Ok, back home safe and sound. After much delay we finally left the house about 10 am on Friday. Our first stop was just about 20 minutes away at the Gilbert Fire & Police memorial.
We weren't the first riders to get there as evidenced by two other chips already left on the memorial.
From Gilbert it was straight up the Beeline (Hwy 87) to Payson, and then continuing on north through Pine and Strawberry and Happy Jack with Winslow (Standing On The Corner) as our destination. There was lots and lots of snow on the shoulders of the road once we got past Strawberry, but the roads were clear other than the remaining salt mixture still on the roads so I had to pick my way through the curves carefully. There were scattered showers here and there but they were mostly light and moving east while we were moving north. The last shower was a bit more intense and the drops hurt; the temp was 45 degrees at that point so it was probably hail that had just about melted by the time it hit us. My Warm and Safe heated undershirt (much better than wearing a jacket) was set very low and was doing a great job of keeping me warm. Soon enough we broke out of the pines and the curves and it was pretty much just a straight shot north on the high, dry plains to Winslow. We might have seen another vehicle every 10-15 minutes so I was able to crank up the speed pretty good on that stretch.
Arriving in Winslow (a trans-continental hub for Santa Fe Railroad back in the day and still a major BNSF hub) we pulled into the
La Posada Hotel. This is the former Santa Fe Railroad station and is still an Amtrak stop and was the last of the Fred Harvey Houses from back in the day. It is now been restored and made into a hotel and they are booked well in advance if you are thinking about staying there.
We had lunch there in the Turquoise Room and it was very good. Not cheap, but very good.
From Winslow we headed west on I-40 to Meteor Crater. Brenda had just mentioned last week that she would like to see it, so this was a surprise for her. I'm an Arizona native and have been past this site dozens of times over the years, but this was my first visit too. I'll definitely go back when I have some more time, but we needed to get back on the road and get to the Holbrook site and hotel.
I keep Brenda's handicap placard duct taped to the front of the bike's dashboard under the windshield so it can be seen from the front. Well... at 80+ mph it flew off. Fortunately there was no one behind me and I laid on the brakes and got pulled over onto the shoulder and walked back 100+ yards to find it. It was sitting right between the two lines of traffic. I waited for a break in traffic and ran out to grab it. However, it had been run over many times by then and the duct tape was holding it firmly to the pavement, something I didn't expect. So when I grabbed it and pulled, it pulled back and I fell over onto the knuckles of my right hand. I pried it loose and ran to the inside shoulder as traffic approached and passed me by. Once there was another break in traffic I hustled back onto the regular shoulder and walked back to to my waiting wife on the bike, with my little heart going pitter-patter. I think I'll just break down and order a handicap plate for the bike. It just really limits my vanity plate number of characters opportunity since it's such a small plate to begin with.
After that near catastrophe, we made it into Holbrook and found the memorial location. It was way across a park so I had to take a distant photo and then hike to take another shot at the memorial.
To the hotel we went. Checked in, unpacked, bike covered, time for dinner. There is a Denny's in the parking lot so walking 100 feet beats delivery pizza any day. We walk in and a sign greets us stating there is only one cook and it will be a 40 min delay. I'm too tired to go anywhere else so we decide to wait it out. Our order was brought to the table within 10 minutes of placing it, and to boot.. the waitress was a wonderful person and great at her job. I was famished so my pancakes, eggs and bacon were wolfed down in a heartbeat. Back to the hotel, shower and bed.
I was up at 5, saw the temp was 39 degrees and went back to bed, getting back up at 7;30. Sleeping beauty decided that was way too early and continued to snooze. After getting up, getting ready, packing the bike, eating the hotel breakfast-in-a-bag, and getting gas down the street, we were on our way to Williams.
Westbound on I-40 approaching Flagstaff you see the snow-covered San Francisco Peaks and they were just beautiful today. About 8 miles past Flagstaff a semi decided to take an excursion and left the roadway going into the median. There is no median barrier along much of this portion of the interstate, but fortunately there were a lot of trees and they brought the truck to a halt. If it had happened another mile down the road there would have been nothing to stop this truck from completely crossing the median and impacting the east bound traffic. It must have happened within the past 30 minutes or so because there were state troopers everywhere, and an ambulance was just ahead of us. The ambulance wasn't running code so either the driver didn't require care or they were transported by another ambulance. We got a closer look when we returned that way about an hour later. A heavy duty wrecker was there to pull it out and we could see that the tractor was demolished all the way back to the cab. The cab windshield was busted on both sides (probably from the trees) and broken trees were all over. The cab itself looked intact, so if the driver did in fact survive with no injuries it was just short of a miracle.
Anyhow, back to the trip. We made it into Williams and found the memorial, but I had no internet service on my phone so I didn't know exactly what I was to take a photo of. I wound up taking a long shot of the entire memorial just to cover my bases and submitted that.
It turns out all I really needed was the kneeling soldier, so there shouldn't be a problem with me getting credit for this. Speaking of credit, two guys from Southern Arizona riding together scored a tie for first place which leaves the 3rd place trophy up for grabs. No one else in AZ seems to have more than one site captured as of tonight and I have six with the seventh pending approval. Which means I "might" have another trophy. But you never know if someone from another state came to Arizona and rode all the memorials before me. Since I got the late start on Friday I wasn't expecting to even place, but I may have a shot. If not, there's always next year.
Here is the route I took over the three days.
If I had been in tip top shape Thursday night this would have been a cakewalk. From home to Gilbert was about 20 minutes. From there to Scottsdale was another 20, then probably three hours to get to Holbrook (riding through dark, elk-infested forest is not for the faint of heart or those in a hurry), another two hours to get to Williams, then south to Wickenburg, further south to get Gila Bend (which wasn't lit and probably needed to be hit during the day anyhow), and then finish up in Bisbee. Easily done in about 15 hours. And then if I wanted a SaddleSore I'd have to tack on another 250 miles so I could have done a circuitous route to finish at the house within the 24 hours. As I said earlier, there's always next year.
Thanks for coming along.
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