We have arrived.

We met our friend Tim Gillette somewhere outside of Mesa - he caught up with us on the road, literally. It was 118 degrees or more that day - hotter than ever for me. We were riding thru Arizona with desert and red rocklike hills and mountains lining the highway, the heat was alsomst unbearable, it really felt like we were riding thru a kiln.
Tim led us to our hotel in Mesa. After checking in, unloading our bikes and cooling off, the three of us walked to a little mexican place for dinner, it was good, then Tim had to go meet the friends he was staying with. We went to Chester's Harley Davidson to check in. It was almost time to finally learn about and go on - the 2011 Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge.  Some of these memories are not real clear, so keep that in mind. We rode to Chester's - saw a few people in the parking lot that looked like they were lined up. I figured they were parked there for check in and inspection. So I rode up and parked there. LuLu missed the turn into that part of the lot - so I pulled in alone right behind them. I turned off my bike, got off - all excited and happy and looked at the guys. They just stared at me. I smiled, nothing. So I said Hi! they barekly acknowledged me. My heart sank. This wasn't part of my vision. I saw LuLu coming over, she parked beside me and I told her about my "greeting". We saw the building where we thought we supposed to go and headed that way. At this time I saw a dude with a "Staff" shirt on so I signaled him and called him over. I asked him where we were supposed to park and go for check in. He said we could stay where we parked and I told him about the ass wipes and how they treated us. He said oh, they're lined up for the start of the ride there. They've been there sleeping in a tent so they could be the first ones out. I guess they thought these two females were going to try to pass them and beat them to the finish line. Whatever. We promptly moved our bikes away from them. Luckily, we had a room waiting for us for the next two nights. We went in and checked in. It wasn't all I had hoped, but to be true I didn't know what to expect. I guess I thought there'd be more people. They were nice though. We got our much coveted and cherished challenge coins, each engraved with our own rider numbers, and to be honest I have had mine in my pocket every single day since - as I do now and hopefully always will. We got Hoka Hey stickers and T-Shirts and some papers and stuff. I think we met both Beth and Jim Red Cloud on this day. We also saw the video camera team dudes that were going to be interviewing people for the documentary. It was exciting, but still so much seemed unknown. We hung out there for a while but then went back to the room to sleep.