March 7, 2009
We arrived early to Saddleback Harley-Davidson so A) Eric could join the local HOG Chapter, and B) so that the two of us could get our mileage recorded by the local HOG safety officer.
It’s a contest of sorts in the HOG chapter to see who can ride the farthest. I am in the Sportster category and Eric in the Dyna category. After that we were on our way. The Jeep pulled the trailer just fine and Eric slept a good chunk of the way.
We arrived in St. George and stashed the Jeep and trailer at our friend’s house. His grandparents stay there at the house during a few months out of the winter and “ole John” commented as we were loading up our bikes, “I don’t think you’re going to get all of that on there.” He was only half way right.
After riding to the In & Out Drive In, and after losing our gear in the a couple of intersections, we decided that we would do some evaluating of necessary gear once we got to our friend Sunny’s house for the night.
March 8, 2009
We managed to shed one full bag, a helmet, a jacket, and a lot of food before we were packed and on our way Sunday morning. We made it into Zion’s National Park easily and it was a beautiful ride.
There was ice in spots and those corners had to be taken with care. After Zion’s it was straight into Arizona.
We climbed the roads to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon but the road was closed that lead to the Rim, plus there was a lot of snow. It was a bright clear day, but at 8,000 in the first of March, it is still really really cold. We continued on along the Vermelin (not sure on the spelling) cliffs. They were amazing! Truly a beautiful sight. We stopped along a scenic look out and read about a poet named Sharlot Hall. She apparently wrote quite a bit about the area and I tucked the name away into a mental file to look up later.
After that we went on to Cameron, which is pretty much the bridge to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Burly had told us that we had to check out the dining room inside Historic Cameron Trading Post. We hadn’t eaten all day so we decided that was a good idea. We devoured the largest Navajo Tacos that have ever been made!
Up the mesa we went from there to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
We arrived there right as the sun was setting so we got ourselves a camp site and hunkered down for an intensely cold night. Firewood was extremely scarce and after we ran out of wood, there was only one thing left to do: Sleep.
March 9, 2008
It was hard to get out of the sleeping bags this morning. A car had pulled into the camping spot next to ours after we had gone to bed. A group of students from Minnesota were on their spring break, “We thought Arizona was supposed to be warm!” was there lament as they were packing up this morning. We like wise packed up and headed out; only after we walked to the edge of the Grand Canyon.
WOW! It’s huge. Pictures and movies don’t even begin to do it justice. But as storm clouds were rolling over our heads and word that it was snowing already in Flagstaff, we decided that we should get on our way!
Rolling back into Cameron, a worker at the Trading Post gas station allowed us to charge my I-pod while we got gas and planned out our day. A tank of gas, a Rockstar, and a butter finger later, we were on our way. Heading for St. John.
We rolled along the Navajo Nation, stopping only for gas. Mesa after mesa, plateau after plateau, we just seemed to be climbing higher and higher and the temperature kept getting lower and lower. We stopped “in the heart of the Hopi” our Hopi friend Edward told us as we were munching on some beef jerky and neon gummy worms.
Apparently there are a few different tribes all on the “Rez” as they call it.
We were eyeballing storm clouds all day and at about 3:30 they caught up with us. Snow, Hail, and Rain were the impediments of the day and they pricked at us until we made it to Window Rock, AZ. After gas and small chat with a native waiting for a bus, and another native asking for money we were off heading south for St. John.
Coming out of the mountains and into the flatter lower ground was a big change. It has been neat to come down these roads that are built what seems to be right around the mesa. As we hit the lower plateaus the temperature had gone up a bit, but clouds were still blocking the sun from warming my hands and face. Making it to St. John and filling up on gas we had five more miles to log before we were at our camp spot at Lyman Lake State Park.
Here I am, catching up on blogs (even though I can’t post them yet) in the bathroom at the camp site.
Camping here has already been much more enjoyable than at the Grand Canyon just because it is so much warmer! I am guessing Lyman Lake is a man made reservoir, something like Palisades of Alpine, Wyo. But on a much smaller scale than the WYO version. The moon is nearly full and the skies have cleared off. It’s beautiful.
The weather was nice, but overcast so we still bundled up a bit for a full day of riding. 
We set off on I-15, but stopped in Temecula, Ca at the H-D dealer. What a refreshing difference as we were well received there in contrast to the cold reception in Yuma.
From Temecula, we merged onto Ca Hwy 79 which took us to Ca Hwy 371. What a blast! Until this point I had a pretty bad impression of Ca, mostly due to the brown streaks that had been left in my underwear the day earlier on the freeway. But Hwy 79 and 371 were so much fun and good riding! They were twisty but still straight enough to get some good speed going as well. 
It all got even better once Hwy 371 ended and we continued east on why 74. There was a stretch on Hwy 74, right before we came into Palm Desert, Ca, that swept back and forth and again was a motorcyclist's delight! 
Along the fence that was around the foundations people have hung shoes. Yes, passers by have dropped off old shoes. Some with notes to passed loved ones and some with the date they passed by on the highway. 
Our first stop was at the In & Out Drive In. We ate at everyone we came across on this trip. I'll bet I ended up eating about 12 In & Out burgers on the trip all together. 
From here we checked out the London Bridge which was purchased and relocated to Lake Havasu. It set a record as the biggest antique ever sold. 
We headed on out of town we were going to keep going, but we were tired. So we turned around after we had left Lake Havasu City and got a motel room. These were the end of our camping days.
