I finally reached the point that I started giggling every time I walked outside. I can’t get over how hot Phoenix is. This is the first place in the U.S. that I have thought, I couldn’t live here. Of course, I’d probably say that about of the northern states if I was here in winter. Luckily I’m not. I’ve love all the other States up to now.

I woke up before my alarm this morning which was set for 05:30. Yikes, I know! I wanted to be on the road by 06:30 to avoid the traffic and the worst of the heat. This is where I start giggling again. It was 34 degrees at 06:30!

I finally hit the road at 06:45. I think I was procrastinating because I was finding it difficult to leave. I have no idea when next I’ll see my cousin and his family and that’s not a thought I wanted to entertain.

Due to the heat, I decided to stop about every hour for something to eat and some water. I didn’t want a repeat of Saturday’s ‘feeling sick’ spell. That’s the last thing I want on the bike. It worked well I thought.

At my first stop I started digging into the lunch pack that Liza packed for me. It so made my morning. The last time someone packed my lunch was 18 years ago. I lived with my (late) aunty Penny and family when I was at university and my aunt used to make me sandwiches to take to my classes. It made me happy thinking about her. Thank you for both my lunch pack and the wonderful memories Liza.

My next stop was about 100 miles west of Phoenix. You’ll get a feel for my ride today from this photo and the next one, which we taken in Palm Springs.

I arrived in Palm Springs at lunch time. This is where I start giggling again. It was 42 degrees! By the time I arrived at the ‘spa’ I’m staying at I was almost swimming in my riding jacket.

I was so happy when they were able to check me in early. After a nice cool shower I headed down to the pool area to grab some lunch. This is where I met Matt. He was also on his own so we decided to have lunch together. What a pleasure that was!

Matt’s an industrial engineer and was in Palm Springs for business and also spending time with a friend from LA. He’s from a town just outside of Vancouver, so basically another foreigner.

We had such a lovely lunch and at the end he said he wanted to pay the bill. He loved the sound of my adventure and wanted to be a part of it. I thought that was so sweet! Naturally, Matt has to be in my blog, so here he is.

My lovely, slightly boozy, lunch put me in such a good mood that I forgot about the heat. I sat outside watching everyone in the pool for a while and then headed up to my room.

It was only at around 20:00, when I wanted to pop out for some dinner, that I realised I couldn’t find me keys. Hmmm…this wasn’t good! After I’d searched my room a few times I headed down to reception. Fortunately someone had handed my keys in. Phew!

At this point I heard the music coming from the bar. There was a guy on a piano. It immediately made me smile. All I could think about was Pat O’Brien’s in New Orleans. I was there with 30 friends in April for my friend Amyn’s 50th birthday party. I couldn’t help but pop in for a drink. 2.5 hours later I’m still here. The bar lady, Daisy, keeps giving me tasters of the new cocktails. I think it’s going to be a long day tomorrow!

I had an early start on Friday. I saw that the temperature in Phoenix would be around 45 degrees, so I thought that I better get to my cousins as soon as possible. I stopped off in Sedona for breakfast, which is a really cute little town. I ended up meeting two couples from New Zealand who are also travelling around the U.S. The one couple is from Aukland and the other couple from Christchurch. The latter made me think of my family in Christchurch which made me very happy.

The temperature was in the late 20 degrees Celsius in Sedona so very pleasant. It was a little overcast so I didn’t get photos but trust me when I say it’s lovely!

An hour south of Sedona I started looking at my temperature gauge on my bike. The temperature had steadily climbed into the 40s. Phew, it was getting hot! By the time I was in Phoenix the temperate range was between 44-46.5 degrees. I could feel the heat from the engine burning my calves, so I opened my legs every once in a while to cool my legs down. This is what the heat did to my legs.

I don’t have a SatNav on Trinity so I had to pull off the road a few times to check if I was still on the right road. I did go wrong once so my punishment was an extra 20 minutes in the heat. This is the first time it was cooler to ride with my visor down than with it up (the air was actually burning my face with my visor up). I was travelling on highway 202 or Santan Highway to get to my cousins. I have renamed the road Satan’s Highway, as no human being should be on this road in this heat.

Needless to say I was extremely happy when I got to my cousins. I was drenched in sweat, which was not a pretty sight, but I certainly made the most of my cold shower after a few glasses of water.

The slightly traumatic arrival into Phoenix was quickly eased by the setting sun. I have never seen a more amazing sunset. The photo below does not do the skyline justice but will give you a feel for it.

Nico, my cousin’s eldest son, is starting his studies at Arizona State University this week, so the weekend has partly been dedicated to getting Nico settled in. He had a party at their home on Friday night and then we took him to move into his residence on Saturday. Two things stood out for me about these events. Firstly, a bunch of 19 year olds having a party and there was no alcohol seemed completely out of place. I hadn’t appreciated that you can’t drink in the U.S. until you’re 21. Secondly, the heat really caught up with me on Saturday. I was not feeling great for nearly half the day. Dehydration is really scary!

