I See My Wife For The First Time in 3 Months

I left the town of Thatcher on day 96 feeling excited, as after 3 months, I would be seeing my lovely wife today! I headed towards Phoenix with a good feeling.

The journey today was about me seeing things I have never seen before. Cactus for example. When I was a boy I liked to grow miniature cacti but nothing like this.... this cactus was maybe 15 feet (5m) tall....

Then I saw a hill covered in these cacti....

A short while later, I saw flowering palm trees at the side of the road. I have never seen this before either....

Than another first – cotton fields....

The land as I rode towards Phoenix was what I would call a desert – not the classic sand dunes type desert, but so hot and arid that very little grows....

The ride on US 70 was unexciting and hot. The road only got interesting around the town of Superior as it followed Queen Creek Canyon and went through a short tunnel, but to be honest, it was nothing to write home about. This was part of the canyon....

I reached Phoenix in the late afternoon and it was fantastic to see Jackie again! We spent a great evening together talking about what we would see and do over the next two weeks.

One of the guys I met in Sturgis, Wayne, lives in Phoenix and he suggested a visit to see the Saxon Motorcycle manufacturing facility....

So, the next day Jackie and I met Wayne at Saxon and Peter Morris, Saxons Chief Business Development Officer, showed us around and told us about the organisation, the manufacturing process and of course the bikes....

Saxon change their bikes each year and they currently have 8 models for 2010. These can be seen on the Saxon Motorcycles website, but here are a few that I took pictures of....

Their bikes did seem remarkably good value, especially when taking into account the favourable Dollar to Pound exchange rate!

The day just got hotter and hotter and both Jackie and I were suffering with the heat.... okay, the thermometer on my bike was in the direct sunlight, but this was HOT....

In the afternoon I went to meet Lucky of the Great Motorcycle Pizza Tour blog....

Lucky lives in Phoenix and was working this day just a few miles from the hotel Jackie and I were staying at, so it was a great opportunity to meet another blogger....

Of course, we talked about bikes, travelling, work and of course Pizza! It was great to meet with Lucky even if we didn’t have much time.

That evening Wayne had organised a dinner for him and a lot of his friends, plus Jackie and I. We went to the Rustler’s Rooste, a western steakhouse. We were all on bikes except Pam who I also met in Sturgis. We entered the restaurant on the upper level and to get to the main restaurant floor, there is a slide which most of us chose to use. The option of using the stairs just seemed too boring to take!

I am trying as many new things as possible on this tour, so when I saw Rattlesnake on the menu, well I just has to try it.... Yes, it was okay and yes, it did taste just like chicken!

Jackie and I were having such a good time, I completely forgot to take any pictures of the group! Wayne however did take one of Jackie and I....

Thanks to Wayne for arranging such a good dinner with great people in such an interesting place!

On day 98 Jackie and I rode to Flagstaff which we will be using as our base for the next 12 days or so.

I forgot to include a couple of pictures previously from when I went to the H-D dealer on the west side of Flagstaff, so here they are.... both were taken in their parking lot and the first shows a statue made from exhaust pipes / mufflers....

The second is a railroad car and yes, it is parked outside the dealership....

Lucky told me some strange things happen in Arizona and he was right! Perhaps it is the heat that causes it!

Looking Back....

I was asked recently what were my favourite things from the tour so far, what were my highlights and where did I like the most. That is a tough question because there have been so many good things to see and do. I tried to answer the question as fairly as I could. Of course, writing any sort of favourites list has the danger of people not agreeing or saying they would have added this or that, but here is my list. I have added this to the panel on the right hand side of this blog and I will keep it up to date by adding any new favourites as I continue my journey.

I have deliberately avoided listing this with any sort of any order, so I have simply listed them in the sequence that I saw them.....

• Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, New York City.
• Lobsters in the New England states.
• Provincetown in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
• Niagara Falls. New York.
• Chicago, Illinois.
• The Harley-Davidson Museum, Milwaukee.
• The Sand Hills, in Nebraska.
• The Badlands, South Dakota.
• Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, South Dakota.
• Needles Highway in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
• Devils Tower, Wyoming.
• Bighorn Canyon, as it was such a surprise!
• Cody, Wyoming.
• Riding Beartooth Pass, on the Montana/ Wyoming border.
• Bison, waterfalls and geysers of Yellowstone
• The Tetons, Wyoming.
• Colorado and the Rocky Mountains!
• Riding above the tree line – Mount Evans, Pikes Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park.
• Bishop Castle, near Colorado City, Colorado.
• Skyline Drive, Canon City.
• Million Dollar Highway
• Antelope Canyon

• Back roads and small towns anywhere.
• Meeting really nice people, in just about all of the places I have been.
• The camaraderie of bikers. Everywhere, USA.

