May 05-07, 2000
Well it's getting just too hot around here to just sit and sweat nowadays. So...What are you going to do then?
I'm glad you asked!! We get on the bike with a couple of good friends and head to someplace where it's not 100+ degrees at noon...that's what!
We've been planning a trip like this for a couple of months now and Mike and Donna Barton had the same weekend off so they joined us. Just a little putt up into the mountains of Arizona to a place called Verde Valley. The valley actually stretches from Jerome in the west to Flagstaff in the north and east, with Oak Creek Canyon running down from the Flagstaff area.
Friday
night found us in Cottonwood enjoying the cool weather in the hot tub at
the elegant Super 8 Motel. The Verde Valley Fair was in progress
all weekend. One of the main attractions at the Fair turned out to
be of all things "Pig Racing". Teri got to see her first Pig Race,
I think she almost thought I was kidding when I told her that they really
do race these things up in Montana. As it turned out they weren't
really racing pigs at the fair, they were actually eight week old piglets,
but they sure could run.
Saturday we got up at the crack of nine to tour the valley to the south and see Montezumas Castle near Camp Verde, an old indian ruin built into the side of a limestone cliff. Then up I-17 to Flagstaff and back down through the Oak Creek Canyon into Sedona (Aspen in Arizona Teri says). We traveled almost 150 miles in nine or ten hours Saturday, not bad considering how much beautiful country we got to see. As you can see we had to stop to soak our feet in the cool water, you just can't ride past stuff like this. Sometimes you have to stop and experience it first hand.
Saturday night found us back at the fair after a huge mexican dinner at Su Casa and more pig racing, as well as more bull riding than we could actually sit through.
Sunday
morning was another one of those get up at the crack of nine days again
only this time we had almost 300 miles to get home before we both had to
go to work on Monday. The trip home wasn't any more hurried than
the sightseeing the day before though. After breakfast we visited
the "Chapel of the Holy Cross" high in the Red Rocks of Sedona. This
chapel was finished in 1956 and services are no longer performed there.
Even so it is a very powerful experience to visit this place no matter
what your religious beliefs are. The photo does not due it justice.
From there we once again forced ourselves to travel up Oak Creek Canyon to the top where we caught I-40 westbound until we could get off the super-slab and onto Historic Route 66 for most of the return trip to the desert and home.
Returning to the desert floor and work really wasn't high on our priority list but ya gotta do what ya gotta do I guess. The weekend getaway with Mike and Donna Barton was much needed and a great time.
