Saturday, Feb 1st Ride

Saturday's ride will be to Petro near Eloy. See you there.

Duane

Ride to Roosevelt Lake on January 22

The dampness of the fog was palpable as 16 bikes left the Chevron this morning for Roosevelt lake. As we got onto the 60, the scene I had of us unrolled like a beautiful movie.  Despite the warnings, visibility was adequate, and by Picketpost Mountain the fog had risen to cover the mountaintops and occasional spots of sunshine appeared.  Road construction is ever with us, and there were several slow spots and flaggers, especially around the bridge where widening is being done to apparently build a new one beside the old.  Roosevelt Lake was glittering in the sun, and we learned from Vern that it is 74% of capacity.

Leader Duane came to give announcements and dispatch the groups .  Gary Knudsen with Derek at the tail led the first group going on the 87 to Butcher Hook restaurant.  Ken LaMott led the others thru the delays on the 60 to Ma's Kitchen, well known favorites.  Both places were well prepared and sharing a meal and conversation is real pleasure.

Cones in the road reminded us of an accident at least 10 years ago with Blue as our leader in that same  area where rider Wayne Knop went down hard, was taken by helicopter right from the road to emergency care for weeks. Wayne made a remarkable recovery, and is still enjoying GV. 

Today's ride Was 175 miles in 3hours 38 minutes riding time at average 48.5 mph. 

Phil

Saturdays ride will be to Harold's Cave Creek Corral in Cave Creek. If anyone is interested, they can proceed further to Bartlett Lake on their own.

There will be a Road Captains meeting on Thursday, Jan 30, at 4 PM in the Pima Room.

Duane

Gila Bend Ride - and beyond

We should have had an indication of things to come when we arrived at the station. We were greeted with 2 other groups already there, and another large group soon arrived. We separated into our group, where I announced that Al Negen was still in the hospital. Also clarified that it is Peter, not Joanne Vander Werff that is having open heart surgery the end of January. We wish then both the best. We left with 11 bikes and 18 riders, led by Bob & Barb Shinnick, with yours truly on the tail. As we headed to Maricopa, we encountered 2 other groups heading in the same direction, one ahead of us and one behind. They also made the turn onto the 238 Hwy toward Gila Bend. As we approached the Space Age restaurant, we saw the parking lot was full, with well over 100 motorcycles! It seems every other rider had the same destination as us in mind, since it was such a nice day! I had called ahead for reservations, but the restaurant was packed! We decided it would be too long a wait, and decided to head to the Cracker Barrel at Casa Grande instead. So we headed out on the 8 and then the 84 hwys, passing by the Red River cattle yards, with 1000's of cattle in the yards. We then passed thru Stansfield, and arrived at the Cracker Barrel. They were busy also, and had to wait more than 30 minutes for a table! It took a while to get our food, as by that time it was 1:30. So most of us opted for lunch instead of breakfast. We then stopped for fuel, and headed back thru Coolidge. We arrived back at the park at 3:45, with 210 miles ridden, after a long day.

Sorry, no pictures, as our photographer was sick.

I want to thank Garry & Anne Hewitt and Bob & Barb Shinnick for graciously volunteering to host our annual picnic in March!

Wednesday's planned destination is Ma's Kitchen/Butcher Hook, weather permitting.

Duane