It never rains in southern California

I left Irvine and headed North. I don't know why, but I've always wanted to ride through Death Valley, and I'm a doer.

I came into the valley from Panamint Springs.



Death Valley has good scenery,



but on a note for a future trip, it would be better to camp there than just pass through.

Coming from Death Valley into Nevada, I got into Beatty, which is an interesting little place.



While in Beatty I learned of Rhyolite: A ghost town just a few miles back the way I came. So I turned around to check it out.



Rhyolite is a little more touristy than I hoped a ghost town would be. Not like there were vendors around or anything but I wasn't the only person there, and I was really hoping I would be.

It's pretty much what you would expect of a ghost town but with a few people walking around taking pictures. And while there is a house made out of recycled glass bottles, the strangest thing by far appears to be a giant lego "shemale" just off the main road:



I really have no idea what they were going for, but then again, maybe I hit the nail on the head.

In Henderson, Nevada I saw my first scorpion up close that wasn't in some tank:



Cute little thing, isn't it? It was promptly killed and flushed down a toilet. So long soldier!

While staying in Henderson, I took a trip out to the Hoover Dam.

Here's Lake Mead in all it's dammed glory:



This is what a road runner really looks like:



The cartoon was not true to life at all. We were all lied to by Warner Bros.! And there he goes!



This is Hoover Dam:



It is very large. For now that's all I have to say about it.

Outside Henderson, just past a donkey crossing, lies the fortress of Mt. Doom.



Well, actually it's Red Rock Canyon. I was told not to miss it but again, this is a place you want to do some HIKING, not just ride through. Though I'm sure it's more majestic on a sunny day.



As for everything else: "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas".

But no, actually I didn't visit Vegas proper. I'll have plenty of opportunities to go to Vegas later in life. I don't think I'll ever run out of people whom I can convince that is a good idea. Meanwhile I didn't have my walking shoes, or a confidence inspiring amount of cash on me, so I was actually just a few miles from Las Vegas and I didn't bother going to the strip or Freemont Street. Next time, people, next time.

So what am I doing now? When I left Henderson, it was raining. I rode all the way back to Irvine in the rain. And then it rained all the next day. All through it. It has apparently been raining here for the past 3 days or so. My friend said "In 5 years I've never seen anything like this."

Oh well, I'm supposed to be leaving.

I was all set to leave Irvine yesterday but a fellow rider, seeing me gearing up started talking to me and was telling me that "in the last 10 miles I must've seen 20 accidents." He's describing full size bumpers broken off and lying in the middle of the street and cars losing control and spinning out all over the place.

I'm not particularly scared of the rain. It's even pretty warm out here so while a little uncomfortable, the rain isn't that bad. The rain is friendly, with no lightning. Water falling from the sky is not going to keep me off my bike. It's drivers that scare me. And to me, the idea of a freeway full of SUVs that are all over the place because the people who drive them don't think they need to be careful in inclement conditions is terrifying. More terrifying than the thought of a pizza eating a baby.

So daring to be an inconvenience I called my friend and asked if I could maybe stay a few extra nights to wait out the rain at his place. He agreed. "Yeah, I would hate to have to go to a funeral for a friend because they came out to visit me."

It never rains in California,
but girl don't they warn ya,
it pours, man it pours.



ATV cat says:
"Hell is other drivers."

Southern California

I left Palm Desert for Irvine and took the Pines to Palms Highway (US-74). What a treat this road was. It twists and winds through the beautiful Mt. San Jacinto state wilderness.



I think turning onto the Banning-Idyllwild Panoramic Highway (US-243) might lead to the route that's more fun, but even though I stayed on 74, I was treated to a beautiful sunset on a great road:



I got in to Irvine and met up with my friend Alex who I haven't seen in quite a few years (like most of the people I'm visiting).

Alex works for a quaint little gaming company down here called Blizzard. You might have heard of them. Anyway, today I got a tour of their campus. Totally cool but I'm not allowed to talk about anything I've seen. It's all very top secret.

Most Wolf Raiders know to stay away from Ian, but some need to learn the hard way...

