Instead of Black Friday shopping, we're on a motorcycle ride!

We ended our 3-day trip to Bisbee, AZ by riding 7 hours home to Prescott. No Black Friday shopping for us! We ate breakfast at the Bisbee Coffee Company just across from the Copper Queen Hotel so we could get a fairly early start. Everyone in Bisbee must have been out of town, because the streets were almost completely empty at 8am.

There aren't many paved roads in Arizona, and since we prefer to stay off the interstate highways as much as possible, our only option was to retrace our route from Wednesday. We rode east out of Bisbee on AZ 80, then headed north on AZ 191. It's fun to watch the names of the tiny towns: Sunizona (population around 300), Sunsites (best known because it's next to Pearce, a mining ghost town), and Cochise. Bisbee and the surrounding area are in Cochise County, named after the famous Apache chief. The ghost town of Cochise was founded in the 1880's as a railroad stop, but today has about 50 residents. Big Nose Kate, Doc Holliday's girlfriend, lived in Cochise after he died. They were part of the famous Shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone, and Kate lived in Prescott. The distances in the Southwest are vast, but the people who settled here seemed to travel all over the state.

We rode 20 very windy miles east on I-10, then headed north again on AZ 191 until it intersected with AZ 70 in the Gila River Basin. The 649 mile long Gila River starts in New Mexico and runs west across southern Arizona to the Colorado River in Yuma.

We rode past green irrigated fields and many cotton fields, always surrounded by mountains to the north, east and west.

We picked up AZ 188, which wound through the Superstition Mountains and past 18-mile long Roosevelt Lake, created by the Roosevelt Dam on the Salt River in 1911.

We turned north onto AZ 87, heading toward Payson in the heart of the Mogollon Rim which is the southern boundary of the Colorado Plateau. There is no flat land around Payson, and the highway twists and winds through the tall pine trees in the Tonto National Forest.

In Payson we turned onto AZ 260, continuing to wind through the mountains and forests, finally turning west toward Camp Verde. Somehow the trip home always seems to take longer the closer we get to home, and Camp Verde is only 50 miles from Prescott. These are familiar roads that we travel often, no longer needing the GPS or my written directions.

We didn't see any antelope today as we rode through the Prescott Valley grassland, so the cows will have to serve as our welcoming party.

We traveled 956 miles over the past three days, with the BMW's odometer turning over to 45,000 miles on the first day of our trip. I wonder where we'll be when we reach 50,000 miles?

Riding into the Chiricahua National Monument

We spent last night at the Copper Queen Hotel in Bisbee, AZ, an old copper mining town and now home to artists, restaurants, and quirky little shops. The Copper Queen is supposed to be haunted, but we didn't hear - or see - any ghosts.

We're celebrating Thanksgiving by riding to the Chiricahua National Monument about 75 miles northeast of Bisbee. It was established in 1924 to protect the balancing rocks and hoodoos that were formed by volcanic activity 27 million years ago that eventually eroded into the fabulous rock formations we see today.

To get to the Chiricahua National Monument we headed west on AZ 80 and then rode on local 2-lane paved roads through the grasslands with distant views of mountains that cover this part of southeastern Arizona.

The Chiricahua Mountains are known as 'sky islands' because they're surrounded by vast acres of grasslands, similar to an island surrounded by the ocean.

The Chiricahua Apache called this area the "Land of Standing Up Rocks". The Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts meet here, along with the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Madre ranges making this a unique geographical area.

We rode on the 7-mile long paved road that winds through Bonita Canyon. The temperature dropped 12 degrees as we descended into the canyon, which is shaded by tall oak and cypress trees along the creek. The road climbs out of Bonita Canyon and winds around the mountain with distant views of the high mountain peaks. The park road ends at Massai Point at 6870'.

We stopped for two short hikes so we could see the rock formations up close at Massai Point and Echo Canyon.

We retraced our route back to Bisbee, continuing our non-traditional Thanksgiving by enjoying dinner in the Copper Queen Hotel's Saloon with a 100+ year old lifesize portrait of the British actress Lily Langtry that covered one entire wall.

