Jerome, AZ (May 26) -

We left Flagstaff and headed down 89A thru Oak Creek Canyon, one of the recommended rides on this trip. We had planned to do this trip the year before but were unable because of my surgery. That actually worked out to be an advantage.

As people would come into C&S and talk to me, they would usually ask "Have any trips planned?" And I would tell them yes and the direction we were going. Quite often the reply would be "Hey, while you are there, you have to see this!" So we had a lot of input from people who had ridden this way before as to where we should ride and what we should see. We did our best to add as many places to the list as possible. (Don’t worry, we didn’t see it all, and already have a good list going for next time!)

Oak Creek Canyon was very beautiful. It was a gently winding road through beautiful wooded mountains. We eventually came into Sedona, nice little town. Oak Creek Canyon - Pine forests of the White Mountains We pulled into a gas station to get some gas. As we parked at the pumps, we were distracted by two beautiful women in bikinis.

Seems they were having trouble with their van. We overheard the garage man say they needed a new radiator. From the sound of the conversation, it would take two days to get the parts they needed. They looked so helpless that I was just about to suggest that someone should offer to give them a ride, if needed, to find some place to stay. The thought had just entered my mind when they whipped out cell phones. A quick call to a relative to advise them the van would be down awhile. Then another quick call and they had arranged for a rental car. Ah, chivalry is not dead, it is just not needed if you have a cell phone!

We topped off the bikes and had a quick discussion of the next plan. We were going to ride to Jerome, an old mining town. But before we left Sedona, Ron and Jim wanted to stop at the Harley dealer for a t-shirt. When we asked where the dealer was, we received the comment, "Which one?" That happens a lot. Many people think that every place that works on Harleys or custom bikes is a real "Harley Dealership." I seemed that there were three "shops" and all were on this road so we would go by all of them on the way out.

Ok, so now we needed to make a left turn and head west. We were in a bad place. You know the kind. You are waiting to pull out but you are too close to the traffic light on the corner to take advantage of the breaks in traffic. By the time oncoming traffic had slowed, cars were backed up in front of us blocking our way out. We waited through many light changes, (a few minutes I’m sure but it seemed like at least half an hour) before we got a break in traffic. Just as Ron and Jim started to pull out, the girl in the bikini walks by on my right. I hear their bikes accelerating, look back, and…… "whoops" here come the cars again. I pull the clutch back in from the edge of engagement and slump back on the seat. "Dummy" I tell myself. Oh well, not a problem right?
Pleasant Roadways
Elevation is about 6,300 feet, often straight up and straight down

Lonely Ride - Yes!
I kept hoping to find my friends Just catch up with them at the Harley dealer! It was another ten minutes before I got another break in the traffic and headed west. "Let’s see, there are three shops in this direction, the Harley sign should be easy to see." I rode a while before I spotted a custom bike shop on the left but it looks closed, permanently. Soon another one appeared, but this one is the Yamaha dealership. I continue looking but in a few minutes I am out of town. No Harley shop! I turn around and make a quick cruise back the way I had come, Still nothing. I retrace my route again, and again I find myself out of town and no Harley shop. (Seems it was on the other side of the street from the closed custom shop. I was looking the wrong way at the wrong time.) I pull over and decide to wait for Ron and Jim to finish and catch up.

After about ten minutes of sitting there in the hot sun, (it’s about 90 with no shade) and I think maybe this is not the best plan. Better to be moving in this hot sun so I continue on towards our next stop. A few miles down the road, and I come to Cottonwood. It’s getting near lunchtime, so I pull into a Burger King. I park the bike up by the road so they can’t miss it, and go inside. Ron is always telling me that my BMW is day glow green, so there’s no way they can come by here and not spot the bike, right? I order my lunch and take it out onto the terrace to eat. I relax for a few minutes and enjoy the shade. I can see most of the road from here and I was inside only a little while. I continue watching for over half and hour and still no bikes! So I decide to continue on towards Jerome and hope to find them there.

Jerome is a very unique place. Once a mining town, it is built into the side of a mountain. It is mostly populated with artists and gift shops now, but there are still many closed and abandoned buildings. It is definitely worth seeing. Wow, these roads really go Up and Down! The roads are extremely narrow and steep heading up the side of the mountain toward town. As I came into town, there were many abandoned buildings along the way. I wanted to stop and get some pictures but there was no place to park the bike! Desolate-Beautiful
Alone or in a group...

The edges of the road were very narrow, and dropped away immediately. There was just no place I could park my bike without it tipping over unless I parked it on the road, so I continued on into town. When you get into the town proper, it is about two or three blocks long and a block wide with one street running around it. I took a slow cruse through town, looking around and keeping an eye out for Ron and Jim. Not seeing them, I slowly rode out of town and decided to back track until I found them. Now, it was bad enough coming up this mountain, but now I had to go down again. Why is it that going down a mountain is always more scary than going up? I soon reached the bottom, white knuckles and all, and started to accelerate back toward Cottonwood. Looking in my mirror, I see this blue Harley dresser quickly catching up with me. It was Ron. We soon come to a place where we could pull over and soon Jim also caught up. We shared a few "Where were you!" remarks from all of us. It was hard to believe but as small as Jerome was, we missed each other going around opposite sides of the town square. We laughed and decided to head back to Cottonwood where we can jump onto 260 East.

We were originally going to ride down to Tucson where Mickey lived, but since he was back in Flagstaff with his girlfriend’s relatives, we decided to forego that part of the trip and head back across Arizona towards Payson and Show Low. This part of Arizona seems to be mostly wooded, mountainous country unlike to rocky country of Utah. Wow! We have deer crossing signs, but these people have elk crossings signs. And they mean it, as there were several dead elk on side of road! Certainly would not want to hit one of those! We begin to meet heavier traffic, the first of our trip. It also seems there are a lot of jerks on road in hurrying home from their holiday.

We soon came into Payson, and decided to stop making this a short day. We visited an interesting antique place. They had a lot of western things (of course!) We got a room at a motel with a pool. I couldn’t find my bathing suit. I must have left it hanging to dry at the last motel, so I had to buy a new one. We enjoyed a swim in the pool (people sure look funny at you when you walk in wearing a biker vest, boots, and a bathing suit.) We kept running back and forth while trying to get our laundry done. We had way too much for the small washer and dryer at the hotel. Of course we overloaded the dryer with all of our jeans and shirts at once.

When it became apparent that this was going to take all night, we asked the desk clerk, a very nice lady, if there was a Laundromat nearby. She said she would dry our clothes in the big dryer, but it wasn’t working. Then she offered to finish it up for us since she would be up all night anyway. We thanked her and gave her money for the dryer and a big tip for her help.

Got up the next morning and our clothes were all dry and hanging up on the rack. Would have been a great deal except that some Harley were shirts missing. They weren’t her size but I hope she enjoyed wearing them!

-LC

Learn more -

Fool Hollow Lake Recreation Area
Tonto Natural Bridge State Park

Travel tip: Much of the area around Show Low was devasted by massive forest fires in the late summer of 2003. You may want to call ahead, or check Chamber of Commerce websites, for information about how this has affected scenic routes.