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My brother Stephen and I hadn't ridden together since June, so we took a jaunt down to Mesquite yesterday to visit my sister Janet and her family. My most recent trip was also to Mesquite when Renee and I rode down there in the heat of July. During that ride I was struck by the awesome array of dead and burned out trees along the way, but I didn't have time to take pictures. So yesterday was my official "dead tree tour" and the pictures are below.
Before we left, Stephen and I got some gas and filled our tires with air at the station's pump. I have these nice metal valve caps, and I put one of the caps on my gas tank so that I would be sure not to forget putting it back on. Of course, when we arrived in Mesquite, I looked down and noticed that I had forgotten to put the cap on the valve stem after all. Doh! I figured it must have fallen off the gas tank somewhere on the long trip.
The trip itself was very relaxing. The temperature was much cooler than the last time in July. In fact it was fairly brisk until we reached the long Arizona valley (thank goodness for a windshield to deflect the cold air). As we dipped into the valley along the eternally straight rode, I could instantly feel the temperature rise.
It was great to see Janet, Dan, Trisha, and David again (and Jack the dog too). Their house is beautiful and I was tempted to jump in the pool. Janet fed us fruit, cheese, and muffins and soon we were on our way home. Here is a picture of their fun pool and also one of me, David, and Stephen looking cool in our black shirts.
On the way back I took a bunch of pictures of dead trees, as shown below. The juniper trees are fantastically twisted, like some nightmarish Halloween trees. The joshua trees look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. Click pictures to see larger versions.
We stopped by the freaky urine-soaked cave again on the way home (how can you not?). Stephen hadn't seen it before, but once he got to the opening, the smell quickly deterred him from entering.
As we started up our bikes, mine suddenly started making an intense, intermittent "POP" sound down in the engine area. I had no idea what was going on. We determined that it had to do something with the chain. The sound would not happen when revving in neutral, but only when rolling forward. Soon the bike wouldn't even roll forward. We removed a few plates and looked all over, and finally Stephen found it: my metal valve cap was stuck in the sprocket! What are the chances that after 90 miles, the cap had not fallen to the road, but instead gradually and gently worked it's way down into the chain? Not only had it fallen down there, but the cap had landed on a sprocket tooth just right so that it was "capped" on top of the tooth as if the tooth was the valve stem. The cap was lodged on tight and tough to get off. So we had to demolish it to free it from the sprocket. See my fancy illustration below.
Add to this that I forgot to use sunscreen and my nose is more red than it has been for years. Think "Rudolph". I think my Mesquite trips are cursed. Cursed or not, they are always fun.