Tomorrow we ride back home to Bisbee, swapping Black Friday shopping with something much more fun - riding the BMW motorcycle.

Our Thanksgiving BMW Motorcycle Ride in Southeastern Arizona

Wednesday morning the temperature was 45 degrees in Prescott. I put on warm tights, a fleece turtleneck, warm sweater, two warm upper body motorcycle jacket liners, motorcycle jacket, rain jacket, motorcycle liners for the motorcycle pants, socks, boots, neck warmer, helmet, and my super-heavy-duty mittens. I was (finally) ready for our trip to Bisbee in southeastern Arizona. The last time we went on a motorcycle trip in June and July, the temperatures were well above 100 degrees and I wore shorts and a sleeveless shirt under our lightweight motorcycle gear.

With no one coming to visit us for Thanksgiving, we decided to ride south for warmer temperatures. We started off Wednesday morning riding north on I-17 to reach AZ 260 heading east toward Payson, riding along the Mogollon Rim through the pine forests before we started descending into warmer temperatures and the Tonto Basin in the Sonoran Desert.

We stopped for lunch in Punkin Center, a tiny unincorporated town on AZ 188, because it was the first restaurant we saw since we rode through Payson over an hour earlier. After lunch, we continued south on AZ 188 along Theodore Roosevelt Lake in the Tonto National Forest.

Lake Roosevelt is the largest reservoir completely within Arizona, and was formed by a dam on the Salt River, dedicated by President Theodore Roosevelt himself in 1911,one year before Arizona became a state. It's always a bit strange to see lakes in Arizona since it's such a dry area of the country, and this one is big enough to boast a marina and several boat ramps and campgrounds.

AZ 188 ends at AZ 60 near Globe, and as we continued south we rode through the 1.86 million acre San Carlos Apache reservation. Established in 1872, it's home to 15,000 people.

We rode past miles of fields of cotton and much of the time the sides of the highway were lined with scattered white tufts of cotton. In the 1980's Arizona grew 66% of the Pima cotton produced in the United States, but today produces only 2% of the total U.S. cotton crop due to changing climate conditions and the growth of cities that have overtaken agricultural land.

We continued south on AZ 191 and turned west onto I-10 for a short 6 miles before we turned south on local, 2-lane paved roads with almost no traffic. Usually traffic the day before Thanksgiving is a nightmare, but staying off the major roads and heading into a lightly settled area of Arizona meant we had long stretches of straight pavement all to ourselves.

We rode into Bisbee just before 5pm, ready to walk around this once booming copper mining town built into the side of the Mule Mountains.

Our home for the next 2 days is the Copper Queen Hotel which opened in 1902 as the grandest hotel in the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco. Supposedly it's haunted by three ghosts - we'll find out!

A twisting mountain ride for lunch

Mid-June to mid-September is the rainy season, known as monsoon season, in Arizona. Almost every day big, dark storm clouds roll in, followed by lightning, thunder, and often torrential rain. Definitely NOT prime motorcycle weather.

Today the sun was shining and the only clouds in the Arizona-blue sky were some small, white, harmless looking puffy ones so we decided to ride northeast to Cottonwood for lunch.

heading out of Prescott

 Bocce is a fantastic restaurant/bar in downtown Old Cottonwood that features true thin-crust, Italian-style pizza and garden-fresh salads with seating outside so we can watch people strolling down the sidewalk. The route to Bocce is even better than the pizza - winding, twisting hairpin turns on route 89A that take us up and over Mingus Mountain, into the old copper mining town of Jerome, and down the other side of the mountain to Cottonwood in the Verde Valley.

89A is one of our favorite motorcycle roads. Mike loves the challenge of the hairpin turns as we glide around the tight corners, and I enjoy the rocky mountain views, cool pine tree forests, and far-off views of the Mogollon Rim.

looking down on 89A

Mogollon Rim in the distance

The Mogollon Rim is an escarpment that forms the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau and runs east-west across Arizona. The sandstone and limestone cliffs sometimes rise 2,000' above the valley floor, and the sheer size along with the vivid colors of the stone make the Rim an amazing view that can be seen from miles away.

