Arizona liver loop - part 2

I depart Lake Havasu before the Sun rises. About 20 miles later Mr sun makes his appearance as I'm crossing the Parker Bridge.

Oro Valley is 299 miles the fast way (aka the boring way), but that includes 120 miles of super slab.... So I take the bikers shortcut to avoid as much slab as possible and get there after about 360 miles...

While passing through Bouse, Arizona I see their WWII display and stop for a photo op.

Later another stop in Goodyear, Arizona to enjoy my lunch. This cool display was at the park.

Friday and Saturday are spent in beautiful Oro Valley. Temps are perfect for hiking so off I go on the trail in the wash behind my lodging.

You can't see the trail as it is quite a bit lower than the deck. Another pic looking back at my room.

And here are a couple more pix looking off the same deck at sunset.

The strange alien looking thing is a tree.... 👽😄 or maybe an alien camouflaged to look like a tree...

Sunday I depart for Heber-Overgard, Arizona. Another chilly day and I end up riding in a middling snow storm for 50ish miles.

I arrived at my lodging, Bison Ranch, and only to see these hooligans a-shooting up the town!

The condos are made to resemble an old west town, notice the authentic looking old west motor cars...

After a cold day of riding I was looking forward to a soak in the hot tub...but some moron dropped a wine glass in it and maintenance will have to drain and clean it up the broken glass  tomorrow.

Ohhh well....

More rambling in part III

Arizona liver loop - part 3

 I had 2 days reserved at Bison Ranch,  and when I checked in the counter person said, " oh you're leaving on Tuesday, the forecast calls or a big snow storm on Tuesday."

And sure enough Tuesday morning I looked out to see this;

I let Bev know I was heading out with this hastily composed text:

"Snow is quietly falling, but the road is loudly calling.

Many miles must I munch ere, this chilly day, dare I stop for lunch.

In the end whether the sky be filled with droplets, flakes or Sun - this motorbiking is ever and forever such GREAT fun!"

And the air WAS filled with all three before I arrived in St George for my last stop of this trip.

Heavy wet snow several miles before Winslow, Arizona caught me by surprise and had my jacket half soaked before I was able to find a safe place to stop and gear up. 

It was not problem though as I had happened to stop near a truck stop. I went in and tossed my jacket in a dryer in the laundry section of the truck stop, and soon had a dry (and warm) jacket.

The weather forecast is a bit ugly the next couple days, but I am  hoping for clear roads so I can ride the last 300 miles home in relative comfort. 

Even though I'm not home yet I'm going to close the RR here. Thanks for reading!

Bison Ranch

Bison Ranch in Arizona seems like a good place to spend a couple of days.

Reservations made I ride the 640 miles and have a couple near miss deer calls, and then I'm at my lodging

 The next day I make a loop from Bison Ranch to Payson, to Globe and back to Bison Ranch, about 260 miles of great riding!

Back to the condo for a nights rest and then I'm on my way home the next day, this time a little longer ride, about 660 miles.

Good times and great rides!

 

Mt Rushmore - Awesome Couples Ride I

Its that time of year again, the Annual Awesome Couples Ride is here.

This year we are going to Devils Tower,  Mt Rushmore et al....

But first we have a meeting of the minds at our house. Everything decided, we then mount up and get on with the ride.

 

We leave our house and ride over the beautiful Mirror Lake Highway to Evanston Wyoming.

We stop at a gas station in Wyoming and see this beautiful Honda Shadow. The owner bought it new 20 years ago and it still looks shiny and new!

Then we stop for a chat and rest in the local park.

One of the locals in Kemmerer that we talked to tells us that the tiny town of Farson has a super ice cream store....  well then, STOP we must!

And our intel was good! This is their "One Scoop" option......  Wow! 

Back on the road...Yes, that is snow!

And Wyoming's version of Red Rock Country.

Then on our way to Thermopolis...

 We visit the biggest hot springs in the world.... and see a burbling view of a bubbly brew..

Looking at the park from the other direction.

We ride through Lovell and eastbound onto the amazing US 14A, which takes us past the road for the ancient Native American medicine wheel.

Hike required...

And there it is...people come and leave all sorts of tokens.

The Medicine Wheel is between 300 and 800 years old.

After the return hike we ride the 2 miles of dirt back to the highway.

The next day we will ride the 14A again along with the Ten Sleep road and end up in Buffalo, Wyoming, which is only 36 miles away via freeway, but we take the bikers shortcut and get there in only 220 miles...

Mt Rushmore - Awesome Couples Ride II

On our way to Devils Tower, I notice the mount for one of my aux fuel tanks is loose. Further inspection shows that a rivet has broken off. I google a local hardware store and Bev and I ride there to look for a fix, while the rest of our group heads out to Devils Tower.

This is Ted, he owns this store and was super helpful in getting the problem fixed.

Then we go on our way to the tower, and catch up with our group who is waiting in line to get in the park.

Once in we hike the trail that goes around the tower, it is paved all the way and was a real neat trail. While hiking we saw several people climbing the tower.

Then we stopped at the tourist trap...I mean the trading post to scope out their wares. Nothing caught my eye...

And the group. Bev, Wendy and Ron, Ken and Jan.

Leaving Devils Tower we ride to Belle Fourche to get this pic of the geographical center of the U.S.

A closer pic.

Then somewhere along the way we pass a bunch of Pre-hamburgers...

Ken discovers his front tire has a slow leak.... We fluff it up and he got it fixed at a local HD dealer.

Breakfast in Sturgis.

After breakfast we go to the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum. The building is sort of small and I wasn't expecting much, but once we got inside it turned out to be a very nice museum!

This exhaust pipe 'chair' is outside the museum and we just had to get a photo..  

Then, unfortunately Bev got a bug of some sort. The others had gone to the Mt Rushmore park. Bev rested in our room and I went to ride the pig tail road aka Iron Mt road.

Not feeling a whole lot better after resting for a day, we decide that riding the bike home is not a good idea for Bev. So we rent a car and she drives home in one day.

And I ride the bike home in two days.

I ride the US 14A again and stay overnight in Lovell.

The next day is a rainy ride through Yellowstone NP and then south via Jackson and home

All in all even with Bev not feeling well, I think this was a great ride. It was too smoky to get good pictures of Mt Rushmore.

I'm already looking forward to next year.

Thanks to Bev and the others for the pictures.

2,133 miles for this trip.