Day 3

Day 3; Joshua Tree to Lake Havasu City; 267 miles; 4 hours 58 minutes

We were supposed to start at Lucerne Valley today; however, we went a little bit further than planned yesterday. For that reason, we only actually rode 180 miles. Compared to our last few days, today was a cake walk!

The ride through Joshua Tree National Park was beautiful! The roads were winding through the park with Joshua trees all around, Cactus Gardens, and Skull Rock. My father and I have both been to Joshua Tree before on Boyscout outings, and I have fond memories of climbing on Skull rock with all my scouting friends. On this trip, we climbed up into the eyes for a couple photos and kept moving. (when it's over 100 degrees you dont want to stay in one place very long) Then we went to the cactus gardens where we were swarmed by bees while taking photos. I think it was because we were wearing cooling vests, (they hold water so we can stay cool while riding in extreme heat) and they liked the moisture. My father and I decided to get out of there pretty quickly to evade the bees....one bee had another plan.

As we rode away, my dad noticed that he had a new passenger for the ride on the mouthpiece of his camelback! The bee stayed there for a while before flying around between my father and his windshield. Eventually, the bee flew too high and was taken out of the safety zone by the wind coming off the windshield and was left behind.

We rode out to Interstate 10 and found a place to stop for gas. I swear we didn't know there was a FosterFreeze inside the gas station until after we filled up! Dad took a call for work while I went to check out some tanks that were at the General Patton Museum. I had to take a couple photos because my god-brother is a fan of wars and wants to buy a tank.

Once we crossed over into Arizona, we found a nice place to have lunch next to the Colorado River. We made our sandwiches at a picnic table, ate lunch and then I changed into my swimming gear. I use the term swimming gear loosely because I only changed my shoes before walking into the river; that's right, fully clothed! The rest of the day was spent riding through blistering heat (112 Degrees) to stay with our cousins Monika and Bob. My aunt Rosie made some delicious lasagna for dinner that we all thoroughly enjoyed after a nice dip in the pool. (I wore a bathing suit this time)

Much love, GK