We have reached over 6,000 miles on the bike. Every one worth it. We have hit some crazy weather and strange situations but we really are having the most incredible time. After Phoenix we headed north intending to get to Flagstaff but we heard news of a storm headed our way so we went to Arcosanti. Arcosanti is an incredible artists community 2 miles outside of Cordes Junction near Mayer, AZ about 80 miles or so south of Flagstaff. We walked around Arcosanti for a bit.. you should check this place out online if you aren't familiar with it already..
www.Arcosanti.org
It was too late for us to camp there (you have to be registered by five and we didn't know where the tent sites were so we couldn't even just go for it) so we were leaving and headed up some stone stairs and we saw a snake and it was huge.. I have never really been afraid of snakes until this one started rattling! oh and hey, guess what.. rattlesnakes are really very fast! So we grabbed onto each other and had to fly up the stairs next to it and run accross the way to the bike and we took off like scared little babies. We ended up having to camp about 2 miles away at a weird motel RV joint where we basically had a small patch of dead grass to sleep on.. but we were still aware of the fact we were in the desert and there were still rattlesnakes, scorpions, etc. So we got a couple of beers and sat at this stone table next to an 'arcade' outside of the motel and saw bats chasing moths and the biggest slowest beetles I've ever seen! Eventually we felt tough enough to sleep and we got about four hours in before the sun started to rise and we took off north.. we drove over 700 miles that day to get to the Salt Lake City area (Ogden) and spend time with my dear friend David Thomas Owen IV. we stayed up with him until three had a couple of beers and talked about old times and the trip and just our lives in general. We had a great night sleep in the guest room of the gorgeous new house he built with his lovely girfriend Jeni, their new black lab Bella and cat Mr. Buddies. The next morning Dave made breakfast and coffee Jeni went for bagels and we had breakfast hung out and walked Bella in a lovely park nearby. We ran into some drunk men fishing in the river one named Al who begged me to go dancing with him soon, then proceded to try and hook onto my tank top while repeatedly dropping the cigarette he had lit but wasn't even smoking from his lips.
Then Dave took off to give guitar lessons at a local music shop and we took off for Park City. I love Park City it is a beautiful very affluent mountain town that has hosted winter Olympics as well as the Sundance film festival each year. After cruisng around there we were east bound (sigh) again.
Tonight we are in Mayer, UT and tomorrow we will be in the Denver/Boulder area. Today was a beautiful ride through the mountains. Joey said it was his favorite ride yet. I enjoyed it but I still can't choose a favorite we have experienced so many incredible places.. just one beautiful destination after another..
more soon,
much peace and love
