MOABI REGIONAL PARK, CALIFORNIA: Where I Camped Alone In the Tent Area While Hundreds of RVs Lurked From the Dark Side

March 5, 2018

A new day has dawned! My sinuses have cleared up, my cough is less frequent, the wind appears poised to whisk me effortlessly to the south, and The Shape of Water is the new reigning champion of the Academy Awards. Great! I liked that movie. I was also glad to see Frances McDormand get the Oscar for "best performance by a female in a leading role." (Formerly "best actress.") I think the academy screwed up on all the other acting categories, but that's just one bike rider's opinion.

Anyway, I got to watch the entire ceremony from my 7th floor hotel room while snacking on Corn Nuts and occasionally looking down on the lovely Colorado River--a view for which, you may recall--I forked over an additional $10.

It was a nice ride today and I had a smile on my face the entire time. Not much happened worth reporting about though, so you'll have to excuse me for using the Academy Awards as filler for the first couple paragraphs of this page.

One interesting thing to report is that I made an impromptu decision to stray from the route I had originally planned for the day. I rode down the Nevada/California side of the Colorado River. The Arizona side might have been safer with its wide shoulder, fine pavement, and better access to services, but, in the end, its main feature of "safety" might have been its biggest drawback.

Goodbye to the place where I watched the Academy Awards last night. I was about half-way up on the other side. (Of note: For every guest room at the hotel, there seemed to be a parking space for an RV. RVers have money to gamble away too.)

For the first few miles it seemed like my impromptu route was too safe. That was until I reached the California border where Nevada's gigantic shoulder suddenly became something much smaller.

"The Needles Highway" was the up-and-down roller coaster of a road that I'd been missing so far--with the added excitement of no shoulder from the California border all the way to the town of Needles. And the closer you get to Needles, the more the road deteriorates to a crumbly, cracked, cratered mess. High Stakes Bike Touring.

Big RV's love this road. They seem to love this entire area--including the parking lots of casinos. RV resorts are everywhere and some of them are HUGE. The resorts are like small cities. I've never seen anything like it up north. Also, the RVs are reluctant to give a bike rider much room on this curvy, crumbly, cratered mess. Of course, when I say RVs don't give a biker much room, I mean RV DRIVERS don't give a biker much room. High Stakes Bike Touring.

Despite the disrespect from RVers, the beauty of this desert highway was almost overwhelming. I WIN AGAIN! High Stakes Bike Touring.

Another scenic view, in my opinion anyway.

In Needles I rode some of the famous Route 66 of American history and songdom. It was sad. There were so many boarded-up motels and abandoned storefronts and impoverished faces.

Ten miles of interstate riding brought me to the Moabi Regional Park. It was supposed to be a San Bernardino County Park, but it seemed strangely connected to a pirate-themed RV resort just down the road. I went past hundreds of RVs and semi-permanent mobile homes as I pedaled The Reckless Mr. Bing Bong to the completely empty "tent area."

The pirate-themed resort sure had some tall palm trees.

With no competition, I managed to get the best campsite in the tent area--right on the shores of a Colorado River backwater.

Today's ride: 40 miles (64 km)
Total: 216 miles (348 km)

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