Bike Night

Bike night is held every first Friday of the month in downtown Mesa, Az.  They block off the streets on Main for two blocks, allowing only motorcycles in a Sturgis like tour of Main Street.  Vendors are set up hawking many wares..

Live music is set up in the streets for roped in Beer Gardens.  You tube is short.... LOL

Well OK for the local guys...

Probably 5,000 bikes.  All of them moving or parked along the street..  Even more were in the lots behind the buildings, where I parked as well.  I did drive up and down the street for a couple of passes, but didn't find anyone from the Goldwing club.

My shaky arms can't hold anything still, so long exposure times ruin any pictures I try to take.

They installed light rail thru the center of Mesa that comes from Phoenix thru Tempe..  They try to rope off the crowd with all the cones along the road..  Crossing guards are at all the cross walks and in the center of every block.  The electric trains make very little noise..  Only a couple of blocks farther is the end of the track.

There were so many cool bikes on display, but for my friend and riding partner Al, I took a picture of a scooter like his that was parked along the parade route...

Retired Rod

Up a Mountain and Broken Laptop

I haven't completely disappeared..  but my laptop went South on me....  Its a Dell and a fairly nice one but....  It didn't survive the trip to Arizona..  It won't boot up..  Looks like a hard drive crash...  And my software product code is somewhere back in Kansas...

I could go purchase a new hard drive but then I would have to buy another copy of windows 10...  That seems like money that doesn't need to be spent...   So I have been living with just this tablet computer...  It has nothing on it that didn't come with it..  Its a microsoft surface with 128 Gig.  Nice enough, but not as a production computer with out another backup machine..

I did get picasa downloaded and edited the header picture, but it is one I downloaded from the group photographer that went with us on our first ride up Mt Lemmon North of Tucson..  That went up to 9,000 feet and it was really cold up there...  I wasn't dressed for that and about froze..

That turned out to be a 325 mile day and I got home after dark...  Biscuit was really mad at me but didn't mess in the house...  It took her about a day to quit scolding me....

The following week we rode to Gila Bend on I 8 most of the way to Yuma...  The photographer wasn't along, so I have no photographic evidence..  Somehow my helmet wifi seems to run my phone down when its connected up...  I never have solved this problem..   Its been that way for a long time..

So that kills the phone for taking pictures, or using the maps feature to find my way home..  But after all these year coming to Arizona, I don't often get lost...  Well, except when we were in the North end of Tucson...

About half way down Mt Lemmon, there is a rest stop where the viewing point is built out over the mountain valley.  It makes kind of a dramatic picture...

I'll bet its kind of cold up there today, as it is only 63 degrees here in Mesa and the sun keeps going under the dramatic looking cloud cover..  It more than likely snowed up on the mountain..  The man in the Mt Lemmon restaurant was planning on closing for the season when we were there and that was almost three weeks ago..

I will have to determine if I can hook a wire from my camera to this tablet and download photos, as it will be Christmas before I can go find my product code  to try and fix the laptop...

Retired Rod

On into Mesa

As some of you may have wondered, I was planning on doing the three 400 mile days on the way down here arriving on Sunday night...  But the weather here in Phoenix was looking questionable for that Sunday night arrival...

That is what caused me to hold up in Holbrook at about 2 in the afternoon..  And it turned out that that was a wise decision.  They had a rain and wind event that afternoon and evening here..  I didn't need any part of that...

I was up early on Monday looking at the weather report, and they were forecasting more of the same for the end of Monday as well..  But it is only about three and a half hours from Holbrook, so that was the plan.. Get a move on..!

I had a quick breakfast and cleaned up the dishes and mopped the floor on the inside..  Then showered and went out to do the tanks and hoses..  I was on the road by 10 AM..  I had filled the diesel tank the day before so I headed right out to the South..

I go thru Heber and then Payson on the small roads as that saves major miles..  But you have the curvy mountain roads..  Your already at 5,000 feet in altitude at Holbrook, so you really don't notice the climb up over the rim.  But the trees become Ponderosa Pines, and stand as tall as in the Colorado mountains..  Once over the edge at 7,600 feet, its right down the hill on 6 to 8 % grades until you reach Payson at 5,000 again.

From there it is a yo yo of up and down hills and curves..   When you reach the town of Rye, your down to 3,000, but that's a ruse as you have to climb back over 4 again before descending toward the valley..  I makes the motorhome grunt and growl on those long hills.  You wear out from all the curves and downshifting as well.

The sky got growly too as the forecast of rain caused those pesky sprinkles that pass for a rainy day here in the desert.. I arrived before 2 PM local time.  This year nothing was broken during the trip, unlike other years..

I spent the rest of the day unloading....  in and out, over and over..  It was well after dark in the storage lot as I unhooked the Jeep..  Sleep came easy..........

Retired Rod

The latest doings and a road trip.

As I sit here, and read that I am missing in action, I realize that it has been  a while since I have posted a blog...  Life was boring but very busy this last couple of weeks....  Each fall, I start off changing oil in most of the toys for the winter...

So adding a collector car only added to that work..  It wouldn't be bad, but I don't know exactly what year the engine is in the old chevy...  We guessed about 2003 but the oil filter from that erra didn't fit..  Turns out a modern day filter from 2007 and newer screws right on..  I need to find the engine number on the block but don't know where to look..  The engine is so jammed into the old frame and fenders, it would be hard to see as well..

The motorhome was taken to Freightliner for its annual service.  That's expensive but it is next to impossible to service at my city lot home..  Not to mention the 4 gallons of used oil that come gushing out when you pull the plug..

I also hired the pontoon boat serviced, while we were in Huntsville, Alabama..  They did a tune up at the same time..  That was just in time for the labor day weekend..  It was much needed, as the engine was running sick..

I lost track, but I think everything was serviced...  Oh and the underground sprinkler system needed blown out.  But I had to wait for the Google fiber folks to fill in all the holes they dug putting in their new system..  I washed with the pressure washer in my driveway for the longest time to get rid of the mud..  They pieced the sod back together in my front yard... Are we having fun yet?

Well, anyway during all of this, I parked the MH in the driveway and began loading stuff for Arizona..  That was when I decided that the axles in the 48 chevy needed serious service..  The shop that sold me the car couldn't hear what I was complaining about, until we got going about 50 mph and turned off the engine and coasted in neutral..   Then it stood out plainly..  Of course I bought the car as is..  Since it is pieced together from used parts..

As it turned out, the bearings in the back wheels had ruined the axles..  And they had already had spacers put into them once before..  So I got to buy all new parts..  Ouch..

Once that car was back in storage and the clothes and stuff were in the rv, I left the house..  Enough with all this fun..      I wasn't overly prepared, and had fun driving across brown old Kansas thinking about all the stuff I should have  brought along.  I stopped at Wal mart in Emporia, KS to pick up the first cart full..  I had let the groceries run way down in order to not have so much to load.

Friday night was spent at Western Star RV park in Liberal, Ks. 390 miles.  Last night was at American RV in Albuquerque, 380 miles and tonight I am at the KOA in Holbrook, Az.  240 miles.  All three of these parks have been jammed with travelers..  The lady in Albuquerque, scolded me for no reservations, and put me on the very front corner of the lot.  That was about 100 feet from I 40 interstate..  I ran the fan in the AC, and left the TV on to try and cover up the noise, but was awake at 5 AM.  The time change made that an hour earlier, so it was 6 back home..

Its less than 200 miles from this park to my home in Mesa, and its down hill most of the way..  I'm hopeful to make it in the morning..  I haven't changed my watch to Arizona time yet either... One day at a time..

Retired Rod