Sunday and we are home

We left super early on Sunday so we were home by 1!  Including picking Lucy up from prison.   Will review all the photos and add a few more in the next day or two.  I have a new blogging app that I need to learn...editing this blog sounds easier than starting anew.  Next trip is scheduled for the end of April.

Saturday's Tiddler ride

Greetings from a place we cannot recommend you stay overnight, the Avi Casino and Hotel in Ft Mohave.  A one star place if there ever was one ;).  Tonight's excitement is mixed martial arts wrestling at the hotel, so a huge number of excited people, and you can imagine they are generally pretty unusual looking, have been streaming in all afternoon.  Alas I could not take photos.  Stu and I decided on a brilliant new product idea:   A new type of tattoo ink that fades after 10 years or the first 100 pounds gained.  Pretty great idea yes?

Back to the topic...the ride was excellent. I am estimating 15 old and interesting vintage bikes.  We went up the hill toward Oatman then down the hill into Kingman for lunch.  The term tiddler means small bike and the goal today was for the bikes to be under 30 hp.  Our bike was bigger so that I could come along too.   We stopped at a tourist trap restaurant in Kingman for lunch.  Stu and I decided to come back the fast way so parted company with the group.  We were back by 3:30 and finished up the day putting the bike back in the truck.

On a separate side track, I went to buy bottled water and the only spring water available was from Iceland.  Photo attached so that my niece Adelaide, currently living in Iceland, can see the bottle.  How it makes financial sense to bottle water in Iceland and ship it to Fort Mohave, Nevada is one of the world's great mysteries.

Oatman was full of tourists and only three burros, so the ratio wasn't great and we didn't stop ;)

Overall the people on the ride were friendly, the weather was excellent and the ride beautiful.  All we could ask.  Plus we have seen hundreds of super weird looking wrestling fans. ;)

Arrived in the scenic hamlet of Fort Mohave, Az

Ah, yet another lovely five hour drive through the Mohave Desert.  It is not in bloom, excluding brittle bush, and we have zillions of those in our back yard.  We ate lunch at the crossroads restaurant in Parker, az.   Got to the hotel in time to check in with hundreds of girls, ages 6-18, who are here for a regional soccer tournament.   Wish I had autographed posters of my niece Adelaide with me ;). I could have made her some money selling her poster.

We are, as of 5 pm, the only vintage Japanese bike in the parking lot.

We should have lots of photos tomorrow at this time, once we get back and I can connect.  It appears our route will be through Oatman, Az up and over the hills to Kingman, lunch and then home.   (To my brother and his family, Oatman is famous for very few things, mostly famous for Clark Gable and Carol Lombard spending their honeymoon night there.   There are also wild donkeys that roam the streets now, fed carrots by tourists, the burros are descendants of burros abandoned by prospectors when they quit mining.)

Warm out right now, at least 85, with the traditional gentle Mohave 30 mph breezes.

Yet another photo of the wonders of the Mohave ;)

April 7 start of Vintage Japanese Tiddler ride

The 1971 Honda CB 500 is all ready to go.  Friday, we will drop Lucy off at the spa and then drive the pickup 250 miles to scenic Fort Mohave, Az, with the bike in the back of the bed.  Weather is forecast for 30 mph winds, of course.  Saturday, we gather up with other Vintage bike owners and go for a 250 mile day trip, returning to the hotel at night.  Sunday homeward bound.  Will post photos as we move along the way.

Bike is loaded and ready to go (Thursday afternoon).