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Howdy Folks, pull up a chair. 

Ellen and I have been saving and planning for the last year or so to do a ride through Arizona. We just got back from that ride (Oct 10th - 16th) , and it was excellent - and we will be going again :)

Sunday October 10th, just before setting off on the ride: 

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Saturday the 9th we had the bikes all packed and gassed up, Sunday morning at about 7:45 we hit the road(s). 67, then the fun back ways through Ramona, Old Julian, Wynola, on into Julian for our first stop, Miner's Diner. We both had The Warden, my favorite, and then headed out. After this our planned stops for fuel, snacks, etc... were in Brawley, Blythe, and then in Congress, AZ just before the road gets real fun (89) which takes you into Prescott. Really beautiful roads, Ellen picked the route, and all the stops for this trip - she did well. 

Miner's Diner:
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One of the stops on our way to Prescott: 
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Prescott, AZ: 
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This day was mainly a logistical movement, the job was to get from Lakeside to Prescott and enjoy the roads on the way there, check. In Prescott we stayed at the Hotel St. Michael which was really cool This was the first day of our trip, also the first of several times we would say to each other how nice people are in Arizona. There isn't lane splitting, but people that drive the 4 wheeled devices do this strange thing where they use these 'turn outs' and it's so weird, you then get to go through and you wave thanks, and everyone goes about their day happy. It was the weirdest experience. Another observation on day one was that clearly there is no helmet law, but I'll be damned if every single Harley riding biker we saw in Arizona wasn't going out of their way to smile, wave and be friendly. Prescott was great, we will be going back and spending a day there next time. 

Inside the Hotel St. Michael, Prescott AZ: 

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Day two, we woke up and packed the bikes, then hit the road for Jerome. Man there are some super twisty fun roads getting to Jerome, and then Jerome itself is just the coolest little indescribably placed town. First activity was the Gold King Mine, which was really cool - Ellen knows me well, knows I love all the old west antique shops, wheel guns, lever actions, Folk Music, etc... Gold King mine was cool, I would go back again tomorrow just to look around and take more pictures. This was also the site of White Multistrada bites the dust #1, we had a gentle flop in the dirt, side case cracked, hinge bolt pulled out, spirits were high, bike was lifted and the show must go on. 

We were up too early and moving too swiftly to be on this sign's radar :)

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Ellen Introducing herself to the "Greeter of Goldking" friendliest cat on earth: 
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One of the buildings at Gold King Mine, Jerome AZ: 
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 After we left the Goldking Mine, we rode back through Jerome, and went to see the Douglas Mansion which is a descent stop, then back into Jerome for lunch at Bobby D's BBQ, yes it's excellent, and to walk around the town. We took a look at the sliding jail, and rode to the next stop, Montezuma Castle National Monument. We had the Sena's on the entire ride of course, and we kept agreeing how charming of a town Jerome is, again, we will have to go back and spend more time. 

Jerome:
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Sliding Jail, Jerome AZ: 
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Montezuma Castle was really cool, just imagining how people created the site back then, and lived there. Another sight not to be missed in AZ! 

Montezuma Castle National Monument: 

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After Montezuma castle, and the charm of Jerome, the truth settles in that we have to hit the road for Tucson. We had two routes, and it was decision time. Route one was the long and twisty fun way, route two was highway straight as an arrow all the way to Tucson. Well, we had enjoyed the charms of Jerome a little too long, and ended up taking option two. This was a blessing in disguise, as basically the entire way we were being physically and even mentally abused by the wind, winds along that road can have you leaning, to stay riding in a straight line. We have all ridden in strong winds - well Ellen never had, and went from being audibly worried to handling it like an old pro within a couple hours. I love being there as she goes through all of the first encounters of Motorcycling. 

We Arrived in Tucson at the La Posada Hotel: 

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In Tucson we stayed at the La Posada which was perfect, it also has an attached restaurant that has fantastic margaritas, lively staff, and great food. We stayed in Tucson two nights, since we got in later. The next morning we hopped on the bikes and headed off to see the Sonora Desert Museum. On the way there we wanted to stop on a pullout to take some photos of cactus, etc... 

