter. Then they built
stairs and ladders. He ended up losing the cavern in a poker game. Then it
was sold to the family who owns it now in Denver. It's always 56* and 6%
humidity down there.