From Arizona to California

Wednesday was much better than Tuesday was. I woke up in Arizona (after arriving at 11pm- pacific time) and had nothing to do except assemble a bike, ride and grocery shop. Mark and Florida-Asheville Mike were both arriving around noon and our trip was "officially" starting then. The boys arrived with no delays (figures) and we got the bikes together and it was time to PEDAL!!

Our ride took us from Rachel's to South Mountain on a canal path and then on some killer fun single track. I could have ridden all afternoon but after a couple of hours we needed to get back. I always forget how much fun the fast roller coaster desert single track is.

After a fun yummy dinner with old friends, it was time for bed. Thursday was going to be a long drive...

Today (Thursday) we made the journey from Arizona to California. It took forever to assemble our stuff in the tiny rental car. We sent ourselves a bunch of stuff, including a bike rack, so we didn't have to buy stuff out here and could rent a much smaller car. The small car makes for some interesting packing. It was a lot like a jigsaw puzzle; both in the trunk and getting the bikes on the rack. The frustration was worth it... we saved about $500 on that minivan we were going to have to rent.

My one and only request for the 5 hour trip to California was to stop at Joshua Tree National Park. Interstate 10 goes right past it and I LOVE Joshua trees. I'm not sure why but I have a thing for them; they are only found in a very small part of the world and Joshua Tree NP is one of the biggest concentrations of them. I was very excited. So we stop at the park and head past the visitor center... Hmmmm, where are the Joshua Trees?? We are in a NATIONAL PARK that is named after them. We drove for 20 miles and saw NONE. We went back to the visitor center only to find out that we had to drive 45 minutes into the park to even start seeing the trees. I was SO UNHAPPY!!!! We didn't have time for that. I think it is false advertising..they should call it "Joshua trees way-in-the-park-and-a-lot-of-other-stuff-until-then NP". As you can tell, I am NOT over the whole thing. I really wanted to see those trees.

After my HUGE disappointment with Joshua Tree NP we continued to Fontana to get settled in our hotel and ride the course. What a pleasant surprise!! The course is in great shape and they have re-routed the big trouble spot of years past. We had a great pre-ride. The weather was beautiful also. It would almost have been perfect if we weren't breathing the gross smog of the LA basin and paying $3.65 for gas. Have I mentioned that California is NOT one of my favorite places??!! The Joshua tree thing did not help the state's score any....

Mike has been taking pictures so hopefully I can get some of those tomorrow to post. We've got some great shots of the packing of the car. For now it is time to get some sleep. Tomorrow we pick up our number plates and do some more pre-riding.

Thanks for reading...