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Perfect Driving Through a Not Quite Extinguished America

No readers obliged me when I begged them to talk me out of going to Yuma this winter. (Thanks a lot, guys.) For those unfamiliar with the snowbird culture of the Southwest, Yuma is in a unique position to love and hate. Although many places in the Southwest offer sunny, dry mid-days in winter, most get chilly-to-freezing at night. Yuma is one of the few exceptions. On the downside, Yuma isn't the bargain it once was, and it is hellishly overcrowded.

But it has the single best (roadie) bicycle club that I know of, and I've known a few. I only mountain bike when I'm dispersed camping on public lands. For safety's sake if nothing else, I think road cycling requires a club, which means "large city", bleahh. After finding a half-lot to rent through the grapevine, I decided to drive to Yuma for another "round" of winter.

Besides, isn't it a good idea for a person to take a winter sabbatical, a break, from whatever they do the rest of the year? That is probably true no matter how well pleased you are with your other three seasons, or "four" in the Southwest since we have two distinct summers. After all, don't you want to take off in the spring, all freshened up and charged up again?

What a pleasure it is to stay off the interstates, especially I-10. You get passed like you're standing still when you're going 70 mph on them, and I hate driving that fast when pulling a trailer.


New Mexico is probably the only state of the Four Corners that is still "underpopulated", at least away from the Rio Grande barrio-strip. Those who love slow driving can cruise at 50 mph for hours at a time, without making too much of a nuisance of themselves to the few other motorists that they'll encounter. I suppose that Wyoming and the western Great Plains are the only other regions in the 48 states that offer this luxury.



And luxury it is! I love to encourage travelers to bust out of the cliche-ridden confines of postcard scenery and open up to other kinds of beauty. Space, wide open space, people-free space, free of the clutter of houses and Dollar Stores. It's what America was once famous for. It's getting so that all other considerations seem secondary to me. All that matters is low traffic, low noise.

Comments

Michael Crosby said…
I hear you Boonie.

I know LA to Vegas is nothing like you're talking about, but for me living in LA, it's comparatively so.

I used to think the drive was ugly, but I've learned to enjoy beauty in its own way.

This summer I'm taking a cross country trip and I look forward to finding some of those hidden roads.
Bob Giddings said…
As I remember, some people did try to talk you into Florida or central to south Texas. But you are a man of strong opinions, and talking you "into" stuff ain't that easy.

But I have a suggestion. A friend of mine has been rotating between state parks in New Mexico for several years now. He claims to get electric and water sites for about $4/day. The key is the New Mexico State Parks pass, which is a bargain at $225 per year as an out of state resident.

http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/SPD/FeesPermits.html

You have to move every couple of weeks or so, but that suits him, and there are lots of parks, and nothing in New Mexico is all that far from any other place.

For a full-timer, camping every single night of the year, this is a bargain deluxe. I'd pay this much just to be anywhere else than Yuma.

Bob Giddings, touche! I remember you trying to talk me into heading east. But in these days of high transportation costs, you have to notice that the USA is "landscape" (horizontal) rectangle rather than a "portrait" rectangle.

That was good advice about the NM state park pass. (I'm even a resident.) But I want to do road cycling with a great club and have some sort of social life. That wouldn't happen with the do-nothings at the state parks.

Michael Crosby, you'll do fine at finding uncrowded places, I'm sure. But say, why go cross country when you're so close to the huge and underpopulated state of Nevada? I've always wanted to spend the whole summer there.
Boonie,
Have you lost your mind?
YUMA?
I'm sorry, pal, but that is too high a price to pay for "social contacts" and/or road biking. And it is the antithesis of everything you stand for. Yuma is a hellhole of urban sprawl and not that much different than Phoenix... in fact, Phoenix at least has a circle of good sized mountains around it and lush with saguaro and other cacti, aromatic creosote bush, palo verde trees etc..
And Yuma's weather is as boring as its topography... worse, actually.
I'm all for changing things up, but YUMA... I'm so disappointed in that choice cause now we will not cross paths. Bobbie wouldn't touch Yuma with a one hundred mile pole!!!!

Box Canyon Mark... Boondocking, biking, and hiking Arizona... everywhere but Yuma.
Ed said…
Boonie have a social life. Please say it isn't so, your going to destroy the curmudgeon reputation that you have built up in the Web World.

I would also suggest late summer and fall for Nevada. Start in the northern part of the state and wander south as it gets cold.
Ed, don't worry, bicycle clubs don't foster TOO MUCH of a social life. The exercise partner syndrome tends to get in the way. Too bad.

Mark, hey, it's worse than you said: Yuma is an urban hellhole WITH a noisy train that goes by every 30 minutes. Bobbie is right about the place. Most of the advantages of Phoenix that you mentioned pertain to hikers, not road cyclists.

I'm only locked in for a month, so we might still cross paths. I won't be sucked into a gravel lot for the whole winter. If this experiment doesn't work, it's probably time to sell my newest road racing bicycle.