Kevins funeral was yesterday. It started around 10 and the funeral and eulogies were great. Erik Officiated, and I gotta say did a great job from start to finish. Lots of funny stories and it made me and Robyn realize how short life is. Kevin had a lot of friends.
Anyway, took a few pictures and robyn made a movie on the back of my bike. Im not sure she even realized she made the movie, even so its on the back of a bike so its kinda rough:
The after funeral party was good, shot some pool, drank some beer. met a few people. Good evening.
This week i sold around 1500 bucks worth of stuff on ebay, so I ordered my tour pak. SHould be here in a month. I also got 2 saddlebag bars and bar bags.
Erik and I are going riding again sunday. Cedar mountainish stuff. should be good.
My good friend Erik’s dad died saturday. I remember kevin as a guy who woke up at 4 in the morning, and when I’d ride by his house in the AM he had his garage open hanging out in his garage. I’d pull up, and hed say “tell me a story”. He was a character, and I’d have to say one of a kind. I did some excavating for his Dad, Buck flowers. Kevin will be missed.
Kevin Ray Flowers, 52, of St. George Utah passed on to the next realm Saturday, June 21st, 2008. It was the first day of summer and Kevin was up and out early, as usual.
Kevin was born on January 22nd 1956 in Van Nuys, California, to Elmer Ray “Buck” Flowers and Lola Platts Flowers.
Kevin is survived by his mother Lola (Buck), brother Craig (Linda), sister Lana (Frank Emerson), sister Lori (Ed Burgess), son Erik (Nicole) and grandson Patton, son Colt, their mother Glenda (Sterling Fox), his beloved partner Teri Jo Vernlund and her sons Tyler and Shane, and an endless list of friends and well-wishers too numerous to name.
Kevin is preceded in death by his father Buck (1998), constant canine companions Snoop, Buddy, and Buster.
If you knew Kevin, you knew what he liked. He didn’t have hobbies, he had lifestyles. Boating, biking, customizing, modifying, joking, laughing, and being around people were his favorite things. He spent the last decade of his life doing exactly what he wanted, whenever he wanted. Few people dedicate themselves to their passions as fully as Kevin did. He spent a great deal of his time and energy helping his friends and family accomplish and solve the various goals and problems they brought to him, looking to him for guidance and leadership. There was no one else like him. Impossible to adequately describe, but instantly recognizable.
Viewing will be held at the Spilsbury Mortuary on 110 South Bluff, Wednesday June 25th at 6pm to 8pm and Thursday June 26th at 9am to 10am. Funeral Services will be held at Spilsbury Mortuary at 10 AM, followed by the Last Motorcycle Ride with Kevin to the burial site at Tonaquint Cemetery. Casual dress is encouraged. Guests are encouraged and asked to bring their motorcycles and join the procession as we all take one Last Ride with Kevin to his final resting place.
Last night Erik, Joey and I rode the bikes to mesquite. I’m dead positive wherever Kevin Flowers is, he’s proud of his sons. Proof that the beat goes on:
Kevin flowers genuinely inspires me like noone has in a long time. He lived pretty simply, but lived exactly how he wanted like his obit says. Thats gotta be how life is supposed to be.
I enjoyed the ride last night. It was a tribute I felt to eriks Dad.
Well, my palmtop sold on ebay the first night for just under 1k. Thats enough to get a tour pak. I sold one of my Zunes to make sure, then went down and cashed in 320 bucks in change down at albertsons to shore it up even more. I should be good. Now I gotta find a tour pak.
Harley takes 6-8 weeks to get a tour pak out of milwaukee. I cant wait that long. Found a black cherry one in Calgary Canada, negotiating now with the guy to try and get it down here by this weekend. Hopefully I can pull it off.
Robyn is going up north thursday night. If i can get what I gotta get done at work, im gonna make a shot at hitting texas and back.
I havent ridden a long ride since my last post 2 weeks ago. Monday I had a wild fantasy that I would go across the texas panhandle and back to utah in 4 days, but I didnt do it. Im jonesing for a ride. Riding to work and back doesnt count, and to be honest day rides dont seem that great to me. for some reason, its only fun when you sleep in another town, wake up and ride. I dont know why.
