With it being summer, my work load is considerably smaller than usual. In fact, on Tuesday, I was done by 10am, so I called a buddy, and got him to throw a sicky. We decided to head out to route 666 toward the New Mexico border (supposed to be number 3 road in the US). We left around noon, hottest time of the day,and just rode.
As we rode further and further out, the road got straighter and straighter, and more and more tedious. To make matters worse, we were watching a storm heading our way. We decided to turn around and head back towards Globe, as we didin't know how much further the turn for 666 was, and the storm bothered us.
We hit Globe, and turned onto the 60, and headed North towards Sho Low. Olong the way, we got stuck behind a line of 3 cars and a semi, and as usual, I decided to go around them at the first chance I got. The car at the back was a white suburban, I wondered if it was an unmarked sherrifs car, and then decided it wasn't. The nano second I dropped a gear to go around, he flipped a switch, and the back door lit up like bloody christmas.....oh SH1T. It was a sherrif. Fortunately, he wasn't in the ticket writing mood and didn't even pull us over.
After a few miles, he pulled off and on we went. We finally hit the twisties, ans thought we had beaten the storm. Althought the clouds were still looming. We stopped to take pics, and play in the twisties of Salt river canyon, and headed on. As we went up the other side of the Canyon, it started to rain. Then it stopped, then it started, and stopped, and then started, and the thunder like you have never heard before. We made it to Sho Low before the heavens opened and pulled into a restaurant for food and a beer. It poured like it did last time I was in my home land of England. I hate the bloody rain, and won't ride in it unless I have to.
After an hour or more, it stopped and we headed home, through Payson, and the whole time I was annoyed because there are some really nice roads, and we had to slow them down because of the rain....what a waste. By now, my hands were going numb, and I was shaking hard because we were dressed for summer weather......I know, how rediculous to dress for summer, in AZ, in JUNE!
We hit Payson about 7.30 at night now, gassed up and left for home. But there was one more thing to occur.....From the last set of lights leaving Payson, I accelerate hard, and in the shadows of my high beams, I saw something.....the first thing I thought was "ELK" AAAAAGHHH!I dropped a gear, slammed on my MUSHY brakes stepped on the back one, steered left, the shadow went left, I steered the now skid, right, and the shadow darted out of the way. Turned out to be a Blood hound, just sat there in a two lane highway. Needless to say I puckered, soiled myself, and thanked the gods of the road, that I sae ti when I did, and I didn't hurt the dog, or my bike....no thanks to my mushy brakes!! After that, I rode home steadily, coz it was dark, and was glad to be back in the sweltering heat of the Valley, to warm up my frozen fingers.
All in all, one of the most bizarre rides I have been on, but here are a few pics to share
This last one is on Triumph meet months ago
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