13 bikes and 15 bodies came out for a great ride. We met at our usual meeting point in Temecula. It was a beautiful day on Saturday and the air was clear. We stopped once in Hemet for a quick break then on to Lake Hemet to take in the clear mountain air. Then it was on to the Palms to Pines Hwy. It had been a while since I had been on that road and it was nice to see that it had been repaved. Very smooth which made the ride even better. We stopped at the view point above Palm Desert and you could see all around the valley and even over to Salton Sea. I didn't take any pictures but I want to thank Dennis and Brenda for sharing theirs. Lunch at Richie's diner was very good and I want to thank Rick Deason for setting that up for us.
After lunch we broke up into different directions for our rides home or in my case a five day trip. John G, Ron N and Dennis hit the 10 fwy to Blythe for the night. We got to our motel and Dennis left us for home. He returned later with Tammy his wife to spend some time visiting. It was good to see Tammy again after so many years. I think it has been at least 10 or 12 years since I had seen her. He took her home and returned again and we spent another hour or so sitting outside talking.
Sunday morning we awoke to cloudy sky's and cool air. It was planned to meet up with George, Michael K and others from the Arizona group for breakfast in Wickenburg. It's about a 2 hour ride from Blythe to Wickenburg and we did get a little rain on the way. George had to leave us after breakfast but said he would meet up with us in Laughlin on Monday night. So it was Ron, John, Mike, Tom and me for a ride up to Prescott. We did get a bit of rain but nothing to much to worry about. It was chilly though and we had to bundle up. Once we got to the town square of Prescott we stopped and discussed the weather situation for a bit. One of the reasons for the ride up to Prescott was to check out John new place he is buying soon. Mike and Tom chose to head back so Ron, John and I made our way to Williams Valley to take a look at Johns new property. It's a beautiful place and I know John and Donna is really going to enjoy life there.
After looking at his property I checked my phone for the weather and saw that they were predicting snow in Prescott that night so John and I decided to head out to Kingman for the night. Ron left us there for his home and it was great that he rode with us for two days.
Going to Kingman was a cold and windy ride with a bit of rain. We got in about 4:30 and settled in for a good nights rest. Around 11 pm it started to thunder and lightning with a bit of hail thrown in for excitement. The motel was nice to let us park our bikes under there canopy for the night.
Monday morning when we got up it was 37 degrees outside and still a bit of rain coming down. We waited until 11:30 before we got on the bikes. The rain had stopped and it was warming up a little. I think it was around 40 degrees at that time. Oh yea and I forgot to mention that my heated jacket wasn't working. But I bundled up and it wasn't to bad as we gassed up and jumped on route 66 to Oatman. By the time we got there it had warmed up to around 50 degrees so we stopped to walk around for awhile.
After we left Oatman we went for a brief ride to Golden Valley and saw George going the other way toward Laughlin. It was only another hour and we made it to the Edgewater Hotel and got our room and contacted George. We had a nice dinner together and walked around the casino for a while. I managed to lose $25.00 playing the slots and crap table.
Tuesday morning after breakfast we got on the bikes and made our way toward Vegas. Wayne had suggested that we stop by this town of Nelson. What a neat place it was. It's an old gold mine that was bought by this fellow 22 years ago. He has since collected some neat old cars and trucks and other stuff. To much to tell you all about so I think I'm going to set up a ride there after the first of the year. They give mine tours as well. Here are a few pictures of what we saw.
As you can see there's some pretty interesting stuff there.
After we left there we called Wayne to see if we could stop by for a visit. He wanted to come on this ride but wasn't feeling well. He said he was better and to come on by. We had a nice visit with him for an hour or so. Then it was off to Arizona Charlie's hotel for dinner and a good nights rest before we all made out way home. Although we hit some rain on Sunday and it was cool most of the time we had a great ride. Now I have to clean the bike up and find out way my heated jacket isn't working.
Everyone ride safe.
Dave