Jerome likes to call itself a ghost town, but it's home to about 450 people and a weekend draw for tourists and motorcyclists. 15,000 people lived here in the 1920's when it was a booming copper mining town perched on the edge of the mountains.

Jerome

One of the reasons we love living in Prescott are the fantastic motorcycle roads that allow us to enjoy a mid-day lunch ride. Soon the monsoons will end and the weather will turn cooler, giving us more opportunities to explore Arizona's roads.

Ending our trip with a familiar ride through the high desert in Arizona

The last day of a motorcycle trip is always a bit sad. We've been gone for 17 days, and on the BMW for 12 of those days yet we both would happily continue our trip. We both have work waiting for us, so we're doing the responsible thing and heading home.

We spent last night in Kingman, AZ, at a hotel near this one on the original Route 66. Kingman was founded in 1882 as a railroad siding for the newly constructed Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. There are many museums, historic buildings, and signs promoting Route 66 in Kingman, and it's fun to spot as many of them as possible.

We headed south on Route 93, a continuation of our southern ride yesterday from Las Vegas. We took the scenic route to our home in Prescott by turning onto Route 97 north, a winding 2-lane paved road with roller coaster sections that dip down into washes that flood during heavy rains. It's monsoon season now, but the skies are clear and sunny today with no threat of flooding.

We turned right onto the Bagdad Road into Kirkland, watching the saguaro cactus cover the hills and reach toward the sky. It's too cold for saguaro to grow in Prescott, and we like to spot the last northernmost saguaro on each trip, knowing that we're close to home.

We continued winding our way north, turning onto Iron Springs Road in Kirkland that takes us into Prescott. The past 2 weeks we've traveled on unfamiliar highways, looking for unexpected sights and learning about the areas we're traveling through. Today we're enjoying riding a familiar route, not needing a map or GPS to guide us home.

Over the past 17 days we've traveled 4,100 miles through 10 western states. The only western state we missed was Utah, and only because we broke down in the Nevada desert yesterday and had to change our travel plans. We're already planning a shorter trip to Utah, just because we can.

Unexpected events in Nevada

We weren't expecting to sit by the side of road in Nevada, waiting for a tow for the BMW. We also weren't expecting to spend the night in Kingman, Arizona - our original destination was St. George, Utah. We've learned that being prepared for the unexpected is key to motorcycle travel, and today was a really good example of being prepared.

To avoid the heat at the end of the day, we started a bit earlier this morning from Tonopah, NV. We headed east out of Tonopah, a one-time silver mining town, on Route 6. The road headed straight for 18 miles through a desolate valley with no trees and very little vegetation until it started twisting and climbing into the Sierra Nevada mountains, then once again was a straight shot through a valley until we reached the next mountainous area. We reached Warm Springs at the intersection of Route 6 and NV 375, which once was a thriving stagecoach stop and now is only empty buildings.

We continued east on Nevada 375, which in 1996 was designated the Extraterrestrial Highway because of many UFO sightings along this road, which is near to Area 51. We didn't see any UFOs, but we did spot small herds of cattle and horses, sometimes far off in the high desert valleys or other times grazing right next to the road. This is open-range area with no fences, and we were lucky to not see cattle standing in the middle of the road.

Once again the road stretched out for miles in front of us as we traveled through the desert valleys, then wound its way up and down the next mountain range.

About half-way down this 98-mile highway is the town of Rachel, which according to its website has a population of 98 humans and an unknown number of aliens. Mike was riding conservatively today, since operating gas stations are far apart. Tonopah is 110 miles from Rachel - which used to have a gas station - and 50 miles from Ash Springs, the closest gas station to town.

There are many signs to watch out for low-flying aircraft, and we spotted large radar installations on some of the highest peaks. Yesterday afternoon and this morning we were riding near several large military aircraft and bombing training and testing facilities.

We spotted bright blue water in the distance, a rarity in this part of the southwest. This is the Key Pittman National Wildlife Preserve, developed to preserve habitat for wildlife and birds.

