My first choice was Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. It is my favorite park. The thing was it's too early in the season to be riding in the cold and with highs of 55 and lows of 33, I decided that there would be plenty of time to do that when the temperatures were warmer and in the mean time, we could enjoy some riding while temps were more seasonal. Since I had recently watched Tombstone, I thought Tombstone would be a good destination. Paul also suggested Sedona and I hadn't been there. Couple that with a trip to Kingman to visit his dad and we had the makings of a route. All that was left was to assure that we got plenty of time off the super-slab.
There isn't much in the way of roads in southern Arizona, so really, we only had one choice and that was 85/86, loop back up to 10 for a short distance and then 82/83 to get us into Tombstone. Paul noted that 80 out of Tombstone and up 191 would make for a fine route to Globe on 70 for the night or possibly Payson, just up the line a little. The next day was to be Sedona, followed by Jerome and then Kingman to see his dad. After that, it was to be some of 66 and then the I-40 super-slab home to California.
The plan was to leave at 6 and make our first stop in Gila Bend. That would put us in good position to make Tombstone by lunch and get up to Payson. Of course, who can work when thinking about a ride? I was getting anxious and asked Paul if he could leave by 1700. His day was moving right along, so the plan was to be kickstands up at 5. At 16:45, I started getting ready and at just about 1700, I was out the door, never looking back at my computer. Paul was not near his bike. A few minutes went by and Paul came out to tell me he got last minute tasking and we'd have to leave later. No problem. We went up to his office and waited for some processes to finish. We didn't get on the bikes until 1830.
The plan was still to get to Gila Bend, even though we'd get there pretty late. Traffic on I-10 was pretty light. There was a minimal amount of splitting lanes we needed to do to make forward progress just east of Yucaipa; but, other than that, we were doing well. We decided to get off the super-slab in Indio and start south on 86. This would get us to 8, which gets us to Gila Bend. Evening temps were perfect and other than being disappointed that we couldn't really see Salton Sea, we had a really nice ride. We decided on a Cracker Barrel for dinner and had some really good sandwiches. Can anyone identify this thing on the wall???
We pulled into Gila Bend after midnight and stayed at a Best Western that had a space theme. The Space Age Inn I think it was. Entering the main office, this is what we see:
The next day begins with breakfast at the Space Inn:
...and we're off to Tombstone. Tombstone is a small place. Blink and you miss it.
We didn't stay long, we had plenty of riding ahead of us and other than the obvious tourist places, it seems like the place was largely modernized. It wasn't the wide dirt rode with sparse buildings on either side that I had hoped for. I was also hoping to see several cowboys and horses, and maybe a gunfight or two breaking out in the street. There was none of that. There was a modern fire station though and I thought I'd grab a couple pics with the bikes and some apparatus.
It would seem that we can't help but find interesting things at lunch. Does anyone want to tell me what the hell this is? It is in Tombstone.
My kind of place:
So, from here, we decided to take I-40 to Rt. 66 and into Kingsman Az., where we visited Paul's dad; a very nice man with rich experiences to share. He's a retired Marine with a very nice gun collection he was very willing to show off. Paul's step mom is also a very nice lady and she did a fantastic job decorating their house. After a couple hours visiting, it was time to pull up the kickstands and head home. It would be 8 or 9pm before we got back. That didn't mean we were going to do the super-slab the whole way. We jumped back on 66 and went through some of my favorite parts of 66 through Oatman, where there is a little town that has borough's that come down off the mountain at around 1630-1700 to visit with the crowd and get some treats. Here's some of the twisties leading up to the town and, of course the boroughs we found there when we arrived.
Excellent trip. Fun was had by all, and of course, I'm ready to go on another trip right away. Some notes...Paul turned 72,000. on his LT. I am just about to turn 56,000 on my GT. As always, here are the maps:
There isn't much in the way of roads in southern Arizona, so really, we only had one choice and that was 85/86, loop back up to 10 for a short distance and then 82/83 to get us into Tombstone. Paul noted that 80 out of Tombstone and up 191 would make for a fine route to Globe on 70 for the night or possibly Payson, just up the line a little. The next day was to be Sedona, followed by Jerome and then Kingman to see his dad. After that, it was to be some of 66 and then the I-40 super-slab home to California.
The plan was to leave at 6 and make our first stop in Gila Bend. That would put us in good position to make Tombstone by lunch and get up to Payson. Of course, who can work when thinking about a ride? I was getting anxious and asked Paul if he could leave by 1700. His day was moving right along, so the plan was to be kickstands up at 5. At 16:45, I started getting ready and at just about 1700, I was out the door, never looking back at my computer. Paul was not near his bike. A few minutes went by and Paul came out to tell me he got last minute tasking and we'd have to leave later. No problem. We went up to his office and waited for some processes to finish. We didn't get on the bikes until 1830.