I took the photo below just before we took Nico off to ASU. I love this photo!

Below are a few more photos that I took that morning. One of the photos was the ‘meat lovers’ for two people that Izaan and I decided to share. This plate could feed me for days. We barely put a dent in it. I don’t think I will ever get used to some of the portions in the U.S.

The evening’s activity was brilliant! We went to play Topgolf. It’s basically a driving range but has these circles that you want to hit your balls into as it gives you points. This place is huge! It reminds me of going bowling. It has the same type of social feel. It was so much fun! It also made me realise I need to take up golf (actually doing it and not just talking about it).

We had an early start this morning. I didn’t get to speak to my mom yesterday so that was my top priority. Following a quick stop at ASU to drop some things off with Nico, we headed north for the mountains. My cousins thought I’d enjoy the break from the city and the heat. They were right.

The landscape was so different along our route. The first section was rolling mountains covered by cacti. It’s the first time I’ve seen this many cacti. You can’t really see the cacti in the photo below but they must be around 3m tall. It’s so impressive to see.

Another 20 minutes drive north and the cacti disappeared to give way to low lying shrubs and then conifers. All in all it was a lovely drive!

The one thing I realised again this weekend is that when you love the company you’re in, it doesn’t matter where you are or what you’re doing, you’re just so happy that you are there. I’m so happy to have had the company of my family twice during my U.S. trip. It’s been such a blessing! I’m going to really miss you guys.

I arrived in Flagstaff on Wednesday night after leaving the group of Australia Harley riders at the Grand Canyon. I had booked a room for the following night through AirBnB but needed a place to stay that night, so I dropped into Starbucks for a coffee to use their wifi.

I booked into a place called the Econo Lodge, which turned out to be just off Route 66. How awesome is that (see below)! The motel doesn’t look like much from the outside but the rooms were lovely (spacious, clean and modern).

I wasn’t particularly hungry that evening so I had a little room party for one. I bough a bag of popcorn and a beer and sat listening to the Hot Country playlist on Spotify. I love this playlist! It was such a chilled out evening.

The next morning, after taking Trinity to get washed and fixing my dream catcher, I headed into downtown Flagstaff for a little wander. What a cute city. Here are some photos of downtown.

My next stop was the Lowell Observatory. The observatory has been around since the early 1900’s and has been at the forefront of astrological discoveries, including the discovery of Pluto in March 1930. Below is the telescope that was used to discover Pluto as well as capture about 75% of the night sky.

I was fortunate that my AirBnB host for the evening, Dan, lives on the edge of town on the hill. This meant that I got to see the sunset and then had an amazing view of the sky just before I headed off to bed. I could see the Milky Way from my balcony. It was amazing!

Sadly I don’t have any photos I can share with you but imagine seeing thousands of twinkling stars with ‘clouds’ of stars scattered across the evening sky and you would have been standing right next to me. It was perfect!

I was very happy to wake up and it wasn’t raining!

Given my detour to Blanding the night before I had a 75 mile ride to get to Monument Valley. In addition to this, I had hoped to stay in or near the south rim of the Grand Canyon but there was no accommodation available so I decided to head to Flagstaff, which is 75 miles south of the Grand Canyon. This meant that I had an extra 150 miles to ride that day.

The ride from Blanding down to Monument Valley is beautiful! As you get closer to Monument Valley the red soil and rock features become more apparent. I could feel the excitement welling up inside me. This is what I was getting excited about.

My first disappointment of my trip was however about to happen. In summary, the lady at the gate and I had a disagreement about how much money I gave her. I know I gave her $20 as I didn’t have any $10 notes on me but she insisted I gave her $10. I was not pleased to part with $10 under the circumstances. The incident put a huge dampener on my experience of Monument Valley.

I did however stay at the visitor centre long enough to have a cup of coffee on one of the terraces and take in the view. Part of the view is shown below and there is also a video clip on my Facebook page.

While enjoying the view I heard a South African accent next to me. The accent belonges to Mitch, a South African who lives in Melbourne and is out with a group of Harley riders for two weeks. They had been to Sturges and are on their way back to Las Vegas to finish their trip. As it turned out they were also heading to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Mitch invited me to join them, so I did.

I am very happy that I was able to share the following moment with Mitch in the Grand Canyon National Park, particularly as he is scared of heights and I convinced him that he would regret not climbing down to this viewpoint with me. Mitch was glad he did it. I’m certainly glad he did it. How could you miss this moment. It was perfect!

This is my favourite photo of my trip so far. Thanks for sharing it with me Mitch! I will not forget that I owe you a beer.