Monument Valley, Arizona

In mid-October 2007, we took our first multi-day ride together. It was not my first long ride, but it was Kori's. We spent one night at my uncle's (then) apartment in Phoenix before taking off for a few days on his motorcycle. He may be the most generous man I know, or will ever know. Below is a link to photos from throughout that trip with captions.

A particularly notable part of this trip was our venture into Monument Valley. If you ever visit the area, you can pay for a helicopter tour or pay a few extra bucks to drive through on the Scenic Valley Drive. It's a very rough road so you may choose to pay for a ride in a 4x4 pickup truck. Because we were on my uncle's dual sport motorcycle, we chose to take the bike. I strongly advise against this. Aside from a later adventure, that was the most terrifying ride of my life. I'll write about Apache Trail another day.

My heart was pounding like a race horse. Three minutes into the scenic drive, I was certain I was going to crash the bike, hurt my girl, and damage the bike beyond repair. I had to stop several times on the short ride to rest, breathe, and shake my hands to stop the tingling. The sand that drifted onto the gravel road was so fine that the bike tires would slip, like I was riding on ice. There was so much of that dust and no way to ride around it. On top of that difficulty, the bike is top-heavy. Maneuvering the bike, me, and a passenger at low speeds is immensely challenging. It was a miracle we did not crash. You can imagine my relief and excitement when we reached the paved parking lot again. Never will I repeat that mistake.

Photos

-Ben