(15) Time to Hit the Road Again
We’ve been off the bikes for about a week now. It’s been nice to take a break for a while. I ordered some gear for Neil’s bike so that we can move the GPS back and forth between them if needed. That has all been mounted up and installed now. I also ordered handlebar risers to lift the bars to make them more comfortable when we are standing on the foot pegs when on dirt. Those haven’t arrived yet so we will still have a bit of bike work to do when we get back before dropping into Mexico next month.
Neil has a friend from Alaska that’s living in LA now. We decided to take the car (thanks for that idea John!) and go to Palm Springs to meet him. It was good to see Gabe again. Neil and Gabe have known each other since first grade in the Spanish Immersion Program in Anchorage. We got together the afternoon we arrived, had lunch and hung out at the hotel pool for a while before Gabe had to go back to LA for work the next day.
The next day it was off to go through Joshua Tree National Park. It was pretty hot both in Palm Springs and in the park so most of the day was spent in the car. We did go on one short hike over some of the boulder hills though. Its no wonder folks come from a long way away to go rock climbing here (well bouldering actually). Many of the rocks where we went hiking had permanent anchor bolts installed for the climbers.
After getting back to Palm Springs we were able to meet up with a friend of mine, and ex-coworker from Credit Union 1 in Anchorage, for dinner and drinks. Then it was a long day of driving from Palm Springs to Green Valley, south of Tucson, to see Neil’s maternal grandparents. They moved down permanently from Alaska 6 years ago so it had been quite a while since either Neil or I had seen them. It was fun to stay the night and get to catch up with them. We left Green Valley on Friday (8/5) and headed back to Bullhead City.
There was time this weekend to finish work on the bikes and to try and stay out of the heat. It was right at 110 this weekend in Bullhead so we tried to stay inside as much as possible!
Tomorrow it’s back on the bikes again. The plan is to head to Mather Campground at the south rim of the Grand Canyon tomorrow. Tuesday will be a fairly short day with a planned hike in the morning and then ride around to the Grand Canyon’s north rim. We have reservations at the lodge there for Tuesday night. From there the plan is to head to just outside Zion National Park for two nights so that we have a full day to go in and explore the park.
At least that’s the plan as it sits now. I’ll probably check in again sometime after we leave Zion. In the mean time I posted some pics in the gallery of our trip through Joshua Tree.
