As I pulled out of LSI's parking space on Friday, I began my trek back home. My plan was to break the ride up a bit more equally than what I did on the way out, so my first stop was Yucca Valley, CA. I spent a lot of time in Yucca Valley in 1985. In fact, that was about the only place to see first run movies other than the occasional one that was shown on the Marine Base in Twentynine Palms. For some reason, Yucca Valley was the larger of the two towns, with Joshua Tree, another sleepy town, stuck between the two.
I planned my route and loaded them into the GPS on Thursday night. My original route back had me following a large part of my route coming out to California. However, a brief chat with a co-worker had my change my route and try some different roads. It added a couple of extra miles onto the trip, but not enough to make me not take his advice and route. I still had to go through Bakersfield and Barstow, but then I would follow small roads into Yucca Valley. I arrived in Bakersfield just as the sun was setting. I'm not sure what it is about Bakersfield, but as I type this, I have close to 3,000 miles on my bike on this trip, and twice I've had idiots do stupid things that required me to be on my toes. Both times, in Bakersfield... Go figure.
The ride to Yucca Valley was interesting. The desert has two times of the day that really showcase the beauty of the southwest deserts. When the sun rises above the mountain tops and paints the sky with orange hues. Likewise in the evening as the sun begins to set colors seem to pop out in front of you. Maybe it's the lack of color, or maybe the lack of any real light other than the one the bike provides, but the night smothers all beauty, and light. Between Barstow and Yucca Valley, there is a town during the day, I'm sure it's nothing more than a sleepy little town, but at night it looks like Las Vegas at night from the distance. Funny how near total darkness makes things look larger than like at night.
I pulled into Yucca Valley and settled in for a few hours of sleep. I didn't really get a chance to see much of the town, it was after all dark. In the morning, as I pulled out of the motel, I looked around and didn't recognize the place. It has a home depot, Walmart, and a new shopping center. Holy cow, I don't know what's spurred the growth, but it has grown a lot in 20 years. The big surprise was how little Twentynine Palms had grown, there are a few new fast food places, but that's to be expected in any town. With all the Marines on the base and living around the base in 29 Palms, I really don't understand why that town didn't grow more, but now twice this summer I've taken a step back into my past and it's felt very strange.
Ironically, my younger sister has also been around a lot recently. Her son graduated from Marine Corps basic, so I had to go welcome him into the brotherhood. But this trip put her in my path twice. Originally, I was planning to see her only on the way back, but some road closure outside Phoenix put me blocks from her house, so I decided to stop in on the way out too. Today, I stopped in and had lunch with her and her family. I have probably seen her more this summer than I have in the past 20 years.
I wanted to go through Globe, AZ again since it was such an awesome ride. It didn't disappoint the second time out either. Unfortunately as I rode US 60/US 70 out of Globe, it heads into an Apache reservation. I passed through here on my way out, but it was a Sunday morning and maybe I wasn't looking around enough, but this time I noticed something I hadn't before; the poverty and living conditions.
As the sun set and I crossed into New Mexico, I knew it would be the last time I would see two lane roads for a while. It was back to the giant slab known as I-10. This trip seems to be made up of one desert after another.
