Thanksgiving Motorcycle Trip

Instead of going to Utah camping like we have done for the past few Thanksgiving's, Brenda and I thought we would take advantage of the nice weather south of us and go to Phoenix to visit my sister and then to Joshua Tree NP. We left on Tuesday about 1pm and I hit up a site in Fresno on our way down to Myron and Andrea's. They had a feast waiting for us at the end of our day. Thanksgiving on a Tues???? tasted just as good. Myron and Andrea had enough food to feed an army, so we had a great time as usual.

Dang that is one good looking bike. Brenda and I recently got jackets to help shed the wind off and add a layer of protection in case...well..we would end up using this protection later in the trip.

Andrea and Brenda on the morning of our departure from there to Phoenix. We had about 550mi to go and not a lot of daylight (shorter days and the time change).

Picture of our shadows while driving at speed.
Just north of San Bernardino there was a great highway with cool rock formations.

More rocks

On our way to Phoenix I got this shot. We did not get to Phoenix until about 745pm(local time) and that puts our trip as 9 hours in the saddle with only 4 stops and a total of about 45min. My wife was a great sport and I can't imagine any other woman putting up with such shenanigans.

Before thanksgiving dinner we went on a short walk up these rocks and got this great view.

We had Thanksgiving at the Faber's and it was a great time. There was about 25 people there and enough to get a backyard game tournament going with a bracket an all. Single elimination sent my team to the seats earlier than I would have liked, but it was 1/2 my fault (as there were only two of us on a team).

Later that day we went up to a hill overlooking Phoenix and the sunset and sights were great. Weather down there this time of year cannot get any better.

A saguaro cactus skeleton/remains. They are such a majestic plant.

Brenda was very excited at the top of the hill and the sweet view.

I have about 15 sunset pictures to choose from, but they all about look like this. A Thanksgiving night I will not soon forget.

Some nice guy took our picture at the top. Don't we look happy.

In Arizona they have camera's set up along the road that act like a red light camera...except for speeding. This is total crap. These things are everywhere and take photos of your licence if you are speeding and then you get a nice little gift in the mail. Why do they have cops??? Is this really legal? While I know speeding is not legal, I think this camera this is quite an invasion of privacy and want to people of Arizona to outcry in protest. This is one liberal this that would not fly in CA.

Friday we left Phoenix and were on our way to Joshua Tree. I found d a guy on a message board I am a part of that had a house just north of JT. I gave him a call and his place was free for the weekend, so we were excited to check it out and see what we were in for.

Brenda and I stopped on the way to take this picture. We had to open a gate to get to the spot, but gates are just signs to keep the stupid people out.Brenda actually listened to me when I told her to hug the Cactus. I picked a couple of spines out of her jacket, but she did not get any in her skin.

The Southern entrance to JT.

After a short day (only about 6hrs) we arrived at the house. Sweet place that had everything we needed...including the very important HEAT. Hotels are nice, but it is always an adventure finding alternate places to crash for the night.

Classic appliances in this place.

Saturday we went into JT for some exploring and hiking

GS on the road.

Hike to the top of Ryan Mountain.

It was apparently a bit chilly (never got above 45 on Sat.)

Rain in the distance...on and off showers all day:(

The there was some sleet and snow.

Luckily the roads were not icy.

Here we are on a back road of the park.

Some roads were. I thought we would take this Geology tour road and check it out. It was a little wet, but the sand just soaks it in...or so I thought. We were pluggin along at about 15-20mph and then there was a little muddy spot and bam!

All of sudden we were both on the ground and the GS was on its side. Above are the skid marks and the GS pointed 180deg. from where it was originally pointed. I lifted the bike right away (after making sure my wife was OK). I was fine, as Brenda broke my fall, and Brenda was fine as well. She is one tough cookie.

About 3pm we were tired and went back to the house to relax. After a great nights sleep we woke up to rain...Crap. I hate rain while riding. We knew we had about a 9hr ride ahead and I said there is no way we are going to start out in the rain. All of a sudden we heard drip drip drip.........

The ceiling in the bathroom had a little leak. It does not rain very much in the desert, but when it does you find leaks easily. We got a few buckets and contained the water.

The rain soon stopped and we were packed and on the bike by about 930.

Another view of the house.

Not to may pictures on thee way home as we stopped 3 times in 9 hours and hit a bunch of traffic. Kind of a bad way to end a trip, but we feel very luck to have ridden safely the whole way and not had any problems. Home safe and sound now, so give us a call if you want more details.