Selfie of me on my bicycle wearing a lime green bicycle helmet, clear cycling glasses, a forest green buff, a sea green long sleeved shirt, and a backpack in front of the entrance sign for Petrified Forest National Park

Petrified Forest National Park mega thread!🧵

This was my main goal in crossing northern #Arizona (I'd already visited the Grand Canyon on my 2021-22 #BicycleTrip). I genuinely had no idea what to expect, & I was not disappointed. 1/20
#BikeSky #BicycleTravel #PetrifiedForest

#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"So little had gone the way I hoped but I had made it.
Key West is still out there and I intend to get there..."
but that part of the story would wait a year and happen after 9-11.
I'm glad I did it.
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"As much as American culture rewards people to succeed,
it also seems to have an amazing element out there
that is discouraging people from trying something different."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
country roads are cute, but...
"I really missed the Interstate and those long open roads where I could back for miles."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
crossing the Mississippi
"Bridges over rivers like this are suprisingly tall.
...
It is just that they are man made and surrounded by air."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
consequences od a deep fat fried diet
"...an older population would naturally see a lot of funerals.
Nope, she assured me that these folks were in their forties and fifties."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"The bayous showed up before I thought they would.
I hoped the next surprise wasn't an alligator lying on the side of the road." (That came later.)
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"Being closer to the road, the dogs didn't have far to run before they caught up to me.
...
Some of the ones that chased me were big and right there defending every scrap of their territory...
What fun."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"...I dropped into a mega-mini-mart.
...lots of concrete, lots of gas pumps, and lots of shopping aisles.
Is this whole thing going full-circle?"
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"Going back after a week off wasn't without its problems.
...
The holidays were closer and I had just spent a week making no progress."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"I found that there is always someone out there who will do the same thing harder, tougher, longer, faster, or with more style."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"Kansas had gotten me so low that there was nowhere to go but up.
The bike broke and I had to just stand there and laugh at it."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"The rolling plains east of the Rockies were just extra work.
...
Working to get up them was enough to break a sweat, which then chilled me when I coasted down the other side."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"Evidently the waiter decided to learn more about software by ripping apart a machine or two to find out how it ran."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"It is funny to me that I had been riding east for a month now
and had finally gotten to the west." (Dodge City)
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"A state line is a poor reason to stereotype people
but an excellent reason to stereotype infrastructure."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"There must be some ranching going on
around this part of the country;
otherwise, why call a motel the Cow Palace?"
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"...I wasn't drawn to Key West as much as I was drawn to Seattle and my friends. It just happened that my route took me through Florida."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"The Pass was twenty miles away and 4,000 feet up.
I was starting at 8,000 feet..."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"I got the impression that the husband thought I was nuts.
...
Considering my recent experiencein Eastern Utah, I couldn't argue much."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"Of course because I was taking the day off, the weather looked perfect for riding.
...
I really had to rest my body though."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
(The European tourists) "...figured that Americans
who can ride across spaces like Eastern Utah
were impressive and nuts.
...
At that time I hadn't made it across yet
so I couldn't take credit for anything."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"A whole lot of lonely out there
really does describe how I felt..."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"...the roadside markers describe how a landslide filled the valley and ruined a town.
...
Mom Nature does Urban Redevelopment."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"...but I am sure the trailer passed within an arm length.
So much for side roads being safer than the Interstate."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"
"I could have gone farther,"
but that was a better refrain than
"I went too far."
"
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"The signs along the highway warning about severe dust storms and strong winds would be foreboding enough in a car. On a bike I felt quite exposed."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"At about 113 miles that was the longest ride of the trip.
My butt was sore and I was beat but I was one day's ride from another milestone..."
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"I got another lesson in bike touring at the motel front desk.
...
There had been a family of five biking from Maine to Alaska.
...
They were doing about forty miles a day, with a toddler along...
"
#bicycletrip
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#Flashback 25 years ago, Just Keep Pedaling
"As sore as I was, I had it easier than the cyclist on the evening news did. That day a paraplegic was starting his ride from Boise to Las Vegas."
#bicycletrip
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