Thursday, January 8, 2015

Back in the Mesa groove!!

I had never heard of the Marana Regional Airport or its cafe which is located right at the main entrance from the road...  Its called the Sky Rider Cafe..    And a little research informed me that the airport is listed as the Avra Valley Airport, but was purchased by Marana in 1999..  Well anyway this is a reliever general aviation airport about 15 miles north of the Tucson airport...

The Sky Rider cafe has become popular as a flight breakfast and lunch destination for the flying community, and then the motorcycle folks heard about it...  And there went the neighborhood as us dirty ole motorcycle guys like it too....




We met at the Denny's on Chandler Boulevard and the I-10 at 10 AM and went from there straight down the interstate to Marana... It began to spit rain once we passed the Picacho Peak State Park..  And it was several miles out into the country past the little town of Marana...  But I was amazed that there were numerous lunch patrons when we arrived..  Airplane traffic was quite light as the overcast was right down against the ground...

Since it was quite cool, chili was a very popular option for the lunch order, while a group of the guys were still outside disassembling one of the trikes which had no tail lights...  Our leader is a retired motorcycle mechanic, which has come in handy on many days...  And it was only a few minutes until he found the offending blown fuse...

I often wonder if any of us are listening during these lunches, as it seems that we are all talking at the same time....  We returned on a little different road taking 87 up thru Coolidge, Az where the actual Casa Grande ruins are located...  and finally into the South end of Chandler, where we all went our separate ways...

Wednesday evening, I was the guest of a fellow blogger, Shadowmoss, who also lives in the Mesa area..  She and a neighbor were headed to the Streets of New York restaurant which is right North of my home here in the East end of Mesa..  They were after the restaurants's spaghetti diner, which they had eaten before and remembered as quite good...  Predictably, I had a gourmet hamburger but included steamed broccoli rather than french fries....  Way too healthy to catch on I'm certain..

ShadowMoss also has a blog which we have exchanged comments on for about the last year...  We finally met several weeks ago, and have become friends...  So a big thank you goes out for a fun night out at the Streets of New York.....

Retired Rod

5 comments:

  1. I did recognize ShadowMoss as an occasional commenter on my blog as well. Maybe you should consider writing 'A Biker's Guide To Fine Roadside Eateries'.

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  2. We went up to Superior for a burger on Wednesday when it was beautiful but windy. Lots of bikers on the road and at the restaurant. I personally thought they all looked cold.

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  3. That airport has an interesting history. Rumor has it that it was once (and still is?) a CIA property. But it has been a launching point for some of the first drones. In November, we made it that far before going south for our November family camp, and we put it in park for the night. Very quiet.

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  4. I used to go bore holes in the sky and have a burger for $ 500 and call it a cross country. Pilots need to burn time between ratings and burger joints make good destinations. Kinda good bikes can give them business also. Sounds like a fun day.

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  5. When we used to spend lots of time in the Tucson area we frequently drove by that airport but never ate there.

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