The plan was still to get to Gila Bend, even though we'd get there pretty late. Traffic on I-10 was pretty light. There was a minimal amount of splitting lanes we needed to do to make forward progress just east of Yucaipa; but, other than that, we were doing well. We decided to get off the super-slab in Indio and start south on 86. This would get us to 8, which gets us to Gila Bend. Evening temps were perfect and other than being disappointed that we couldn't really see Salton Sea, we had a really nice ride. We decided on a Cracker Barrel for dinner and had some really good sandwiches. Can anyone identify this thing on the wall???
We pulled into Gila Bend after midnight and stayed at a Best Western that had a space theme. The Space Age Inn I think it was. Entering the main office, this is what we see:
...and we're off to Tombstone. Tombstone is a small place. Blink and you miss it.
We didn't stay long, we had plenty of riding ahead of us and other than the obvious tourist places, it seems like the place was largely modernized. It wasn't the wide dirt rode with sparse buildings on either side that I had hoped for. I was also hoping to see several cowboys and horses, and maybe a gunfight or two breaking out in the street. There was none of that. There was a modern fire station though and I thought I'd grab a couple pics with the bikes and some apparatus.
It would seem that we can't help but find interesting things at lunch. Does anyone want to tell me what the hell this is? It is in Tombstone.
We had 4:30 hours of riding ahead of us before we would call it a day and were pretty jazzed by the fact that we would get to a hotel room at a reasonable time, have a relaxing dinner and perhaps catch up on some of the sleep we missed the night before. That didn't happen. We finally made it to Payson and decided to have dinner before checking in for the night. We stopped at a Chilli's in Payson. During dinner, I thought I'd call for hotel reservations and perhaps get an Internet discount. The obvious choice in Payson was the Knight's Inn we saw on the way in. It was $94/night. When we got there, I went to check out the room since the outside of the place looked pretty run down. Well, the inside was pretty run down as well. I could just imagine the bed being nothing but springs, no hot water and having bed bug bites all over me by morning. We passed. That was the beginning of a long night. We went up the street and found a Days Inn. They wanted $269 for a room with a king size bed. No thank you. The Comfort Inn was sold out and it was at that point we realized there must be some convention in town. Well, there were like 3. We tried calling the Days inn back; but, they sold the room while I was on the phone with them. The next town up the line was Camp Verde. I made several phone calls there and those hotels were sold out. The same went for Sonora. The next place was Flagstaff and I struck out there until I found a Doubletree in by Hilton. They had one room left - 2 queens for $254. Without hesitation, I gave the guy my credit card and we headed up there. When we thought we were done for the day, we needed to ride another 115 miles to get to a hotel room. Instead of a realizing evening and extra sleep, we ended up getting in at 0030hrs - 30 minutes earlier than the night before after a chilly climb to 7000 feet.
Getting into the room, I dropped my stuff and started charging things. The Sena died in Camp Verde and so did my iPhone. So I put those on the charger and flopped into bed. I didn't realize that the lamp I plugged into was controlled by the switch by the front door. My stuff got about 10 minutes of charging time the whole night! Paul to the rescue. Being always prepared, Paul pulled out his XP3 battery charger...
With this bad boy, I was able to plug my sena in, put the battery pack in my jacket and get a charge while we rode. I didn't have to be tethered to the bike at all. My iPhone went right into the USB port on the bike, safely tucked away in the lower cabinet. By the time we stopped for breakfast, my Sena was fully charged and the iPhone was at 83%. Over breakfast, I finished charging the iPhone on the XP-3. When both were done charging, the XP3 was still at 75% capacity. I have to have one...although, maybe the XP1, which will charge a laptop. Pics from breakfast. I don't always wait until someone is ready for the picture.
My kind of place:
So, from here, we decided to take I-40 to Rt. 66 and into Kingsman Az., where we visited Paul's dad; a very nice man with rich experiences to share. He's a retired Marine with a very nice gun collection he was very willing to show off. Paul's step mom is also a very nice lady and she did a fantastic job decorating their house. After a couple hours visiting, it was time to pull up the kickstands and head home. It would be 8 or 9pm before we got back. That didn't mean we were going to do the super-slab the whole way. We jumped back on 66 and went through some of my favorite parts of 66 through Oatman, where there is a little town that has borough's that come down off the mountain at around 1630-1700 to visit with the crowd and get some treats. Here's some of the twisties leading up to the town and, of course the boroughs we found there when we arrived.
Excellent trip. Fun was had by all, and of course, I'm ready to go on another trip right away. Some notes...Paul turned 72,000. on his LT. I am just about to turn 56,000 on my GT. As always, here are the maps:
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