So since im not riding, ive got a new goal. I need a tour pak:
Its detachable, and will allow me to take it on and off. I can throw my laptop in there, throw on a luggage rack on top so i can take a tent and a sleeping bag. The nicest thing is the backrest, the taller backrest. Should make it so the wife and kids enjoy the ride more.
Selling my palmtop on ebay to get one. I dont want to spend money to get it, and this is funner. in 5 days I should know.
The Pine Breeze inn from the Movie Easy Rider on Route 66
Friday June 6 2008
Asked Meg if she wanted to go for an overnighter to Caliente Nevada and be back by noon on saturday. She said yes, so we went to northern Arizona instead. Theres nothing to do in caliente, thats a ride to do by myself.
Friday around 3pm we loaded up, and headed out with one saddlebag of stuff. The other saddlebag had a tent and 2 sleeping bags. We were going hardcore: ride hard, sleep on the ground! oowrah!
The weather was nice and warm, but pretty windy. Gusting Bike-leaning windy. We went through overton and behind lake mead, and over to hoover dam to get to kingman. We stopped on the Arizona side and took it all in, and took a break to stretch our legs and I noticed a pillbox on top of the hill. I figured there must more on other hills, but didnt see any, and the area was blocked off so I couldnt get up there. The lady inside told me it was the last remaining from WW2. Back then, like today the hoover dam is a place of high national security. In one of my pictures you can see the new bridge theyre building across the colorado to protect the dam more. Im sure theyll convert to a tram system like they did at Zions.
We got into Kingman around 10 and my nav or google maps wouldnt work on my phone so had a helluva time finding the campground. Robyn as usual was the most reliable option, she helped us out. Damn verizon. My phone comes with a built in GPS, but verizon disables it so its dependent on their network now.
Anyway, after getting to the campground, and 2 more unorganized trips to get a flashlight to set it up, and another to get food, we finally crashed out and we sleeping on the ground like we’d planned. Im too old for this. I need a bigger bike where I can bring an air mattress. Even so, it was a cool experience. Havent slept in a tent for years, and the first time we’d slept in those tiny mummy bags was when robyn and I slept in them at the same campground in 1991, 17 years earlier.
We rode 250 Miles that Day.
Hackberry, Seligman, Grand Canyon Caverns and Kingman:Saturday, June 7 2008
Slept ok, but we both woke up early so we broke camp and headed to get breakfast at Denny’s. Today was a mellow day, we had about 170 miles to ride and all day to do it. After breakfast, we took our time, drove around Kingman a bit, took some pictures of Trains and Old route 66 Motels, then headed north on the mother road.
I dont really remember the hackberry general store when I first hit route 66, but wanted to see it now. It wasnt open for yet another hour, so we just looked around and then headed out again. The ride was nice, windy still, but it had that feeling that it was early morning on the first real day on vacation, and with my daughter with me, it made it even better.
The next stop was the Grand Canyon Caverns. Meg had been there before, but didnt remember it, so we took the tour again. It struck me how much Route 66 has made a comeback, even in the 20 years or so that I’ve been interested in it. The guide told us that before the bypass in 78, they did 500 people a day, then overnight, nothing. Now its doing well again, and the tours are going strong. They do around 150 people a day steadily, enough to keep it going well and keep jobs going in the area. Pretty cool.
Then we hit Seligman. Everyone knows the snow cap, and as we pulled up the place was packed. Still, the BEST hamburger ever made, period. Juan’s kids are running the place and have kept up the tradition, enough to make my 13 year old daughter laugh and have a good time. They even spotted me the 3 bucks I was short (I went and got them the money later), PLUS they had a terrible towell, signed by Big ben himself right inside the window. I couldnt be any more loyal now.
