two days away from McDonald's

We last updated from the McDonald's in Quartzsite, AZ and are again sitting at another McDonald's with double cheeseburgers in hand. Never before in my life has it taken me two entire days of traveling just to get to a McDonalds, but it was worth it!

From Quartzsite we headed for Hope, AZ. At this point it becomes difficult to continue without, in some way, including some sort of pun with the name of the city. Especially as we were traveling through other "towns" that seemed to have little more than a few run-down building and rusted cars and trucks. This, combined with the fact that we were not able to get ahold of anyone at the campsite, and the fact that the next campsite was not for another eight miles, made us all but give up hope entirely. After descending the most difficult downhill ride of our trip (the grade of the descent was not nearly steep enough to compensate for the poweful headwind that picked up along with the setting sun). We finally arrived in Hope, which consisted of nothing more than the Rambling Roads RV park/ mobile home park/ campround and a small convenience store that was already closed.

The campground in Hope turned out to be one of the nicest that we have encountered so far. It was peaceful and quiet, perfect for unwinding from the 50 miles of riding that day. The bathrooms were clean, the water delicious, and it seemed as if the place had been deserted for the season. We both had some fun taking pictures of the night sky.















Both of us are starting to learn how to appreciate things when we have them. Whether it be a warm shower, a quiet night, friendly people to talk with on the roads, fresh water, In-N-Out, the scenery, McDonald's, or just a quiet road that we can share, there always seems to be something that we can enjoy, so long as we take advantage of it in the moment.

The ride from Hope to Wickenburg took all day. After a breakfast of Cliff bars and coffee, we entered the headwinds and pointed our bikes up the mountains. Luckilly the winds would usually decrease as we headed up a mountain, but almost always returned during the descent or while we were crossing valleys. When comming from the side we sometimes had to lean a full 30 degrees into the wind just to stay on our part of the road. The valleys were full of dust storms and tumbleweeds. We were rarely without the company of the giant Saguaro cactus while riding through the Sonoran desert.




The landscape remained fairly constant during the day, but has changed a lot since California. Still surounded by mountains on all sides, the mountains themselves have started to change. They are no longer as tall as they were, and have transitioned into having darker (sometimes clearly volcanic) rocks. The brush is now commonly accompanied by Saguaro, Prickley-Pear, Barrel, and Cholla cacti.




Stopping at a food mart in Wenden we met two cyclists traveling in the opposite direction on there way through the Sierra Cascades and into Canada. One of them completed a 10,000 mile, six month tour last year that brought him to baseball games in all 30 professional stadiums. We learned a lot from talking with them, including that it is important to enjoy the food along the way. They recomended the Coyote Flats cafe in Aguila, and we stopped in on our way through that city. Passing through all of the closed cafes and business, and apprehensive of the resturant's exterior, we decided to have lunch there. Our meals were both delicious. Stuffed with onion rings we continued towards Wickenburg, and finally to a camp site.

Biking after too many onion rings:


We are going to spend today in Wickenburg and leave tomorrow in the morning, though we don't currently know what direction we will be headed in. We are waiting to get cycling maps for biking to the Grand Canyon. Hopefuly we will receive them at the post office tomorrow morning. We will spend today deciding if we want to go this route or stay on the Southern Tier.

Location:Wickenburg, AZ