Day 2 of the 202 TourA

Dear Family & Friends,

The thing I love about motorcycling is no matter how long or difficult a day riding I have the next morning I always wake up excited for another day’s adventure. Tuesday morning we packed up and went to breakfast at our hotel. Kingman is a “colorful” place and when we travel by motorcycle we usually don’t stay at 4 star hotels. and this was no exception. Formal wear for men was a clean “Wife Beater” T-shirt and the really “beautiful" people here had all their front teeth….. 
I was thinking about the heat yesterday. 117 was a bit extreme but at least there was no bugs.. Most days after 10 hours on the road I am covered with squished bug but it was so hot the bugs were not out..... Which makes me think even the bugs were smarter than motorcyclist.... :(

We finished breakfast and went to the bikes to ride and panic set in when Brian could not find his motorcycle keys.. He started looking everywhere and could not find them. Duane suggested he look in his pant legs because motorcycle riding pants are double wall and sometimes the key can fall between the two but unfortunately no luck. We searched every where Brian went. Finally Brian figured he must have left the keys in the ignition that morning before breakfast and someone stole them. So plan B was to search the grounds hoping some jerk just took the keys and threw them somewhere. After an hour and half of searching bushes, parking lots, and dumpster diving no luck.. We were about resigned to spending two days in Kingman and having and spare set sent here. 

Brian was very disheartened when for some reason he reached all the way down to his pant cuff where he thought he had looked before and sure enough there was the key!! It seems his motorcycle riding pants had two zippered slots on the legs, one opened up a pocket, the other a vent hole for his pants. He put the keys in the vent hole where it dropped to the bottom of his leg…… Remember I said this group had 202 years of motorcycling experience?? Well with that experience comes an occasional “Senior Moment”, but at least we could ride.

By the time we left it was already in the mid 90s and I was not looking forward to another hot day. We headed north towards Flagstaff which is actually fairly high altitude and within the hour is was green and a delightful temperature ranging from mid 70s to mid 80s, perfect for motorcycling.

In Flagstaff we stopped for lunch at a very 50s diner. I love getting out on the open road and avoiding any chain restaurants. The local feel is so much better.

From there we rode down the other side of the mountain into the Navajo Nation Reservation. The views are very dramatic and stark.  The Navajos did not get a great deal on this land. A very tough place to live.

The weather suddenly got dark with clouds and we started hitting flash rain storms that would soak you to the skin and then just as quickly dry off because it was still warm. The alarming part was the lightening! It was striking the ground all around us, many time less than a mile away. As long as the lightening was coming down I didn’t stop once or set my feet on the ground. I did not want to be grounded and target for a strike!

We got through that and continued through the Navajo Reservation. We stopped at a road side area that featured Navajo Art and real dinosaur tracks. The guide was a local indian girl no more than ten. Very friendly, very articulate, and knew far more about dinosaurs than I did. She took me to various tracks. Quite amazing. The tracks were made over 65,000,000 years ago yet looked like the beast walked by yesterday….. Suddenly her parents yelled for her to come to their car. She explained to me they were expecting flash flooding and had to leave.. Great and I there on a motorcycle….

At the Navajo store I tried to find some souvenirs for my Blackhorse Coffee group of friends. I meet with these great men every morning and talk about all sorts of interesting subjects. They all have such eclectic tastes and knowledge. For my friend Hamp I tried to find some Navajo art (Which I know he likes) that reflected all his interests so I asked for a genuine Navajo Beer Tray that illustrated early American Indian Porsches… Unfortunately they sold the last one yesterday.. 

For my friend Milt I found the perfect book, “The Complete Unabridged History of Navajo Testicles”…. Unfortunately they were sold out of the English edition and only had it in Navajo which I didn’t think Milt read.

For my friend Bern I tried to find a “Navajos for Bernie Sanders” T shirt but I was told that is only sold on the left side of the reservation and were are on the right side… I’ll keep trying..

Late afternoon was absolutely gorgeous riding through the valleys. There would be occasional thunderstorms with beautiful rainbows and as the sun got low in the sky the lighting was amazing. It made the mountains and valleys pop like a 3D movie. By the end of the day we finally made it to Cortez, Colorado. It was another long 400+ mile day but now that we are in Colorado we will do more sight seeing and less riding. Brian and I  rewarded ourselves with a good dinner and I had a good glass of red wine. Duane went right to sleep….

I am sure I have said this before but one of the reasons I love motorcycling is you get such a visceral sensation from the environment that a car isolates you from. When it was about to rain you would feel the humidity build up, if you rode through an area where it just rained you could smell the moisture in the air, as you rode by various landscapes and crops you can smell the difference. And of course being out in the open on a motorcycle gives you amazing views of everything around you. 

I am looking forward to another day…. 

Jason

After Brian found his keys he showed us how easy it was to mistake a vent zipper for a pocket zipper... yeah right... :(

The cure,,,, we padlocked the keys to Brian. No more lost keys..

Fabulous Route 66 cousine...

We are all aditiced to our cell phones..

The "Charm" of Route 66

Where else can you find such culture..

Certainly some vast views.

65,000,000+ year old foot prints that look like they were done yesterday..

My guide..

That green area is where my guide and her family live.. Not an easy life.

The exact spot where these four states meet..

Cortez Colorado. Our first night in CO.

The minute you cross from Arizona to Colorado it immediately gets greener and greener.