The Choice.... 14,000 Miles.... Jack Arrives.....

I had a choice to make.

My travel over the next two days would take me to Phoenix.

The choice I needed to make was do I take a rest day and then travel in one day to Phoenix on the direct route down the interstate from Flagstaff, or do I go the long way around and ride a road that a guy called Gary suggested to me when I was in Manila in Utah. The road that he suggested I should ride was US 191 in eastern Arizona that had 1000 bends in 90 miles. I liked the sound of that but it was a long way – the journey to Phoenix was about 600 miles this way, so it meant a couple of hard days riding.

I took the long way around.

The first part of the journey was going to be dull. I left early, music on, cranked the throttle open and got going for 113 miles eastbound on I-40 riding right into the sun! Soon I reached the exit I would take and I rode through the Petrified Forest National Park which also takes in part of the Painted Desert.

The Painted Desert gets its name from the vibrant colours of the rock which contains iron and manganese compounds which give the rocks their characteristic red and brown colours. Almost no topsoil exists here so the rocks are exposed....

The National Park also contains ancient petroglyphs – simple pictures carved or cut into rock surfaces. These images were made in the rocks between 650 and 2,000 years ago. You are not allowed near these, but you can see them from a distance....

The Petrified Forest part of the park is interesting. The area was once a wet grassland where many tall conifer trees grew. Over time, these fell and were washed into the nearby floodplains where they were quickly covered by mud, silt and volcanic ash. This sediment prevented oxygen reaching the trunks and thus prevented decay. Over years, the trunks became saturated with water containing silica and the silica replaced the natural wood tissue, turning into quartz and preserving the wood into its petrified condition we see today. As the climate changed and the soil disappeared, this exposed the petrified trunks....

I left the Petrified Forest a little wiser, but with a long ride still ahead of me.

Keeping a close eye on my fuel gauge and not relying on the low fuel warning light, my journey took the Leading Ladies and I along some straight roads....

In the afternoon I reached the small town of Alpine. It didn’t register with me beforehand, but the name Alpine reflects the terrain in this area of eastern Arizona – there are mountain ranges here that I simply didn’t know existed and Alpine sits in the San Francisco Mountains right on the border with New Mexico. The road I had gone out of my way to ride is US 191 and the interesting part runs from Alpine to Clifton through the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. I rode back up to 9200 feet on this road.

I stopped at a small restaurant for coffee. I sat on a comfortable sofa on the front porch and nearly fell asleep, it was so comfy....

While I didn’t count to check if there was actually 1,000 bends on this road as claimed, it certainly seemed that way. The road was almost totally void of cars and trucks are not allowed to use this highway. Being a Saturday, I did see some bikes, but not as many as the road deserves. I think that is because US 191 is a long way from anywhere, with now large cities nearby. I felt as if I almost had the road to myself.

Despite being in a mountain range, it is difficult to take photos of the views because of the trees (it is a forest after all) so I just relaxed and enjoyed the road. At one point I did ride passed this sign which I thought was so wonderful, I had to go back and photograph it....

There was one place when I was afforded a view.... click on the picture to enlarge it to see part of this road winding through a valley....

I tried to capture a view across the mountains. The haze and a point and shoot camera that I think is playing up didn’t help, so this is the best I snapped....

Near the town of Morenci is a huge hole in the ground. Well, to be more precise, it is the largest copper mine in North America. It is truly vast. Here is just a part of it....

I reached the 14,000 mile point of my tour so far. This was just west of Clifton, near the Gila River, on US 191....

I found a hotel to stay at in a town called Thatcher. I had ridden 493 miles today and I was tired. I decided not to venture far to find dinner tonight and there was a Denny’s right next door!......

My regulars readers will remember that a good friend, Paul, joined me for the first part of this tour in the New England States. This is Paul....

Well, Paul’s wife Sarah gave birth to a 6lb 12oz baby boy a few days ago. Here is their son, Jack.....

Congratulations to both Sarah and Paul – they have a special son!

Deserts and Shadows....

It is taking me some time to get used to the change in scenery, plus of course the rise in temperature as I have headed further south and the elevation has become lower.

The scenery has changed from mountains to desert in a very short distance. At one place I stopped there was even sand dunes – proper desert!....

