Set of at 6:00 for the 450 miles drive across the desert to Tucson in an attempt to get some of the journey completed in cool conditions. This also meant we got to see Marble Canyon and Vermilion Cliffs changing colour as the sun rose. Luckily by midday, when the temperatures were up in the 40s, we had made it into the mountains and pine forests where it was slightly cooler. After lunch, in a little village called Strawberry, we hit the real desert and just to make sure we knew we were in the desert there were large impressive cacti [View Full Entry]

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Hallo allemaal, We hebben jullie even een dagje rust gegeven . Moet eerlijk bekennen dat we gisteravond ook wel erg vermoeid waren, dus het updaten van deze site kwam er even niet van... Maar goed.... Waar waren we gebleven: Na een laatste ontbijtje in Palm Spring bij Ruby's Diner vertrokken we voor een relatief lange rit naar Scottsdale. Deze stad ligt zowat vast aan Phoenix wat de hoofdstad van Arizona is. Dit is volledig woestijn gebied en de temperatuur komt hier niet onder de 40 graden. Omdat we pas laat in de middag aankwamen, hebben we eerst ons hotel opgezocht (mooi [View Full Entry]

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Day 4 I have had great luck with finding hotels - was able to book a room inside the Grand Canyon park on the South rim just 4 hours ahead of time! I started the day with that great news and headed out over the Hoover Dam. It was full of people with no good parking so I snapped one picture not worth taking the time to upload right now. It was SLOW going over the dam… a little frustrating. So I was not terribly motivated to park and get out because I have driven over the Hoover dam before when [View Full Entry]

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2nd day in Grand Canyon I woke up at 5 am to catch the sunrise over the canyon. I was thinking “come on, is it really worth it?” but I was up so off I went… I missed the first shuttle that would bring me directly where I wanted to go and if I waited for the next one, I would definitely miss it so I hopped on one that went to a different look-out. First thing were several elk having breakfast off the road - pretty cool… Then sunrise- I missed it when it was just below the rim which [View Full Entry]

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So out from Cody and the Rodeo and a dry day to Vernal. More stunning scenary that changes frequently with tiered rock outcrops all at thirty degrees to the horizon, looking like huge slices of cake, lakes and resevoirs, canyons and gorges of terracotta rock. Vernal is another one horse town but the local council obviously decided to spend the entire budget on flowers. A properly hot (38.5C) day as we arrived at Vernal and I was first in the pool at the Dinosaur Inn! Neighbouring rooms were occupied by four guys coming back from the BMW Beartooth Rally. Three were [View Full Entry]

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Its now so hot by lunch time that even I have to take a siesta. Its regularly reaches 40 by mid-afternoon, so hot you have to drive along with the visor down or its like someone blowing a hot hair-drier in your face. Have another 300+ mile day to get from Moab down to Mesa Verde. Are still travelling through red rocky canyons interspersed with flat green plains. We never take the direct route and find two mountain ranges to cross en-route; the Red Mountain Pass, 11018ft and the Molas Pass, 10910ft through the San Juan mountains. From here the air [View Full Entry]

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Nothing serious though. Just a 10 mph job in some deep sand. Most importantly, the bike was unmarked. That's the good thing about sand, it doesn't ruin the bike. But if there hadn't been any sand, we wouldn't have fallen off. There's a philosophical conundrum in there somewhere. We were on a dirt road through Monument Valley, having spent a couple of absolutely superb days criss-crossing the arid landscapes of Utah and Colorado on the way down to Arizona. Highlights of these extraordinary states included: Arches National Park, Utah Funny rocks outside of Moab at su [View Full Entry]

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As most of you know, I'll be studying Mandarin Chinese language and Chinese culture as a foreign exchange student this fall at Sichuan University in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. I leave this monday. I'll miss y'all, but I'll return with novel, re-conceptualized thoughts and states of being to further mystify y'all with. It'll be good. Trust me. I know. I won't be able to celebrate Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, or my twenty-first birthday in America. But no worries: It doesn't concern me. Why let it concern you? It'll be cool. China's cool. Trust me. I've been asked a lot thi [View Full Entry]

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(day 2) Last night we stayed in Chinle, AZ. As far as we could tell, there's nothing fantastic about the town, but lurking shortly outside of the town limits is a spectacular place neither mom nor I had anticipated. I'm talking about Canyon de Chelly National Monument! This gem of a beauty happens to be FREE to visit at all times of the year. FREE!! However, to enter into the canyon, you have to pay for a guide who is a local Navajo. Since visiting the canyon wasn't even originally a part of our trip, we couldn't go to the bottom [View Full Entry]

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(day 1) My mom has always dreamt of going to Colorado, so we decided to take a road trip to Telluride. We took the scenic, smaller roads in favor of the interstate. Arizona has so many beautiful places, many lurking just around the corner. So many places, in fact, that we haven't even seen a lot of them. The Salt River Canyon was on our list of places to see. The Salt River Canyon is a short drive north on Route 60 from Mesa. The ground suddenly opens up and the road hugs the curves of the mountain. The Salt River [View Full Entry]

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