I just got back home yesterday from a four-day ride through California and Arizona, the 2nd Annual "Ride for Ryan". I don't k...
I just got back home yesterday from a four-day ride through California and Arizona, the 2nd Annual "Ride for Ryan". I don't know the details of who Ryan was, but he was killed by a drunk driver. A guy named Ross Myrehn, organized the ride with all proceeds benefitting Mothers Against Drunk Driving.The ride was awesome! There was about 20 to 25 of us riding out from Rancho Cucamonga, California, to Mesa, Arizona. From there, we spent the next couple days touring northern and southern Arizona. There were six of us who knew each other pretty well, four of us from our club and the other two from a nearby club. The rest of the riders were from The Sabre Group.
Day 1: We left the gas station in Rancho Cucamonga, and headed east along the I-10. We took Highway 62 into Twenty-Nine Palms and picked up another rider. From there we shot across the Mojave Desert into Parker, Arizona and had lunch. Moving on, we rode into Wickenburg, Arizona and gassed up again. From there, we reached our motel in Mesa. For dinner, most of us went to "Bill Johnson's Big Apple Steakhouse".
Day 2: We rode out to the Rockin' R Ranch in Mesa, to have the breakfast in honor of Ryan. There was a small raffle, and I won a first aid kit. We then hit the highway back to Wickenburg to fuel up. Then we rode on to Prescott. The ride to Prescott was awesome. The twisties took you through some great views of the mountains, and you could smell the pine trees. In Prescott, we had lunch at the Gurley Street Grill. From there, we rode on to Jerome, and a few of us stopped in for beers at Paul & Jerry's Saloon. After that we moved on to Sedona and took photos. From there, we headed back to our motel in Mesa.
Day 3: We broke our night-time fast with a continental offering from the motel, and then departed for Tombstone. We stopped for gas just south of Tucson, where we picked up a couple more riders. In Tombstone, we all split up into smaller groups, and spent a few hours there. Our close group of six along with seventh person from The Sabre Group, had lunch and beers at Big Nose Kate's Saloon. After that, the seventh guy left us to do his own thing, and one of us six left to go visit his folks in Payson. Finally, the remaining five of us rode out of town, taking the I-10 back to Tucson, and then breaking off on highway 77 and then to highway 79 into Florence. From there, we took the 60 back to our motel in Mesa.
Day 4: Our group of six of had breakfast at the Village Inn restaurant next to the motel. Instead of riding back home to California with The Sabre Group, we decided to break off and take a slightly different route. We took highway 60 to Wickenburg, and continued on the 60 to Quartzsite. From there we got back on to the I-10. We had lunch at a little place in Blythe. Getting back on the freeway, the wind really started kicking up. Fighting the wind made our gas mileage suck. We planned on riding all the way from Blythe to Beaumont on a tank of gas, but we were forced to instead stop in Indio. Along the way, we saw a woman riding topless on a Harley. Riding through Palm Springs, the wind got really fierce. We had to slow it down to 60mph, because controlling the bikes became difficult. When we finally got to Beaumont, we pulled off the freeway, said our goodbyes, and each went our own direction back home.
My allergies got bad in Arizona, but I had some meds with me and managed to make it bearable. The allergies ended up making my throat sore, and right now I have a cough. But man, what a great time it was!
If you'd like to see photos that I took, visit my photo set on Flickr. Some photos look grainy because those were taken from my cell phone.
