A spontaneous motorcycle ride

While we were leisurely enjoying Sunday morning we decided to be spontaneous and go for a motorcycle ride. The big question:  where should we go? Last weekend we took a longer ride to Flagstaff, and wanted to go somewhere different. It was going to be in the mid-70's so we didn't want to go south to a lower elevation and more heat.

That left heading north to Ash Fork. Ash Fork is the kind of place that you go through; it's not usually a destination. At the intersection of Arizona 89 and Interstate 40, it's a spot to stop and fill up your gas tank on your way to someplace else. In our minds, there are two things in its favor:  it's on part of the old historic Route 66 and it is home to a fantastic BBQ restaurant: Lulu Belle's.

There's basically only one paved road from our home in Prescott north to Ash Fork:  Arizona 89. It's a straight, 2-lane paved road with no twisties, sweepers, or mountains to climb. It's a zen-like ride north as we watched the grasslands meld into pinyon pine forests, with the hint of mountains to the east, north and west backing up all the high desert grassland.

Because of the wet winter and spring, the normally brown grasslands flaunt bright green colors, making the grazing cows and horses extremely happy. One of things we love about riding the motorcycle is that we're closer to nature than riding closed up in a car. The cliffrose bushes are blooming, making the air fragrant with hint of sweet perfume. On a walk this morning before the motorcycle ride I sniffed each blooming cliffrose bush along our path but couldn't detect a specific scent. Yet riding along the highway, every breath was filled with their fragrance.

We had heard about Lulu Belle's BBQ from many of our friends, and this was our first time there. What a treat!

Most of the buildings in Ash Fork are old and crumbling, but Lulu Belle's is big, bright, airy and comfortable. The wooden tables are anchored with lacquered tree trunks and the high ceilings offer a lot of space for Western memorabilia.

Mike had the pulled pork sandwich and I enjoyed a BBQ chicken sandwich - both were spicy, hot, and incredibly delicious. The buns and bread even come branded!

After lunch we rode on the old Route 66 through Ash Fork, which was founded in 1882 as a siding for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, which later became the Sante Fe Railroad. It takes its name from the confluence of three forks of Ash Creek. Ash Fork has a sad and tortuous history:  the original town burned to the ground in 1893 which wasn't uncommon in the West. The Sante Fe Railroad moved it's main line 10 miles to the north in 1960, and approximately half of the town's population relocated along with it. A fire known as "The Big Fire" in 1977 destroyed most of the downtown, Interstate 40 opened not long after and rerouted travelers away from the town, and another fire in 1987 destroyed most of the remaining buildings.

There are a few decaying buildings left in town, along with a building that was originally a Texaco gas station with an early 1960's Chrysler DeSoto on the roof. According to a Route 66 guide, this car was driven by Elvis at one point. Truth, local lore, or advertising? You be the judge!

We retraced our route home, enjoying the bright Arizona sunshine and zooming along with very little traffic to get in our way. Today's ride wasn't filled with exciting riding or an opportunity to explore new areas. But as Mike likes to say:  any motorcycle ride is a good ride!

Testing out the new BMW on a favorite dirt road

One of the reasons we love our BMW R1200 GSA bike is that we can get off the highways and enjoy riding on dirt roads. Yesterday Mike wanted to see how the new BMW handles on Arizona 71, a bumpy dirt road that travels between paved AZ 89 and AZ 73, taking us to the old Route 66 tourist town of Williams.

Mike loved the way the electronic suspension adjustment worked, but even with that addition all the pictures I took of people riding mountain bikes and cattle browsing in the field just off the road were blurry. Since you can't see the photos, imagine a solitary cyclist peddling their way up the dirt road, and then around the bend 2 more cyclists working hard to peddle up a steep incline. It's mesmerizing to gaze over the dusty road and dry fields to the mountains in the distance, knowing that our route today would take us up into those mountains.

Since this is open range country we rode over several cattle guards, and a few times saw small groups of black cattle, some with young calves, resting under a shady tree or browsing in the fields. Unlike previous rides, this time there were no cattle IN the road.

It was a sunny day with my favorite Arizona-blue skies for our 3-hour ride, where the temperature ranged from 77 degrees at lower elevations to 64 degrees as we climbed through pine forests over Williams Mountain into the town of Williams.

We rode slowly through Williams looking for an ice cream shop, since there's no better way to enjoy a summer ride on the motorcycle than stopping for ice cream. We weren't disappointed when we found the local Dairy Queen with a line of people snaking out the door into the parking lot.

The route back home isn't as much fun, since we ride west on Interstate 40 for about 15 miles until we reach paved AZ 89 to take us the 50 miles south back home to Prescott. I-40 is always filled with semi-trucks, and the seemingly never-ending road construction makes it even more congested. The positive is that Mike was able to test out the new BMW's power and speed merging onto the interstate and passing slower-moving trucks.

