Sunday, March 30, 2008

Made It Into AZ

The ride from Brawley to Palo Verde on Thursday was a long day leaving at 7am, finishing up at 3:30pm, fighting 15mph head wind the last half of the ride. Our young British who has been riding with an 'older' gentleman rolled into camp at 12:30 despite the head winds. Amazing, such strong riders. We're still in desert terrain with rolling climbs passing more ATVers on the sandy dunes with their toy haulers but starting to see flowering Ocotillos, cactus plants and palo verde trees. The only negative part of today's ride was having to share the road with alot truckers.

Our short ride of only 21 miles to Blythe on Friday gave us an opportunity to relax in the afternoon. Staying at the KOA, we definitely took advantage of the swimming pool and jacuzzi after touring the town and downing burgers and shakes at Foster Freeze. Our delicious dinner of tomato based lentil and rice with veggie and flavored with curry was prepared by the two British. I'll have to try preparing that for Kay upon my return home.

Saturday morning we headed off to ride into Arizona passing Quartzsite still parked with alot of snowbirds. Our route basically followed Highway 60, a long hilly road with no end in sight climbing 2000 ft elevation with a scenery of saguro cactus and mesa plateaus. After sleeping on soft grass at the KOA, tonight we are back on a dry hardpack campground in small town 4 miles east of the town of Hope. Oh my poor back! But at least we did have another great pasta dinner. (Hey Geno, no mac and cheese yet!)

We will be arriving in Phoenix on the 31st, and having our first layover day on the 1st. So I'm hoping I'll get some pictures loaded up on that day.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Herb,
sounds like you are seeing a lot of what America outdoors is like.Enjoy the journey. You guys must burn up a lot calories during your rides. I guess the fun part is you get to put it all back but still you must end up losing weight.Anyway be safe and use your sunscreen.

Gilbert & Debra