Trip days: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8-9 | 10-12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20
I rolled off the couch at 6:15 am and got ready for the day ahead. Shannon was excited that I was riding through Arizona and had planned a weekend ride that would take us up to Show Low or thereabouts, a loop through New Mexico, and then back to Phoenix. He tells me we'll have ridden nearly 900 miles by the end of the ride. I'm racking up miles like mad, and this won't help. I've already done over 2,000 miles in 5 days, and I havn't even gotten out of the southwest yet. Yikes. Shannon and I loaded up and road over to his friend Al's house. Al is a hot air balloon operator, owns a Ducati 907 and a BMW R1150GS, and would be joining our ride on his GS. We did a quick oil change on Shannon's bike, as he had spaced doing it for a little long, and headed out of town. We headed east on highway 60 and down highway 177 to Winkelman where we met up the fourth member of our high speed BMW entourage, Charlie the IBM employee from Tucson who rides an S as well. Up through Globe, and north on highway 60 to Salt River Canyon. Quite the aggressive group of riders. They all run radar detectors and rely heavily on them as exhibited by their high speed progress. Nearly twice the speed limit at times. In back water Arizona it seems almost impossible to do the speed limit, especially on a motorcycle. Seemingly endless roads in the middle of nowhere with nobody around... and 55 mph speed limits. I'm continuously confounded by America's policy towards speed limits. Salt River Canyon and highway 60 east of Phoenix has now been added to my list of must ride roads. Just imagine the smoothest banked twisties with lots of grip, winding 20 miles down into an awesome canyon and then back up the other side... 70 degrees, sunny. A mixed bag of high speed sweepers, tight hairpins, and slalom sections. Ahh, relaxation therapy at 8,000 rpm. Shannon and I had been harping on each other about who would be faster in the canyon, so I was particularly excited that I spanked him down and then back up the north side of the canyon on our S vs. S canyon time trial. No small feat as he is a very compentent rider that likes working the edges of the envelope. Actually, I didn't really spank him, I was just a bit faster through the twisties... that should make him feel better when he reads this. We then looped down on highway 73 through Canyon Day and up to Hon Dah, then east on highway 260 to Springerville. After checking into a hotel in Springerville, we directed our attention to the steak house down the road. I should have realized that when prime rib comes in petite, large, and extra large sizes that something is amiss. Why not 10oz, 12oz, and 16oz? Well because the large prime rib is probably more like 20 ounces, the petite is 16 ounces or so, and I didn't get to see the extra large but I can only imagine. Served with a side of Cowboy Beans, French Onion soup, a baked potato, horse radish, and bread, the meal was freaking gigantic and quite fulfilling! Now back at the hotel, I'm attempting to digest my meal and prepare myself for the 500+ mile day tomorrow. Hopefully, more Salt Canyon type roads will be in my near future. Happy dreams of two wheel excitement.
Total Mileage for Day: 379 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
©2003 John Meloy <jam@nas.com>