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Day 56……26/05/2012 A leisurely start to the day today, in preparation for this morning’s fun and games. We have been offered the chance to go shooting in the hills above where Mark and Paula live, and as the only thing I have ever shot off before, is my mouth, I am a little excited at the prospect of getting some expert tuition on handling, firing, and a little of the history behind the various weapons Mark owns. So I have the gun belt on with the Peacemaker holstered, and the pickup is filled nearly to the brim with ordnance and munitions, and Lynne’s got a big coat and a furry hat on, so we are ready for the off. After 20 minutes or so we are at a clearing in the hills, hopefully far enough away from anyone so as not to be a nuisance. We placed some cans and plastic bottles a distance away, and then got started, first a little safety advice, then starting with the smallest .22 pistol and rifle, and working our way up through .38, .44, 9mm, rifles, pistols, even a AK47 assault rifle, which was great fun.Lynne blew the crap out of a milk
carton, and put a round into a small grapefruit, I mainly just stirred up the dirt and put some lead back in the ground, I did manage a ricochet off a rock that sounded just like it does in the movies. Well that little session certainly raised the testosterone levels, no obviously not in Lynne, but did eventually take her coat off, but not the hat. Later that afternoon we took a trip into Prescott, the onetime capitol of Arizona, we had lunch in a Golden Coral, an all you can eat buffet, and very good it was too. Later we had a look around the town, and a native American art exhibition on the town green, a good day.
Day 57……27/05/2012 We will leave Meyer today and head back to Phoenix, as we have all been invited to a pool party, by friends of Mark and Paula, sounds good. But better than that, a friend that I had also met six years ago in Yuma, had been persuaded to come up from Tucson to the party, so that will be great. Mark and I rode back to Phoenix, and did a few jobs on the bikes, prior
to our departure the next day, and the women came back in the car, with the dog and all the guns, I would not like to think what might have happened should anyone have tried to hold them up, but I have this image in my head of a silver SUV with gun barrels sticking out everywhere, like a cartoon armoured tank. The party was good although we did not swim, but I did catch up with my old friends Jaybird and Scotty.
Day 58……28/05/2012 As today is the end of the Memorial weekend, we have decided to stay put here in Phoenix, as the holiday traffic may be a problem for us, what with everyone returning home at once. So we will give the trike at bit of a tune up on Marks gas analyser, and just generally do bloke things in the workshop, the ladies went shopping as I understand but I do not remember exactly, too busy you know. Later that day we took a trip out in Mark’s Harley sidecar outfit, Lynne rode it up and down the road, and quite liked it, I was just content to sit in the chair taking in
the sights of downtown Phoenix, we even passed Alice Coopers bar, but it was shut. From there with Mark at the controls, Lynne as co-pilot, and me in the sidecar, we went up to the South Mountain Park which is the largest municipal park in the country, they have a lot of cactus there, and a lot of curves leading to the top, most of the right handers I spent in mid-air trying to get the wheel back on the ground, but it was great fun none the less, even Lynne had a little squeal on one of the more daring turns. A little problem we found with a brake line on the trike gave us the excuse to decide to stay one more day, with our gracious hosts, so that would be our job tomorrow.
Day 59……29/05/2012 So another day just tinkering and messing with motorcycles seemed like pure heaven to me, and I am sure Lynne was relishing the time off from riding in the heat and chilling out with Paula and the dog. We did have a ride out later that afternoon to a Western type town, and then onto a great biker bar out
in the middle of nowhere, but no bikers to be seen, those bad boys were all at work I expect. The ride back took us onto the Interstate and saw us hit a fair amount of heavy rush hour traffic, so as we can use the “high occupancy lane” on motorcycles, a lane reserved for two or more people traveling in the same vehicle, we did, this nearly made Lynne have several kittens, as we had to cross four or five lanes of busy traffic to get to it, oh yes and then the same to get off, and let’s just say we won’t be using them again.
Day 60……30/05/2012 Well the time has come to say good bye to more great friends, and we will take our leave early this morning to beat the heat and rush hour traffic out of Phoenix, and Mark kindly offers to guide us out of the City which is the sixth most populated in the country.By just after eight we are rolling north through the outlying suburbs, and on into the start of Arizona’s higher deserts. The intention today is to ride to Flagstaff, stopping off in Sedona for a look
around. After a few hours we were at Flagstaff in the cooler higher altitudes of the vast Coconino National Forest. We decide to ride on to Page in the far north of the State of Arizona, and with this decision comes spectacular scenery as we head down out of the higher elevations, into beautiful sweeping plains, and the deep red sandstone formations that this region is so famous for. But the price for this beauty is the return of the blistering heat of the desert floor, and our destination a further 150 miles was all very welcome later that afternoon. Reflecting back on our record days ride, we both commented on how just when you think that the landscape could not possibly have anything more to surprise or astound you with, it just does. I think I have mentioned before that no photo could do justice to any of it and if you are fortunate enough to have visited this part of the US you will understand.
Day 61……31/05/2012 Today marks the point that we are one third of the way through our adventure, now I am sure you will think that it does not seem like five
minutes ago that we left but to us it feels like we have been here forever, hell we almost have an accent, “Spanish” ha ha just a little American joke. We will stay at the motel in Page for one more night, because today we will ride the 250 mile round trip to the North rim of the Grand Canyon, this is the side that is less visited than the South rim because of the fact that it is just one 125 mile road in, and then back again, but what a road. I take back what I said yesterday that Mother Nature could not have any more to offer, the views that you pass just take your breath away, towering red cliffs, vermillion striped rock faces, and a views just beyond belief. At the north rim we expected to see the famous sky walk, a glass structure that is built over the canyon edge to allow you to look down to the canyon floor over 1000 feet below. However, if we wanted to see this marvel of modern engineering we would have to make the 8 hour trip to the West rim of the canyon, because that is where
it is, dohh!!. Well the views from the North rim looking South were fantastic none the less, and besides the access to the West rim involves a 10 mile stretch of dirt road to get to it, so that would count us out on motorcycles anyway. We rode the 125 miles back through high forests with sweeping meadows, and down into the vast plains that are home to the Navaho Indians. A little further along the road we came up behind thirty or so Germans on Harley rentals, they seemed to be having fun too. We had better get past them to make sure we get a space by the pool.
Day 62……01/06/2012 Once again we thought an early start would be wise, as the forecast speaks of more hot weather for today. It had been our plan to head North east from here and on towards the east side of Utah, however with the distance involved and the vast expanse of nothing for 250 miles at a time, we thought it better to find a route more suited to Lynne’s temperature capabilities. So still heading into Utah, but this time to the West and a
little more civilisation off we set, within a few miles we were in Utah, state number 19 and just past the 7000 miles covered mark. We were heading for Zion National Park a place that we had visited before, but if you have to go back to anywhere twice this park would be right up there with the top choices. Now this week’s references to all things of outstanding beauty have all but been exhausted, but I will try to pull just a little more out of the bag to do this place justice…..but unfortunately I can’t. What I can say is that whatever God you pray to this must be where they come to relax. A night stop in St George, Utah will see us within easy reach of our next stop, Las Vegas.
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