Arizona and the Four Corners: Abandoning the Bikes for a Rental Car 28th Dec 2007 - 9th January 2008

In Puerto Vallarta, two options presented themselves for the next couple of weeks. Paul had to be back in Seville on 14th January for a courtcase to rescue his kitchen and we set a date for our return to Europe: 9th January. In the meantime, we had the option of either pedalling it to Mexico City (inevitably including the odd bus trauma as once again our set distances were over-ambitious) or we could head to Arizona with the rest of Paul’s family and do a little road trip around some of the canyons and spectacles that the four corner area has to offer. For a number of reasons the latter won hands down; the roads to Mexico City didn’t look at all cycle friendly and the copper canyon had instilled enthusiasm to see other similar delights.

We flew to Phoenix and Mark (Paul’s brother) picked us up in swanky convertible. Bicycles were not allowed on the road out of the airport so they were shoved in the back of the car on the cream leather seats, while N waited in the freezing cold for the second trip. Driving around is inevitably a lot less interesting than travelling on a bicycle, but the distances we were hoping to cover, not to mention some of the freezing temperatures we experienced, meant that using a car was much more practical. The following day we sadly abandoned the bikes at a friend’s house and made our way to Sedona, where we spent several days admiring the surrounding red rock formations, riding (rental) bikes, playing golf and enjoying lots of food that was not Mexican.

From Sedona, we drove to the Grand Canyon, then Monument Valley, then Zion Canyon and after exploring these amazing places for a few days (the photos speak for themselves) and trying to find alcohol (always a challenge on Indian Reservations or in Utah for that matter), Paul insisted on a visit to Vegas. Jammy thing that he is, he came second in a poker tournament and managed to squeeze a good $1,500 out of those infamous one-armed bandit (although tax man ran off with 40%). No such luck for N, who after losing a few dollars no matter what she touched, became a gambling widow for two very long nights, and wondered how a place could be so glitzy, glammed up, greedy, stinky and quite repugnant all at the same time.

We heaved a big sigh of relief on leaving that ghastly city, a visit to the Hoover Dam and a night in Prescott made us feel somewhat more human again. And in Phoenix we had the big dilemma of what to do with our bikes on our flight home. Leaving them unpacked was too dangerous an option as US Air would not take any responsibility if they got damaged. Packing them was a pain as it meant finding bike boxes and transporting them to the airport. We did the latter and the whole process took half a day. The bikes had to be taken part almost completely and put in the only bike boxes the bike shop had to offer, and then we were very lucky indeed to just squeeze them in the car. After some logistical thinking, we made it to the airport without problems, and flew home to London for a good think about what we were going to do next, among various other things.

Once again, we apologise for the delay in updating our blog, you can see more regarding our whereabouts from the photoblog, which is currently more up to date!

This entry was posted on February 18, 2008 at 11:45 am and is filed under Two for the Road - On the Road. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.