Ride Report Links

Just a post listing links to my previous ride reports by date:

2011
"Crazy Europeans" tour Utah on a KTM

Three Bikes from Casa Grande to Superior

2010
Honeymoon on a KTM: Phoenix to Moab

It will be updated from time to time.

Utah 2011

Mike and I just got back from an 8 day adventure in Utah on our bike. It was amazing.

If you've never been, I highly recommend it. Especially if you're going to tour on a bike, or hike.

I blogged about it here. You all should totally live vicariously through our adventures!!

Cheers!

New Orleans

We have been some traveling fools as of late. A few weeks ago we headed east to New Jersey for a friends wedding and to visit with my family. This weekend we are in New Orleans.  Mike's 20 year high school reunion. We decided to make a long weekend out of it considering I have never been here and he hasn't been here in 15 years. Of course, it rained after we landed.

We still ventured out for some fresh sea food and beignets at Cafe Dumonde.

View of Decatur Street after the rains. 

View from our Sheraton Hotel the following morning.

The previous night, we had ventured down Burbon Street. Not really my ideal Street. I'm over stupid drunken masses. But we did get a huge burger at a cafe the following day. Burbon Street looks totally different during the day.

I couldn't resist. Police department expects to be taken seriously on these things?

We love the architecture here. 

We did quite a bit of walking the first few days. Venturing around looking into shops, finding good food....

Last night we went to his reunion. Unfortunately none of the people he usually hung around with bothered to show up, but it was still a good time. I got properly drunk and danced a bit. Good times.

This morning we met up with two of his classmates and had breakfast. I had my very first street car ride.

After today's rains, we went on a ferry to Algiers, which is grossly misrepresented in the tour guides. It was one eatery and one bar. But we had dinner anyway. Headed back over to New Orleans and met up with two of Mike's highschool buddies for beignets.  It was a great night.

Caught a great sunset, had a great chat. Now to rest for tomorrow's flight.

It's been a nice weekend. We are not city people by far, but now I can check NO off my list of places to visit. Once we land in Phoenix, we'll be heading to Utah, so many more adventures are to come!

Accidental Car Show

Yesterday after work, Mike and I headed to Scottsdale to pick up a door skin for the Chevelle. In the very same parking lot, we stumbled upon one of the longest running weekly car shows. Apparently every Saturday night people bring out their cars and motorcycles. Cars ranging from the 20's to modern day suped up cars and trucks. Needless to say, it was a happy accident.

Pinstriping from a Ford F100

Mike was very much in his element. We perused the cars for several hours, stopped and grabbed some local cuisine, then perused for several more hours. As it is an open format car show, cars came and went at various times. After dinner, two 1970 Chevelle's appeared. So of course, studying ensued.

I was enjoying the reflections off the shiny paint.

Its great to see a singular love of automobiles crosses so many barriers. The owners varied as much as the spectators. It was a nice evening with my husband; an unexpected date.

HDR app Adventures

Life has been relatively adventure-less lately: shift change, nerve blocks, different days off as the Adventure Husband. A shift change has resulted in walks with the kiddos at dusk. Walks with the kiddos means playing with the various new photography apps on my iPhone. My newest obsession: HDR. HDR requires two photos of the same object. The camera chooses a low light and high light picture then stitches them together. When you attempt to do that with busy dogs you get over lap or ghost like effects.

Rommel x2 + Elly butt.

 Bones and Elly. Rommel stepped in for one of the two shots.

 My beautiful baby.

 Can't be in two places at once.

 Do four ears hear better?

I find joy in getting the "right shot". Thank the stars for digital so I can take a million pictures to get the right shot.

Superior Again: Happy Camp Trail Loop

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Last Thursday we headed out for Superior, AZ with two friends. We discovered that Superior is our new destination spot, as it has loads of dirt tracks waiting to be ridden.

Since we were all enthralled with Superior, the boys planned for a ride up yonder today. The weatherman was predicting triple digits in southern Arizona today, so we opted to leave at dawn. Mike and Jeremy met us at our place at 5AM and we headed out.

Mike on a Honda XR400, Jeremy on a Honda 650L and Mike and I two-up on the Space Ship KTM 990.



We left Casa Grande and headed towards Florence, AZ. Once in Florence we hopped on the Florence/Kelvin Highway. Its paved for a short while, then turns into grated, dirt goodness. Last week we managed to hit the road right after a rain, so the dust was down. This week, not so lucky. The road winds through valleys all the way to Kelvin. Its a pretty fantastic road.

Heading into Kelvin.



Once in Kelvin, we hit 177 towards Superior for some fuel. 177 might be paved, but its an excellent road for bikes. Plus we ride by the Ray Mine, which brings the kid out in the men of the ride.

