Christmas Bike Count

We left Death Valley early morning December 24. We left way before the start of the Christmas Parade. Incidentally that parade starts at three. and if I ever happen to be there again in December I want to see that parade, and see if the handmade paper sign at the Jeep rental “Gone to Christmas parade” gets taped to the door.  

We left before breakfast…Not because we wanted to leave early, but because we were tired of paying Xanterra for overpriced food and sometimes iffy service. It just isn’t right to pay twenty some dollars for breakfast and get served dehydrated hash browns…

 

Furnace Creek Death Valley

On the way to Shoshone where we ended up having breakfast we counted only 1 motorcycle. A dual sport and the rider didn’t wave.

We stopped for breakfast at the world famous Crowbar

Only the cook and two waitresses were on duty. It was the first day as a waitress for one of the girls, and she was learning all aboot filling ketchup bottles, and salt shakers when we walked in. Breakfast was wonderful and aboot ½ the price as at the Xanterra 49er café. The eggs for my Denver omelet came all the way from Colorado…The new girl checked with the cook to make sure.

Ready To Respond?

On the run to Baker we saw only one bike. A bagger and this time the rider did wave.

Riding through  Mojave National Preserve we saw no riders, but might have heard one while we checked out the Kelso Depot.

Kelso Depot

 

On the way to Joshua Tree the only bike we saw was a black street glide parked at Roy’s in Amboy, and since that one wasn’t being ridden I am not sure if it can be counted.

Christmas day in Joshua Tree was a cold morning with the temperature right around freezing, but with such a dismal bike count we knew we had to get on the road and count some bikes! This was also the morning I discovered the fuse for my electric vest and gloves had blown yesterday and I had no heat back up.

It was a very cold ride down into Palm Springs where along the way we counted no bikes, and since it was Christmas almost nothing was open and that narrowed our breakfast choices down to a Denny’s.

We finally found one off of Bob Hope drive and settled in for some skillets. My southwest skillet actually had one or two small pieces of the prized Chorizo sausage, and came to my table on a very hot skillet with a pot holder fitted to the handle in case I needed to move it to get a better look at it.

Our Christmas bike count was looking pretty dismal until 6 snarly old gear jammers, all wearing leather vests with Teamster patches and nowhere better to go on Christmas than to Denny’s walked past out booth.

Only 11 bikes counting ours and the one parked at Roy’s in two days of riding. I hope the Christmas Bird Count found more species than we did…

Gambel’s Quail A new species I hadn’t shot before…Found him at Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge