After a few relaxing days in Pie Town, the weather improved and it was time for us to leave. We had decided that we were going to leave the GDMBR there to start making our way west to Las Vegas, from where our flight home would leave. That meant that we would have to ride on paved roads from there.
We found a nice route and first rode to the small cowboy town of Reserve. The next day we crossed the Arizona border to enter another state on this trip. We rode to another small cowboy town called Alpine. This really was cowboy land,it was visible everywhere. Of course there were many people wearing cowboy hats and boots and the restaurants also were saloons. Very nice, but also very conservative.
We pitched our tent on a small grassy area of an RV park in Alpine. Many people live there permanently or for the season and some of them came over for a chat. When we had just started to make dinner that evening, two of the residents came back from town and they had brought us 2 delicious salads. Such generosity! It save dus another rice dinner and the salads tasted great!
The last day to Pinetop was another nice day. It was a lot of climbing, through forest past rocks and through wide valleys untill we came at the top. From there it was almost all downhill to Pinetop, where we stayed with David and Annie. They’re from Phoenix, but they escaped the heat down there and are living permanently in Pinetop now. In summer many people from Phoenix live there to escape the heat in the valley, but most of them return in the fall/winter.
We were invited to go to a party at someones home that evening. He had once bought a home and added parts to it over the years. The result was sort of a festival terrain with nooks, corners and small rooms to sit in. There were 60’s and 70’s and other memorabilia everywhere and there is live music every Saturday evening. Bands and musicians from the area come over to play and everybody who hears about this place is invited to come over. Everybody brings his/her own drinks and some people bring food for everybody to enjoy. We had a very nice evening! The next day we went to see David play in a restaurant in town. He’s also a musician.
