Rick and Denise / Toronto Canada
What a great time! To think it started with Denise suggesting that before we buy a touring bike maybe we should try it first; just to see if this is something we’d like to do. I should say that Denise, my wife, was a real trooper throughout the trip…she’s only ridden as a passenger a couple of times and never for longer than an hour or two…this was going to be an adventure.
So last October after doing a bit of surfing one Friday night I sent an email to Monica through the AZRide.com website about a Goldwing rental and a southern Arizona tour. What a pleasant surprise to get a phone call from Monica the following morning to talk about a possible trip.
Since this was my trip, my wife indulging me I mean, the planning and research fell to me. All in all, we had a great time. We really enjoyed ourselves, saw lots of sights, met some interesting and very nice people on the trip, put just over 1,000 miles on a Goldwing, and most importantly, got away from the cold weather in Canada.
The only thing that I should have done was to do a bit more planning around what we wanted to see. There’s just so much to see and do, with the sun going down around 5:30 in the afternoon, we simply ran out of time….I guess we’ll just have to go back again!
We flew into Phoenix on the Tuesday and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Scottsdale. Thanks to Monica we got a good rate on the room. It was literally a 5 minute walk to get the bike and about 15 minutes up to Old Town Scottsdale
http://www.scottsdaledowntown.com/. Speaking of which that night we went to the Tortilla Factory
http://www.oldtowntortillafactory.com/ for dinner. Good Mexican food and fantastic Margaritas served in their own shakers. Denise and I really liked their Platinum Margaritas.
The first day (a Wednesday), on the bike we ran out to Tortilla Flat (
http://tortillaflataz.com/). We got there just before noon after a ride though Scottsdale out to Apache Junction, (we planned to avoid the major interstates and highways). The Apache Trail is a great twisty road to get used to the bike, (slow curves all along the road).
We arrived at Tortilla Flat and shared a bullrider burger on the BBQ patio and listened to the band playing there. Great music, Denise said she would have been happy staying there. After the band played a request for us, (Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly), and we had some prickly pear ice cream we were back on the road heading to Tucson.
We came into Tucson from the north along 77, (another great road for riding by the way), and in retrospect, we should have stayed at a hotel in that area near the Tucson Mall, rather than the east end of the city. While we were close to where we were planning to go the following day, we were in more of a business / light industrial area so there weren’t a lot of restaurants around within walking distance.
Denise had a great time the first day…first time on a touring bike…that night she asked, are we going to ride on any more of those “roads with the little twisty curves?”. It’s all about the little twisty curves!
First thing day 2, just a short ride from the hotel, was the Pima Air Museum
http://www.pimaair.org/. We planned to be there as soon as it opened…we caught the first tour to the “Boneyard” over at the
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, followed by the tour at the Museum. If you have any interests in aviation, this is a must see. Seriously, miles and miles of aircraft.
We headed over toward the Colossal Cave Mountain Park
http://www.colossalcave.com/welcome.html, our only other major stop for the day, (there was 12 inches of snow up on Mount Lemmon apparently, since we had come to Arizona to get away from that, we decided to pass this time). On the way we stopped at Magpie Pizza on Houghton
http://www.magpiespizza.com/ for a custom slice or two for a late lunch, a great place for pizza.
On the way to the Cave we rode through the Saguaro National Park
http://www.nps.gov/sagu/index.htm …very different from the National Parks at home in Canada, but beautiful…Denise thought it was the best part of the day.
The road up to the Cave is another nice bike route, unfortunately we didn’t time things well and decided to pass on the tour of the cave…we would have finished after 5 then the ride back in the dark…which we intentionally were planning to avoid, (dark unfamiliar roads, with cattle and other desert creatures walking across it…rented bike, yeah good idea).
Day 3 out of Tucson, while we planned to finish up at Bisbee, south east of Tucson, we started off heading west. The San Xavier del Bac Mission
http://www.sanxaviermission.org/ was a highlight for us. It’s peaceful and stunningly white against the blue Arizona sky. The nave and frescos in the Mission are worth taking the time to admire.
On the way to Bisbee after lunch we found ourselves back in the wild, wild west. Tombstone Arizona,
http://www.cityoftombstone.com/ (until this trip I don’t think I ever thought that the town really existed), was a treat. The town has gone out of it’s way to make this a must see tourist stop. It’s like stepping back in time.
I spent time chatting with a town Councilman who had ridden into town on “Tanya” his mule, while Denise did a bit of shopping. My souvenir for the trip is a new leather belt and cowboy buckle that I bought in Tombstone; site of the famous gunfight at the OK Corral….how cool is that?
We got to Bisbee
http://www.discoverbisbee.com/ in good time. Really the ride was pleasant, scenic and really not that hard on us. On the way into Bisbee, you go through a tunnel; the town is on the other side. It was like taking a blindfold off.
We planned to stay at America’s Best Value Inn on 92, just outside of town and had a nice dinner at a little spot right beside the Inn called the Pizza House, 1422 W Highway 92, Bisbee, AZ 85603. Spaghetti, salad, beer and tunes on the jukebox before turning in for the night.
If we were to do it again, or if we’re ever in that part of the world in the future, I think I would have preferred to stay at a bed and breakfast in the town, that way we could have enjoyed a bit more of the history of the town and done a bit of shopping.
