I met up with old friend Mary Joe Heath, her son Gregory, and his friend Jeremy in the desert of far southern California. Mary Joe's family once lived in the house where Tracey and I got married. It was great to catch up with Heath family news. They had brought a 4-wheel all-terrain vehicle or "quad" for me to ride! Wow.
I followed them right out into the desert in GoJoe where we set up camp far off the road. It's amazing to step from the RV into this huge expanse of desert and dunes. The Supersition Mountains OHV Area is set aside for off-road vehicle use. Mary Joe says the place buzzes with hundreds of riders on the weekends, but during the week when we were there it was fairly quiet. We and the few other riders had the place to ourselves, and there were miles and miles of open terrain to zip over and through. Tracey got the biggest kick when I told her I was "four-wheeling."
This zipping through the desert is just TOO MUCH FUN!! I had no idea of the exhilaration to be felt when you are flying over an open range on one of these things. I got the hang of it fairly quickly, but I didn't want to be too overconfident and wind up flipping my not-so-young body onto the desert floor. Still, after a while it was hard not to keep pressing the thumb accelerator for more and more speed. The vehicle bucks up and down as it bumps over "whoops," undulations in the sand and dirt. That's a major part of the fun.
Below Mary Joe scoots over the sand. That's me in the next shot. Then we see Gregory and Jeremy tearing it up. Greg and Jeremy rode their dirt bikes most of the time, screaming up steep inclines and catching air. This was all amazing fun!
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