The easiest & most scenic day.

Day 14. We had breakfast at the charming Macys Cafe. The sort of place that would fit in to the Tattered Cover (a wonderful book store in Denver that is a must see for any visitor to town).
So only got on the road at about 10am. There are 13 miles of rolling hills until one gets to the descent into Oak Creek Canyon. I was a little anxious because the day before I had taken my bike to a bike shop to clean the chain & make sure the tires were adequately pumped up. The owner (who wouldn't charge for the service because thats what cyclists do for poor sods who are riding all the way from Denver) said that he didn't think it was a safe ride. The road was narrow, no shoulder & lots of traffic but going down the switchbacks I was going faster than the cars so had no trouble just as Daniel had suggested the night before. Also the cars were very careful & I had the most spectacular ride of the trip. Also stopped along the way to drink the water from an artesian well that the forest service brings to the side of the road & it comes out through 2 pipes & flows into the stream. Locals come & fill the biggest canisters they have to take home this water. It is the purest water anyone can drink & has been flowing through the earth for hundreds of years. It was wonderful to drink. Again thanks to Daniel who told us about it. There is no sign so you have to know about it. I suspect it suits the locals perfectly that way as this place is jammed with tourists.
The total ride was only 1 & a half hours & 30 miles & the scenery through the canyon was magnificent.
Sedona is a special place & we will spend 3 nights here before we leave on Monday for the last leg of the ride. Northern Arizona was beautiful. Now that we are at lower altitude it has warmed up a lot. Today the temp was 90F. The average in October is 78F. So a bit of an unseasonal heat wave. Hope that this passes as we get closer to Phoenix. So it looks like it will be summer style riding from now on.
Now to enjoy what Sedona has to offer. May be no blogs till Monday unless I can figure out how to get the photos from the camera onto the blog.