June 10, 2010 Catalina, AZ…is that a destination?

Last night we hit the sack early so we were both up and ready to go by 6:30am this morning. We hoofed it back over to The Calico for breakfast, sensible stuff for both of us; Chuck managed with an egg and toast while I woofed down a large dollop of oatmeal. Not exactly manly fare but we’re determined to exercise a bit more control and focus on healthy bits.

I’d wiped the grime off Green Girl a couple of days ago which has made Chuck feel guilty so he scrubbed his Honda this morning. Maybe I’ll do mine again tomorrow to see if he follows suit…

Our ride today took us southeast out of Kingman on highway 93 through the little town of Wickenburg where the wind gusts kept me entertained but Chuck couldn’t feel them thanks to his monster Goldwing-Buick-Tank.

We paused for a non-wind break at Wikieup where we admired their welcoming Rocket sign and checked out the local sage brush. I took a few memorable pics and we remounted and moved on.

Traffic grew heavier as we approached the Phoenix area and since we're both sporting gentlemen we took the round-about tour of Phoenix twice compliments of Garmin & Co. By the time we spun out of town it was time for food stuff so we hit a couple of fast-food joints, me being first to succumb at a gas stop-cum-burger emporium and soon afterwards Chuck fell victim to the siren wail of a Sub Shop. Frankly I didn’t know they could stuff that much bacon into a sandwich but it seems they can and Chuck swears it won’t hurt you. He also thinks it might be causing his backaches which seems a bit contradictory don't you think?

Once we got past the big city traffic we rode through Apache Junction onto highway 60, then at Florence we turned onto 79 for the rest of our ride. It was far and away the prettiest part too; the stuff great photos are made of. I didn’t take any but that’s beside the point, it’s still beautiful country.

After riding for an hour or two we paused for a brief rest at a rest stop…where else would we rest? AZ has nice rest stops and their signs even tell you who may rest and who should remain in the parking area. Green Girl was miffed so we didn't stay long.

Then it was back on the road for remainder of the run to Oracle to see my old bud Mike who lives there. Arriving at the Oracle Junction where we would turn east for the final few miles to Oracle Chuck suggested we look first at the motels in Catalina, a small town just three miles up the road so we did. There was no Motel 6 but there was a shiny new Best Western just waiting and since we were beginning to feel pooped we checked in, then called Mike and begged off till morning. Chuck crashed for a bit while I rode around the area and located a fresh supply of G&T makings plus some other non-essentials like foot deodorant, etc. Eww…

Back at the Motel I prodded Chuck into going to dinner early and after looking over the available choices we settled on a Mexican place in the town’s new strip mall. Fish tacos for me and mystery ensalada for Chuck; both choices proved acceptable in terms of quality and quantity and near as we can tell non-toxic.

Tomorrow we’ll head towards our next destination Roswell, NM where we’ll attempt to contact the Mother Ship…