July 26, look out, Verlie, here I come

I'm headed to Verlie's place near Phoenix. I didn't get an early start. Jgayle and I still had so much to talk about. That's how it is with good friends. It doesn't matter if you've seen each other yesterday or a year ago. You just take up where you left off. We rode together and had lunch, then it was off to the slab for me, go west, young woman, go west. But it's always so hard to part ways with my good friends.

JGayle and me.  Pepper mint ... the red is the pepper, the white is the mint.  JGayle said so.  Friends for 20 years ... you can't knock that.  And hoping for at least 20 more.

While I had a late start I was hoping to get 300 miles or better on the slab. That did not happen as I ran into a storm that promised to be quite ugly. I only got about 200 miles down the road. But later in checking on my bike, I saw that the weather did not get as ugly as it had appeared it would be. Oh well. A good night's rest is always deserved and needed.

July 27, working on a mileage day

I was up early and back working the slab. I wanted a good day, and it was … about 650 miles, arriving in Springerville, Arizona. Another storm was out there, and I was on the road with no cover. Somehow I skirted most of it, as well as the lightning and all things bad that go with those types of storms.

There was one slight mishap going over a curb, the third one this trip. Only this time I stretched the spring on the kickstand. I stopped at the Roswell, New Mexico, Harley shop but they did not have a spring to repair it so I had to go on, scraping the thing every now and again when going around a corner. I did not like that.

In order to keep moving and making miles, I wasn't stopping to take photos, but I had to stop to take a photo of what I think is a Christmas tree. It was out in the middle of nowhere, no houses, no cars, nothing.

It's all by its lonesome ... in the high desert

I found a place to hole up for the night and called Verlie. I told her I was 200 miles out and l'd be there in the morning.

July 28, 200 miles out

A piece of cake day, 200 miles before breakfast. Okay, not quite but I was on the road about 7 a.m. to avoid the heat of the day. It was cold, 71 degrees. But I only wore a long-sleeve T-shirt. And that was enough to get me chilled. That was the plan because then it would take me longer to get warm once I came off the mesas and plateaus and down into the heat.

The Salt River runs through a deep canyon which is a nice ride for the end of a trip.

I passed through the Salt River Canyon on Highway 60. It's a beautiful ride, one I've taken before when leaving and returning to Phoenix area. It's got the long sweeping curves I love, and I was into them in no time, back and forth, back and forth, leaning this way, then that, enjoying my last ride of this trip. Then I was into Globe, and down into the merciless heat of the Interstate.

The road winds down through the Salt River Canyon, and is one that is pleasant while not too strenuous.  It's a beautiful one that takes you gradually down toward the heat of the slab.

There's a Harley shop, in sight of the Superstition Mountains, and aptly named Superstition HD. It's in Apache Junction and is one I've stopped at before. It's a good place to take a break before the final heated push to Verlie and Joe's place. Plus I was looking to see if they had a spring for my kickstand.

The service department checked and yes, they had the spring, so they asked me to bring the bike around. Whoops. That's a negative. The spring had come off so with no way to get the kickstand up, the bike wouldn't start. That's one of the traits of the newer cop bikes. No kickstand up, no start.

I went and got the service guys and we duck taped the kickstand up, and they took it back to fix. They done good. And they did a quick wash of Miss Harlow. They're a pretty good shop, too.

Then it was time to make the final run, about 30 miles … in full-blown heat, but I arrived at the barn at about 1 p.m. It wasn't the worst part of the day at least, and no more heat exhaustion, also meaning no more root beer floats.

I unloaded, got the bike parked and then hit the shower. I washed my hair, looked down and saw ... SPIDER!! I hopped out of the shower, wringing wet and dripping all over everything, and watched it swimming in the water. What to do, what to do? Usually Verlie takes care of that for me, but she wasn't there, my shining lady in armour to slay the nasty spider. I got creative and took the toilet brush and smashed the thing into pieces and hauled it out with the brush and let it take its final oceangoing journey down the toilet. Be gone, spider, be gone.

Verlie got home a bit later, and off we went for our ritual … pedicures. She got the polka dots this time, and I got the red with white, kinda like peppermints, you know.

Nothing like a pedicure to make you have happy feet.

My last day was Sunday, and we spent it going to see the new Batman movie. They're some of my favorites, then dinner at Red Lobster, more talking. How can we talk so much? Then Monday to the airport and home.

This trip I spent a lot of time at people's homes, not riding quite as much, but it was so much fun, and the roads I did ride were stupendous, wonderful, awesome … how can I really describe them? 7,670 miles. My work here is complete.