Backtracking and Waylaying

Tuesday August 31. Today was a mixed up day. As I said I had to backtrack into Arizona to pick up highway 12 north through the Navajo reservation (apparently the largest on in the world). Then while riding it, I missed a turn somewhere and wound up on a dirt road. So I doubled back and took the first paved road in the direction I wanted to go. But either the government doesn't put up signs on reservations or the locals take them done, because nothing was marked. Anyway, luckily found a gas station (they are the new oasis), and asked the attendant. He straightened me out on how to double back and get back on 12. I've been gone four weeks and that's the first time I've been lost. There was a turkey vulture flying over me, but I told him he couldn't have me yet!

Then when I was riding to Canyon De Chenilly National Monument, I rode right by a couple of overlooks because I was focused on getting to the main gate to pay. As it turns out, it is a free park! So I doubled back for the third time today. But it was worth it. I got waylaid there by the beauty of the place. The Canyon is a miniature Grand Canyon, but only small in comparison. The Navajo used to live in it and farm on the bottom. It is gorgeous. Met a group of bikers there, three on trikes and one on a regular bike. They were all seniors. Had a good talk with them swapping stories and they gave me all their Colorado maps and told me some things to do and see, including another mountain road with lots of switchbacks and few guardrails, called The Million Dollar Highway. Have to check that out.

I spent a good part of the day there and then decided that I would head west again and into Utah, before doing all the roads in Colorado. So I rode west along more beautiful semi deserted desert roads towards Zion National Park. Didn't get to it before dark, so I am currently staying at Page Arizona, beside Lake Powell, which is a huge dammed resevoir for Vegas (I think).

One of the gases attendants I met today, told me that it hasn't been as hot this year and they have had more rain than usual. As a result the desert is greener than usual. Makes for nice pictures.

This is a the part of the trip I was looking forward to before I left. I love this "cowboy" country. I will visit Zion Park, Bryce Canyon, Arches National Park, the town of Moab, and Monument Valley over the next couple of days before heading into Colorado.

Petrified Trees

Monday August 30. Woke up this morning thinking that I'd like to do something else here before I left. I had thought about hiking down into the canyon, but it requires two days and you have to book it months in advance. So, I did the next best thing, I flew over it in a helicopter! Absolutely amazing! It was a beautiful, clear morning and the views were outstanding.

After that I rode back to Flagstaff (you have to to get out of the park) and took interstate 40 east. I'd decided last night to go and visit the Petrified Forest National Park. On the way I stopped at a place called Meteor Crater Natural Monument, that I heard someone talking about. It is in the middle of nowhere, but there is a big museum there because there is a massive hole in the earth caused by a meteor. It was originally thought to be something volcanic, but in the early 1900's someone proved it was caused by a meteor. It was the first confirmed meteor crater in the world. Watched an excellent movie about it. The guide said they could fit 20 football fields on the bottom and have seating for 200000 fans! It looks extactly like you would expect a crater to look like. In fact Nasa used this site to train astronauts for moon landings. And at this museum they have the American Astronaut Wall of Fame! Americans think of everything.

Rode a couple of pieces of Route 66 today. Met a group of 45 Norwegian bikers who were riding on 29 bikes from Chicago to LA along Route 66. They arranged the whole thing from Norway and drop the bikes off in LA. I can't imagine traveling with that big a group.

Then I drove to the Petrified Forest. Watched another good video presentation about how they were formed. The simple story is that over time minerals replace all the cells of the wood and although they look like trees and branches they are actually made of rocks and minerals. Really amazing. I entered the park from the south and rode through it to the north exit through the Painted Desert. This is another beautiful landform that looks similar to the badlands. The rocks are all pastel colours, of pinks, yellow, browns. Around every corner is another view. I spent a few hours riding through at a very leisurely speed along a mostly deserted road. Even stayed for the sunset which was terrific. Then I had to find a hotel. This part of Arizona is very unpopulated. I wanted to get to highway 12 to ride north to Monument Valley and Mesa Verde, but couldn't find a hotel. So, I had to ride an extra 25 miles east in the dark and enter New Mexico and lose an hour because of time change. So tomorrow I will double back into Arizona.

