Winter Ride in Arizona
We left Lawrence on February 17th ,2006 and headed to the warm climate of southern Arizona. We and another couple loaded up our 3 Harleys on a trailer and headed south. By the time we got through Oklahoma City, the bikes had about an inch of solid ice on them. Once through Oklahoma City, we went west on Highway 40 and stayed on it until we got to Flagstaff, Arizona, then turned south on highway 17 and started downhill toward Phoenix. The further we went south the warmer it got, which is what we were looking for! We got into Phoenix and crashed at a friends house in the late morning. The next day we unloaded the bikes off the trailer, loaded them with our gear and took off. We rode Highway 10 all the way to Nogales, then took 82 through Sonoita until we hit Tombstone. We spent some time looking around there, then took off again. We rode on 90 and got a motel room in Sierra Vista. On the outside it looked like a nice motel, but inside the room the only thing missing was a chalk outline of a body on the floor, but it was clean and we were too tired to move on.
The next morning after breakfast we loaded up and took off on 90 back to 10, then back to Tucson. Just south of Tucson is the Pima County Air Museum where they have military planes from the present back to World War 2. We spend a lot of time there looking around.
We then took off on 86 and rode to Why, Arizona where we hoped we could find a motel. No such luck, so we went north to Ajo, motels were full, so we had to ride late at night to Gila Bend to find a room. Something interesting is the road side memorials for fatalities. Here you might see a cross and some flowers but there they have little buildings (dollhouse size churches with lit candles. And not just a couple of them, there was a lot!! After getting breakfast the next day we headed south. We stopped at Why again and purchased Mexican motorcycle insurance, because American insurance does not cover in Mexico. As I recall it was 23 bucks a day per motorcycle. Between Why and the Mexico border was the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, those HUGE cactus (how do you plural cactus?). We crossed into Mexico at Sonoyta. The poverty there was HORRIBLE, I have never seen how badly some people have to live, and I complain when my tv cable goes out for a few minutes. We traveled about 65-70 miles till we hit Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point) on the shore of the Gulf of California. We hung around there most of the day, bought some stuff, then headed back to America. Again, passing through Sonoyta was depressing. A funny thing when we hit the border. My wife Glenda was on her bike in front of me and when she was stopped by the border agent, he asked her if she was an American citizen to which she replied she was. He then asked her if she was bringing anything back from Mexico. She pointed her thumb behind her towards me and said, “Yeah, my husband!” He then motioned her on. When I got to him he just waved me on saying it looked like I was enough trouble. From there we went back to Gila Bend and spent the night. The next day we motored back to Phoenix and hung out with our friends for a while. Eventually we hooked up with an internet friend that rides a NICE blue Panhead chopper, and we rode around with him for a couple days, had a great time. Then it was time to come home, so we loaded the bikes back on the trailer and headed back to the cold winter of Kansas. As I recall it was about 21 hours each way.