California, preaching on the burning shore

My last few days in Arizona were spent in Tucson and then Phoenix and in each location I stayed with an amazing adventure biker of whose passion for what we do impresses even me. I'm now seriously considering a dual-sport for my next bike. We'll see how that pans out.

Meanwhile, I made it out to California!



Let's compare the view from where I'm staying now, to where I was 2 weeks ago:

Palm Desert:


Sandy:


Oh but it is good to be in SoCal.

Today I rode through Joshua Tree National Park.

If anyone tells you to skip this place, they are clearly a traveler who is only concerned with the destination. It's full of spectacular views, great big rock piles to climb on, and truffula trees:



I also saw a dude who I can only describe as Jesus Of The Desert in his flip-flops, capris, poncho, and fly-goggle sunglasses. And the best part is, he was driving this:


I love it here!

I beat the cold!

The day after the Grand Canyon, I went out to Meteor Crater.



The meteor that left this massive crater was about half the size of the parking lot at the bottom of this picture:



About 50,000 years ago, this meteor hit the earth at about 40,000 miles per hour, and left that giant hole in the ground.

This is a picture of a rock. A rock that FELL FROM OUTER SPACE! How cool is that?!



I decided to pass on the Petrified Forest. I was kind of close, but how much I've been pushing myself the past few days had been catching up to me and I just wanted to head back to where I was staying and relax. So I skipped the Petrified Forest and didn't bother stopping in Winslow, Arizona to stand on a corner and see if a girl in a flatbed Ford would slow down to take a look at me.

Yesterday as I was packing up my bike, I started talking to two other bikers on a couple of dual sport adventure type bikes. Turns out they're up from Argentina, traveling the world on their motorcycles and doing a documentary about water scarcity. It's a problem that a lot of the world faces that most people wouldn't imagine in this country. These guys are doing some noble work so check them out at www.motodestino.com.ar (most of it's in spanish).

It was lucky I ran into these guys though because it was Matias who pointed out that one of my bags was leaking. The side compartment of my luggage system was leaking a green fluid...that's where I've been keeping some extra radiator coolant/antifreeze since my radiator issue in Austin. Crap. Luckily it was just the cap on the bottle that crakced and not the bottle itself so it was just a mess instead of a disaster. He asks me what the bottle of mysterious green liquid is and I explain it's radiator fluid because I had a leak in Austin so I've been keeping extra but haven't needed it. He points out that Sebastian's bike needs antifreeze because he's been using water and they can't bring the bike anywhere where the temperature is below freezing.

Sweet serendipity! This stuff has been taking up space in my bags for the last few thousand miles and I've been looking for a way to get rid of it other than just throwing it out. I gave them about half my supply. I would have given them all I had but the rest was packed deep in Mt. Luggage and it would have been quite a hassle to get it out and then repack. I'm glad I could contribute to the cause though :)

I then rode from Flagstaff to Tucson via Sedona and Payson through the Tonto National Forest.

What a ride. I may have added an hour or two to my total trip, but it was so worth it. Sedona was such a cool place, even to just ride through, and the ride over there was amazing.

After hitting a whole knot of twisties I ended up in a canyon along a river that was just beautiful.





And then I entered the Tonto National Forest on my way to Payson and it was also amazing.

Now most of you probably picture the same thing I used to when I thought "Arizona":



But this is more like it:



Now here I am in Tucson where it's 73 degrees out.

Morgue Anne

My friends and I film sketch comedy in our free time under the company name "Sick Kids Productions". It's an incredibly fun hobby. We even produced a DVD of our work entitled "Nuclear Justice". Behind the end credits on the DVD is the picture from the end of "The Shining", only instead of seeing Jack Nicholson in the crowd you see all of us. That photo editing job was done by Morgan, a friend of Kreg's [sic].

One day during this past year in which I had a job in Secaucus, NJ, I was hanging out with Kreg after work and he says to me

"Morgan said she saw you at work yesterday."
"...What? No. Must've been one of my clones." On a side note, I do have several clones running about.
"No she's sure it was you. She asked me where you worked and I said 'Somewhere in Secaucus.' She thinks you work in the same building."
"There are a lot of somewheres in Secaucus. Can't be."

