This was a day of big contrasts. Cool weather - Hot weather, Rain - Dust Storm, Calm - Windy as heck.
Flagstaff to the edge of the desert:
Sunrise was beautiful in Flagstaff, AZ and the air was cool and dry. Flagstaff is very nice - higher altitude with the piney woods deal going on. The road out of Flagstaff climbs to the Arizona Divide and then it is a long decent into the valley and then on into the desert. The beautiful ride and view was quickly extinguished as we ran into a heavy rain storm. The last thing I expected at this point was to be pasted by a guy on a motorcycle. I had my wipers on high and was holding onto the wheel with the roller coaster grip and this guy blew by on a touring bike with the appropriate gear on. My thought after "organ donor" was this guy must be either really stupid, really skilled or a bit of both. I had the sense of dread that I would see him again and not in a good way, but he must have had the skill to push through a crazy rain storm on two wheels.
Quick Observations:
Arizona has a strange enter stripe with embedded reflectors in little indentions in the road - sorta a rumble strip in the middle of the road.
Some Indian words are virtually impossible to figure out how to pronounce.
Going to California in a wagon would be really tuff.
Ria the dog has it made sleeping in the back all the way.
Long Trip across the desert:
The ride across the desert started out very nicely and I was impressed by the whole scene out the windshield. While not quite the canyon lands, I did have a bit of coyote and roadrunner thoughts as I descended into the desert. I was struck by the fact that they name every little culvert that does under the road. Big ones get the wash designation and smaller ones get the ditch naming convention. Van winkle, old man, and more colorful names got me to thinking - hmmm would our current President get a wash or a ditch? You decide.
 |
| searching for Aliens or possibly Texans |
 |
| Texans found!! Felt better instantly |
 |
| Colorado River. |
It is amazing what a little water will do. The Colorado river creates a beautiful stripe through the otherwise desolate landscape. I don't know the history of Needles, CA but my version would go something like the James McMurtry song about Levelland TX where he opines "on the great migration west, wagon must have lost a wheel for they lacked ambition". In this case when the wagon got to the Colorado River any sane muleskinner might say - this looks like a good spot, I'm tired of battling the sand, hills, and oppressive ever present wind.
 |
| Another Punch Buggy |
 |
| Ria taking in the breezy conditions |
All of a sudden my phone goes into alert mode sqawking an alert that to my ears normally means a thunderstorm but in this case it was alerting me to an impending dust storm. Being a West Texan I had to smile and think to myself - good thing we did not have this alert growing up as it would be a constant interruption. To my eyes the horizon did not look that bad and I did not think anything of it. Well soon enough I was in a blinding dust storm with a howling wind that graced me with it's presence for the next 3 hours plus.
My truck bucked this wind for the rest of the journey even after I turned off of 40 to head west on 395 which borders the Sierras on the east side. To put in nicely - it sucked.
The further north I got on 395 the wind was not too bad and the scenery got better
 |
| rolling into Bishop time to eat and take a nap |
No comments:
Post a Comment