Flagstaff, Arizona

Flagstaff, Arizona. 6th February 2007
I stopped in New Orleans for a couple of nights sleeping in an empty apartment near the French Quarter belonging to a friend of Marty’s. It was so cold that I slept in the kitchen and heated the room with the oven. New Orleans was interesting - I listened to some good live jazz and enjoyed the Cajun food. From there I rode for 9 hours to reach San Antonio, Texas. There wasn’t much I wanted to see in between, so a long blast on the bike and a whole day in San Antonio seemed like the best idea. I stayed with a guy called Dan who used to work with Gareth at Soft. Very kind of him to welcome a cold, wet and smelling of road biker I thought. Saw the Alamo of course and had the starter motor changed on the bike. Expensive but its been playing up, so I thought I should have a new one fitted. From there another long ride to Marfa in Southwest Texas to see the Chinati Foundation and Donald Judd’s sculptures. The landscape in that part of Texas and in New Mexico is breathtaking. Some of the roads took me across mountains of over 8000 feet and it was bitingly cold. I had to stop to warm my hands on the cylinder heads even though I have heated grips. Beautiful winding roads, I videoed some of the best bits by taping the camera to the front of the bike. I rode through the White Sands desert and stopped for a night at a place called Silver City and spent most of the following day at the nearby Gila Cliff Dwellings, built by the Mogollon at the end of the 13th Century.
Today I’ve traveled only a short distance and spent several hours the meteorite crater not far from here. Its three quarters of a mile wide and is the best-preserved impact crater in the world. And although its 50,000 years old you can still clearly see a crater much as it was when it was formed. Tomorrow the Grand Canyon.
Mileage: 7265