I had a great conversation in the hotel parking lot this morning with Ernie (a Harley rider from South Dakota) and BB (with her husband from Colorado).  Ernie's Harley was parked next to my SVS so we struck up a conversation, and BB came along while on her way back from the continental breakfast.  We did the usual talking of motorcycles and politics and travels -- Ernie was very down to earth with a dry sense of humor (he said when his wife passed away a couple of years ago, a friend told him he was about to enter his second childhood; he told his friend that hell, he'd never left his first).  BB was tall and thin with a big floppy hat and smoked long cigarettes and talked about how her husband of 50 years was a "tight ass" but that she kept him young.

When I checked out of the hotel, I somehow mentioned to the clerk that I had cats at home, and she told me to hold on, that she'd try to help with any homesickness...and came back out with a two-day-old pomeranian puppy!  Cute little thing looked just like a gerbil with a snub nose.  Awwww.

I bumped into BB and her husband once again at Four Corners National Monument. I was somewhat surprised to see that there's an admission fee to go stand on a plaque, but, eh, whatever. The monument was surrounded by the area's ubiquitous Native American art stands, which always make me a little uncomfortable.

Look, ma, I'm in four states at once!

BB at Four Corners.

Exiting Four Corners put me into Arizona, which, annoyingly, had no state line sign.I ducked up back into Utah to do Monument Valley, which brought me back into Arizona.  It was pretty neat but I kept getting stuck behind SUVs.  Poo. And still, no state line sign. So I guess you'll just have to believe me that I was in Arizona this time around.

Monument Valley, UT.

Monument Valley, UT.

I stopped at the Kayenta, AZ vistors center, which ended up being brand new! I got to talking to the owner (Ron? Rod?), a Navajo man who's starting up the visitor center as his side business.  They're going to be adding a coffee shop and little stores around the perimeter.  He told me he can speak and read Navajo and is learning to write it, but that that's definitely the hardest part because of all the accents.

In Kingman...the Kingman curse strikes again! About 10 miles east of Kingman, my speedometer completely stopped working.  The bike ran fine; lights etc were all good -- just no speedometer or odometer.  The last time I was in Kingman, my chain clip came off and I had to drag friends to the Harley-Davidson dealership in town looking for a new one (in 120F heat in July).  I regaled this story to the clerk at Chevron, who was on a cigarette break and was watching me check for wiring shorts.  She told me that Kingman does, in fact, have a mechanical curse.  I believed her, too, because at that very moment, someone at the pumps couldn't start their car up and, after trying for a full minute, had to come get a jump.

470 miles today; 5348 miles total

Next Day --> June 20: Kingman, AZ - Cupertino, CA