CC20 - Day 31

California – I'm back. At least back in the state. Right now I'm in the South, Palm Desert to be precise. The route from Kingman, AZ to Palm Desert, CA brought me to my "traditional" destination I always visit when I'm in the area: Oatman, AZ. I just can't get around this town, first the road to get there is a lot of fun and also the last chance for some nice cornering before heading 150 miles West into California.

I have this photo probably a dozen times ...

Not many donkeys roaming around today

No comment ...

I hadn't seen these before

There were a few donkeys roaming around, not as many as there are normally. These were along the road to the South of Oatman, but I didn't get a photo of these. In Oatman, I scratched a few ears and then headed on, it was just too warm to stick around.

The way into California was rather sad, temperatures up to 42C/108F were challenging and the road was rather boring:

Through the desert into California

Made me beat my own record in freehand riding (Disclaimer: professional rider, closed course, don't try at home),which is rather sad since it means that the road was mostly straight for around 90km without any curve worth mentioning, only a single stop sign at an intersection in the middle ...

Route Day 31

CC20 - Day 30

Riding today was super nice. Beautiful scenery between Flagstaff and Sedona, although quite some traffic (that's why I didn't take photos there, it was just too busy), then some beautiful riding in more remote areas. 

Lonely Backroads in Arizona

Some nice curvy riding

I rode from Flagstaff to Kingman, both in Arizona. There is a direct freeway connection, but I took a nice detour and had a lot of fun doing so.

Route Day 30

CC20 - Day 29

My route today was supposed to be "not too bad". I use Butler Maps (or the Rever web app) for planning and they have roads marked in yellow, red, and orange to mark super nice sections, great sections and ... yeah, that "and" is a good question. Today was a lot of orange – and it was booooooring. The first 30 miles or so out of Los Alamos were really great (yellow and red), the rest of the day, which I clicked together from mainly orange sections was not any more exciting than a freeway, only less traffic.

Anyways ... I really enjoyed the first part and after that it wasn't too bad since I didn't have to fight into the wind again. Wind was manageable today, other drivers were a different topic though. From time to time I seem to run into a person which seems to be "slightly" unhinged, which I just can't explain any other way than "used the last two brain cells they had left to start the car they are sitting in and now it's all instinctual idiocy". Today it was some crazy woman in front of me at a light regulating single lane traffic in a construction area. Suddenly she put her car into reverse and started backing up towards me (yes, she had seen me). I honked and she started screaming like a banshee ... I got off the bike and asked what she tried to do and all she did was keep up the screaming. The driver behind me saw it too and when we looked at each other we made the same hand gesture – indicating what we thought about the mental state of said woman. It wasn't flattering.

I've had about four or five encounters with weird people like this on the trip now, and it just confirms my general opinion of humanity.

I'm obviously in the West again

And this was some of the less interesting landscape to ride through (because it looked like this for too long):

Arizona, near Cameron

A long, but not very exciting day today.

What I've noticed for the last two days is how much the dry air can affect me. I drink a lot more again, my nose dries out significantly more. On the other hand, the clothes I wash in the hotel room sink are dry in the morning ... 

Route Day 29