Anticipating a really hot day, we woke up at 5:15 and started packing everything up so that we could leave right after breakfast. When we went next door to the 'Crown Railroad Cafe' for breakfast, the hostess/waitress seemed like she could have used a few shots of espresso. Talk about a wet blanket. This was a forecast of what was to come for breakfast, as the food was rather bland. Anyway, we scarfed it down knowing that we were going to try and power through all the way to Palm Springs before another meal and hit the road.
If you've read my past blog posts, specifically from my Oregon adventure in 2011, you'll know that I have a history with ungulates. Leaving Flagstaff, we saw signs warning of deer and elk for the next 60 miles. About 20 miles into the ride, I spotted three bull elk grazing right next to the side of interstate 40 as we rode past. I pointed at them and it appeared to have startled one, but it started running back into the woods rather than toward the highway. Sphincters clenched, we continued onward with our eyes peeled on either side of the highway to avoid any catastrophes like the one in Oregon. The positive thing about traveling through northern Arizona is that you're above 5,000 feet for much of the ride which kept the temperatures down.
Descending out of the mountains though toward Kingman brought the heat. This was the theme for the remainder of the day and with my wife's encouragement, I dropped the hammer to get us through the desert as quickly as possible. At least there aren't any significantly large trees in the desert for deer or other large critters to hide in, making it easy to spot anything coming toward the road from the side. Once into California, we split off from interstate 40 onto US 95 south toward Vidal Junction. This road was actually in really nice shape and was pretty fun for the first third of it, with lots of curves and hills to keep things interesting. The further south we went though, it straightened out and just had a lot of dips and rises along the straighaways. Arriving in Vidal Junction, the dash read 94 degrees and there wasn't any wind. I wanted to come this way to see what the road looked like, as the last time I had been traveled this highway was to visit Chateau Denunzio in Parker some 30-35 years ago. Before heading west on highway 62, we used a trick I had read about and soaked our shirts with water at the gas station. Once underway, this worked like a swamp cooler once the wind was blowing through our jackets on the road. This only lasted for about 30-45 minutes though as the heat ended up drying them out pretty quickly.
The heat eventually hit 100 degrees before reaching a town(?) called Old Dale where some highway maintenance was being done and a flag man brought us to a halt. What kind of shit-list does a Cal-Trans worker have to get on to pull duty out there in the middle of the desert? As Kitty and I broiled in our riding gear, the pilot truck took it's sweet-ass time turning around in the distance to make it's way back to our end of the road work. Finally, it turned around and the orange-clad minion turned his stop sign around and beckoned us to go ahead slowly. Once we were clear of the pilot car on the other end I twisted the throttle all the way to the stop and we blasted off again.
The other reason that I went this way is because our daughter Haley had lived in Twentynine Palms for a brief stint a few years ago. Kitty and I questioned her sanity at the time and now that we were approaching the 'oasis in the desert' our previous assessment was confirmed. Haley, you were out of your friggin' mind to live out there (and we're really glad that you got out!)
Leaving the 'oasis' behind, we continued onward and finally arrived in Palm Springs. After schlepping our gear into the hotel room, we dunked ourselves into the pool and cooled off. We later enjoyed a nice dinner with my folks (as they were visiting one of their time shares in Palm Desert as well) and crashed sometime between 9 and 10pm from exhaustion.
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