Memory Lane

June 15.

I picked Mike up late last night and the Phoenix Sky Harbour Airport and brought him to the hotel on the back of my bike.  He would be picking up his new rental machine in the morning.  Even at midnight, it was still in the 80's F and Mike immediately knew his full leather jacket would just be going for the ride on this trip in the saddle bags.  He would definitely need something lighter weight for this summer weather in Phoenix and beyond.

Mike's arrival in Phoenix. 

 Up bright and early this morning, we set off to pickup his rental bike in Scottsdale.

Mike's a little excited as we ride over to pickup his rental bike

Mike's new machine.  Pretty...

I saw this truck while Mike's paperwork was getting
organized.  Is there no end to Hatch's growth?

Mandatory stop / photo of the day

Back at the hotel, two bikes loaded up and ready to ride.
Notice the two weeks of bug buildup on my fairing.  Gross!

I met Mike and got to know him almost 20 years ago commissioning machinery in copper refineries.  I handled the mechanical and hydraulics while Mike handled the electrical and control automation.  As it happened we spent the most time together on a site in Miami, Arizona, about 80 miles east of Phoenix.

Today, we would be ultimately headed for Las Cruces, New Mexico but we had our route planned so that we would travel via the "tri-city" Miami/Claypool/Globe area and allow a little trip down memory lane.

Heading out of Phoenix.  Notice all the Saguaro
cacti everywhere in the desert!

Some great roads between Superior and Miami that
I didn't appreciate at the time I worked here!

We decided to stop for lunch, at one of our old favourites.  It has a big long spanish name, but everyone in town  just calls it the "Burger House".

They have a new sign since we were here 18 years ago.  Food is still the same!

Burger House Red Chili Burro... I've waited a long time to see you again

After lunch we continued through town to see some old sights, and if they were still here after 18 years!

The entrance to the plant where in 1994 Mike and I started up the copper
refinery anode equipment.  It used to be called Cyprus Miami back then.

The Two Lane Saloon we used to drink $1 drafts in.
What a dump (but it was always a dump).

Spent several months living in this hotel in Globe
when it was brand new and called the "Cloud 9".

 After leaving Globe we headed out towards Safford, AZ.  Along the way there was a sign for Coolidge Dam and was a 13 mile detour, so we decided to take it and check it out.  The water levels were extremely low for anything to be functioning, and it looked like it had not been functioning for many years.  An impressive structure nonetheless!

Roadway enters the dam.  Notice the stone detail.

View from the dam

View the other way

More detail.  They don't build them like this anymore!

 After our detour to Coolidge, we made our way back to the highway and continue toward Safford.  The whole way, the thermometer was reading over 110F.  Hourly Powerade stops!

A fine example of a Saguaro.  They can be huge.
If you've never seen them first hand, they can grow as big as telephone poles.

After passing through Safford, the roads were interesting and curvy up and over the mountains.  But unfortunately that would be the last piece of interesting road we would see for the day as it would turn to interstate droning on a 75 mph limit.

Reached New Mexico.

The interstate droning continued for another couple hours until we arrived in Las Cruces.  My biggest day yet at 650km. We'll have a few more of these over the course of the next four days until we rendez-vous with Scott at Deals Gap on the 19th.

Looking forward to tomorrow with a couple of fromage stops planned!