Brief update on so much that has happened. Well AZ continues to recieve a major storm about every 1.5 - 2 weeks dumping more snow and rain on an already saturated desert. When we decided to stop the AZT we hiked out of the Mazatzal Mountains to Rye, AZ. Looking down on Rye from the trail I could make out the motorcycle yard I had bought an old 1970 honda motorcycle years before. That cycle had made a trip in 1999 from Flagstaff to San Francisco (across the Golden Gate Bridge) and back to Flagstaff. With a month and a half till our return bus tickets were good, we needed a plan to get back to NC with out waiting around flagstaff to long. "Why don't we buy an old motorcycle and drive it home and sell it in NC?" I joked to Molly. Well guess who bought a 1980 Honda Goldwing 1100 motorcycle? We found a good deal on a real clean beauty that runs well. Complete with origional samsonite saddle bags, we packed the bare essentials and mailed most of our camping and hiking gear back home and are now cruising the USA easy rider style (sans the rednecks with shotguns, so far). We also found some sweet black leather biker jackets at a local pawn shop (40% off for president's day sale-hooya!).

Before leaving Flagstaff, we returned to Phantom Ranch in the Grand Canyon for another visit which turned into a week due to another big storm. we hiked out of the canyon to beautiful sunny weather. a couple of new tires and a few minor parts later and we were on the road south. We wanted to dayhike some of the trail we missed and then we could head east along the southern border in warmer temps.

Staying off the interstates as much as possible, we are riding the back country hiways of southern AZ and New Mexico. Beautiful country. Flat desert to amazing rock outcrops to beautiful grasslands covered with poppies (apparently a once in a lifetime sight for southern AZ) . Much of the roads we hae travelled so far follow literslly with in feet of the mexican border.  Much border patrol, but no hassals at checkpoints. They usually wave us right through. I guess they realize we can't hide to many mexicans in our saddle bags.

We've mostly been camping along the way at different state parks and national parks or just out in the national forests (you can do that out west here). Unfortunately it is also spring break and most of the state park campgrounds are packed full of Land Whales (RVs) and many loud campers. My favorite RV model is one that just barely squeezed into the camp spot next to us after holding up half the campground while it tried to park and then drop it's car (with matching paint and pin stripes) in tow. It's model name was appropiately, "The Intruder".

Currently we are at a hostel for the night in El Paso, TX doing laudry and showers and plan to head tro Big Bend National Park before continueing on east. A little cold and real windy today but nicer warmer weather coming. We will update when possible so anyone interested in us crazy folk can keep tabs on us. Also Coming Soon: pictures of the bad asses on their mean machine!

Also Bob is a Uncle for the second time. His Brother and Sister in law, Jeff and Julie gave birth to Cassidy Rae on Feb. 25.

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