Bonnie will be so thrilled with the new refrigerator magnet I am bringing home to add to the 100+ already there..

A great diner right out of the 1950s.. So old the hands have fallen off the clock.

They just can't stop playing with their cell phones!!

The 202 Motorcycle Tour

Dear Family & Friends,

It has been quite a year… Four daughters and a niece all doing well. A good friend once told me you are only happy as your least happy child and that is very true..

My youngest daughter Jessica is living the life of a free and single young women. Enjoying her life, experimenting with career moves and places to live a playing lots of soccer.

Next daughter up, Hannah was married last month. What can I say? She is so happy, we love the young man she married, the wedding was picture perfect. My wife Bonnie did an amazing job planning the event. She worked so hard I’m exhausted watching her!

My next oldest daughter Sarah is such an amazing women. She takes life by the horns and whatever comes her way she conquers. She has a terrific career going, she is doing an outstanding job raising my grandson Abel, and just bought her first home! I am very proud of her accomplishments and her attitude about life.

My oldest daughter opened a beautiful boutique shop in our town and it looks amazing. She has a beautiful family that I only see on Facebook. She has exquisite taste. I wish our relationship was better but miracles can happen.

We also have our niece living with us,, she is the 5th daughter I didn’t now I always wanted.. She came to us from a very difficult background with problems and has grown into an amazing young woman, confident, smart, and just fun to be with. She is also doing very well in college.. I am very proud of her, or I should say very impressed with what she has accomplished. Proud implies I did something and she turned her life around in an amazing way. I love having her part of our life..

Finally my amazing wife is finally taking it a bit easier now that she has remodeled several rooms in our house, planned an amazing wedding, and continues to spoil me…

So how do I reward her for all her hard work, dedication, and love??? Of course give her two weeks off while I go motorcycle riding…. Well at least off at night, she will have to run our family business while I’m gone…….

So this week I am off on another adventure. Ten days riding through the Rockies in Colorado. I am traveling with my old riding buddy Duane Lieb who I have ridden to the Arctic circle with, down to central Mexico, and all over Europe and a new riding friend, Brian Louw. I have known Brian casually for several years but this year we kind of hooked and put this ride together. He is an excellent rider and I will have to be on my game to keep up with him. Both Brian and Duane are very intelligent which makes interesting conversations the reward for a long day on the road.

Colorado is such a beautiful state. So much to photograph so expect to see lots of photos in my blog.

So today, Monday is our first day on the road. Today we need to just cover a lot of ground to get out of California, across the desert and close to Colorado. We left at 6:30am and rode 1 1/2 hours then stopped in fabulous downtown Maricopa for breakfast. (That’s sarcasm, Maricopa is a pit) The place to go in Maricopa (not that there are many choices) is Tina’s Place. Tina is this very friendly Philippine mail order bride. She cooks a ridiculous amount of food for very little money. This morning I had a large breakfast, big enough to carry me all day, for $6.95! Tina’s place looks like it was built in the 1940s and hasn’t been touched since. Check out my photos from some very “unique” decor. Sarah by daughter that specializes in interior design will appreciate this place.

I once asked Tina what brought her to Maricopa which is a two block long dive and she told me she was a mail order bride. She said she likes it there, she knows everyone in town, her husband brought her sister over to live with them, and her husband doesn’t beat her very often…. all in all better than the Philippines. How bad it is there?!?!?!?

We took the southern route along Hwy 40 / Route 66 because it was supposed to be cooler than going up Hwy 15 through Vegas. Vegas was supposed to be 107 and the southern route only 97!

Well there were a few spots where it was a cool 97 but most of the day it was well over 100 and at some points reaching 117! I have finally been to a place literally hotter than hell!! You couldn’t even open your helmet because the air coming in was way to hot!!

By the end of the day as we approached Kingman AZ the temperature dropped to 98 and it actually felt cool! A long day of heat and 475 miles of riding. Tomorrow we go north and gain altitude where it should be much cooler.

We named this ride “ The 202 Tour” because between the three of us our ages add up to 202! When I started riding if three of our ages added up to 90 I would have thought we are close to death! Where the #$%#^$%^%$ has the time gone?? But at least I am still healthy and riding… 

If your reading this in my Blog I am assuming you want to be there. IF you are reading this from my email blast and really don't want to hear from me (I have heard there are a few people like that!) just email me back and I will remove you for the mailings.

I hope you enjoy these reports. I enjoy writing them

Jason 

PS: Here is some interesting technology... Follow our exact route:

Follow our route...

A more perfect wedding would be hard to imagine. Visually beautiful and lots of love between the groom and bride and everyone that attended.. We have great family and friends!

Fresh and ready to ride. It is 6:30am and nice and cool. Little did we know what was in store! Here is 202 years of motorcycling experience!!

First stop, beautiful downtown Maricopa.

Tina's diner awaits us!

I love riding this motorcycle... :)

Inside the fabulous Tina's.. Where else can you find such decor??

Notice the fresco on the walls? It was done by Michael D. Angelo from Bakersfield..

This is what it looks like when you don't toss anything for 40 years... oh wait my house is starting to look like this... :(

$6.95 enough said..

This sign has been up for years in Maricopa.. It doesn't even say what's coming??

When you ride the Old Route 66 you never know what art work you will find.

Nothing and more nothing.. but really HOT nothing.

We made it!!

Tonights reward... a thick steak and a glass of red wine! :)