BMW ride on a hot day for pie

We decided the hot weather - temperatures in the high 90's today in Prescott - wasn't going to stop us from riding the BMW. The question was:  where to go? Flagstaff, at 7000' feet elevation is cooler, but we didn't have enough time today. Going south to lower elevations where the temperatures would be well over 100 degrees simply wasn't option. We decided to ride on familiar roads to a new destination:  pie in Wikieup.

Bright, Arizona blue skies and twisty 2-lane paved roads with almost no traffic made this a zen-like ride. Usually we see several groups of motorcycles on this route, but today we saw only one other bike, a Harley, which we quickly passed.

We headed west on Iron Springs road out of Prescott, riding through the Prescott National Forest. We're currently in Stage II fire restrictions which basically mean we can't do anything that might cause a spark:  campfires, charcoal fires, outdoor smoking, operating equipment like chainsaws, and even our town's 4th of July fireworks have been cancelled. All the vegetation is various shades of brown, with a few green bushes scattered around as a reminder that once the monsoon rains start, the desert will come to life again.

Iron Springs road becomes Yavapai County Road 10, and we periodically ride across cattle guards. Instead of miles of fences to keep cattle off the road, cattle guards are basically a series of metal pipes laid across the road over a ditch. When cattle (or people with smaller feet, like me) try to cross, their legs fall into the openings between the pipes and they are stuck. Cattle learn not to cross cattle guards, and I've learned to walk around them.

In Kirkland we turn right onto AZ 96 west, with the highway snaking through the mountains. It seems like we would be climbing higher in elevation, but actually Prescott is at 5500' and we descended through Skull Valley at 4260', Kirkland at 3900' and Hillside at 3850'. A few miles past Hillside we turned onto AZ-97 south for about 14 miles. This is one of our favorite motorcycle roads, reminding us of a roller coaster as we zoom down hills through areas marked 'do not enter when flooded', then zip back up the next hill. There are no straight stretches of road here, and we see only one car over the 14 miles of up and down, twisty fun.

AZ-97 takes us to US-93, a 4-lane divided highway which is the main road between Las Vegas and Phoenix. Luckily we only have about 30 miles to ride through the Big Sandy Valley in the Mohave Desert to Wikieup, a town of less than 200 residents. Wikieup is a Mohave word for 'shelter' or 'home'. In the winter, hundreds of RVs make their home here, but today it was 102 degrees and there were no RVs in sight.

We stopped at the Cool Water Cafe, part of the Hidden Oasis RV Park for lunch, sort of on purpose. I had heard that there was a great restaurant in Wikieup with amazing pie, and when Mike googled restaurants in Wikieup he found the Cool Water Cafe advertising pie and thought this was it. After all, how many restaurants can there be in the tiny town of Wikieup? (apparently there are 5). I saw a sign for Luchia's 4 miles down the road and realized THIS was the restaurant I'd heard of. It was hot, we were hungry, and the Cool Water Cafe had pie. We made a quick decision to stop and enjoyed our lunch of a sub for Mike and panini for me, with homemade blackberry pie for dessert. We were the only people in the Cafe and chatted with the owner about the numerous solar-powered bobble heads on the window sill next to our table as she made our lunch.

After cooling off with ice cold water and lemonade in the air-conditioned cafe, we retraced our route, climbing from 2000' elevation in Wikieup back to the cooler 5500' elevation in Prescott.

At one point today Mike said it felt like he was riding through hot air powered by a hair dryer, and I said it felt more like a convection oven. We're not about to let the heat stop us from enjoying the BMW and the Arizona countryside. Especially when there is pie involved.

Overnight BMW motorcycle ride to Cottonwood

We're planning a cross-country motorcycle trip later this summer, and decided to try out the new Mosko Moto soft-sided bags on an overnight trip.


We often ride to Cottonwood, about 40 miles away, for a quick day trip and lunch at Bocce where we can sit outside and enjoy one of their fantastic thin crust pizzas and interesting salads. Cottonwood has developed into one of the premier wine-tasting areas in Arizona, featuring Arizona-grown grapes and local wines. Since we don't drink alcohol when riding the BMW, we decided to spend the night and take advantage of walking around Old Town Cottonwood, sampling wine, listening to music, and trying out some of the other restaurants.

We left home about 2pm with the temperature hovering around 90℉, knowing it would be warmer in Cottonwood at a lower elevation than our home in Prescott. Luckily, the trip east takes us over Mingus Mountain and through the old copper mining town of Jerome where we enjoyed the cooler breezes as we zoomed up the twisties on 89A.

As we got closer to Jerome, the views opened up to the tall cliffs of the Mogollon Rim in the distant north.

Mike guessed the temperature would be 102℉ in Cottonwood, and he was off by only .5℉; it was 101.5℉.

We stayed at the Iron Horse Inn on Main Street in Old Town Cottonwood. It was originally built in the 1930's as a motor court, and retains the same basic outside look.



