Colorado Cruiser: Trip to Arizona with Koren, Rex, and family

In December of 2007, my daughter asked if there was some way we could help them get to Arizona over the New Year. Her best friend was going to get married, but since Koren and Rex just bought a house in July, they are kind of strapped for cash. I looked out the window at snow on the ground, looked at my poor lonely motorcycle in the garage, and hatched a wonderfully marvelous plan.

We could take our minivan to Arizona, towing my motorcycle.

So on Saturday, January 28th, 2007 at 4:00am, I got up and hitched the motorcycle to the van, then drove to Koren and Rex's and loaded them and their luggage. We left before 6:00 on our 13 hour drive with Beckham who was just over 1 year old, and Sydnee was just over 4. The drive really wasn't bad at all. Koren sat back with the kids most of the way and seemed to keep them happy and laughing. Oh, and the DVD player helped a bit too. (Listened to "GO DIEGO GO" about 10 times). We arrived by 7:30pm

On Sunday I attended the Sunny Mesa Ward for church. That's where we lived before moving to Colorado Springs. I saw lots of old friends.... well friends who we knew back then but who aren't neccessarily old, but some are, but... well nevermind.

Sunday evening we arranged to meet Nannette's parents for dinner. Someone recommended Amazing Jake's as a good place to eat and take kids, so we met them there. We ate pizza, potatos, soup, salad, and ice cream till our stomachs were bulging. Then we took the kids to some of the play areas and to ride a few of the rides.

Monday I spent working, so there's nothing interesting to see. Monday night (New Years Eve) I rode to Tolleson and took my mother and her sister (Aunt Val) to dinner and to see the new National Treasure Movie. We stopped in at my nephew Cardon's home to see my Brother Dave and all his kids. They were playing the Family Fued game, and Loaded Question. I think I was too young to be there.

It was fun to hear all the excuses and see all the finger pointing when we asked who was going to have the next grand child.

On New Year's morning, I went for a motorcycle ride with a cousin's husband. Aunt Val said her son in law John was a rider and loved getting out. So he came over and we headed for South Mountain Park. We took baseline all the was in to Central Ave, then turned south.

I can't believe in all the years I lived there, I had never driven to the top of South Mountain. The ride was short but had lots of tists and turns. The wind was also blowing pretty hard, but the temps were in the mid 60s, and the sun was shining. We got to the top and took some pictures and hiked around a bit.

After we rode down, we thought about getting some lunch but we weren't sure what would be open on New Years day, so we settled for the first thing we saw that was open, an A&W/KFC.

After lunch I headed back towards Mesa to see a good friend named John (another one). We chatted for a while then decided to take a ride out the Apache trail to Tortilla flats. I used to drive that road about 20 times a summer with or boat, but I haven't ridden it since I got the motorcycle.

John's son David came with us, and because my bike has a passenger backrest, he rode with me. He even said my music was ok. We passed about 100 other motorcycles that were already heading back. I guess Tortilla flats is a very popular destination in the winter. But I'd never gone up there except in the summer with the boat.

We stopped for pictures once on the way, and to look at the empty lake. They have the water about 3/4 drained to work on the dam. There were allot of people out looking for lost things, and some with metal detectors. I'm sure there are a few hundred car keys lost in that lake.

We went to the restauraunt for something to eat. They have a tradition there of people signing dollar bills and stapling them to the wall. There were allot of bills everywhere. John being an engineer, he had to make an estimation of how much money there was, and after doing a few calculations, he figured it to be between 10 and 20 thousand dollars.

David and I each got a bowl of "kick'ass'chilli", and John got the barley soup. There was a bell on top of a pole near our table, will a string that ran into the kitchen. Whenever someone's order was ready, they'd pull that string and the bell would ring.

We started our ride home with still more wind blowing, but not very cold. It was dark by the time we got back.

Wednesday morning I met up with another friend named John (a 3rd one). We rode East out the Superstition Freeway, then followed the highway up into the mountains. There was allot of construction on the road as we got up into the hills. They're widening the road to a divided highway which will make the drive to Superior and Globe MUCH nicer. We stopped in the town of Superior for breakfast. While we were eating, I realized that I'd gotten dressed so fast (my alarm didn't go off) that I'd left my wallet. John gave me one of those "sure you did" looks and agreed to pay for my breakfast.

This John is the one who got me riding motorcycles, and who I rode through Utah with last summer. We had a nice breakfast and chatted about other possible rides we could do this year.

After breakfast we went outside to see the world's smallest museum. They had a large sculpture of old tires which reminded me of the movie Cars.

Beckham enjoying pizza at Amazing Jake's