Chris was up early making his way back to Phoenix. The rest of us had a few more days. We took advantage of the showers at the "View Campgrounds."
Classic shot looking back at Monument Valley
We stopped in Mexican Hat for gas and the best breakfast burritos ever
We than dumped offroad and made our way to a crazy switchback up to a rim
Once on top we worked our way slowly back down through….deep sand!
This is where Joe had a meltdown. He got off his bike and started yelling, "This is supposed to be fun! What the Bleep are we doing out here." I just let him finish his tirade and we moved on until we got back to the road.
Rob's chain got a little loose so Joe tightened it….then loosened it.
Instead of following our planned route offroad, camping outside Monticello, we headed straight for Moab and a hotel. Moab is the epicenter of outdoor adventures. People are riding through town on dune buggies, ATVs, dirtbikes and any other environmental terrorism device you can come up with.
We checked into the Rustic Inn and headed over to Moab Brewing Company for beers
We ended the night at some granola divebar that smelled awful.
The next day we left all our gear and drove through Arches NP
After Arches we went to the Islands in The Sky area of Canyonlands NP
The above shot is one of my favorites simply for the facial expression I was passing along to Joe. I have no idea why I looked pissed, but the headscarf made it priceless
It was a full day. When we got back to Moab we did another pub crawl and relatively early night. The next day we had to start making our way back to Phoenix. I was not looking forward to this. It meant riding about 300 miles each day for 2 days. My bike was not exactly comfortable for long distances, not to mention that I felt like I was in a washing machine when the wind whipped and semis passed by. One time I actually got blown across the yellow line into oncoming traffic but was able to lean back into the lane a couple seconds before someone passed.
Further down the road I saw a mini tornado whipping up some tumbleweed. Joe was in front and he kept going as the dust storm was heading right for the road. For some reason I thought as long as Joe was going, then it was ok. Well we timed it perfectly…right as the dust storm hit the road, we passed through it. It was like driving through a Nascar wreck where you just stay straight and hope for the best. When I came through the other side I had tumbleweeds stuck in every part of my bike. Normally I try to signal to Joe with a bunch of gibberish that we should stop, but this time I just pulled over right away to decompress and free the trees from my bike.
We all agreed that the next tumbleweed tornado we run into we would not drive straight through it.
We got into Flagstaff that night via route 66. We had a nice sushi dinner and played some pool. The following day we had a shorter run into Tempe. We dropped off the bikes and Ubered over to the hotel. I could not wait to get off that bike in one piece. I felt the whole trip that my judgement day was coming and somehow I escaped it.
The next morning we flew out. It was an amazing trip. A lot different from Vietnam, but just as memorable. I would love to make this an annual thing, whether it be bikes or some other somewhat adventurous excursion.
Until next time,
Darren
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