Wednesday, July 8 ALBUQUERQUE

ALBUQUERQUE, THE END OF THE RIDE....

Flagstaff is a nice looking place, nestled between pine forests with lots of golf courses and mountain architecture. Definitely a place to spend a summer playing golf or tennis, biking and exploring Arizona. It is 40 miles North of Sedona, another well known retirement community.

I got back on to the I-40 east and rode towards New Mexico. This freeway is one of the busiest in the nation , and the speed limit is 75 mph which is strictly enforced by highway patrols.

Driving here needs concentration.

Just before reaching the state line, I visited the last national park of the trip: Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest.

PETRIFIED FOREST

The Petrified Forest National Park is located in Arizona in the USA. Long ago the region was covered by a dense forest and mighty rivers cut across the terrain. Water caused by heavy flooding forced dead trees to float to a low lying swampland. In the deep quagmire of the swamp and having, in effect, been hermetically sealed, the trees were subsequently covered by layers of sediment.

Mud, sand and volcanic ash settled above the trees that gradually absorbed minerals from the surrounding moisture. Thus, hundreds of fossilized trunks developed that today are scattered across the prairie.

The landscape looks very much like the badlands in South Dakota with gorgeous bluish colors. and everywhere there are the remnants of petrifies logs that were concentrated here many millions of years ago.
Sadly, a ranger told me that the site has been and is being looted by the tourists, they lose 12 tons of rock PER MONTH!!

I spent some hours in the park, because the actual site of the petrified logs is 2 miles south of the freeway. It was a good way to come to grips with the end of the ride.

Coming into New Mexico, I stopped at the El Rancho hotel, whose owner Armand I had met on the road and where we visited a year ago with Carolina, Fernando and Melinda before starting my ride around America.

The, at 5 pm I came over a hilltop and saw the first sight of Albuquerque, 25 miles away.

Soon I was riding into town, towards Fernando's house.

I stopped at their gate and took the last pictures of the ride:

My tachometer stood at 22,134 miles. I had ridden 7,000 miles or 11,300 kilometers for Ak Tenamit, approximately the same distance as riding from Albuquerque to the tip of South America.

When I bought the bike last year and started my ride around the United States via Florida and the East Coast, the tachometer showed 9,500 miles, so my ride has taken a total of 12,634 miles or 20,332 kilomters.

According to Google maps, this distance is just over half of the circumference of the earth. It equals the distance from Albuquerque to Germany, on to Moscow, then Bejing, on to Tokyo, and then to the volcano Agrihan in the Mariana Islands.

I could not have imagined this distance before the ride.

I had ridden in temperatures that ranged from 110 F (43 Celsius) to 38 F (3 Celsius).

I had traversed snow covered mountain passes at 10,000 feet (3,000 metres), the bottom of Death Valley at 191 feet (58) metres) below sea level. I had been drenched by rain and blasted by 60 mph (96 km per hour) winds.

I had ridden between 300 and 500 miles (800 km) per day, starting at 7 or 8 am and sometimes earlier and finishing usually at 5 or 6 pm, but sometimes riding into the night.

Only once I was in danger of going down, on a patch of gravel in Idaho. Apart from that, I have only encountered good roads and disciplined traffic.

I had met many good and helpful people on the road. There was never a problem finding a hotel room or a home where I was welcome.

And above all, I have seen the the vastness and beauty of a great country, the United States of America.

Melinda had a room ready and I unpacked for the last time, getting all my stuff out of the bike.

It had served me well since I bought it here in Albuquerque a year ago to start riding around the United States.

After having settled in we drove downtown Albuquerque (in Fernando's car!!) to the same micro brewery as last year and met Lorenzo and friends. The welcome was heart warming! There was much to tell and ask.

And the beer was great! I has a Marble Red , an IPA and , since I did not need to ride anymore, I topped off with Double White Ale.

It had been a great end of my ride!

Thank you all who have supported the ride, who have taken me into their homes and company, everyone I have met on the road and who have contributed to the experience. I am left with wonderful memories and new friends.

I will not forget you!

Jean, the Riding Dutchman