I slept in a FREE beautiful campsite last night in Canyon, de Chelly near the town of Chinle, AZ

I’m afraid that today didn’t go as planned. When I got out of my tent this morning, the first thing I saw was a flat tire from a nail.

Well I couldn’t do much about it so I didn’t let it ruin my day. I picked up camp and called a tow truck and they took me down to Gallup, AZ to get a new tube and the tire patched.

You can see that the color of the trees in the campground were pretty from this picture.

I decided to overnight here in Gallup, NM. Tomorrow I head to some old stomping ground of Albuquerque. There I plan to do fun odds and ends.

Partial list includes:

6k maintenance on my bike

Replace chain and sprokets

Fix accessory plug

Replace clutch cable,

Plus several other errands and odds and ends.

Luckily I will be doing all the work myself and there aren’t many parts to buy so the work won’t be too expensive. Most of this will actually be a little fun. Unless things don’t go as planned.

I have a couple friends in ABQ, one of which I am staying with and he is kind enough to let me use his garage, tools and knowledge..

I looked at the routes to ABQ from Gallup and basically all there will be is interstate motoring. 🙁

I never did see Canyon de Chelly. If weather holds, I might head back that way after my ABQ visit instead of going to White Sands. Time will tell

I side tracked my trip from Monument Valley today and wound up in Page, AZ. I’ve been having a slow oil leak from the sump plug (Oil drain plug) of my bike. I didn’t have the right tool to tightening the bolt. I ran out of spare oil too so I decided to see if I could get both in Page, AZ.

I got both items but ran out of time to ride to M.V. so I decided to overnight here. The day wasn’t a loss. I got a much needed bath for my motorcycle. I also came across some ballooners gluing up the inside of the balloon. The adhesive strengthens the fabric.  I never realized how large these balloons are.

Tomorrow, onward to Monument Valley.