Into the Navajo Nation

Day 9. You may have noticed gentle reader that I include an occasional brain teaser. Those of you who who spotted the spelling of "metafor" instead of "metaphor" give yourselves a pat on the back!
We left Mesa Verde for Teec Nos Pos & moved along at a good pace i.e. 12-15 miles/hour which makes all the difference.Nice weather & no major wind. In fact by the end of the day I was riding without a jacket for the first time.
Took 3 & a half hours to get to the 4 corners (about 50 miles). For those of you not in Colorado it's the south western corner of the state where Colorado/New Mexico/Utah & Arizona all meet. You can stand in all 4 states at the same time & there is a nice marker there. The site is controled by the Navajo & we found it to be sad place with the little booths selling nothing of interest. Hazel took the opportunity to take down her bike & ride for about an hour waiting for me.
I rode into Arizona & the Navajo Nation territory & past Teec Nos Pos (there is virtually nothing there) for an extra 6 miles so as to split the distance for my ride tomorrow to Kayenta. Mostly fairly gentle climbing through high altitude desert country. The road varies from good to quite rough & my chain came off once so I realized that my derailour needed ajustment.We were returning to Cortez for the night & as luck would have it we found a great bike shop there called "Kokopelli Bike & Board". Got there just before closing & they were terrific. Spent at least 30 minutes cleaning & adjusting the chain, derailour & brakes. Charge $5! I begged him to take $10 but they wouldn't take more. There is that type of outdoors person & bike lovers who are like that. Just salt of the earth.
Found a great little restaurant called Nero's for dinner. They were swamped as it was homecoming night. The usual sight of teenagers trying to act grow up. Not my favourite American tradition.

Finally I want to mention some special people who are on my mind. My cousin Torsten Press died in Israel after a long illness & our thoughts are with his wife Lolou & their children.
Our friend Jane McDonald who died recently in London also after years of fighting a debilitating illness that robbed this vital energetic woman of her ability to move around. She would have approved of my ride & I imagine would have loved to have participated. This ride is a way to honor her memory.
Finally a tip of my hat to my friend Bernie Kashmer who rode with me 10 years ago from Denver to Seattle but who couldn't come this time. I miss his preparing the population of each town along the way for my arrival! (always way after him). He had this natural ability to connect with all the folk we met along the way. I have always believed that we are all ignorant, only on different subjects. Bernie may well be an exception!
Tomorrow I will have ridden over 500 miles so will pass the half way mark. Man this is a long ride!!