we went down crookton road, and crossed the freeway to see the Partridge creek bridge again. Took a breather, then headed east through williams, parks, and to the harley dealership in Bellemont. I finally was able to get internet on my phone, so looked up the overnight low in Flagstaff, and decided 40 degrees was a hair too cold in a tent for my daughter. So I called Robynski and she was able to book us a room. Apprantly the night before there were NO rooms in flag for under 200 bucks, but whatever convention or whatever was gone now, so she got a room with no problem. While at the dealership, Meg and I sat on a 2008 Ultra classic. Megan decided she loved the back seat. Dammit, I gotta get one. Granny glide or not, I want to tour and don’t want back seat comfort a problem. Im hoping its comfortable enough Robyn will want to go ALOT once the kids grow up.
after we left the dealership, we went a quarter mile down the road to the pine breeze inn. Whats that? In the opening scenes of Easy rider, toward the end of the opening credits Wyatt and Billy go to get a room and the guy shuts the door and turns on the no vacancy sign.
Well, its in Bellemont. Looks like this now:
Someone is trying to turn it into an RV park now, hopefully it flies, and he restores the building. It had an easy rider poster on the wall and some inside too, so the guy is a fan. Here’s another screenshot from the film, and if you really want to geek out, you can watch the whole intro. The pine breeze inn is the last sequence.
From there, we headed the 10 miles into Flagstaff. We parked at the hotel, and within seconds 2 drunk indians stumbled across the street, and one passed out within a foot of my bike. Kind of awkward, I pretended I didnt see him and got my daughter inside the motel as quick as I could. He was there 15 minutes later when I decided it would be best to move the bike. Nice motel, i thought.
After a full days riding, I thought I had meg wore out, but she doesnt go down without a fight, so we kicked back for an hour, then went and saw the new Indiana Jones Movie. After that, headed back and I was asleep within an hour.
Sacred Mountain Gas Station from Easy Rider: Sunday, June 8 2008
We woke up, had breakfast at the motel restaurant (aptly named “hogs”) and then hit the road. At the bottom of mountain outside flagstaff was another Easy Rider Icon I was wanting to see, so we stopped again. Here’s the picture from the movie:
And here it was, this Morning:
A guy who must live there popped his head over the wall and confirmed that this was the one from the movie (the pictures pretty much confirm it) and he also told me about another little stretch they rode that was in the movie through wupatki national monument, 5 miles away. We needed to head out, so I’ll go check it out another time. Im wondering if it was the scene where they slept in the ruins, I bet it was. Its been a national monument since before then, and the story goes the park ranger watched them like a hawk as they filmed. Now that I type this, that makes sense. I’m nearly sure thats the place.
We stopped at Cameron to get get some water, rest our butts a bit then flew on to Marble canyon, another hour away. We stopped for a minute to check out the old Bridge spanning the colorado river, built in 1927. It was a pretty big deal that bridge. The grand Canyon and the colorado river is still a major obstacle today, and building that bridge was huge. Before that, Lees ferry was the only way to cross the colorado for hundreds of miles.
After that, we went over the bridge to marble canyon and ate lunch, and fueled up again and headed for the home stretch. It was a little cold over the Kiabab, but nothing too big of a deal. From there, it was pipe springs where we made our last butt resting stop, then opened it up and made the last hour home.
I had a blast. I love it when my girl’s go riding with me. We don’t spend alot of one on one time together, and when we can do 2 or 3 days at a time traveling together and enjoying each others company it means the world to me. I couldnt ask for better kids. I hope they never get tired of going with Dad on motorcycle trips.
Ive been reading the scoot 66 blog. This guy is riding 10k miles on a vespa for god’s sake. I would never do that, just because I dont have a real interest in scooters, but I admire this guy’s drive and passion for what he loves. He’s the real Deal. Its made me want to do it on my harley even more. I will. I have to now. Its no longer an option. So I need a plan. I had an email from another dealership in Pittsburgh who had an FLHTCUSE3, which is the ultimate touring bike for me. The only problem is its white, and I’m not going to do it untill I can pay cash for it.
So this is the bike, and here’s why. Its loaded. Heated seats, chrome throughout, navigation, storage to take my laptop. Its also a screamin’ eagle 110 with about 100 horsepower and would be comfortable for my wife or kids to ride with me, and not have to worry about them. Something I can put miles on.
