Coolidge, Arizona - Ride To the Ruins
It was a beautiful day in Sunny Arizona today and it was really nice to have the rally in our own home town for a change ... The City of Coolidge is working diligently at becoming more bike friendly ... for long time resident's like Kendall & I it is a very pleasant change!
Started off around 8:00 a.m. we headed down to San Carlos Park to register for the rally. Upon arrival there was a handful of bikes and people were just beginning to gather.
Coolidge holds 2 major events each year. One is Calvin Coolidge Days to celebrate our heritage and the other is Cotton Days to celebrate the end of our Cotton season. Cotton is the #1 industry for the local farmers and is what has kept our community thriving for the last 65 years.
While we waited for the parade to begin we walked around and talked to other riders and the escorts from Gila River. One thing Kendall & I both noticed was that of the three bikes 2 had gremlin bells and one didn't?!
We visited with a couple of the officers about their new bikes (Hondas) and how did they like them .. they were very impressed with our Valks .. one even said he had heard of a Valkyrie but hadn't ever seen one ... A little later in the day when we were waiting again for the run to start back up .. one of the officers even commented about how he was sure "those bikes will get up and go .... "
Along with the festivities is a parade. This year the bikes were the escort. We lined up behind the accompanying LEOs (Gila River Indian Motorcycle Officers)
and had the pleasure of riding through town and being the start of our parade.
I tease Kendall about our new valk (Clair) being obnoxious because of how loud she is ... well these two boys sitting in the picture above made me rethink my accusation of "Clair" being an obnoxious bike ... because these two riders were as obnoxious as their bikes were!
Strider would be proud of me ... after we made our loop through town we were back around to the beginning of the parade route before the parade had even ended which causes us to have to stage again and wait for the remainder of the parade to roll by ... and I was sitting on my Valk listening to my MP3 player with the WooHoo song playing .... I got a big giggle out of Kendall!!
After the parade we were escorted out of town and to Sacaton, which is on the Gila River Indian Reservation. There our next draw was at the Ira Hayes Monument. While we waited for all riders to draw their numbers and take a quick break we received notice from town that there was approximately another 30 riders coming to meet us ... there was a little bit of a mix up on the start time .. and they thought the 11:00 a.m. registration close meant we left at 11:00 a.m. Nonetheless they caught up and we left Sacaton all together in a group ... all total the estimated number of rides was around 150.
Once we left Sacaton we were escorted to Casa Grande where we made two stops. Each stop was another draw .. instead of a regular Poker Run ... they do a draw of golf balls and the rider with the highest total and the lowest total wins .. (bucket of golf balls numbered and your drawing for highest number at 5 different stops)
One of the stops in Casa Grande was at Second Skin .. a small bike shop with leather goods and accessories. We found the officer a gremlin bell and while we were picking it out and buying it another one of the officers was picking one up. In a panic mode I said "oh no you can't ... we're buying him one" ... Both of the officers the one buying the bell and the one missing the bell looked at us with odd amazement ... but once they understood we wanted to gift the gremlin bell to the officer ... the one purchasing a bell said ... Oh ok .. "I'll buy this one for his Harley then ... " I laughed and said .. "oh a Harley .. yeah he definately needs one for that bike too".
Back into Coolidge after about a 60 mile escorted ride we parked the Valks lining up for the various activities.
Neither of us won any prizes ... but we got a chance to meet some really nice folks; visit with some old friends; and see some sweet rides. One gentleman from Casa Grande that rides a black Valkyrie Trike was along for the rally and while we waited at Ira Hayes Monument for the run to begin again ... I over heard them talking about the "pair of valks" ... "I think they belong to a Husband & Wife" .... I smiled at Kendall and said loudly towards the gentlemen gathered ... "yes sir they do ... have a third one at the house ... it's a White Interstate"
The guy riding the Valk Trike said "you should trike one of them" ... I laughed and replied "We're not old enough for that yet ... " needless to say I got a big round of laughter and
out of that one!! Seems I recall something about being threatened to have my bottom paddled by the elder gentleman too ...
RJ -- not only did we have the pleasure of being escorted by a group of awesome LEOs but also we had an eye-catching ride with the group that made us think of you!!
All and all it was another beautiful day in Sunny Arizona ... and we had an awesome day!!
