Friday, April 12th – Day 10 – Almost Kingman to Kingman KOA

Best part of the day:    Bike shop accommodating taking in our bikes

Worst part of the day: Scolded for our dinner location

Distance: 12.4 miles     Riding Time: 1hr 36min

Bed count: 2                   Sleeping Bag count: 8

Got a chance to sleep in this morning as we have a very short ride day of only about 12 miles to the KOA. But, there was still climbing involved, of course!! The fire station’s back door was open early for us. So, we had our breakfasts, rolled our bikes outside and got ready for today’s ride. Before departing, we expressed again our gratitude to Chris and Jarod, our wonderful hosts. They truly exemplified the term “everyday heros” because that’s what they were for us. (The four of us with our “everyday heros”, Jarod (l) and Chris (r). Couldn’t thank them enough!)

It was about a mile’s ride before crossing under I-40 where our Historical Route 66 road turned upwards towards Kingman. All of the drivers, cars and trucks, were courteous except one a**hole who honked his horn and came a bit close as he passed us. We didn’t react as you never know what these types of jerks would do afterwards. Rolled into the southern part of Kingman where we encountered a neat, 60s-style diner and Kingman’s Route 66 Museum and Visitor Center across the street.

Peggy and Jerry continued on to the local bike shop about 4 miles up the road (whose owner, Heather, just happened to know our firefighter, Jarod!!) so that they could look at both of their bikes, most importantly Peggy’s.

After spending a little time in the Visitor Center (the museum had an entrance fee), we also headed for the bike shop under a threat of rain!!

(Fay with something from a bygone era!!)

Encountered a short drizzle where we pulled off for shelter for about 10 minutes before resuming. Still got drizzled on a bit before it cleared as we saw Peggy and Jerry heading to a nearby McDonald’s just as we pulled up to the bike shop. The owner, Heather, said they’d try to get their bikes worked on before closing. If not, she would drive them to the KOA. Fay wanted to add another layer of bar tape on her bike for added cushioning as she’d been experiencing some finger numbness for the last couple of days. Rob wanted to pick up a replacement tube and rim tape just in case! In order for the shop to store all of our bikes, we had to first unload all of our panniers and stash them in an out-of-the-way place before positioning the bikes so as to allow freedom of passage!! What a task! Peggy’s and Jerry’s stuff was already stored when we arrived.

The bike shop had some doughnuts there at the register and hot coffee for free! We each had one, too tempting not to indulge!! With our bikes and unloaded panniers inside the shop, the two of us set off to meet up with P&J.

Spent a few hours at McDonald’s waiting for the call from the bike shop which came around 3:30 to say that all of the bikes were ready. We walked over to a nearby grocery store, Basha’s, to pick up things for our evening meal for the four of us. With grocery bags in hand, we returned to the bike shop for our bikes. Now came the fun part of us all reloading all of our panniers

(After picking up our bikes. Owner, Heather (b/n Fay and Peggy) and her mechanic, Kyle, did a fantastic job! Only  sorry that we didn’t get Kyle in the picture, too.)

It was a couple mile ride to the KOA in a surprising light, but, short-lived drizzle.  (This is what greeted us as we pulled into the KOA!)

We crammed our two tents into a fairly small tent site. Somehow made it work. The site next to us would have been the better. Oh well, we were already set up when that bop-the-head moment hit us.

Dinner: Chicken Alfredo, Caesar salad and garlic bread. Crème-filled cookies for dessert which we had in their Rec room which had the microwave. Unbeknownst to us, the KOA didn’t want us using their covered pool table as a dinner table, but, they were pretty cool about it since we were almost finished. The office building closed at 7 unlike other KOAs which closed at 8. So, we had to scramble to finish eating and clean up before they closed!

(Our “breaking the rules” dinner location!!)

Nice hot showers followed. Had the cookies after showering, yummy!! It’s almost 8:30 and time to wrap this up for now and head to bed. A fair amount of climbing tomorrow and we want get an early start to beat the headwinds before they blow harder.

Until our next post….