Grand Canyon

Sunday August 29. Left Sedona early and rode north along a very pretty road, past more red rock vistas and then following Oak Creek Canyon, through forests as it rose up to the plateau. The temperature fell, the wind really picked up and I was dodging another 'monsoon'. This one was headed north so I pulled over and left it get ahead of me before I proceeded. I had to put on more clothes and really fight the wind.

Rode through Flagstaff and then north to Grand Canyon. I found a room in one of the lodges right in the park. Checked in by 11 and then spent the whole rest of the day exploring the rim. This is the south side and offers a lot more viewing spots than the north rim does. Rode the bike 26 miles to the east entrance to check out more viewpoints. Then came back for a quick grocery type dinner and then caught the shuttle the park provides to a westward facing spot to watch the sunset. The canyon is beyond belief in its scope. It's only about 20 miles across but over 300 miles from east to west and a mile deep! I was listening to a ranger as he pointed out green colouration a ways down that looked like grass, and he told us it was actually two hundred foot trees! It is a gorgeous place to visit. I've been to the north rim twice, and am glad that now I have made the south rim too.

Arizona Sedona Desert Museum

Saturday August 28. Off to an early start this morning to go to nearby Saguaro National Park. Enroute drove through a gorgeous pass through a State Park. Beautiful mountains and lots of desert vegetation. Just past that and before Saguaro, discovered Arizona Sedona Desert Museum. Hemmed and haad before paying the $13 entrance, but I'm glad I did. Great information about the desert and the animals and plants that live in it. There were lots of volunteers manning different boths or holding different animals. I had a great talk with a gentlemen about the geologic structure of the valley it looks out over and the huge water problems that the area is having. Basically they are building cities in a desert with growing water needs and no more water to fulfill those needs. Talked to another lady about a kestrel bird she was holding. It's the smallest member of the falcon family. And another lady who was holding a Harris hawk. They are the only raptor that hunts in a cooperative group like a pack of wolves. Beautiful bird and deadly to jackrabbits and the like. They also had a presentation where they showed some of the animals. They had a ringtail (member of the raccoon family), a brown pelican and a porcupine. They also had a small zoo where I took the photo of the mountain lion.

Then I drove the interstate through the hot desert from Tucson to Phoenix. The land between the two cities is either desert or irrigated for crops, but it's basically flat. After Phoenix, heading towards Flagstaff, the land changes dramatically. It becomes much hillier, and the road climbs about 2000 feet over a couple of miles until it levels off on a huge plateau (and the temperature dropped a couple of degrees). That marks the end of the line for the sagauro. They don't grow over 3000 ft in elevation.

Found the cutoff for Sedona. It's a short, scenic road that leads to Red Rock County. The rocks on the mountains are all red. Beautiful. Drove through Sedona and headed south along the highway to Jerome. It was a copper mining town build high up on the side of mountain in the 1800's. When the mine went bust, the town became a ghost town, until the 60's when a bunch of hippies did the squatters thing. Now they own gift and art shops in the very touristy little town. From there back to Sedona for dinner, a swim and a sleep.

Who Woulda Thunk??

Friday August 27. I've driven about 10000 kilometres and only had about 15 minutes of rain. But now that I am in the desert?!.... I was dodging thunderstorms last night and again today. It rained on me a couple of times, but not enough to get really wet. I even changed my route and decided to head further south when the road I wanted to take through the Sonoran Desert National Monument had been flooded out by what they call "monsoons" here. So, I headed almost to the Mexican border to visit Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

Drove through gorgeous desert scenery, again along lightly traveled roads. The storms made for dramatic skies and also helped keep the heat down to a comfortable riding temperature. Rode past lots of saguaro cactus and palo verde bushes until I arrived at Organ Pipe.