It comes in 3 colors. The one to shown, an orange and silver, and a white. Not going to do white. Don’t want to look like a cop. Theres a ton out there, so I’m not worried about finding one. If I wait long enough I could probably get an 09, but I don’t know If I can wait that long. I want to make this run in June or July.
Its also got a 160 watt speaker system. My FLHXI is 40 watt, So i’d imagine this thing thumps, which would be nice. I could listen to NHL radio at 80 mph. Its just built for miles and comfort. I might never go back to work again.
Need to get this plan together. Gonna pay off a few bills, and buy this bike and take megan to Pittsburgh, do some roller coasters, and head home. It’ll be the trip of a lifetime for both of us. She’s growing up too fast. This should be soemthing she’d remember.
This is my 2006 FLHXI Harley Street Glide. 120 Horsepower, 113 ft lbs of torque. I’m really proud and love this bike. I believe it came stock around 65-70 Horsepower, and the guy who built my engine tells me its the fastest harley he’s ever built, and he’s built them for years. Im not into the speed, but the power is nice pulling hills. Either way, I love it.
My goal is to get a second bike here in the next month or so from Pittsburgh and ride it back with my daughter Megan, along route 66. This blog is to document that and to maybe remember it and share it. I ride quite a lot, and my street glide is pretty unique to me in the fact that its almost double the horses of a stock harley, and its my first real harley after a couple different japanese cruisers. She’s like part of the family.
I love riding. Ive not found another activity in life that I enjoy more. Its a stress reliever, its travel, its exposure to the elements. I love it. Love it when my wife and kids can go, so I’d like to get a full dresser to make alot of miles on this year. Riding it from Pittsburgh would be a good break in and a great ride. Im also looking forward to spending time with my oldest daughter on the trip. Its something not alot of people say theyve done: Ride a harley across America.
This weekend, it was just nice. All day friday I was kicking around thoughts of heading somewhere to get some ride time in, and around 3 on friday I came home, and asked if Wendy wanted to go. She did. Headed out around 3.
Wendy is a pro. Last year we loaded up and rode to Universal Studios on the bike in the heat of the summer, and she was a blast to take. Doesnt complain, and loves riding. I love the one on one time. I didnt have a ton of one on one trips with my Dad, and the one I did always meant alot to me. Its one of the reasons I bought the bike. I hope its a memory that means something to my girls. Not alot of 11 year olds can say theve ridden thousands of miles on a harley davidson and seeing their world. Thats my delusion anyway. We’ll see.
Wendy, at hoover Dam. Friday, May 16 2008
Made kingman before dark.
Wendy loves Hotels. She played her DS and even talked me into going swimming for a few. We crashed that night, and woke up to get some road behind us.
Kingman is a cool town to me for some reason. Its got alot of route 66 flavor, and its got all the modern conveniences. Plus its a gateway to alot of my favorite roads. to the east is Seligman, and a great old stretch of 66. the west is a great bike road through oatman, and california. I like to ride for kingman and decide which way Im going to go when Im at the intersection, and its usually always a great ride.
for the sake of time we went to oatman. Wendy had never seen it, and I thought she might like it. We headed out, and took the winding road up to oatman. There was a live wedding in the street, which was kind of cool to see. Ive seen a few gunfight shows, but not a wedding.
Oatman is one of the most unique towns, if not the most unique that I’ve ever seen. Around the turn of the century it was a booming mining town, and it still holds that feel. If it had a dirt street, I cant imagine a wild western town being much different. When the mines stopped producing, the miners left their burros and theyve thrived in the desert without any natural predators, and they still roam the streets.
Wendy found a ragged old cat, that apparantly liked to fight. His owner said he would leave for days and would come back all cut up, and would even take on coyotes and whoever crossed his path. Wendy made immediate friends. She has cat mojo. I even liked this cat.
Clark Gable and Carol lombard had their honeymoon at the oatman hotel. The hotel is a museum now, and we checked it out. Ive been to oatman a bunch, but that was the first time I’d been in the hotel. Theres even a tattoo shop there, but I didnt go in. Maybe I should check him out next time.