The Sonora Desert Museum is really cool, go there, walk the entire area and outer trail. It's really just a pleasant time. At the gift shop we met a really nice lady who knew about cacti, and we bought two small cacti that she wrapped extra good for being in the boxes. That was a really pleasant way to spend a couple hours, and by now we were happy to get back on the bikes, and see the next things. 

Sonora Desert Museum:
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We made an additional photo stop on our way to Pima Air & Space Museum: 
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The Next stop was the Pima Air & Space Museum. If you are like me you can spend days in one Smithsonian building and still be rushed, so this was satisfying - massive acreage of aircraft of all types, hangars full of planes, historical vehicles, exhibits etc. Luckily Ellen really enjoys museums and things like this as well, so we spent a good bit of time there - and both would recommend you add that to your places to see list while in Arizona. 

Pima Air & Space Museum: 
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We had a great time at the Air & Space museum, and then headed back to the hotel. Again, we stayed in the La Posada, 10/10 recommended. The rooms are different, but cute and the whole motif works well. And boy did we enjoy their food at the adjacent restaurant. We also took some time to look closer at the damage to her side case, I was able to get the hinge bolt back in there with some hearty thwaping of my Keen Newport Sandal / Luggage Hammer. This also lined all the cracks up and pressed everything back in place so the damage isn't that bad, icing on the cake. This was now the 2nd night in Tucson, so the following morning we woke up and packed the bikes, hitting the road for the next stop, Kartchner Caverns State Park. There are no cameras allowed in the caverns, so we left our phones in the bikes - but the caverns are really cool, the tour is great, add it to the list. Next stop? TOMBSTONE. YASSS. 

We got in to Tombstone while it was still light out, so we wandered in to Big Nose Kate's Saloon for an early dinner. Turns out we were sitting next to the owner of the bar, and he is a really friendly guy. So the owner of Big Nose Kate's took our picture at his bar, that was fun. 


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I love all the history in tombstone, from the worlds largest rose, gunfighter museum, and the o.k. corral drama etc. We had a good walk around and saw a lot, visited shops and museums.

Gunfighter Museum 
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When we were walking around, we had gone in to a western attire shop, and there was a Mother, and her two sons. The older son you could tell was a Wild West fan, he was trying it all on, from the boots to the hat and looked so proud. His younger brother meanwhile looked absolutely miserable, and Ellen and I, both having siblings, thought it was pretty cute. When it started to get chilly we headed back to the bikes and on to our hotel. The next morning we lightened the loads on the bikes since we were staying local the following night, and headed for Bisbee, AZ. 

Now listen closely, if you made it this far, the Queen Mine Tour in Bisbee, AZ is a must do. We had booked the tickets the night before, for the earlier tour - this really paid off because there were a total of seven people in our group when one set of connected mine trams can carry 30. A little backstory, I had been posting on Facebook during the trip, and a guy I worked with in the Military days messaged me and said I am going to call my uncle before you arrive and get you set up. I didn't know what he meant, and I really didn't want to show up and be some special case, but we are really glad he did that. His Uncle greeted us, and apparently runs the entire mine tour, and has been a professional miner his entire life. He also ran a crew in charge of doing the underground passage, doorway, and path work in the Kartchner Caverns we had just seen the day previous. Since we were a very light group, and he had been special requested to lead the tour, the tour went long and we got to see a lot more than usual. Super impressive profession, super impressive tour, we both absolutely loved it. Here is a video I made about the Queen Mine Tour. 


Queen Mine Tour, Bisbee AZ
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Lavender Pit:
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The Queen Mine tour was amazing, we were both on cloud nine after that - and headed to the Bisbee Breakfast Club, the REAL Bisbee Breakfast Club. The portions are plenty, beware - the food is also delicious. We had a brief 15 minute wait before being seated, so we walked around the historic Lowell area. Pretty interesting. Next on the list was Historic Bisbee. Backtracking, the day previously we had been in the Cabal Winery tasting room in Tombstone, and the guy doing the tastings was telling us about Bisbee, and how its like someone just scooped a piece out of San Francisco, or something like that and placed it in the middle of nowhere that's Bisbee, well he was accurate. It has big city multi level brownstone bohemian san fran vibes, yet it's in Arizona 30 minutes from Tombstone. Bisbee is cute, lots of shops to see, lots of kitschy thingeries of all sorts. 

