Phoenix, AZ and San Francisco, CA

I'm back in Brooklyn now but I wanted to jot down the remainder of the trip so I don't forget everything (bad memory).

After Ryan and Cissa (nicest people I've met in a long time) picked us up in Globe, fixed my bike (condenser not grounded..ughhhh), and cooked us tons of food, we finally began the last stretch of our journey to the west coast. We drove a mile down the road and stopped to buy a bunch of water for crossing the desert. Matt picked up the basket of water and helmets and pinched a nerve in his back. He couldn't ride a moped or even sit in a chair normally. The Cruisers end up taking our mopeds to San Francisco, while we fly. Almost coast to coast. Close enough.

San Francisco was a blur of partying, burritos, and amazing rides. The Creatures held a great rally and are all sweethearts.

When I get enough money to buy a Flickr pro account I'll upload all of my pictures from the trip.

More New Mexico and some Arizona

Sunday we left Albuquerque. There was no way to get onto rt 60 without fording a river and riding for 15 miles on the highway. We ended up riding into the night with a full moon shining. The terain looked like another planet. We camped out in the nicest campsite we've been to on the trip. There even was a pile of firewood waiting for us at our campsite. The next morning we met a guy (Art) at a gas station who showed us a black powder six shooter he carried and told us about how he knew the one of the guys who captured Geronimo. Camped out in the woods near a rest stop. None of Matts lights work now.

Blasted down the Apache Mountains into the Salt River Canyon. So amazing. I'll upload a boring video of our decent onto Youtube soon. My bike blows a condenser and the magneto side seal. Fix that but now I can't get the timing set correctly for some reason. Luckly we were only an hour outside of Cruiser territory so they came and picked us up (best people ever!). Really excited to hang out in Tempe. It's nice to see moped people again. Ryan has a cdi/hologen bulb set up that Mahoney would cream his jeans over.

New Mexico part 2

Yesterday we went out to see Matt's cousin, who lives off the beaten path in the sticks. After shooting guns all day we went and got Mexican food out of a truck on the side of the road.

New Mexico

We camped out at Summer Lake state park. Getting there was rough. Spent the entire day driving on flat open land with no gas stations for hundreds of miles. At night we were riding on a highway with a speed limit of 70. Huge trucks on one side, mile long trains on the other. The wind from the trucks going our direction add 2 mph; the wind from the trucks going the opposite direction minus 5 mph and almost knock you over.

We screamed down the mountains into Albuquerque two nights ago. Having huge towering mountains all around you with the city glowing in the dark miles away made really happy that I didn't give up on this trip. We're staying with some friends of Matt's. Yay a stove.

Texas

After finally getting out of Oklahoma (we're stock again) we reached the flat land of northern Texas. We rolled into Amarillo at night and stayed at a crappy motel. Total trucker town. The next day we spent the night at the bottom of Palo Durro Canyon. If someone told me it was the Grand Canyon I would have believed them.

Oklahoma

We've been trapped in Oklahoma for a week now because we blew up our kits and I blew up my motor. Finally on our way to Texas.

Crystal Springs, AR

JC (scooter dude) brought us down 3 miles of dirt road to a crystal mine. Sweet. I have more pictures but I can't post them because my Flickr account has exceded it's upload limit and I have no money in my bank account to pay for an upgraded account. I wish there was a Washington Mutual bank out here.

Tomorrow morning we head west through Oklahoma into New Mexico.

Here is our new route to Arizona...


View Larger Map