After my visit I left because another storm was heading my way. I had to ride north along the same rode I rode in on. I had heard that there were problems with illegal immigrants and drug dealers crossing the desert here to get into the States. As I turned east on highway 86 I noticed two guys jump out of a car that was stopped on the opposite side of the road, facing me, and run into the desert.

As I passed the car, I noticed that the back end was crushed and the bumper was hanging on the road. A couple of hundred yards up the road and on my side of the road were two SUV's and a motorcycle. They flagged me over just as three more SUV's raced past us towards the stopped car. The motorcycle was damaged and laying on its side. The guys who flagged me over were border patrol agents and they wanted me off the highway so the other cars could chase the guys. Turns out that the car had failed to stop or ran from a border patrol check point and a high speed chase ensued. The three vechicles had pulled over to get out of the way of the chase. But the car sideswiped the first SVU and smashed into the stationary motorcycle. Nobody was hurt, but the officers were really pissed. Anyway, after all the rest of the border patrol vehicles roared by (about 10 of them), they allowed me to continue on my way.

So, it's all a matter of timing. 1) five minutes earlier and I would have missed the guys putting up the sign saying that the road through the Sonoran Desert National Monument was washed out and 2) five minutes earlier and I would have ridden right into that chase.

Aerial Tram and Joshua Tree National Park

Thursday August 26. Hot again this morning. Already 100 degrees by 9:30. Rode just out of town to the Palm Springs Aerial Tram. It's a cable car with a rotating floor (it rotates twice during the trip up or down) and takes you from the valley floor to the top of the mountain. A vertical rise of 7000 feet and a temperature drop of 35 degrees! At the top their are a number of hikes you can take around the mountain. Some are quite long. I did two shorter ones. One that took you around the valley on the top of the mountain and another that took you to a number of lookouts where you could look down on Palm Springs, or the windmill farm, or the valley and its highways. Scrambling and climbing over the rocks seemed harder and more tiring than I expected. I guess that was because of the altitude change.

Interesting to see the change in plants from the desert at the bottom to the giant trees at the top. I found a couple of secluded sitting places looking out over the valley and just relaxed listening to the wind, the birds and the distant thunder. Stayed for about three hours and then headed back down to ride eastward.

It was very hot again when I rode to Joshua Tree National Park. Just after I paid the entrance fee and rode in, it actually rained for a few minutes. Not enough to get very wet, but just enough to cool things down a bit. The ride through the park as beautiful. The Joshua Trees are very unique looking and there are other different types of cacti and succulents that reminded me of my days of collecting these types of plants with Tom O'Malley. There were very few people driving through the park, the road was good and there were lots of places to stop and look about. I made a picnic of a Subway sandwich I had purchased before entering.

When I left I had an hour drive, about 60 miles, to Blythe California, right on the Arizona border. It was along a good interstate, but it was busy with trucks, really hot, and there were thunderstorms above the mountains on either side of the valley, and it was really windy. I got blown around a lot. It was not a relaxing ride. The only good thing was there was a beautiful sunset behind me.

Arrived safely at a Super8, phoned Mom and then had a swim in another very hot pool. That's it, another super day.

La Jolla (la Hoya)

Wednesday August 25.
Today I went for a short ride north to the touristy beach town of La Jolla. I went because I wanted to go sea kayaking. Signed up with a tour group and was led by two nice young men, one of whom was interested that I was Canadian because he plays lacrosse with Canadians at his college and one of his friends plays for the Rock.

Anyway, getting off the beach was fun because of the waves. On the way to the cliffs we saw a number of four foot lemon sharks beneath our boats (they're harmless, so they tell me) and a couple of sea turtles. When we got to the cliff we saw a pelican rookery and sea lions basking in the sun. A large male sea lion surfaced right beside my kayak, that was exciting. The picture of the rookery actually shows more cormorants than pelicans. It was fun watching the cormorants try to land on these cliffs as they are better swimmers than flyers. Learned something else, their eggs have one side that has a flat spot that, you guessed it, stops the eggs from rolling off the cliffs. I wonder about the chicks? We were supposed to paddle into caves but the swells were too dangerous so we skipped that, but they gave us coupons to explore the caves from land.