The morning of day 4, we got up, gassed the bike and went into Bisbee for breakfast. If you get the chance you must go to the Bisbee Breakfast Club
http://www.bisbeebreakfastclub.com/. Good food, good service and great prices, very popular too it seems. The place was busy when we got there and more folks kept coming.
Leaving Bisbee we went up along 80, 191 and 181 to the Chiricahua National Monument
http://www.nps.gov/chir/index.htm.
This is another must see with both camping and hiking trails to explore. If we had more time we would have liked to wander around a bit more. The rock features in the area are something to see. Follow the scenic road into the park for breathtaking views…watch for fallen rocks and the snow here and there.
From Chiricahua we were heading over to Sonoita for the night. We backtracked a bit because we were trying to stay off of the interstate.
Heading to Sonoita we headed back through Tombstone for a quick snack then we went on. We stayed at the Sonoita Inn
http://www.sonoitainn.com/. I don’t think you could ask for a nicer and more comfortable place to stay.
For dinner we went next door to the Steak Out Restaurant & Saloon
http://www.sonoitainn.com/steak_out_restaurant.html. I don’t think I have ever had a better steak in my life. Mesquite grilled steaks that are huge and simply melt in your mouth, listening to a live band. If you’re staying in Tucson, go to Sonoita for dinner at the Steak Out Restaurant, you will not be disappointed. Did you know that Arizona had a wine district?…Sonoita is just north of it.
Day 5 was the longest day riding, the plan being to spend the night in Ajo
http://www.ajochamber.com/index.html. We put about 300 miles on the bike that day by the end of it at the same time we were watching the weather as we had heard that there were a series of storms coming in across from the Pacific and were expected to generate a couple of days of heavy rain in the southern part of the state, (snow up north). The WX feature on the Wing is very cool by the way, it was the first time I used anything like that in earnest.
We headed off down 82 towards Nogales, then up I-19 past Tubac to Amando. We had decided to not stop in Tubac
http://tubacarizona.com/ the night before, but going by it, Denise commented on how cute the town looked from the highway. So now we do regret not stopping in for a while. On the other hand, how much art could you put in a saddlebag on a Wing?
The road between Amando and Arivaca is a great one for a bike. Twists turns and hills to climb. It seemed like it wasn’t a secret either. When we stopped at the Gadsden Coffee shop,
http://www.gadsdencoffee.com/ just east of the town of Arivaca, (watch for it coming from the east or you’ll go past it before you see the sign), there were a number of bikes there along with a few other folks enjoying a really great cup of coffee…I wonder if you can get Gadsden roast here in the Great White North?
On the way to Ajo, we stopped on 86 at 386 and debated riding up to the Kitt Peak Observatory
http://www.noao.edu/outreach/kpoutreach.html. What I haven’t mentioned so far is that it was a little bit cool in the morning and with a bit of cloudiness it was around 60F midday…a bit cooler than what we were hoping for but still nice for riding. So here we were looking at a climb up to about 6,800 feet from the elevation of the road we were on…around 3,200 feet. Warmth being the better part of valor, and there being a bit of rain falling up there, we went on to Ajo,
http://www.ajochamber.com/index.html, though it would have been nice to see the Observatory.
We made Ajo in good time, pretty close to 3:00 in the afternoon. Being a Sunday though, most things were closed and if we had been staying in town perhaps we would have stayed the night as planned, but we decided to press on to Gila Bend,
http://www.gilabendaz.org/, about an hour up the road, to see what kind of place we might find to spend the night.
We ended up staying at the Best Western Space Lodge,
http://www.bestwesternspaceagelodge.com/index.html, just on the main road through Gila Bend. The room came with complementary breakfast with the accommodation and a restaurant right beside the motel. First thing I said walking in for diner was “Beam me up Scotty”…couldn’t help it...check out the link.
The rain was definitely on the way for the following morning, day 6…the plan was to hit the road as soon as we could in the morning …we were hoping to catch a break between the showers and do a speed run directly up to Scottsdale, cutting our day short by a few hours…we weren’t too happy with the idea of cold and wet for the last few hours. As it turned out we were lucky, the rain holding off and made it back to Scottsdale to drop off the bike and checking in a little after noon on our last day.
Showers at the Holiday Inn, the afternoon at the Scottsdale Fashion Square and dinner at the Italian Grotto
http://www.locallifedesign.com/clients/italiangrotto/index.htm was a perfect way to end the trip.
It was an adventure, and not the type of holiday we had ever done before…certainly Denise really took a chance on this one, but it all worked out well.
My sincere thanks to everyone who made the trip special for us, whether you realized it or not; the waitress at the Tortilla Factory, the lady at the Sonoita Inn, the Border Patrol personnel we chatted with that helped to make you feel like you were never alone in the middle of the desert miles from nowhere, the Councilor in Tombstone and his mule Tanya, the shopkeeper who helped me find my new belt there, the Vietnam war vet now Guide at the Pima Air Museum with 35,000 hours of flight experience, that Harley rider at the gas station with the excellent advice I’ll never forget, the couple driving through to San Diego in their Thunderbird convertible, Todd and his advice on Goldwings and customizing them, the waiter at the Italian Grotto and all of the other bike riders we saw on the road who waved, thanks.
A special note to Monica and Gabor at MCTours,
http://www.azride.com/, without the two of you, none of it would have been possible. You were both professional, attentive to detail, patient, thorough, your bikes new and well maintained, I’d recommend your organization again in a heartbeat. Thank-you both very much.
Rick and Denise
P.S. We’re going shopping for a ‘Wing.
