Day Eleven 4-4-05

Today was a catch up with work day. We found a coffee shop in downtown Monterey that had free wireless access so Darren, Eric, and myself were finally able to get a decent internet connection. This has proven to be an issue during our travels and in our lovely hotel here in Monterey which at its price you would think would have free internet access, but no, $10.99 for 24 hours. Even the $49.99 a night motel down the road has free internet, thanks Hyatt!

Day Ten 4-3-2006

Rain! I thought this was beautiful sunny California? Today we put our buddy Johnny on a flight back to the east coast and said our final farewell to our RV. I think we were all ready to sleep in a real bed after spending 9 nights sleeping in an RV. No ride today because of the rain and it looks like no ride tomorrow since the forecast is 100% chance of rain.
We met up with Eric Wallace today, the true end user of the trailer that started this whole excursion. Eric is Thule's Western Tech Rep or the official title of "Thule Envoy". He has already outfitted his new truck with racks, decals, and plenty of schwag, this rig definitely is a great match to the trailer he will be towing. If it ever stops raining we'll try to get some pictures of this match made in metal.
Dinner was at El Torito on Cannery Row in Monterey, a superb mexican restaurant located right on Monterey Bay. We recommend the Cadillac Margaritas!

Day Nine 4-2-06

After a very long week of traversing the country we finally arrived in sunny Monterey, CA late last night thanks to Captain Snyder's Red Bull binge. Upon waking we decided to at least see if the hotel would allow us to drop the trailer for the day instead of continuing to haul it around. To our surprise they allowed us to check in at 10am. To celebrate this miraculous accomplishment and for cooking breakfast for our selves the previous 7 mornings we decided to treat ourselves to breakfast at Denny's, a fine establishment. After breakfast we headed back to the hotel for what we considered our first real showers of the trip, not that we didn't shower but we didn't have to hike across a campsite to some sort of make shift shower stall. After a shower and shave we headed to Santa Cruz for some touristy type stuff. Let's just say that Santa Cruz is an interesting town, possesing a very eclectic group of individuals. We then headed off to San Jose to meet up with my sisters for dinner and to unload our extra food on them. No pictures today, sorry.

Day Eight 4-1-06 Red Rocks

Climbing at Red Rocks in Vegas, specifically Black Corridor. If you're a climber you will understand that we jammed on some 5.10a & bs. Enjoy.

Day Seven 3-31-06

We made it to Vegas and did a little ride, nothing exciting in Vegas really but when I get better connection I will write more. Tomorrow we are going to climb at Red Rocks so there should be some good pics from that.

So, one interesting thing on the ride was all the burnt cactus and other desert vegetation that was on one side of the trail and not on the others. Very strange? There were other places around Vegas that also had this strange phenomenon. Apparently the lightning strikes and causes fires, but it still didn't explain that it was burnt on one side of the trail and not the other.