Historic Lowell

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Historic Bisbee: 
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We had a great time in Bisbee, and linked back up with the winery guy from Tombstone for another tasting in their Bisbee location. Bisbee is cute, could probably go back and spend a night there sometime. After all this we rode back to Tombstone and did some more window shopping, and sight seeing. We also visited the Boothill Graveyard, capped off with a delicious dinner at the Longhorn restaurant. Their Apple cobbler is fairly divine, and there are some really cool old Tombstone photos all over the walls. 

Boothill Graveyard: 
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Historic advertising part of the table at the Longhorn Restaurant: 
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After a solid dinner, we did a little more walking around in Tombstone, and we saw the young man from the western attire store taking a ghost tour, in full head to toe wild west getup :) Mom watched proudly, younger brother looking for any exit. I also wanted to mention that over the course of this trip we had several times now met other riders. We met a couple in tombstone, and several just in other random circumstances, tons of Harleys, We saw Harleys, Harleys, Harleys, big Harleys, small Harleys, tall Harleys, wide Harleys, and maybe a Yamaha and a GS (dude was standing on the pegs too haha) the entire time. All these Harley folks we kept meeting were just so nice and friendly and all about just being motorcycle people. Right on. Went back to the hotel and talked a bit about the plan for the next day, which was by now going to be Friday. The following morning we packed the bikes and hit the road, no ----, 310 miles to Yuma. 

The ride to Yuma was another great opportunity for Ellen to learn a new experience on the road. Some miles out of Tombstone on our route, the signs all started to say "GRAVEL ROAD AHEAD". Now this is a backcountry paved highway, but it looks like they are in the middle of the process of stripping it down and preparing it for new black top. It was squishy pea gravel, and it went on for miles. I have a new set of Dunlop MUTANT tires, they are fantastic on the pavement - they are whatever you get away with off road but they never felt unsafe as we toddled along at 50mph waiting for the sign to say pavement ahead lol. Ellen did great on her first surprise gravel highway at speed with all the boxes on, she has a set of Dunlop TrailMax Mission tires on, and those are about the most fantastic 50:50 tire on the market. When that ended we just had a long series of straight, long, and longer stretches of highway as we headed to Yuma. We did enjoy this ride though, we were talking the whole time about all of the sights we had seen in the days previous, and how much we looked forward to seeing the dogs again, but will also miss waking up to greet the bike and some new adventure. 

I also love the fact that Ellen has embraced true motorcycle travel, you know, the finer things like having a gas station pretzel and a coffee in the middle of somewhere after filling the tank and packing on another hundred miles or so. 

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We got to Yuma in good time, and slid right in to the Yuma Territorial Prison for a look:
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The Yuma Territorial Prison is a cool stop, and a really beloved site by the residents of Yuma. Local businesses and private donors are who keep it running. Fun exhibits, cool artifacts, and just a neat history of the place and the prisoners it once contained. 

We went back to the Shilo Inn, and had some meh seafood but very stimulating beverages, and did what any normal couple would do and watched the masked singer on an ipad from the hotel bed. The next morning, we hopped on the metal ponies and headed from Yuma to Lakeside by way of the 8. We stopped once to fuel up just outside of Yuma, again at the Ocotillo Chevron, and then on home. The ride this morning was great, no traffic, just wide open roads and clear comms on the sena. We talked about everything except what we wanted to have for dinner that night, which ended up being Jersey Mikes (I love Jersey Mikes, #8 Mike's way).

This was a really great trip, can't wait to head out on another one like it.

If you missed the link above here is a link to a video of Copper Queen Mine Tour we did - it was awesome. 


- Nick 

ALSO: Shoutout to the Ocotillo CA Chevron Station, After all this trip not losing or forgetting anything on the way home I left my tank bag at the pump, a customer had turned it in and they held it for me, I rode back out the next morning and got it. 

 

Edited by shutterrev
Added another shot of Jerome :)
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Wow! What a great ride report! Great pics and write-up...thank you both for sharing your AZ adventure with us! :thumbsup_anim:

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Very cool ride report and photos. I know Tombstone very well and have many friends there.

Looks like you missed the Tombstone Courthouse ?  It has a great museum inside it, the best history of the area there. If you go back, you should go check it out, also the 4 Deuces is the best Saloon in Tombstone where you'll meet lots of locals.

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