And a few days later as I'm walking back in the building from lunch, someone driving by in a car yells out "SICK KIDS PRODUCTIONS! YEAH!"

Small damn world, huh?

Eventually, it falls on me to deliver Morgan's copy of "Nuclear Justice". After a few text messages back and forth, this process has quickly taken on the tones of a hostage negotiation. She was to get her DVD, and I was to get a pirate. I didn't really feel I needed a pirate, but it's important to not let people think they have all the leverage. I even decided to throw in a munchkin. I can't remember why there were munchkins in the testing room that day, but there were.

It was apparent that neither one of us wanted to be the first one on the scene. After all, if you show up first it gives the other side time to observe you and plan an ambush. So as I was furtively glancing around a corner into the hallway like I was playing "Time Crisis", I caught a glimpse of Morgan furtively glancing around a corner into the hallway like she was playing "Time Crisis".



We made the exchange and she gave me a packet of ketchup along with the pirate. That left me feeling pretty good. Did I miss my calling as a hostage negotiator? I think so.

When I found out that the pirate separated into two parts, and inside was a treasure map, I kept it a secret. If she didn't know there was a treasure map in there, and I told her about it, she could call dibs and get the pirate back. That's pirate law right there.

I figured I would find the treasure on this trip, and now you know my real reason for leaving. I told her about the treasure map while I was in Dallas, beyond the boundaries of any repercussions, but she knew it was there the whole time. Did she already get the treasure? Did she take the real map and switch it for a decoy that points to the other side of the country? It's too late to worry about it now.

Anyway, her blog is pretty damn funny and she is amazing as a special effects artist. Morgan will make a zombie costume that will have you convinced the end is nigh and looting your local grocery store (with apologies to the Walgreens in Alamogordo). We agreed that rather than compete for followers, we would just link to each other's blogs on the condition that I draw her as a turtle as a peace offering. Hence the button to the right. She decided to make an exchange of it. So we each created a custom avatar for each other, her being a real artist and me being an MSPaint turtle-artist. Check out her blog, The Asylum follow it, enjoy it.

Out of the cold

There was a break in the weather on Saturday and the temperature got up to 45°F which was the warmest it was going to get, so I took the opportunity to book it south as fast as I could. I spent a night in Cedar City in a party apartment with some very cool musicians/students.

Sunday, I left Utah behind



and arrived in Flagstaff, Arizona where I'm staying until Wednesday.

On my way I ran into some trouble. About 100 miles out of Cedar City, I filled up my tank in Fredonia, Arizona at Judd Auto Service. As I drove away from the gas station I thought "What's that noise? And why is my bike all wobbly?...Oh crap. I have a flat tire."

I turned around and rode back in to the gas station where I asked them if there was anyplace that could repair a motorcycle tire around here. The guy behind the counter gives me like 6 different places to call, but all of them were closed on Sunday. So I ask if they have a plug kit or something and while they don't sell any there (or they were just out of them), Steve, the mechanic there had one. He found the hole in my tire, plugged it, and filled my tire back up with air. It looked like it was holding. He got me on the road again and didn't even ask for anything in exchange.

I've been checking my tire pressure every time I stop and it's holding steady. This is my personal thank you to the good folks at Judd Auto Service.

Today I went to the Grand Canyon, which has been a major destination of this trip.

The Grand Canyon is indescribable but for it's name. Sitting on the rim of the canyon, I just felt nothing. But the nothingness was vast. Talk about "mind blowing". There was wind and space and millions of years and me.

It is absolutely futile to bring a camera to try and take a picture of the Grand Canyon. It is good to have a camera along to take pictures of stuff you find in the canyon, and around the canyon, but no picture can do justice to the canyon itself.



Hardly makes the cut.

Walking around the canyon rim for a few hours is just the smallest taste of it. Ideally, I would be here with enough gear (and proper shoes) for a 2 or 3 day hike down into the canyon. I'll just have to return one day for that experience.

Just remember: