Day 05 Riding the slab to Coolidge, AZ

According to Google Maps Coolidge, AZ is 415 miles from Kanab, UT. That made for a fairly long ride on the Ninja today; I stayed on the slab and cooked along at warp five most of the time. I’d have made it to Mike’s place in Oracle were it not for this ridiculous habit of mine that causes me to stop, turn around, and go back to see if I missed something. Bottom line is it took way too long to get where I got.

First thing this morning I pulled up at the motel office to turn in my door pass, stepped on something that didn’t allow for much grip, and El Nino decided it was time for one of her brief naps. I tried to hold her but without proper grip down she went, all but very gently and without mishap. The motel handyman was just a few feet away and we hoisted her back up in less time than it takes to read this. Sorry, no photo, I figured if I did that the handyman guy might do a stage left and I’d be stuck hoisting  the fat one up by myself.



Arizona....Yaaay!

So as I said, after the morning commotion it was onto the slab tooling along at the posted speed limits ranging from 65 -75 which is very nice indeed. The weather was overcast but warm most of the day and I rode with my jacket vents open save for one small stretch going through higher elevations. For that part I put on my fleece jacket and zipped up which kept me nice and snug.

Around mid-morning I made a stop at the Cameron Trading Post in Cameron, AZ. I wanted to check out belt buckle prices before getting into Mexico and this looked like the place to do it. By anyone’s definition Cameron’s is a tourist trap bonanza so I cable locked my helmet and jacket together plus put my passport and other docs in the top box before heading inside to shop. 



Amazing that I got this shot without a crowd of tourists



Biker gang arrives on rented Harleys



"Nice looking ride" commented several people as I locked up my stuff





So what are those things sticking out LL?




What? What are those? Keys? Are those your keys?



 When I was done – must have spent all of ten minutes inside – I returned to the bike. Reaching into my pocket I discovered my keys were missing and while I was standing there fishing through my pockets I noticed they were sticking in the lock to the top box. Perfect LL, what a noodle-head I am. Mr. Security here. I guess no one wanted any of my stuff.

I’d also stopped at another place that looked to be a true tourist magnet as they have one of the photo things you stick your head through while you buds take pictures. For me that’s a major draw so I pulled into the place only to find they were closed. Crumb, what a bummer. Now totally disillusioned I realized the entire day was going to be a bust so I forced myself to climb back on board and suffer along riding through the Arizona countryside. Poor me.

I arrived in the Phoenix area just in time to hook up with the afternoon commuter traffic. The last time I did that was when I rode to Key West and for some reason I kept going around in circles until I began to recognize land marks, even parked cars. Today was different though, I only made one wrong turn, identical to one I made last time but this time I realized my mistake and corrected it right away. Once that was over I made good progress and since I wasn’t tired I decided to keep riding for awhile.

“Awhile” turned out to be a helluva long time since once you leave the Phoenix/Chandler area motels cease to exist. Eventually I arrived in the town of Coolidge where I grabbed the first motel I saw, the Grand Vista Motel. I can’t wait till it’s daylight so I can take in the vista. At least the town has a nice little Mexican restaurant where I filled up on beans & rice & mystery meat taco, all of which will probably cause my new pants to shrink a bit.

Life on the road is so damn hard sometimes.

LL 

Day 04 Kanab, UT wherever the heck that is

It was a pretty sun-shiny day today but no breakfast, compliments of Motel 6’s Master Financial Rewards Plan, don’t give ‘em anything you don’t have to. You even have to go to the office for a cup of their miserable coffee. I’m done with these guys, there was enough mold growing in the shower to compete with the local hay crop and the waste basket had left over French fries. The curly kind which I’m not all that fond of. Eww...

At least the GPS was up and running again so I programmed in a long 800 mile route to visit a buddy who lives in Oracle, AZ. I included a couple of way points that hopefully would keep me away from Las Vegas and let me ride through some of the best back country Nevada and Utah have to offer.

Huh? Did I miss something?



Back on the Great Basin road

Later in the morning I decided, or rather my stomach decided, that 10:30 was bloody well late enough to wait for something to appear sliding downward in its direction. Not wanting to fall off the bike due to terminal hunger pangs I stopped for a food break at the little mining town of Pioche.

Old silver smelter. Or silver mine. Or Microsoft research lab.  

Pioche NV

They seem to have discovered tourism somewhere along the way and the entire burg is done up in the Old West style. I like places like it and to make things even better I scored a super tasty breakfast at the Silver Café.

Yeehaaaa! It's Utah!



Oooh...old Indian artifacts right there under my feet

Anyway with the new program again in place I was happily  whizzing along over hill and dale when I spied a smallish sign pointing the way to The Old Iron Ruins and I was hooked; fast screaming U-turn and off I went to see what it was all about.



Nice little spot of history and currently sporting a small population of well to do young families. I took the self-guided tour through the grounds, drank a bottle of warm water, cleaned the bugs off my visor, and unzipped all the vents on my jacket in readiness for higher temps that would come.

Even lambs run from me. What's that all about anyway?

My carefully devised route to Oracle was working great until I encountered a road closure and had to turn back and take another route. The Garmin lady really gets disturbed whenever I do that and eventually I had to delete the entire route and make a new one just to shut her up. I've noticed she yells at me quite a lot which seems odd since we’ve never even been married. Who the heck does she think she is anway? Maybe I should buy her a house.

Detoured myself through Toquerville

Interesting little cottage industry

Big ol' rocks



Dead Stop waiting for an RV to come thru the tunnel.

Maybe there was a national AARP convention going on that I didn’t know about? I admit National Parks are outstanding and the views are incredible but all I wanted was to move along at the allowable 35 mph clip so I could reach my destination before dark.

It wasn’t going to happen and I ended up in Kanab, UT where I discovered the quaint little motel called the Royal Inn & Suites. Maybe the name applied in the 40’s but time has not been kind to her and she doesn’t qualify as the Grande Old Dame` of fine places to stay. But for tonight she’s all I’ve got and I’m pooped.

The requisite Indian (Pakistani?) couple who run the place first put me up in a nice room with two beds but no desk so at my request they moved me to one with only one bed and no closet. Well it’s got one but since it’s not attached to anything and it has a zipper door it’s more of a wardrobe storage thingy to keep your old clothes in while waiting for the Salvation Army truck to arrive.

I especially like the rock holding up one corner since the castor is missing. Did I mention if you sit on one side of the bed it collapses? Easy solution to that, avoid sitting on that side of the bed. For confirmation of my thinking you may wish to read The Little Book of Wrong Shui . But wait, the WIFI seems to be working and that’s sort of a plus isn’t it?

Having said that I think I’ll call a halt to this dribble for the evening and see if EBay has anything new to offer. Today's photos should speak for themselves but if they don’t just stick some post-its on your monitor with your own text. That’s what I do.

LL

PS - One last photo.... My room

Nice touch - a room just for bikers

Day 03 The Great Basin ride to Ely, NV

First thing this morning, uh, make that first thing right after a sensible breakfast I started the search for a shop that carried GPS batteries. No answers on any of the dealers listed on Google but maybe they stayed out late last night? Finally hooked up with one, a Radio Shack who knew what a GPS was but “No, hee, hee, we wouldn’t have batteries for them hee, hee.”

Then I tried an on-line outfit that specializes in helping find stuff or what they termed “solutions.” Before helping they wanted me to know there would be a $38 charge if they were actually able to help. Hitting the cancel button didn’t help nor did the escape key or the back key. Persistent buggers they were but they had no defense against control-alt-delete. I tried calling Garmin direct and after working through several layers of press one or press two I was informed the next available support person would be available in – get this – 36 minutes. I decided not to hold and listen to their crappy commercials for a half hour and bagged it. 



My HiViz jacket reflection washes out the display but it's there



As it turned out the Garman gremlins had vacated the site and the Zumo came back to life when I remounted it on the bike. Yippee sez I and off I rode into the morning sunshine. If it fails again I’ll just bite the bullet and get a new one, this beastie has served me well for quite awhile.



I-80 heading east out of Winnemucca



With the GPS programmed for Ely via McGill I set off sort of eastward on I-80 which I held until exiting at a not-to-be-resisted point of interest called Iron Point. The sun was shining, the day was warm, and I had time for a little side trip to see what I could see. The pavement promptly ran out in about 300 ft and I found myself standing on the pegs riding over whoop-de-whoops. This may be a fun style on dirt bikes but a fully loaded touring rig is not. I hauled things in and turning around headed back stopping only long enough to shoot a couple of pics. Charlie and Ewan need not fear, there will be no film at eleven.  