After that I rode to the cave entrance and went down. Then I rode up a windy road to the top of a large hill where you get a great view of the area including the city of San Diego and the ocean area I justed paddled on. They also have a large white cross up there as a tribute or memorial to all of the casualties of the wars. All in all a great way to spend a day.

After that I rode inland towards Palm Springs. As soon as you leave the coast the temperature climbs. By the time I got here is was a 108 at seven in the evening. It felt like riding through a sauna. And it's humid! So much for the dry desert. Found a hotel, after turning down two because they didn't have a computer and am staying at a Ramada. Jumped in the pool, but it's hot too! Not refreshing at all. So I went for dinner at the nearest place I could walk to. It was a big beautiful restaurant/bar with a another big room where they were dancing! I had the largest breaded sole fillet I've ever seen, served with a huge yam and a bowl of chopped up fruit. Delicious. Then I spend a couple of hours on the computer updating my blog for all of you. I know, about time!

San Diego Zoo

Tuesday August 24. I spent the whole day today at the world famous San Diego Zoo. Great day and excellent zoo. It's more compact than the Toronto Zoo and has a couple of things that our zoo could use. It has a guided bus tour that is an great way to start your visit and it has an overhead chairlift for an aerial view. They have some different animals too, for example the beautiful

secretary bird and the okapi, which looks like it is made up of spare parts from other animals. They also have three pandas, six koalas and hundreds of other animals, some of which I had never heard of.

I got some notes from some of the African animals for me to deliver to their relatives on my safari!

I spent the evening riding around the harbour of San Diego and thorough the city looking unsuccessfully for an internet cafe.

Taking Care Of Business

Monday August 23. Spent the early morning relaxing in my room and on the deck of my cruise ship. Talked to Peter this morning and he told me that he sailed across the Atlantic on this ship years ago. Then I managed to find my way back to the interstate and ride south to San Diego, about a two hour ride. Found a Super8 motel right at the city limits and set myself up by noon. Decided to head straight to the zoo.

When I got there I called a local Yahama dealership to book an appointment to change my oil and replace my bald rear tire. They said they could do me today. So I changed my plans and headed to Chula Vista for service. Took about three hours but they washed the bike too and got rid of all the bug guts from the cross country tour. Actually seemed like a good place to get service, as it was the farthest south and farthest I will be from home, as this place is only about 30 miles from the Mexican border. From this point on, I'm making a leisurely return trip home.

Back to the hotel to do another chore: laundry!! But first I had to go to the local store to buy laundry soap and some food supplies. Tired, I relaxed in the room for the night watched some tv.

Queen Mary

Sunday August 22. This is a beautiful old ship. My room was about three times larger than the one I had on the Caribbean cruise that Terri and I took.
It's all done in wood and they have kept most of the old fixtures. It was like being on a cruise but not going anywhere. In the morning, being Sunday, they had a big brunch in the main dining room. There was tons of food and lots and lots of choices. So, I went at 9:30 and stayed for three hours, pigging out on course after course. Oh, I forgot, it was a champagne and orange juice (in seperate glasses) brunch. Megan would have been right at home.

I talked to another young couple on their anniversary and then a couple about my age who were they meeting a friend that they hadn't seen for 26 years. The wife had just bought her husband a Ferreiri! It was an older, used model, but a red Ferreiri nonetheless. I had intended to ride to a beach in LA and just hang out, but I was enjoying the ship so much, I just stayed there. Read my book on the deck for a while and then took a tour of a Russian

Scorpion submarine that was docked alongside. Actually if you expand the picture of the bow (by clicking on it) of the QM and look just to the left (port side) you can see the top of the sub. This picture is of the torpedo bay. Very interesting. I didn't find it too claustrophobic until I thought about a crew of 78 men!! Yikes.
In the evening, just wandered the decks exploring. That's when the nice desk clerk let me use the computer in the office to upload my photos, but it's been until now, before I could update the text.