Day 1 - Martinez, CA to Flagstaff, AZ

This was a busy week of shopping, packing and getting the bikes ready for the journey. Last night (Thursday) we loaded all the bikes and gear into Bill's truck and trailer.

Lance and Paul left early this morning destined for Flagstaff AZ. Google indicated a mere 11 hours for the segment, but reality was more like 14 hours. Bill, Todd, and Ed will fly to Albuquerque Saturday morning and join the second stage of the journey to our trail head in Trinidad, CO. We start riding West from Trinidad on Sunday.

Paul and Lance had an uneventful drive, though long and tiring. The following are highlights of their drive:

• left mtz 459 am, stopped fuel every 300 miles
• stopped lunch at barstow -panda express. 
• arrived at wrong truck programmed gps address of route 66 rather than west route 66 took 15 mins to backtrack to woody mountain rv park ON route 66. 
• bear picture inside entry of rv park. 
• dinner was sandwiches in RV park deli brkfst shop
• made good time overall avg 70-74 miles per hour truck ran superb and pulls grades like a freight train!
• weather clear and hot with 20-30 mph winds across Desert floor of Mohave and near Az border
• Temp was 115 at Havasu City with temps across the desert averaging 111-115. Wow!
• Set up one bed and cot in the air conditioned trailer. Retired at 8:30ish