Saturday Prescott VJMC rally

Action packed day. 9 am ride with the herd to Jerome, then some folks went on to Sedona. We broke off in Jerome (we are really not fond of group rides) and so we did a scenic tour of Camp Verde.  We stopped at Montezuma’s castle but didn’t have our park pass.  Back through Prescott valley to the hotel.  By then, we decided we wanted to come home a bit early.  So we packed up and headed south, we were home by 5:30.   Yeah!  Two days of flawless and problem free riding, 350 miles on the 47 year old Honda!  Perhaps our Aprilia will get a hint ;)

Photos of assorted bikes and bike owners before the ride this am.

Friday trip to Prescott

7 am trip to drop beloved dog at the weekend penitentiary.  We left at 8, tail trunk packed to the gills!

Gas in Wickenburg then up to the hotel.  Lots of old bikes in the hotel parking lot, photos later as the groups get together.  

Boot photo is of an industry friend of Stu’s, Matt Riley, from Racetec.   Stu has never met him in person...takes a rally to meet up.   Balance of photos are from dinner at the palace saloon.  Alas, in these modern times, the opium den in the basement and the whore house upstairs are no longer operational.  The opium den might come back into favor...

Sept 7-9 Prescott Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club weekend

We finished getting the 1971 Honda CB500 all ready for the trip.  New tires last week.  Also Stu did the mounting bracket and wiring for the GPS.   Assume we will be the only 47 year old bike with GPS there.

We leave Friday morning at 8, picking up Mark Hirschbiel at 9, then on to Prescott via Wickenburg and Yarnell Hill.

Lucy, our packing assistant, was exhausted after the evening of  packing:

Stu’s birthday is tomorrow as well, hope to find some birthday cake tomorrow night!

Tuesday, May 29, Homeward bound

Gearing up at the hotel. 44 degrees when we woke up.  

Heading down from Jacobs lake towards the Vermillion cliffs.

The trip out of Kanab was lovely, a repeat of our trip North.  Over the high route through Jacobs's lake and then past the Vermillion cliff again, lunch at Cameron trading post with Bob and Gail, through Flagstaff then south into the furnace.  Photos stopped once the temps climbed ;).  101 when we bought gas in Phoenix as we got into town ;(. Final round trip mileage - 1300 miles.

Memorial Day bonus photos

As mentioned in the earlier post today, Gail and Bob stopped at a gas station that had a collection of remarkable rescued animals.  Here is a recently shaved alpaca.

And here are the four of us at dinner.

Memorial Day, Monday. Midway to Kanab Utah

Ah, to be a weather forecaster!  To quote Bugs Bunny, “what a bunch of maroons”.   Forecast was 45 leaving Midway this morning, 80 degrees arriving in Kanab.  Well, they mostly got those two endpoints correct, but yikes, the in between parts were drizzle, rain, wind and low temps of 49....not a picnic on the bike for sure.   We stopped for gas in Beaver...on I-15, and spectacular Memorial Day crowds.   We were lucky they had gas!

Turns out if we had stopped for gas earlier, in Scipio, we could have seen camels and marmots...Gail and Bob stopped there and got amazing photos, soon to be on Facebook. ;)

Photo of the mess in the room this am as we packed.

Note:  photos below are in reverse order, end of trip first.  Once I get to something larger than an iPhone to use to edit this, I will repost in the correct order.  So to see the scenes from this am, go to the bottom and scan up ;).  

Trip south to Kanab.  Lots of rain clouds until we got within 50 miles of the end!

Sunday -quiet day of tourism

A perfect Sunday!  Woke up at 7, ate another round of fantastic pastries from the hotel bakery and wandered around the hotel a bit.  Then, into Bob and Gail’s car and off for the “Tour El Grande” of this area.  First place to see was Heber City, then off to Park City.  Just amazing that Salt Lake City is just 50 miles away from this remote and unpopulated mountain area.   We visited an Indian jewelry store, t shirt stores and of course, a chocolate shop.   Then lunch and home.

Back at the hotel room, we found that for the third day in a row (of three total days at this hotel), the room air conditioner was broken.  Maintenance came again, after testing the system,  the guy declared vent air was at 98 degrees.   Sigh.   New parts and it is all fixed now.

Rest of the day includes packing the bike saddlebags for early am departure tomorrow, a nap followed by dinner out with Bob and Gail as well as Ginny and Nick Hoppner.

Exceptional marmot photo that Gail took today:

Photo from the hotel parking lot this morning:

Photo below was on the way home from Park city, basically the view of Heber Valley.