Santa Rosa, NM to Flagstaff, AZ

 Todays journey was about 440 miles.  It was a good day, no rain and the temperatures never got above 90 degrees.

We began with breakfast at Joseph's in Santa Rosa on old Route 66.

Today the entire trip was on I-40 from New Mexico to Arizona   I am still having a problem using the new camera on the bike.   It appears that I don't press down the shutter release firmly enough to take the picture.  Also orientation is a issue it appears.

New Mexico, at least the northern portion we are in is a really scenic area.  The landscape is varied.  By contrast Arizona is more "blah".  At least the portion we rode through today.   There are, of course, more varied areas, but the part along I-40 is just "blah".

We traveled through Albuquerque and saw some unique signs.  One was for the Museum of Nuclear Science.  The other was a billboard advertising the local minor league baseball time the "Isotopes".

So here are some pictures along the way.

 When you enter Arizona on I-40 the welcome center is unique.   I don't know if the picture below will really show it but its far from you standard welcome center.  Look for little animals on the cliffs on the upper left hand side of the picture.

 We stopped at Winslow, AZ for a late lunch.   The town looks better than the last time I was there but it still seems like its slowing dying.  Why Winslow  you ask, The Eagle song.  The town has a square set aside to support the song's lyrics   Here are some pictures.

 We experienced several areas with signs warning of cross winds on the roadway, wind socks being use to show the winds direction and magnitude.  We did not experience gusty conditions in these  areas.  However on the 60 mile trip between Winslow and Flagstaff, we had some pretty good gusts.  Billy, following behind me said my bike looked like it leaned over about 45 degrees and I compensated for the gust hitting the bike.

The wind hits the bike and tends to push it across the road.  To compensate you lean into the gust.

Billy and I were talking about this at dinner and he told me he could see my bike lean over almost 45 degrees it seemed as I navigated the gust.  Billy did the same he said.

When I was on the road and during the gusts, I would look in the rearview mirror to see how Billy and the other biker were handling the gusts.   I could only see Billy's bike and it appeared to be unaffected because his bike appeared upright in my rear view mirror. There might be a reason for this.

We are all use to reference points.  In rear view mirrors it might well be the top and bottom or the mirror.  So, if my bike is leaning and Billy's bike is leaning, might it appear upright in my rear view mirror since the mirror is now tiled and the object I am looking at is not tiled and therefore still appearing upright in the mirror.  Any way its a thought.

Ok. Tomorrow the we start the reason we came out here again.  We hit Nevada, Boulder Dam, Lake Meade, and California.  Temperatures in Flagstaff are a low of 39 and a high of 78.  While Mesquite, NV has a high of 100.

Ok...   More tomorrow and I hope better pictures.