 Took
off from ABQ after the storm passed on Monday, ran into a biker from
St Loius before I took off down NM 117 from US 40 who rode through
it coming in from TX and said he hit hail; glad I stayed put. Heard
from others on down the road in AZ that it was a pretty unusual event,
still saw big water puddles and wash across the roads two days later. |
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48. La Ventana Natural Arch NM 117.JPG |
 49. La Ventana map NM 117.jpg |
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| Stayed at Reed's Lodge in Springerville, AZ and snatched the shot of the area from their room directory; recommended place to stay if ever there. Climbed outta the valley and up to Apache National Forest and froze my ass off till the top at Forest Lakes but what a grand sight! | ||
 50. White Mountains from Reed Lodge |
51. Reeds Lodge Guest Service Directory.jpg |
52. Springerville area map.JPG |
53. Apache National Forest.JPG |
54. AZ 260 W at Forest Lakes campground.JPG |
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| Heard on the news that the Verde River flooded, looked fine when I went through there. Jarome, AZ kinda reminded me of Virginia City, CA but higher up and not as much fun? | 
55. Verde Valley from just above Jerome AZ.JPG |
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| Went through
Prescott, AZ and got lost but directed by locals through county road
back towards Aguila, AZ where I stayed. Prescott is scattered across
the top of a mountain, where the rich AZ people stay in the summer
I suppose. I landed in Aguila after finally
coming down from 8000' and finding the first oasis and that it was.
Stayed at Burro Jim's motel where they had carports for every room.
Never seen that before. Went to take off the next day around lunch
and ended up Nancy the maid/groundskeeper/handy(wo)man and Marvin
the truckdriver were kinda waiting to go eat with me at the Two
Pelicans bar/restaurant. Best brunch I had the whole trip! Rancher
from Montana bought the bar, hired a b---- manager and raised prices
for drinks and so the locals don't go there so much anymore. Still
a cool place and recommended stop. Aguila is named after Eagle Eye
Mountain but the picture I took doesn't do it justice: there's a
distinct hole in the top of it that doesn't come through clearly
in the pic taken from in front of Two Pelicans. The truck in the
pic of Burro Jim's and Two Pelicans is Marvin's, he was waiting
for a load of refrigerated goods to take from the local farmers
at 3p. I bought him and Nancy lunch just for being such hospitable
people to a complete stranger. |
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56. Eagle Eye Mtn from Aguila AZ.JPG |
57. Burro Jims & Two Pelicans in Aguila AZ.JPG |
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58. Parker Dam.JPG |
59. Parker Dam downstream.JPG |
60. CA AZ border below Parker Dam.JPG |
| Never heard of Parker Dam before, it's about 50 mi or so below Hoover Dam. Beautiful recreation area. Rode across it and yakked with the security guy on the CA side, told me I couldn't see the river as much down the CA side and have to wear a helmet so just turned around and went back down the AZ side to ride for one last time after 4 weeks without the lid. You can see my feelings about that when I was welcomed back to CA. | 
61. Welcome to CA helmet.JPG |
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Ran into some roadwork on the way to 29 Palms that was a result of the storm and took a picture of the slow/stop guy taking a picture of me as I was the most interesting thing all day; his name was Harley, his dad and uncles all had Harley's. Too bad the mirror didn't catch the awesome sunset up there. |
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62. strange sight in Colorado Desert.JPG |
63. CA 62w sunset.JPG |
64. CA 62w Harley roadworker.JPG |
Stayed in Twentynine Plams for the night. Always wondered how it got its' name, guy at the hotel I stayed at said there really were 29 palms around the original oasis. Quite a bit of military stuff out that way and all the way back to Tehachapi. Twentynine Palms really got on the map as a place where WWI vets retired in the desert air to keep their lungs working the best they could after all the mustard gas. Long ride the last day 62W->Joshua
Tree->247N->Victorville->(took a wrong turn and ended up
in Barstow instead of Lancaster but at least got to travel a part
of Rt 66 I'd never been on before!)->58W->Mojave (highway
shut down in opposite direction, went past a CHP crash scene but
nobody in town knew what happened, traffic backed up for MILES at
395 jct)->Tehachapi->Bakersfield (still enough light left
to get an oil well picture!)->Buttonwillow (food and fuel) then
made the executive decision to go for home up 5N->152W->101N->680N
and got in around 2a or so and stayed up writing the notes from
the last 3 days! |
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65. El Rancho Dolores room.JPG |
67. Triksie at Porter Land No 3.JPG |
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| HOME. WHEW!!!
Triksie didn't move for a month but she's all lubricated |
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| Enjoyed the ride? Sign the Guest Book! | ||