At one point Mike remarked (using our new Sena helmet communication system) that in just a couple of months we will be riding the motorcycle 8 hours each day, every day for approximately 4 weeks as we travel cross-country. Keep your fingers crossed for sunny days, smooth roads, and plenty of ice cream stands along the way.

Gravel roads on the BMW

Our BMW R1200GS is designed for on or off-road riding, and yesterday we decided to head off-road. We'd heard about a route using county roads, partly gravel/sand/dirt; that ends up in Williams, about 65 miles northeast of Prescott. It was sunny and warm for November, a perfect day to explore.

We rode north on paved highway 89 out of Prescott, and turned east onto Yavapai County road 71 at the Drake Cement plant in Paulden. Chino Valley and Paulden are ranch country, with wide open fields on both sides of the highway.

Just past the Drake Cement plant, county Road 71 turned into gravel, so we slowed our pace as Mike navigated the bumpy road. It's easy to imagine what people in wagon trains saw when they headed West in the 1800's, because the landscape hasn't changed. This is open range country, meaning cattle wander freely without fences.

We passed one ranch with large solar panels outside the house, necessary in this area where there aren't any power lines. Otherwise, we had the road to ourselves as we traveled through grassy ranchland with far-off views of the mountains. At times the road was soft gravel, at other times red sand. We crossed washes that flood in the summer monsoon rains, and as the road climbed into higher elevations, the grasslands gave way to chaparral.

We felt like we left the wilderness behind us as we turned north onto paved Country Road 73. Even though we were about 20 miles south of Williams, we saw only a couple of pick-up trucks as we now sped through the pine trees in the Kaibab National Forest.

We pulled over at Vista Point, looking out over the forest, before we continued on to Williams.

Williams is a weatherbeaten small town that beckons tourists interested in the old Route 66 or taking the train into the Grand Canyon. At 6,766' elevation it's cooler than Prescott, but today the bright sunshine and unseasonably warm late November weather meant we could sit outside and enjoy lunch at Cruiser's Route 66 Cafe.

We took the fast route home, heading west on Interstate 40 then south on Arizona 89. As we passed by the Drake Cement plant I looked off to the east, thinking about how different it is to ride slowly on gravel roads where instead of paying attention to traffic we could gaze out over the countryside and let our thoughts wander.

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.

Route 66 in Seligman, Arizona

I bet when you read "Route 66" a picture pops into your mind of the old Route 66 highway that stretched from Chicago to LA over 2,448 miles. Two-lane paved highway, family-run motels along the side of the road, big billboards advertising food, gas, and local attractions; and small, dusty towns separated by miles of scenery that vary from corn and soybean fields in the Midwest to the brown, dry hills of the Southwest.

While the majority of the old Route 66 that first opened in 1926 has been swallowed up by the interstate highway system, pockets of the old road still exist. Today we rode north from Prescott to Ash Fork, then turned west to Seligman where 80 miles of the original Route 66 head west to Kingman.

I rarely see trains in northern Arizona, but today we spotted several. Seligman was originally called Prescott Junction since it was founded as an intersection on the railroad line from Sante Fe to Prescott - where we live. 

Route 66 seems to define Seligman, at least the part of town lined up along Route 66 where we saw a pink 1959 Edsel in front of the Rusty Bolt store, old Fords, a purple Pontiac wagon with an orange roof, a lime-green VW bus, a rusty cabover truck sitting in a field, and a group of Harley motorcycles riding down the road.

 

We stopped for lunch at Westside Lilo's Cafe where the walls were decorated with Route 66 signs, photos, and newspaper clippings; a mounted elk head, stuffed mountain lion, and hundreds of German beer mugs.

Thanks to Mike's Garmin GPS, we discovered 17 miles of the old Route 66 heading east from Seligman until it joined up with I-40. We had the road to ourselves except for a couple of pick-up trucks, and we slowed down to read the Burma Shave signs along the road. These advertising signs with rhyming poems originated in the 1920's, and at one point there were over 7,000 signs spread throughout the United States. The signs are spaced along the right side of the road, with 2-5 words on each sign that add up to a pithy phrase. The first series we saw was:

The angels that guard you

while you drive

always retire

at 65

Burma Shave

 



followed by this second, tongue-in-cheek series:

Just one time

just for fun

you can finish

what we've done

??????

 

We only rode 146 miles, but we experienced enough highway history and kitschy tourist attractions to make it a full and interesting day.

 

If you ever plan to motor west
Travel my way, the highway that's the best.
Get your kicks on Route 66!