After about an hour of Oatman, we headed for the colorado river through Topock, then onto Needles. Wendy was beat. I made the mistake of not switching out a touring seat for my bike, and we both had a bad case of TB. We ate at dennys, and called Robyn to tell her we would head home. It was pretty hot, and Robyn and I had a Penguins NHL playoff game at 1pm, so I figured we’d head back. But I REALLY wanted to go to Amboy. Albert Okura had bought the town, and its one of my favorite spots on route 66, and a couple of weeks ago, they finally got the gas station open after a couple of years of work and about 750 grand. At the crossroads, I decided to spend another day, go to Amboy, and spend the night in Barstow.
Luckily, Ive got the best wife in the world. I called her and she got us a room in Barstow. We pulled in through record heat into Amboy and drank about a gallon of water and hung out for about an hour or so, resting our butts and hydrating up.
A tour bus overturned just east of ludlow, and eastbound highway was routed from I 40 down old 66. It was actually pretty cool to see Roy’s get so much business, and I couldnt help but thinking thats how it mustve been before it was bypassed in the early 70s. Even so, the one guy watching shop went out of his way to give Wendy a Roy’s T shirt for no charge, which I thought was really pretty cool. Ill always swing wide for Roys. Albert Okura paid 400k for the town. It’d be nice to have that kind of money, I’d like to own a town one day. Someday…..
We headed over to barstow, and just relaxed. Wendy was beat, and so was I. We woke up in the morning and made time to get back to st George, by 1pm, and made it. All in all, we’d rode 760 miles in less than 48 hours. Wendy is my riding buddy. I hope she had a good time. I know I did.
I went the greater part of my life without really knowing my brothers. I’d imagine that probably sounds wierd, but 10 years can be a big difference. I was 16 when I moved to St George, and our lives really never hooked up. We’ve all got our own lives, it just is what it is. So when Pat called me to hook up in Phoenix on an unusually warm indian kind of summer ride in phoenix, I was pretty pumped.
Head To Kingman – Thursday
Left around 3 to make it to kingman. Last time I rode to kingman in March, I froze my nuggets off. This time, the weather was just nice, and the ride went pretty fast. Made kingman by around 10. Grabbed some food, and hit the sack.
Head to Phoenix – Friday
woke up, fueled up and headed to phoenix. It was about 50 degrees when I left, but knew itd warm up heading south so I just made miles. The ride was awesome. Called Pat in Wickenburg, and by then it had warmed up to 70. Found the Hotel, and found pat working on his new bike about 10 blocks away. Pat bought a beautiful bike: an 08 limited edition 105th anniversary Heritage Softail Classic, and got his wife Staci a good looking matching sportie.
We didnt screw around too long, loaded up and headed out to Scottsdale. Hit up a couple harley shops, Went to a place out in cave creek that I’ve never been too, had a couple of greasy burgers and a few beers and shot the shit. Ended up at the pub next door to the hotel for a few single malts. So basically, 2 short harley diehards drinking scotch and riding alot. Easy peasy japanesy.
Side note: Registering your motorcycle in Arizona, especially Phoenix has HUGE advantages. FREEWAY ACTION SHOTS! How cool is that? The Great city of Phoenix took this nice shot of Pat, but for some reason I wasnt able to make the shot:
They emailed it to him for a small charge without even asking. Phoenix is good like that. Pffft.
Titan Missile Museum
Woke up, and hit another dealership on the way out of town heading to Tucson. Then it was open Road. We switched bikes and had my first shot and checking out a six speed transmission on Pat’s new ride. It was smooth. The whole bike was smooth. He had it set up just like he liked it, including a nav which came in pretty handy.
Our first stop was pretty damn cool. The Titan missle Museum in Tucson. One of 3 left in the world (IIRC). We took the tour and I gotta say, was one of the cooler museums I’ve ever been in. The redundancy of the security, and a glimpse into cold war operations was really insightful. The 2 tour guides had actually worked at similar silos, and the tour was top Notch I thought. For 500 bucks you can spend the night there. I *WILL* do that before I die. I just need 500 bucks and robyn to go with me. The latter is gonna be tough…. (she’ll do it).
