Weekday Riders Joshua Tree trip 3-17-10, flag ceremony and a great way to end the day...NOT

Joshua Tree 03-17-10

Click on the pic of Barry in front of the house getting ready to leave to see the Picasa Album.

Above is the most important stop in the whole damn park.

Not too bad, to the left, with Laine's jeans on AND my chaps.

This pic above I think turned out really cool.

We met at Coco's in Brea all layered up for the morning ride. I figured out that morning it was going to be about 59 degrees until we hit Indio for gas, so I layered up accordingly. Bub of course only wears 3 layers-thermal turtleneck, sweatshirt, jacket. He never needs anything else.

One of the things I did do was take some Benadryl because I have allergies, especially in spring when everything is blooming and in the air. Aside from a dryness in the mouth, it seemed to work really well. Preparation is KEY on trips.

Left pretty much on time when the rest of the guys got there. Stopped at the Cabazon rest stop then went to Indio for gas, zoomed on over to Cottonwood Springs entrance to Joshua Tree.

I had read all about all the flowers that were starting to show themselves but we didn't really see any. I realized later that you have to HIKE up the trails to see the flowers, they're not on the side of the road.

First stop getting the permit/pass to go in and since I went to the non-profit org's website that helps the park out, found out they had pins specific to Joshua tree, so we got pins. Bub also bought a $10 senior pass that allows him to go to any National Park anytime for LIFE, and take whoever's in the car with him (or on his bike).

Tooled on up the road and first stop was Cholla Garden, a cactus garden. It was our first OFFICIAL photo op so we stopped, stretched and took pics. Wasn't really impressive, it was pretty in its' way, but had a gravel parking lot which meant we were very careful getting out.

Next stop, Skull Rock. Interesting formation-looks like one of the Coneheads from Saturday Night Live. I took another pic of a rock that looked like a hand clenching something or putting a hand over a face.

I took some pics from my bike at times & felt like stopping on the side to take a pic of a really interesting joshua tree, but never did.

After that was Keye's View. Pretty nice, you could see the Salton Sea and the San Andreas Fault. I pointed the fault out to some of the guys. I did get some interesting artistic pics and a pic of the most important place of the whole park.

When everyone was down at that important place, the guys were chatting about lunch and since I looked up some places online, I said why not try The Route 62 Diner. I had mentioned it to Rick earlier in the day when I asked if he had any ideas about food. One of the other guys knew exactly where it was so he led us to it. I had the address but he had been there before which was a lot better-it was kinda far down. Hey, it was probably as much or even cheaper than Carrow's or Sizzler.

This is very interesting...to get out of the park, you have to stop at the ranger station and they look and see if you have your permit on the front left side of your windshield. THAT'S how they get people that don't pay! Whoa.

Went to the Diner and found out that their hours had changed-I had read on a blog that they were only open until 2:30 but NOW open until 9 PM! Pretty good food, Barry liked his beef dip a lot. The tuna melt and patty melts looked good also.

The diner is adjacent to a Harley Dealership. Ironic.

Gas up again in Cabazon Chevron, home by 5:30 PM.

We both went to the Flag Retiring Ceremony in Orange, thinking that we and the guys would all go for some dinner, but the other guys had already arranged to do something else after Joshua Tree and went to Blake's for the Irish corned beef special when they got back to town-these guys can sure chow down the calories since we had all eaten at 2:30 PM in Yucca Valley and they then went and had ANOTHER meal at 5:30-5:45. Whoa.

Bub and I went to Big 5 because it was suggested to try there for riding goggles. Nope, didn't have what I needed, but here's the big WONDERFUL (NOT!) finish...I came to the stop sign by Big 5 (which was a kind of double incline-incline down and then incline to the left) and I was preparing to go when I saw another car coming to my left. They didn't have a stop sign so I kinda braked hard with my front brake and yup, fell over. So I dropped my bike AGAIN, but the difference is that I ALMOST stopped it from falling..ALMOST. This time it was easier to lift, thanks to muscles and the engine guard. Bub did help me lift it and I took care to make sure it didn't tip the other way-I had heard about someone dropping their bike in a fender bender, picked up his bike and it fell over the other way.

The thing that ticked me off is that I had JUST been trained to USE THE BACK BRAKE WITH SLOW SPEED MANEUVERS. Maybe standing still isn't a slow speed maneuver.