Phoenix to wherever... currently Lincoln City, OR.

I left Phoenix this past Monday, been on the road for the past four days. The first three were tedious to say the least. Three days of Interstate riding from Arizona to Redding CA. The only detour I made was through Mojave National Park, and that was still riddled with long straight stretches. sigh...





My route:

• Phoenix to Lake Havasu City, yawn, I now know where old RV's/Trailers go to die, somewhere along that highway. So many in various states of decompisition parked in lots along the way. I did have one bit of some nice curves shortly before Lake Havasu, but that got stopped by a traffic accident that required a medi-vac helicopter to take the people away. Nasty stuff. Plus a storm was threatening to blow in and soak me. Oddly enough when I was leaving the hotel the next morning, a couple parked next to me asked where in BC I was from(the license plate gave it away), turns out they're from Vancouver too and live about a half block away from me on the SAME STREET!! Small freaking world, what are the chances?

• Lake Havasu City to Mojave, CA. Not much to say about this, all interstate with a detour across Mojave National Preserve. Cool park, the densest forest of Joshua Trees in the state. A bit chilly up there too, they grow above 2000ft.

• Mojave, CA to Williams CA. All interstate, the most excitement I had was when a tomato hauler went by and sprayed me with tomato juice that was leaking from the truck. Yah, I wan't impressed by any means. BAH! At least it wasn't a hog or cattle hauler...

• Willams, CA to Eureka, CA via Redding. Things looked up once I hit Redding and headed West. Highway 299 from Redding to Weaverville is the bomb! It more than made up for the lack of twisties the past few days have served up. The engineering on the highway was incredible, back to back switchbacks and esses, perfectly banked corners, and relatively new pavement. The only complaint was a section was being repaved and they had it down to one lane with a pilot car. I showed up at the end of the line as they were going through. So once past the opposite end, I stopped for 10 minutes to let the traffic get ahead and BAM! no traffic, and a twisty road all to myself. The chunk past Weaverville to the coast was pretty amazing too, but didn't deliver quite the grin factor that the first part did.

• Eureka CA to Lincoln City Or. Can I say: FUCK THE COAST IS COLD! especially after spending the past few weeks in the desert and living with +35C temps for that time. I came out of the mountains on 299 onto the 101 not far from Eureka. Fog was rolling in off the ocean, and the temperatures were dropping rapidly. I actually had to pull over an put on an extra layer, in the space of 10 minutes I was starting to shiver and was in pain from the cold.

Same thing this morning, woke up, fog in, temp was around 8C at the most. I rode all day with my winter liner in my jacket, my thermal shirt that I use to ski in, the heated vest, heated gloves and two pairs of socks. Plus my rain proof riding pants that are also quite warm and I barely was able to be comfy. Ugh. I think I need to move to Phoenix now.

Oh well, one bright point of being here in Lincoln City is someone I know is here this weekend and I'm going to unload some of my extra non-essential gear in his car. Make more room for shopping on the way back. :D

It is nice to be back on the west coast again though. The plethora of Veggie restaurants/bakeries, rednecks bitching about the vegheads and hippies(yah, the guy in front of me at the hotel in Eureka was complaining to the clerk about the hippies living on the coast and how he couldn't stand it... The clerk wasn't the most corporate looking guy either, we had a good laugh after the guy left and it was my turn to check in.)

Tomorrow, maybe head to WA with stop in Astoria for some of that yummy beer I had before.