Brrrrr...

Man... got back from the desert on Saturday and I have to get used to the cold all over again. Not that it was all that hot down there, but it was warmer than it is up here.

I found a place to live down there so I took a picture of it. I still have to get the internet service connected, so I'm not moving in right away. Nice little spot, huh? Only gets up to 120° in the summertime. OK, so I'm not moving there but I can dream, can't I? Actually I never knew this cabin was here on my last trips to the valley, so I wanted to check it out. It was an 8.5 mile walk, round trip. Funny thing is, you can see this cabin from the hot springs if you know where to look and have some binoculars.


Although the weather was mostly pretty good as you can see in the pictures, a couple of evenings we had some clouds which made some quite spectacular sunsets.




A regular thing for me now is riding my bike across the valley and this last picture is the view I have on the way. I just love this view and have quite a few duplicate pictures of it as a result, all taken on different trips.




On the way down we came across an older couple coming back from Thanksgiving at the springs. They had a flat tire on a Toyota, but no handle for their jack or to let the spare down from the storage area. Of course I had the thing they needed so Cliff and I stopped and changed their tire for them. The flat tire was bald so no wonder it went flat. Flat tires are common on that road, but riding on a bald tire is really pushing the envelope. I put the other tire that they had on the vehicle, but that one had been patched and who knows if it would hold. I certainly would have hated being in their position, they still had a couple of hours of dirt road before getting to a paved one.

But the reason I brought it up is that I want to say that if you go out in the desert with questionable equipment, like bald tires and no jack handle, you are relying on putting someone out of their way to help you. For me, one of the last things I want to do is impact anybody else unless it is a true accidental breakdown. Some things are preventable if you take reasonable precautions. But then, after we left these folks we ran into another person who was broke down. Their problem was more severe.. a broken transmission line or hole in the pan where they lost all their transmission fluid. At least they had a small motorcycle and were getting ready to ride into town on it to get help.

My ride out on Saturday was totally uneventful, only passed one vehicle and he was still rolling. I had a great time down in that desert, and I'll be heading back soon... no doubt! More pictures at my Web Album.