Day 23 – Take it Easy!

This morning I get up and almost immediately spot a bedbug in my bed…. I can’t believe it!  I rush to the bathroom to get a tissue so I can pick it up to show the management, but by the time I get back it has disappeared.  Now I think I am imagining things… I look in the whole bed but can’t find anything.  Every so often I look back and yes there it is.  I get it and its full of blood; obviously I have been bitten again somewhere.   I look for more of the little buggers, but it seems there is only one.  Now I am thinking this must be a hitchhiker from the Ponderosa in Moriarty two nights ago.. this gets me thinking about my feet.. I wonder if they were in my socks and thats why my feet are so badly bitten.  I washed all my clothes yesterday and tumble dried so the heat should have killed them.  I turn all my socks inside out to look for bodies… nothing. I don’t think I can make a complaint based on one bug.. I do believe I brought it with me, I just hope it hasn’t laid eggs here.

Last evening I managed to dismantle the GPS mount so I don’t need the keys.  Will see if I can fit it today, then on to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon.

I have sorted out more crap to send home, so first port of call is the post office. That done I stop off at a hardware store for some supplies to fit the GPS mount.  I fit it to the handlebars but the wiring needs to go to the battery that is under the seat, which is under the big bag… Ok that will have to wait until this evening, I’ll stop a little earlier to give myself time to fit it once I have unpacked.

On the road to Flagstaff… A couple of quite interesting stops on the way, but first a little bit of dereliction;

more  closed businesses, which I do find more interesting than some of the thriving businesses along the route.

Then I come across Jackrabbit.  I thought this was a place, but it is a trading post.

and good ole Jack hiself

Don’t ask me… no idea.

A little bit further on is Winslow.. route 66 runs through here on two roads a block apart, one heading west and the other heading east.  Of course I am on the west bound road, nothing spectacular to report, however my map/guide says there is a statue “waiting on the corner” on the eastbound road so I cross over for a look see.

Ahhh of course, it’s the Eagles song ‘Take it Easy’… the lyrics go:

Well, I’m a standing on a corner

in Winslow, Arizona, 

and such a fine sight to see. 

It’s a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford
slowin’ down to take a look at me. 

Come on, baby, don’t say maybe. 

I gotta know if your sweet love is

gonna save me. 

We may lose and we may win
though we will never be here again. 

So open up, I’m climbin’ in,

so take it easy.

Now I like the Eagles, but it never occured to me that this was that Winslow, quite the surprise.

After that its back on the i40, bypassing places with names like Two Guns, Twin Arrows and Meteor City.  I could turn off for a look but I’m having a shit day and the weather is poor, looks like it is definitely going to rain.

Just before I rejoin 66 at Winona it starts raining 😰. I stop at a rest area to use the loo and put the covers on me and the bags.  OMG… I am covered in bites… I don’t understand it, have I unwittingly brought a colony with me… But I washed my clothes and all the clean stuff is in vacuum bags so the little blighters couldn’t have gotten in them.  Most of the new bites are in my groin area, so either the last hotel actually did have bugs or they are in my trousers.  This is making me miserable, I itch all over and I can’t trust the hotels…. I wanna go home 😭😭😭
Arrive at Flagstaff in the rain… It’s cold as well.. Who would of thought Arizona in August would be cold?  More misery, I hate the cold. I stop for a Starbucks to cheer myself up.. I don’t know what people must think as I sit here scratching, (no not my groin), the bites on my neck, chest, ears and upper thighs…. Boo bloody hooooo

It is now 5pm, too late to ride to the Grand Canyon today.  Time for a decision…

Do I

A. Keep riding and find somewhere to stay on 66 and drop going to the GC?

B. Find somewhere to stay tonight in Flagstaff and go to the GC tomorrow?

C. Find somewhere here tonight, miss the GC tomorrow and just continue on Route 66?

Decisions, decisions.  I have only ridden about 100 miles today so if I want to go to the GC tomorrow something else will have to go, probably Las Vegas…. Ummmmmm

Ok so I will stay here tonight… It’s too cold to carry on riding, well for me anyway. I’ll decide re GC or not in the morning.

I need to find a pharmacy and get something for these bites… I want some advice on how to get rid of the bugs, if they are in my clothing… Sigh. I google to get some advice.. wash on high heat and dry on high heat.. righto.  I have booked a hotel, they are really expensive here, I suspect it’s because it is the nearest city to the Grand Canyon so a very popular area. The hotel has guest laundry facilities so the first thing I do is get all my clothes and put them in the wash, including the ones I just washed and some I haven’t even worn… I just have to get rid of the possibilty that they are in my clothes.  There is one vacuum bag that hasn’t been opened since before the start of the bedbug drama, so I get something to wear out of there and go to Walgreens, a massive pharmacy chain, to get some bite cream.  I pickup  some cortizone itch relief and spray on calamine lotion… that should do the trick.  I have got clarityn which I am taking, not that its helping much to be honest.

Have a look, its like this all over… :-((

Sorry its been a moany old day, hope for a better day tomorrow.

 

P.S. Didn’t finish the GPS mount, couldn’t be bothered.