Off-roading



Iron Point is out there somewhere



Does HiViz yellow make me look fat? Be honest now....



Back on the road I soon arrived at Wells where I had a sensible lunch – really, spinach & mystery chicken salad – what could be better for you than that? After consuming enough dead plants to keep an entire herd of rabbits going for a month I returned to the bike ready to leave.

Before I could mount up though I was approached by a very large older gentleman who asked the all too predictable “Where ya headed?”  “Mexico” sez I.  Oops, wrong answer. His response was a dead fish stare and I think his breathing stopped for awhile. In fact time may have stopped for a short while. He just stood there and I could tell his systems were shutting down for some reason. Maybe the old “does not compute” was factoring around in his brain? Then the door to the burger place opened and out rolled his wife, a Marjorie Maine look alike. Her presence seemed to have an awakening affect on him and he pointed at me saying “He’s going to Mexico.” Her response was very nearly the same as his and they both stood there taking me all in.

Not quite knowing what else to do I mounted up and said “Well I know it’s difficult to understand but it gives me something to do in my old age.” And I rode off. I didn’t dare turn to look back, I just kept going.

For the rest of the afternoon I traveled south on highway 93 crossing the Great Basin, a mammoth stretch of unswerving road that stretches unbroken for 80 miles. I’d done this puppy a couple of years ago riding with Chuck Bruce and believe me, after the first 30 miles it begins to tire. The Great Basin is just part of a “No Gas for the next 179 Miles” stretch referred to by a sign on the outskirts of Wells. Even though I’d gassed up recently I turned back and topped off the tank before setting out. I really, really hate pushing motorcycles and even though I carry a 1-litre fuel bottle it would only take me 15 miles or so.

I reined in at the little historic town of McGill and spent some time touring the back streets, most of which are populated by people living in what looks to be close to the edge. But only if you remove their toys, seems like there’s always enough $$ to go around when it’s time for a new bike or hotrod. I couldn’t quite figure out what the town used to be as there are a lot of older buildings with signs on them saying things like “Engineering”, etc. It’s almost as if it were either a military installation or a campus at one time but now it’s all done in. Maybe I’ll research it if I ever run out of stuff to do but not right now.



Odd...



Ely was just a few miles further and I figured on staying the night there since it was getting late. Just as I neared the town I spotted a Kawasaki dealership and remembered I needed to have a new key made to replace the bent one from yesterday.

Noting the service/parts sign visible down the alley I pulled in and entered what has to be one of the oldest dealerships still going. Bikes, cars, you name it; they’re dealers for a whole slug of brands. The shop and its office were pure trash and there was only one old guy present, busy on an ancient PC. I showed him my key and told him I really didn’t expect them to have one but he said for me to hang on and bellowed out into the shop causing some poor kid to come running. The amount of black grease on him told me he’d been busy working on something and I felt bad that he’d been called in for such an unlikely item as my key. He didn’t seem to mind and promptly disappeared into a small doorway from which he returned several minutes later holding a tiny plastic bag with a key! I was thunderstruck, I’d tried to buy one when the bike was new and they weren’t available at one of the largest Kawasaki dealers.



Back door to the sales office



He couldn’t accept plastic in the parts department so he escorted me to the showroom where I played with the shop dog until the cashier lady finished yakking with her buddy. I didn’t mind as the dog, a large hound mix of some sort liked having someone to play with. Eventually she wound down and took my money; then gave me directions to the local lumber yard where I could get it cut. It was an amazing find and the key at a little over ten bucks seemed like a bargain plus it only cost fifty cents to have it cut. What a deal.



My lovely room...



Comes with a view

I checked into the same Motel 6 I’d stayed at on a previous trip and then cruised around a bit before dinner.  While meandering I came across what amounts to be a Studebaker graveyard. Whoever owns them must not be able to say no to one as there were plenty of them lying around, none of which looked to be good for much other than robbing the occasional part. I took some pics and then went on the hunt for a place to eat.

Ely may have been a big deal years ago but these days it seems to be hurting, the food places seem to be concentrated in gambling casinos and most of the regular restaurants have closed down. I finally found one on the west end of the main drag far away from other attractions.

Aptly named The Silver State, it showed promise judging from the number of local-looking clientele. Most were families with kids and that usually means reasonable prices for good food. I ate a sensible meal; got my grease fix for the day and two hours later I’m still not hungry.

LL