After checking in, we walked through wrought iron gates into the shady courtyard, and found our room up a steep flight of cement steps.

Cottonwood was founded in 1874 when soldiers from nearby Camp Verde were stationed here. It took its name from a stand of 16 large cottonwood trees that grew near the Verde River. Historically it was a farming area for the nearby mountain towns, and today it's often used as a stopping off point for people visiting Jerome or Sedona.

Old Town Cottonwood boasts an eclectic mix of boutiques, restaurants, bars, wine-tasting venues and stores selling everything from countertops to locally produced art. We walked down the shady side of Main Street and stopped at The Tavern Grill where we sat outside and enjoyed an appetizer. Then we headed back up the other side of Main Street to the Merkin Vineyards tasting room where we sampled a few of their wines made from grapes grown in the Wilcox area of southern Arizona.

Our next stop was The State Bar, with its all-Arizona beer and wine selection. The Friends of the Verde River were hosting a music fest and fundraiser, and we sat on comfy chairs outside listening to different local bands and DJs. When it came time for a late dinner, we walked 3 blocks to the 3 Kings Kasbar for tapas and dessert.

This morning we ate a delicious breakfast of huevos rancheros for Mike and a breakfast sandwich for me with fresh squeezed orange juice for both of us at the Red Rooster Cafe. We listened to a talented musician who played a variety of different instruments, including bongos, drums, flutes and all kinds of bells and gourds while we enjoyed our breakfast.

We retraced our route from yesterday through Jerome and back home, and since it was fairly early on a Sunday morning, there was almost no traffic to slow us down as Mike swooped through the hairpin turns up and down the mountain.

We rode past one of the closed copper mines that brought thousands of people to this area in the 1920's. Today around 500 people live in Jerome, and hundreds more come here to see the quirky town and shops.

We're lucky to live in this beautiful area of Arizona where people from all over the world come to ride their motorcycles through the Southwest high desert.

It was a sunny Saturday with Arizona-blue skies so we decided to go on a 4-hour round-trip ride through the cooler pine forests to Payson and back. Even though this is the start of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, we only encountered traffic in two places:  on the 7-mile stretch of I-17 and riding through the small town of Strawberry, where both sides of the 2-lane highway were crowded with parked cars and people walking through the local arts and crafts fair.

This is a familiar ride for us, since whenever our long trips head north or east we typically ride part of this route:  I-17 north to the General Crook exit onto AZ-260. George Crook was a career US Army officer, promoted to Major General during the Civil War. He was sent to the West during the Indian Wars, and fought against the Apache in Arizona. Geronimo surrendered to General Crook in 1886, marking the end of the Indian Wars in the Southwest. After leaving the Army, Crook worked for the US government promoting better treatment of the Native Americans.

Heading north on I-17 we see the Mogollon Rim, an escarpment that rises to 7,000' elevation and in many places is 2000' above the valley below. The Rim forms the southern end of the Colorado Plateau that slices 200 miles across northern Arizona. Our trip today takes us through "Rim Country", the area in Arizona right along the Rim in the densely forested White Mountains.

Because of the higher elevation, it's 15-20 degrees cooler on the Rim than in Prescott, which is one reason why this is such a popular area in the summer. Due to the extremely high risk of fire this month, the Forest Service closed most of the Coconino National Forest to all types of public access, and we saw bright yellow and red warning signs across all of the forest roads along our trip.

We turned south on AZ-87, riding through the small towns of Strawberry and Pine until we reached Payson. After a quick stop for ice cream and a bottle of water, we retraced our route back home to Prescott.

I zipped up my motorcycle jacket all the way to the chin as we rode along the windy Mogollon Rim, and then unzipped it as we dropped down off the Rim into Camp Verde, where at 3,100' elevation the temperature soars into the high 80's and the landscape changes from pine forests to scruffy high desert vegetation.

We saw several groups of motorcycles along our trip today, but the majority of the time we had the 2-lane AZ-260 and AZ-87 to ourselves - just the way we like it.

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.

First ride on the new R1200 GSA

Today we took our first ride together on our new BMW R1200 GSA! Mike bought the new BMW last week, and has gone on a few rides on his own. Today was our first ride together.

Before I could ride pillion he needed to install the Brooks AutoSports black top case so that I don't fly off the back of the bike. The top case provides a comfy back rest after Mike figured out how to attach our backrest pad to the top case.

We rode one of our favorite twisty loops through the Bradshaw Mountains that heads southwest out of Prescott on Highway 89 through the small town of Wilhoit. Mike zoomed through the hairpin curves and the bike powered up the hills and flew on the downhills.

We saw several motorcycles on the road, and the slower cars in front of us all pulled over to let us zoom past. We turned northeast at Kirkland Junction, riding through the ranching community of Skull Valley back into Prescott.

We put 51,000 on our old 2012 R1200GS and with a cross-country trip planned this summer, we're looking forward to adding miles to this new bike. Stay tuned!