Until this point, our trip was going as planned. Mike turned right onto Route 93 since the closest gas station was only 5 miles. After we filled up the gas tank, we continued right when actually we should have turned left according to our original route plan. It's a good thing we turned right, because not far down the road the charging indicator light came on, and then systems started shutting down:  first the ABS system, the speedometer, and finally the console cluster.  Finally everything stopped working, and as we were headed downhill we coasted as far as we could.

We were about 30 miles from Las Vegas on a fairly busy 2-lane highway, and luckily had good cellphone service. Mike called BMWMOA roadside assistance, two people stopped and gave us water, and within an hour we were sitting in the tow truck, headed to the BMW dealer in Las Vegas.

Stu from Stu's Motorcycle Towing has a nifty hydraulic motorcycle platform that lowered flat down to the ground so Mike could roll the BMW onto the platform. Then the platform lifted back into the rear of the truck. Fascinating!

The guys at BMW of Las Vegas were fantastic. They gave us a local suggestion for lunch at BJ's Cocktail Lounge with fantastic service and food, and took the bike right in and within another hour it was repaired and we were on our way. By now it was 2:30pm, the hottest time of day, so we decided to skip St. George and headed instead to Kingman, AZ which is only 3 hours from home. The temperature peaked at 117 degrees before we got out of busy Las Vegas stop-and-go traffic, and settled to a more reasonable yet stifling 105 degrees on Route 93 south to Kingman.

We arrived in Kingman, hot, sweaty, tired, and thankful that Mike has excellent roadside assistance, two friendly travelers stopped to make sure we were OK, Stu was quick and friendly in picking up the motorcycle, and BMW of Las Vegas was so helpful and quick to repair our bike.

Lonely roads in California and Nevada

Today marks the second week of our motorcycle trip from home in Prescott, Arizona to Denver to visit our kids; through Wyoming and into Montana to visit friends Sharon and Chris; west through Idaho and a 2-day stop in Walla Walla, Washington; continuing west to Portland, Oregon where we spent 3 days; and now heading home along the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway through Oregon and California, finally turning east into Nevada. 10 days on the BMW has shown us a wide variety of landscapes, small towns, large cities, and twisting highways.

Today we started our trip in Chester, California on Lake Almanor, a large reservoir with the first dam built in 1914. Chester reminds us of small towns in the Adirondacks in upstate New York, where year-round outdoor sports and activities drive the local economy.

Yesterday we ended our ride on California 36, enjoying the twisties and climbs up and down the mountains to Chester. Today Route 36 heading east from Chester is a straight road running through wide open meadows, pine forests that have been recently logged, and a short section twisting through the mountains.

Southeast of Susanville we picked up US route 395, heading southeast to Reno, NV through irrigated farmland with views of the Sierra Nevada mountain range to the west.

We rode through Reno, NV on Interstate 80 east for about 40 miles, turning off onto Route 50, which roughly follows the path of the Pony Express in 1860-1861. Route 50 is known as the "Loneliest Highway" for good reason:  the towns are tiny and spread far apart, and there is almost no traffic. We zoomed through 4 mile and 8 mile flats, sandy areas that spread for miles on both sides of the road.

We turned south onto Nevada route 316 in Middlegate Station, one of the Pony Express stops. This road had even less traffic than Route 50, with only one small, dusty town with mostly empty buildings along the 63 mile stretch we traveled. Gabbs is the home of the only magnesia mine in the United States, yet the town is considered a semi-ghost town.

The one gas station in Gabbs featured a broken-down building with no glass in the windows and 2 non-functioning gas pumps. We've been in this situation before, and Mike slowed down from 80 mph to 55 mph to conserve gas, and when we reached Route 95 we turned north instead of south to find the closest gas station. We made it to the gas station in Hawthorne with 17 miles to spare.

We noticed hundreds of dirt and grass-covered bunkers on both sides of the highway around Hawthorne, and later discovered that this is the site of the Hawthorne Army Depot, a 14,236 acre facility that was originally built in 1930 and today has over 2,000 ammunition storage bunkers with over 600,000 square feet of storage space.

