Friday 18 Jan
The word for today is BIG, big roads, big freight trains, I counted one with over 60 containers and 50 army trucks - big truck and trailers and big, big, big expanses of landscapes, as far as the eye can see in all directions. From Mojave our destination for today was Twenty Nine Palms, as a base for a visit to the Joshua Tree National Park. Our journey took us on Highway 58 to Barstow, out past the Edwards Airforce base where we are given our own flypast of two F16s. Further east on I 40 and at Ludlow we turn off the interstate to make our way down to Twenty Nine Palms and this road is actually part of the old Route 66.

Not long on our way down Route 66 we decide to stop and take some photographs of the expanse. Just as we are getting the camera ready, two guys in a white pick-up heading towards us pull up, nothing else on the road for miles in either direction, but the pick-up stops and the driver asks if we want him to take our photo - otherwise, he points out, we never get photographs of the both us. We say "yeh, thanks" and the rest of the story goes like this....

"Nice bike, where are you from?" asks the pick-up driver.
"New Zealand" we say
"New Zealand!! Home of Burt Munro, I love Burt Munro. He lived in a box, I want to live in a box. My name is Dave" shaking us by the hand "and this is Larry" as the passenger comes over to chat.
Dave is dressed in board shorts and a short sleeved shirt, that has pictures of flowing marijuana all over it, and the temp is approx 10 degrees! Dave proceeds to take our photograph, and we take one of Dave and Larry, and then the guys ask us where we are heading - today Joshua Tree but eventually Florida and North to Niagra we tell them. "Well before you turn off for 29 Palms" Dave tells us, "you must go into Amboy and see my diesel bikes (diesel pronounced with an "s" rather than a "z" as we would). I have a diesel Harley, a diesel Nepr, just ask to go look at my bikes when you get to Roy's Motel and Cafe in Amboy. I just love diesel and my pick-up runs on canola oil."
Larry tells us that Amboy was the location for the film "Kalifornia" with Brad Pitt and then Dave remembers that Eric Burden (of the Animals) was recently by trying out one of his bikes. Dave and Larry wish us all the best for our journey and we are all once again on our way, heading off in opposite directions. Wow, what characters, and if we hadn't have stopped we would never has come across them and we would never have gone to Amboy. Now Amboy is very, very small. It consists of Roy's Motel and Cafe (which is not currently open) a gas station, rest rooms, a church, a post office and a handfull of other buildings. Unfortunately, we couldn't get to see Dave's bikes as the old guy pumping gas, and the only person around, couldn't leave his post to take us round the back! Oh well, it was quite a place to see anyway with it's own piece of Route 66 history.We carry on towards Twenty Nine Palms and make our base for the night still laughing about our encounter with Dave and Larry!

It soon becomes apparent that Twenty Nine Palms is a Marine town as our Motel is full of Marines taking advantage of some R&R this Friday night. Maybe tomorrow they will be having a hair cut at one of the many hairdressers & barbers who offer "Marine or Civilian cuts."

Saturday 19 Jan
Joshua Tree National Park is almost 558,000 acres of wilderness and is home to animals, birds, insects and plants of the desert, coyotes, bobcats, snakes and tarantulas. Although the only wildlife we saw throughout our drive through the park was a coyote, the landscape was amazing with huge rock formations and thousands of Joshua trees. The views from Keys View at 5,185 ft were breathtaking, over the Salton Sea to Mexico. Whilst at Keys View we have another opportunity to talk to more strangers who are interested to hear where we have come from and where we are going - a couple from Oregon this time who owned a Triumph Bonneville Scrambler.