This is what makes trips like this worth while when you wakeup first thing in the morning and this is staring you in the face. It was beautiful skies, great temps at 48-50 and the snow cover top of Mount Humphrey’s. With all the worries of yesterday behind us, we started fresh today and improvised with what we had. Throughout the day I used the GPS just when needed to navigate through a city or make a turn in the country side and it worked all day with plenty of battery to spare. After speaking with a few shock sales people, trying to rendezvous with a pair of shocks might be difficult and other than a little bouncing at high speed, don’t even notice it. Well except for the leaking oil that I clean off from time to time. The noise in the rear is the tire and that I can deal with.
Today’s ride took us first east 40 miles east to see the best preserved crater impact sight in the world. Estimated that it hit about 50,000 years ago and is about 4000’ across and 700’ deep. If you stand at the rim and look to the bottom, if a 6’ tall person was standing in the center, they would appear to be 12 inches tall. Why is that important? It really doesn’t look all that big once you have viewed the Grand Canyon. Lori and I took some nice shots here, so take a peek at the end.
Once we left the crater, we headed back west toward Flagstaff and made the entry into the Sedona area and stopped on the side of the road for a picnic. We travel through Sliding Rock, Sedona and then down into Cottonwood. This portion of the ride was beautiful and we made a mental note that we want to come back to the Sedona Area to visit for a week.
Out of Cottonwood we climbed very rapidly into Jerome on Hwy 89alt and this town appeared to be hanging on the side of a hill. Some of the streets and turns inside the city, if you can call it a city, that two cars might have a hard time passing. We were turning corners, clutching and riding the rear brake going uphill trying to hold the bike upright. That was a challenge but it was fun at the same time. Only once did I have to come to a complete stop to allow the slow moving cars some distance because I felt that I could not hold the bike upright, going uphill pulling a trailer at speeds slower than my speed odometer could register. It was also hot, hot, and once we got on the backside of the town, we stopped to remove all layers and ride with just the air flow suits.
Riding from Jerome to Prescott was the thrill of the day and proved there was nothing wrong with the gears in this Valkyrie. We are talking high speed, up, down, peg scraping corners for almost 20-30 miles. I was following one fellow, (I will not mention the brand of bike), that did not want me to pass him with a trailer. I found one passing lane and this dummy tried to out brake me into the corner. Dummy, I just held the inside and out cornered him and then it was, Goodbye! Even Lori asked if he was keeping up with us to which I said, I think not. That old boy did not know how to corner with a bike. He could have been on a sport bike and it would not matter. No matter the equipment, if you can’t drive it, it will not corner by itself. Once we made the bottom we got stopped by a stop light or two and here he came. As soon as the light turned green he went speeding down the road 20-30 plus the limit and I was really impressed. Really I was, just think of the chances he was taking on going to jail to impress me on his straight away speed. Meh! I just let him go and stayed 5 over as usual.
Well after Meteor Crater, a long picnic lunch, playing in Jerome, and yik-yaking with another rider at a fuel station, that didn’t leave much time to do the section of Hwy-66. So we set a direct line for Lake Havasu City and off we went. Pulling into town, it was a smoking 95 degrees. I was loving it, but Lori had not taking off all her layers and she was a bit toasty. We went out for an Italian dinner which was nice and then left for our last viewing of the day. In 1968, some rich guy along with the city went over to England and purchased the London bridge. The took it apart, shipped it back to the states, and then re-assembled it here for about 9 million dollars. Why? I have no clue but it sure looks nice. Check the picture link for that and a beautiful sunset.
Today was a picture perfect day and not one issued raised it’s head. Tomorrow morning the weather here will be sunny an 80 degrees by the time we get started for San Diego. The weather in San Diego is calling for mostly cloudy and a high of 65. Sounds like a another good day for riding. Tomorrow will complete the cross country ride from East coast to West coast. I actually can’t believe that I actually pulled it off, specially after some of the things we have experienced. But it’s been 90% fun an 10% of worry and frustration. So still worth it. Highlights for tomorrow ride will be the 4000 windmills, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and Salton Sea.
Todays run was 371 miles, and our total is now 4135.
Click here for todays pictures:
Tomorrows route is pictured below:
The Picture below shows what we have completed and what we have left. The Red is complete and the Green is what is left.
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