We then rode up to old Tucson. I gotta admit, I wasnt that prepared for it and missed more than I wished I had. We had an hour or so, since it was close to closing time, and I blew through it too fast. Pat is more of an old western afficinado and knew way more of the old movies that had been filmed there, and had been there a few times, but still, it was pretty cool. Knowing a few of the old movies that had been filmed there would have really been an experience. I need to watch a few more, and go back.
We headed back to our hotel in tucson, had a quick dinner and hit the sack.
Pima Air Museum – Friday
Epic Day. I’ll admit it, I love museums. I almost dont even care what kind — some are obviously better than others, but this was one of the best also. Pima Air Museum. Spent about 3 1/2 hours there and definately another place to go back. I think they had every major period plane you could think of, including one JFK/LBJ’s Air force one, which was the last prop driven air force ones.
Today was a bit cooler, and some wind too. We bombed out after bumming some jumper cables from the staff and headed out to get back to Phoenix. Just outside of PHX you could see a storm brewing, so we opened up and stayed ahead of it and got back to phoenix with enough time to head to Harolds in cave creek to have some food, fix some server problems back home. The city of Phoenix also got another couple of good snapshots of pat and I riding in Loose formation:
Pat paid alot for these pictures, figured they should be at least shared with someone. Utah is like Argentina apparantly, if you can get back across the border theres no Extradition of convicts. Worked for butch and sundance anyway, untill they got shot. They never sent me a fine.
2 days of hard riding, we got to the hotel and crashed.
Monday, March 3rd 2008
Pat had to get back to Salt Lake, and I had to get home so we parted ways after a good weekend of riding. I found out that Pat and I ride about the same way: we like historical stuff, we both get bored easy, and we both don’t mind alot of saddle time. The more actually, the better. It made for a great weekend, and screw the fact that he’s my brother, He’s just fun to ride with. We’re going to do more of this. Hopefully the dunn brothers section of this blog gets big.
I stopped several times to make sure shit was going well at the office, since I really should have been back to work. After that, I just opened it up and tried to make time
Theres a couple of standards i’ve always kind of measured rides by: 1) If the temp is under 90 degrees, the wind gets cooler. 2) If its over 90 degrees, the wind gets hotter, and 3) 55 degrees is the cutoff for long rides. This ride made me rethink that. 55 degrees is good for an hour, but after a few hours it starts to get colder and colder. I had every intention of getting back to St. George, but as I got closer and closer to Kingman, and weatherband radio was telling me that it was going to be 40 degrees with 30 mile an hour wind gusts, i decided to stay another night and head out in the morning. I hate riding at night anyway. I got a room at the holiday inn.
Tuesday, March 4th 2008
when the temp hit 50 outside around 9, I got the hell out of dodge. Don’t like being away from the office that long. The ride home was decent. Took the road behind vegas through Lake mead, overton and was home by around 3pm.
Randy Beckstrand is a great friend, and has been for a long time. I really owe him a lot, he got me into riding. The stories that Randy has about riding are plentiful, and quite frankly with the exception of my brother Pat, theres noone I love riding with more. It doesnt matter how many miles, or what bike he has, randy is up for a ride. Before he got married, and I got married, we had plans to ride from the 4 corners of the USA, so its rides like this I really enjoy.
Dave Grisham I’ve known since high school. He’s an intense guy, and always has something interesting to talk about. Plus he is down to ride long rides.
Randy Lives in Kanab, so Dave and I headed out about 3 from St George to meet randy. We hooked up with him in Kanab about 5 or so, and started out across the desert.
You could feel the electricity in the air, and almost taste the storm that was just miles away. I wasnt sure if we would hit it, because it looked pretty heavy. Just a few miles away from the gas station outside of Glen Canyon dam, it hit. It hit HARD. Im not exaggerating when I say it was one of the hardest cloudbursts Ive ever seen, let alone rode a 700 pound motorcycle through. Cars were pulling over it was so hard, but we kept going untill finally we couldnt see anything anymore, so we just stood by our bikes and just enjoyed the moment, because all we could do is laugh.