We lead on the paved roads because we had the speedometer. The boys took lead on dirt because they were on smaller bikes. The 990 is nimble, but not as nimble as their little bikes.

From Route 60 in Superior, we turned onto the Silver King Mine Road. After a brief ride past the mine, we were out in the wild by 7AM.

Mike taking lead.



The best part of the 40 mile loop we made today was the difference in landscape between the mountains. We turned onto Happy Camp Road.



At some point we turned onto North Happy Camp Canyon Road. We went from Saguaro forests to red dirt, to white dirt, to red dirt, to evergreens, repeat. It was pretty fantastic. There were switchbacks, cows, deer, washes, rocks, etc.

My husband (bronco3738), our Space Ship KTM 900 pilot, is a suicidal animal magnet. Last week a bird kamakazied into his chest. This week a cow ran in front of us for a 1/2 mile and a white tail deer tried to t-bone us. Nothing but excitement.



The boys were great and would speed on ahead, then chill out and wait for us to catch up.



We were maybe halfway through the ride at this point. Pretty little switchbacks we just rode up. And while relaxing, they take notice of switchbacks going up a different mountain that must be explored at a later point.

The Space Ship KTM awaits for destinations unknown.



We actually made it high enough to see some small evergreen trees.

Hi Mike, nice to see you finally kick started your bike for the millionth time.



Jeremy



Now, on the other side of the mountain. (If you look closely, there is a teeeny tiny bike in the left corner)



This was a real honest-to-god mountain chain. Unlike the many "sky islands" that fill Arizona.

Right about now, we're 30 miles in, its getting hot, the dirt has turned red again, and food is calling from Superior.



Reflections are fun.



We made it back to pavement (US60) and hit Superior at 11AM. Found ourselves eating at Edward's Subs and Pizza, dreading the heat on the ride back.

40 miles of fun dirt track. Not a shabby way to spend your day off. We found ourselves on the Florence/Kelvin highway on the route back.

97 degrees and we're in Casa Grande by 1:30PM.

I had the hubby make a map for those interested. Its a highly recommended ride.



No worries Superior, we'll be back.

3 bikes: Casa Grande to Superior

A few weeks ago, a buddy from work asked us to go for a ride. A few weeks ago, my parents were in town; last week, we went camping for our anniversary. So we pushed the ride back to today. Four of us saddled up at 7AM on our respective bikes (Mike and I 2 up) and headed out towards Florence. From Florence we headed down the Florence/Kelvin highway - a mostly unpaved, but improved dirt road.

We couldn't have picked a better day. It rained a bit last night, so the dust was down. For the majority of the ride it was in the 60's. Far better than the 90's - summer is upon Arizona.

This shot was an accident, but I liked it. :)

 Meet the boys - Mike and Jeremy. Mike led most of the way. My Mike said it was akin to riding with street bike guys with how quickly they sped away from stop signs and such.

From 79, we turned onto Cochran Road to head out towards the river. Right at the turn off was a field of boulders. Arizona is like that: random geologic phenomena sporadically placed throughout the state. I don't quite understand the need to spray paint the rocks though, ruins the view.

After a brief stop for photos and a pee, we continued down towards the river.

 The scenery was amazing. I tend to forget how beautiful Arizona can be living in Casa Grande. We are maybe 45 minutes from home, dipping in and out of valleys, scanning the mountainous horizon.

Onward to water!

Hooray for helmet hair! The river wasn't very deep, but we weren't going to tempt fate and try to cross. We hung out for a bit, chatted and relaxed.

Jeremy's bike had the smallest tank, so we opted to hop back on Cochran Road and head back to the Florence/Kelvin highway. Superior sounded like a great place for fuel and lunch.

I'm fairly certain that the boys were secretly racing. But it was a fantastic road - 20 or so miles of grated roads through the mountains.

After a lunch of chili burgers (yes they were as good as they sound) at the Porter Cafe in Superior, the boys decided that they had to take the Florence/Kelvin Highway back. But first we needed to stop and see the Ray Mine. 

The Ray Mine, outside of Superior, AZ. I'm pretty sure Superior only exists because this mine does. 

Three bikes and a mine. 

I was just along the ride as the photographer. 

Just as we turned onto the Florence/Kelvin Highway, Mike was smacked in the chest by a bird. Thankfully we weren't at speed yet or it would've hurt more.

It was a pretty great way to spend our morning. Although all four of us are on mids, so its more of an evening ride for us. Mike and Mike were already pointing out turn offs that needing exploration the next go around, so I'm sure there will be many more rides this summer.

160 miles, 223 pictures, and back before 2PM.