Cave Creek, AZ. 6505 miles.

The weather forecast called for more 120 degree heat in the Arizona desert today so I got on the road at sunrise to make as many miles as I could before the midday sun cut in. The route up 95 through the Proving Grounds was a good straight run through some early morning cool but it wasn’t hard to feel the sun creeping upwards and the digits climbing every mile in.

By the time I reached Quartzsite it was barely 9:30 in the morning and the heat was already starting to swelter. It was around this stretch that the barren sand dunes of the western desert started to give way to underbrush and the first sign of the tens of thousands of enormous Sagurara cactus I would see for the rest of the day.

As hot as it was, I had my fill of the interstate yesterday and I took the back roads through the desert today to save some crosswinds and see some better scenery. The road across RT 60 to 74 turned out to be a crazy stretch of trailer parks and ghost towns. In between were unfathomable expanses of Saqguara cacti stretching to the horizon in fields that might better be described as forests. Many of them topped 30 feet in height and up close the thick nets of thorns looked like something from another planet. It wasn’t even noon but my head was already starting to swim with the heat and the scenery.

I pulled into Cave Creek, barely north of Phoenix, just before noon to see meet my parents in their new house. We spent the afternoon decompressing from the heat and by the time the sun started to set I was able to appreciate the incredible beauty of the land they found out here. We watched quail and jackrabbits run through the wash that is their new backyard and went on the roof to watch the sunset across the mountains as Venus and Jupiter rose around a crescent moon in the desert sky.

I’ll take a few days here and spend some time with my parents before getting back on the road. In the meantime the bike needs a little work and I want to catch up with some of your questions about the touring setup and mods. Hoping to go out into Tonto if the weather eases up a bit and check out Black Mountain before I head north through Sedona and into southern Utah.

Cave Creek, AZ. 6505 miles.

Wyatt Neumann was a phenomenally talented photographer and director, a loving husband and father, and a passionate motorcyclist. On June 11th he was doing what he loved riding in Delaware when he suffered a brain aneurysm which caused him to lose control of his motorcycle. He died shortly after. Wyatt was instrumental in both inspiring this trip and planning many of its routes and logistics. The title of this site was unapologetically stolen from his series of photographs from his own travels. He leaves behind a wife and two young children. A memorial fund has been established to help his family in this very trying time. Please consider donating. Any amount will help. Thank you.

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