We were all soaked. My leathers were saturated and heavy. It was great. The nice thing about rain in an August Desert is once the rain stops, you’re air conditioned for quite a while, depending on how long the sun is out. Since it was evening, I was pretty sure it was going to be a cooler ride till we hit flag.
The rain finally broke as we waited at the Gas Station, and we headed out. It was good weather the rest of the way, and by the time we started to climb the mountain heading into flagstaff, the sun had long set and it was dark. We rode through town, and checked into our room about 9 or 10 O clock. We then got a cab, and headed out to get a beer and dinner. Really, a perfect day.
Dave noticed a noise in his bike, a bit of a grinding sound. Sounded like it was down by his primary. The next morning, we headed to the harley dealership in Bellemont to have them take a look. We hit the highway down to bellemont, which was about 15 miles away or so. We went through route 66 near parks, and stopped at the dealership. Dave took it all in stride. He rented a full dresser Ultra, and they told us theyd call us.
So we headed out, down I-40 to Williams. We stopped and ate at a outside restaurant in williams, and the town was pretty packed. Williams, everytime I go there has either some route 66 celibration, a classic car run, or a ton of motorcycles. Being the last town to be officially called Route 66 makes williams a pretty proud route 66 town. You always have to stop there.
We rode west out of williams, down 1-40 to Ash Fork. Ash fork claims to be the flagstone capital of the world, but to be honest theres not alot there. Its a tiny little town, that usually doesnt show much of a pulse to me as route 66 towns go, but Ash fork is another town that has history for me. Just outside of Ash fork is an old section of route 66 thats long been bypassed, that Robyn and I spent 2 years finding, from a picture in a magazine in 1990 that showed a bridge with a mature tree growing out of it. Everytime Im in the area, I head down and see that bridge.
At Ash fork we headed south, down Arizona Highway 89, and got gas in Chino Valley, then west to Jerome. I’d been to Jerome before, but never on a motorcycle.
Jerome is another really unique town. Its an old mining town built on a hillside, and the winding roads leading up to Jerome are great to ride. We pulled into Jerome and caught a really good, live band playing at a biker bar there. There were alot of bikers there, and it seemed like everyone was really friendly. Jerome is another ride I’d like to do again. Its worth the wide swing to hit it.
While we were in Jerome, Dave got a call from the dealership about his bike. They fixed it! It was a loose bolt in the primary drive, and was really close to coming off. If it had come off, it would have been a big deal. Like Complete rebuilt, expensive big deal. Instead, it was just 150 bucks deal. The riding god’s were with us. With that news, we needed to head back and get Daves bike. We had 3 or 4 hours.
So we mounted up, headed through sedona and north up through cottonwood canyon to get home. By this time, it had started raining again. It wasnt bad, but it was steady. The kind of rain that doesnt even bug you, because it just makes a cool ride interesting. Once you’re wet, you’re wet. Slow down, and enjoy the ride. It rained all the way back to Flagstaff, then broke and we headed west again into Bellemont to get Dave’s bike.
The dealership in Bellemont is great. One of the better dealerships, they worked hard and were extremely helpful in getting us back on the road from everyone we dealt with. MUCH better than Zion or Las vegas harley davidson, who I’d rather not give money to. Bellemont HD, you rock.
We spent the night in Flag again and crashed early. In the morning we headed back to williams on the freeway, and headed up to the air museum. Spent about an hour there, and then blew through the park, took a picture, and made time to head home.
Once the grand Canyon was out of sight, the vacation was over and we just made time to get home.
This will always be one of my favorite rides. 2 great friends, the rain, and the whole experience just made it nearly perfect. “effortless” as randy would say. I hope we can do it again.
It was a great ride
Kevins funeral was yesterday. It started around 10 and the funeral and eulogies were great. Erik Officiated, and I gotta say did a great job from start to finish. Lots of funny stories and it made me and Robyn realize how short life is. Kevin had a lot of friends.
