We both had a very sound sleep in the van, happy to be “back home” after all the hotelling. I made breakfast while Kevin built a new fire since we didn’t have anywhere to be in a hurry. After breakfast, I presented Kevin with Audrey’s story book and he was suitably impressed, I just hope she likes it! As we were packing up to leave, Kevin got talking to our neighbours down at the creek campsite when he went to collect some water to douse the fire. It was a group of young university guys on a road trip with their mountain bikes for their mid-semester break. They had a great camp set up with tents, mountain bikes and hammocks strung everywhere. We talked a lot about the trails of Sedona and some other tips for when the group headed north. One of the boys asked about my van so we all retreated up to our site so they could have a gander and they loved it, just as I loved their praise. Most of the guys were in their final years of mechanical engineering study so we talked a lot about Tesla and working as an engineer, in amongst talking about all the cool things in America. Eventually we had to cut it short so the boys could go riding before it got too hot.
We said goodbye to our last camp and drove up the dirt road, which had become a lot rougher thanks to the rain Sedona must have had when we got the snow up in Flagstaff. Once we got back into phone range, we were in touch with Dan who told us where to go for a jetski session on Lake Pleasant. It was a new job for him and they hired out jetskis on the weekends so, being a Monday, he’d offered to take us out before Kevin’s flight. We set the GPS and apart from a stop for coffee, drove straight to the lake which is just north of Phoenix. We paid $6 to get into the park then drove on up to the carpark that was empty except for the familiar white van and a brown and white pitbull.
Dan was there, chilled as ever, beer in hand wearing his cap backwards. We were limited on time since we had to Kev to the airport by 3:30pm so we didn’t muck around. We had a round of beers, signed a waiver, changed into swimmers and loaded up with sunscreen, got life-jacketed up and hopped into the truck with jetskis on the trailer behind. Dan launched two jetskis into the water like he’d done it a hundred times then parked the car while Kev and I stood in the freezing cold water holding the jetskis to stop them floating away.
It was my first time, but Dan and Kev had been out on skis before so I rode on the back of Dan’s ski while Kev rode solo on the other. I always thought jetskiing would be boring, thanks to the lack of trail to follow, but I was wrong. The speed of these things are insane. At 1300cc, they flew across the choppy water, throwing our bodies around and pushing our hair away from our skulls. We sped around the huge lake and I held on tight to Dan to stay on the ski. After doing a bit of exploring around the coves, Dan and I swapped positions so I was driving. As long as I didn’t tip it or hit anything I’d be alright. I went crazy, twisting and turning the thing on the choppy waves making Dan cry out in fear/amazement/laughter? He held on tight so he didn’t get thrown off. Exploring in another cove, we stopped to change drivers again and Dan threw me into the water. It was bloody freezing and the lifejacket made it hard to swim. I shivered against Dan as we kept ducking into the coves, obeying the “no wake” signs in each.
After a few coves, we found a sweet spot that had some deep water soloing potential. I jumped off Dan’s ski and swam over to what looked like a very crumbly white cliff. It was crumbly and the rock was rough on my feet, but it was a fun bit of climbing, especially trying to find holds that didn’t break off in my hands. I climbed a few meters off the ground before hanging off a feature and jumping back into the freezing cold water. I tagged out with Kev, taking over his jetski as he got on the wall, Dan playing photographer. Kev climbed higher than me, eventually caving when his baby feet could no longer handle the rough rocks, shouting profanities as he jumped back into the water. He shivered violently as he got on behind me on the jetski. We head back to base, hoping the sun would come out to warm our bodies which it eventually did. I made Kevin hold on tight as well as we left the “no wake” zone, having fun with the g-forces of the ski.
Halfway back, Kevin got onto Dan’s ski so I could have a go solo which at first I didn’t agree with, but Dan explained it was a totally different experience riding alone, which it was. I could throw my weight around a lot more and not worry about extra weight on the back. I had a good bit of fun as we sped back to base. I lingered out in the bay as Dan got the truck and reversed the trailer down the boat ramp (again, like he’d done it 100 times). Kevin and I very poorly tried to align the skis with the trailer, ending up having to manoeuvre them by hand onto the rails, but we got them out of the water in the end without much trouble.