As we headed south with a full tank of gas, the temperature climbed into the mid-90's even at 5,000- 6,000' elevation. A sign just outside Hawthorne stated "no services for 100 miles", another indication of how remote this area is.

We passed a few empty buildings covered with graffiti, remnants of isolated towns that are gradually disappearing into the desert until we rode into Tonopah, our destination for the night. Tonopah began with the accidental discovery of gold and silver in 1900 by a prospector named Jim Butler. Jim's burro got loose overnight, and when he found it the next morning he picked up a rock to throw at it. He noticed the rock was heavier than expected, and stumbled upon the second-richest silver strike in Nevada.

The 408 miles we traveled today seem remote and desolate to us; imagine how it must have felt to pioneers and prospectors in the late 1800's. I'm glad we have a BMW motorcycle instead of a burro!

Pacific coast, redwoods, and pine forests mean twisty motorcycle roads

Today's ride was all about the weather - and the trees. We started in Gold Beach, CA at 8:30am riding through a misty fog that rolled off the Pacific Ocean and drifted down from the tops of the trees, leaving the road clear but obscuring our long-distance views over the ocean.

The temperature was in the low 50's all morning. Periodically the sun would start to burn off some of the mist, then we would round a bend in the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway and the fog rolled in again.

We soon crossed into California, and 101 veered inland through flat farmland and fields of lilies grown in this part of the country known as the Easter Lily capital of the world. Just south of Crescent City we rode into the Redwood National Forest, home to the tallest trees in the world. It's really difficult to take photos that capture these trees that grow to about 370' tall.

Route 101 twists and turns, winding its way through the forests, then along the rocky coast, and back into the forest. There are plenty of passing lanes, giving Mike the opportunity to zoom past slower moving trucks and campers so that we had open road in front of us for much of the ride.

For a minute or two the rays of the sun broke through the mist and scattered through the tops of the redwoods, creating a dazzling display of nature's power.

We turned off the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway in McKinleyville, heading east on CA 299, the Trinity Highway. The temperature rose from 60 degrees to 70 degrees in 20 minutes, and continued up to 80 degrees in another 25 minutes as the sun came out and we rode away from the ocean. CA 299 is another twisty, turning road that climbs up and down through the high ridges and steep valleys. We climbed two summits before lunch:  Lord Ellis Summit at 2263', named for a miner who petitioned the state to improve a mule road through this area; and Berry Summit at 2871'.

We know the road is going to be even more fun when we see signs like this:

We stopped for lunch in Willow Creek, at 610' on the Trinity River. We spent the next couple of hours riding along the river, over more summits, and through the never-ending forests.

We passed several construction sites along the road, stopping for 25 minutes at one point where we got off the motorcycle, stretched, and counted 115 cars going past us before it was our turn on the one-lane road.

A few twisty miles later, we rode into Redding where the temperature hit 101 degrees - a 50 degree increase from when we started our ride this morning. After a beautiful ride along the coast, through redwood forests, and on little-traveled roads, it was hot and frustrating to sit at stoplight after stoplight and ride for a few busy miles south on Interstate 5 before we turned east on CA 36. The road starts out straight, cutting through the Tehama State Wildlife Area with yellow-brown fields with periodic views of snow-capped mountains in the far distance.

Then the road really becomes fun:  twisting and turning as it climbs from 500' elevation in Redding to Morgan Summit at 5768' where the temperature mercifully dropped to the low 70's. Route 36 snakes through the Lassen National Forest, a diverse area formed by the granite of the Sierra Nevada, the lava of the Cascades and the Modoc Plateau, and sagebrush of the Great Basin.

We saw the turn for the Lassen Volcanic National Park, but will have to save this trip for another day when we can experience the hot water areas where Mt. Lassen last erupted in 1915.

We ended our trip today in Chester, a town of about 2000 people nestled in the forest on the edge of Lake Almanor. Don't miss dinner at the Burger Depot where the friendly staff, train decor, a model train that runs around the room on a ledge near the ceiling, and good-tasting food made our evening meal a delight.

We experienced a wide range of scenery and temperatures during our 367 mile ride today, with 3,148 miles total on this trip - so far.