In the UK, we are a nation with a small land area and so whilst we do have regional variations in weather and scenery, these are small differences compared to what I have seen in the US. I can recall the huge woodland areas of Maine or the Adirondacks, but compare that to where I am now – Arizona – and it might as well be a different planet! The differences are huge and all contained within one country. I have read recently on other motorcycling related blogs that people are seeing the demise of summer and autumn is upon them. I read one persons words saying they thought their riding season was all but over, but compare that to the current weather here in Arizona and again, a vast difference is seen.

As I started my journey on this day (number 93), I didn’t notice something. I didn’t see that my low fuel warning light had stopped working and my bike spluttered to a stop as it ran out of fuel. Crap, how could that have happened? Knowing my fuel tank is actually two halves fixed together and knowing the fuel feed comes from one side only, I rocked the bike from side to side in an attempt to shift any last few drops to the feed side of the tanks and it worked and my bike fired back into life as I hit the starter button. I rode as economically as I could for about 4 miles to where I knew (thanks gps) there was a gas station and it completely ran out of fuel about 200 yards away but it was downhill and I managed to coast the rest of the way. Note to self – find a Harley dealer and get them to fix the problem!

When I left Page, I stopped and looked at the dam that forms Lake Powell. Opened in 1966 the Glen Canyon Dam as is it known, caused considerable environmental objections at the time of its inception due to the flooding of Glen Canyon and the damming of the Colorado River. It is difficult for me to understand the depth of the objectors feelings about the dam, but in the main I support any forms of environmental power generation and that of course includes hydro-electric generation.

When I then saw the nearby Navajo Power Plant that burns coal to produce its electricity, I did wonder quite how balanced the anti-dam objectors are. I would much rather see a dam producing electricity than this power plant, located as it is, in what would be a beautiful area....

This is the downstream side of the Glen Canyon Dam....

At the scenic overlook that gives a great view od the dam (can a dam be scenic?) there are some amazing rock formations where the weather has worn away part of the rock to form wonderful lines and patterns....

I went to see Horseshoe Bend, formed by millions of years of the movement of the Colorado River. Unfortunately it was early morning on a very bright sunny day and that meant shadows – bit long dark shadows which made photographing the bend in the river very difficult. This was the best result I could achieve, by over-exposing to get some detail into the dark areas, which of course doesn’t help the areas already lit by direct sunlight....

I later looked at some excellent pictures of Horseshoe Bend and noticed the best were taken on overcast, cloudy days – the only way I guess to avoid dark shadows. Either that, or take the pictures when the sun is high in the sky!

I decided not to wait for either clouds or noon time and moved on!

As I headed south I marvelled at the feat of engineering that drove the road through these stone cliffs....

A range of hills called Echo Cliffs run alongside US 89 for a considerable distance. This is one of the taller areas of the cliffs....

I wanted to see Marble Canyon, so I turned north at Bitter Springs and made my way once more towards the Colorado River. I was surprised that the road goes over Marble Canyon on a rather splendid bridge....

This is the new Navajo Bridge which was opened in 1995 to sit alongside the original Navajo Bridge. It had become apparent that the original bridge which had opened in 1929 could no longer carry the volume of traffic the road now carried and so the new, almost identical bridge was constructed. Here are the two side-by-side with the original bridge on the right....

Here is looking upstream into Marble Canyon and the Colorado River....

And this is looking downstream....

Notice anything odd about these two pictures? The colour of the water changes dramatically as the current hits the sediment in the bottom of the river on a bend just before the bridges. You can see it happening in this picture - note the blue water at the top of the picture and the green at the bottom....

I went to Lees Ferry just north of Marble Canyon. Not many people went on this road as it dead-ends, so many people don’t bother to take this road. I did, and I am glad I took the trouble to. A few photos from this road....

Part of the Vermillion Cliffs....

Two well balanced rocks. A very large one and a small pile somebody had left for me to find....

The same rock....

Note the Leading Ladies in the background. This was a big rock!....

Another nearby amazing balanced rock....

More impressive cliffs....

The Colorado River, from water level....

I arrived in Flagstaff quite early and I had time to find the Harley-Davidson dealer there. I had noticed a small oil leak had developed on my engine and the service department discovered it was a seal failure where the gear change linkage passes through the primary drive casing. They didn’t have time to take the side of the engine off to replace the seal, so I have booked it into the H-D dealer near Prescott next week for them to do the work. I was so concerned about the oil leak, that I completely forget to ask them to look at the low fuel light! I will try to remember next week!

At my hotel for the evening, I checked what the weather forecast would be like for the next couple of days as I approach Phoenix.....

What was that about the riding season coming to a close?