Dry clothes back on, we didn’t have much time to spare so the boys said their goodbyes, Kevin giving Dan his sunnies to replace the ones he lost when he pushed me into the water. With that, we drove off to the airport. Our timing was pretty well spot on, it took an hour to drive through traffic to get to the south side of Phoenix and the airport. Once there, Kevin made sure he’d gotten everything out of the van and we gave each other multiple big hugs, still in shock at the great time we’d had together. He left me with “Be safe” and I promised him I would.
Kevin, what a great mate you are, you battled through a scary infection-turned-bad to get here to see me and the two weeks we had together was one of the best adventures of my life, one I will remember for years and years. I can’t thank you enough for the good times we had.
I left the airport and head straight to the nearby post office where I hoped to pick up a new door handle that I’d ordered. Unfortunately when I got there I found out I’d been given the wrong information and this office didn’t offer a general delivery service and so my part had been returned to sender. Bugger. Oh well, I emailed the eBay people and asked if they could resend it. Next stop was Home Depot for a bit of timber to fix my roof rack, then onto Walmart for a shop. They whole time I was driving I was talking to people, starting with Vanessa who is toying with the idea of coming to visit me this weekend. I felt very special that she’d messaged me within minutes of Kevin leaving! Next, I spoke to Dad, who was still on the phone with me while I was at Home Depot looking for a choice piece of timber to fix my bent roof rack. A bit of a mistake really because it meant I wasn’t concentrating on what I was doing an I ended up buying a piece of square dowel that way too big for what I needed. That’s definitely the most expensive piece of fire wood I’ve ever bought.
By the time I got to Walmart, I was over being in the city, just wanting to relax at camp. Dan had told me where he was camped by Lake Pleasant and I desperately wanted to make it there by sunset. I ran through Walmart getting what I needed, ran out and started through the traffic to get out of the city. I was happy to hit the Carefree highway, it slowed me down a bit. I watched a spectacular lightning storm as I drove around the lake to find Dan’s spot. It was a bit of an adventure, especially after I hit the dirt, taking it super slow on some rocky sections, but it was nothing worse than the road down to the hot spring camp from a few weeks ago. A few miles from camp, I had a complete roof rack failure. The slight bend in the front rail turned into a major bend and the bike almost fell over onto the solar panel. I got out quick smart to take the bike off, thinking that I would have to do a proper repair job now if I wanted my bike to stay on the roof!
After taking a wrong turn down a narrow dirt road, I saw a campfire and heard Dan calling out to me. I’d found it! I had to backtrack a bit to get onto the right road, but Dan found me and rode shotgun on the Astro’s side rails as he directed me to a beautiful camp spot, right at the lake with the last throngs of sunset on the horizon with flashes of lightning bearing down on the sky. Dan already had a fire going and all I wanted was to sit by it and have a few drinks, which is exactly what we did. We had a whiskey, a few beers and I cooked us the Kevin special of steak, eggplant and mushrooms exactly as he’d done it. It was the only food I’d eaten all day since breakfast (the excitement of the day had made both me and Kev forget about food) and it went down well, I didn’t even overcook the steak!
Dan and I talked all night, drinking steadily and staring into the fire. In doing so, we discovered that we’re both into playing cards so we resolved to play a few games each night to see who was the better player. Background noise was provided by the many wild donkeys in the area, shagging their brains out from what we could tell. After braving a short wind storm that blew ashes all over the place and made a mess of things, we retreated into Air Force One and got the cards out. It was well past midnight, but we stayed up for a couple of hours familiarizing ourselves with the rules that had become a little hazy, finishing off our beers in the process. The game was so intense and the beers so many that Dan had a chunder by the van before we went to bed.
