As planned we stopped by Henderson Harley-Davidson which I believe is Route 66 Motorsports. It is a fairly small shop, and back in the service area we found Carl, who used to work for my dad years ago. We chatted with him for a minute, then I headed over to motorclothes to find some sunglasses that were a little darker than the ones I had brought down. Tom came out from the service bay and we chatted for a while about the latest. It is always fun to catch up with old friends, he was part of our “party crew” back in the day when he worked at the shop. He walked us out to the bikes and Barry and I got on the road. We stopped for gas in a small town about an hour out of Phoenix, and we were going to get food, but we decided to eat a handful of nuts and hit the road to make it to our house a little quicker. It was HOT the whole way and we were ready to get into some AC.

When we got to the house my mom and their dog Zoe where already opening the garage door as we rolled down the street. We got the bikes parked and cooled off. Our house is right on the golf course, so we drove to the restaurant at the golf resort and had some lunch. Lorie was flying in around 9pm so Mom and I headed out to go shop for some household items. We are setting up the house to be ready for us when we come down as well as for renters, since we will be setting it up as a vacation rental. (If you are looking to rent let me know! This place is awesome)

Friday was pretty much a lazy day for Lorie and I, we both needed a little bit of “vacation relaxation” we went to the onsite gym to work out then later in the day walked to the onsite pool to lounge in the shade, swim and relax. We had a nice calm day, then later that night we cooked steaks on our built in grill in the back yard and sat by our cool fire place back there.

Back to riding! Since Lorie and I decided to lounge around and talk business on Friday, we decided to get up a little earlier and get on the road. We headed out around 9am to check out my dad’s latest route that he had discovered, the Salt River Canyon.

We headed out of Mesa, Lorie on Barry’s bike and me on my Street Glide. We stopped in Globe for some gas, taking Hwy 60 toward the canyon. We didn’t have all day, since Lorie was flying home tonight, but we decided we would try to go to the canyon then come back to Globe for lunch in the historic part of town. Even the ride to Globe was full of scenic views, I LOVE riding down here. Surprisingly it was a bit chilly coming through some of the passes on the way to Globe as well as towards the canyon. We both only had sweaters on, so it was cooler then we planned!

The canyon was magnificent! It is full of some great curves and awesome views. It is a little slower paced, but obviously well loved by bikers as there were Harley riders everywhere! We rode through the canyon with no stops at a pretty steady pace then once we left on the other side we turned around and got a picture with the Salt River Canyon sign and headed back through. Lorie led on the way back and we preplanned to stop at two pullouts. The first one was right as you were going back into the canyon. This was the most scenic view. We were at the top of the canyon and you could see across most of it as well as some good views of the natural caves that were carved out of the rock cliffs from years and years of erosion.

While we were stopped and getting off the bikes I overheard the bikers that were parked their commenting “isn’t that the same two girls who just rode through the canyon?” I turned and told them “you have to do it twice right?” We had a quick conversation about how we were riding to the canyon and back. They asked where I was from, and when I told them Alaska, their next statement was “So you shipped your bike down here?” I told them, “well actually I rode it from Alaska to Milwaukee last year…” they looked surprised and suspicious. One was on a nice 2015 CVO Streetglide, same as mine but a different color and the other guy was on a pretty radical custom Street Glide. Not the kind of bikes you take down the AlCan, well unless you are a crazy AK Biker! 🙂 We cruised back through the canyon and made it back to the other side. When we got back to Globe, we pulled into the historic part of town. There were great old buildings, unfortunately most of them empty. I am always excited to see old buildings being repurposed as shops and restaurants rather than having downtown be vacant. We parked the bikes and started walking down the street looking for a restaurant. We saw a little cafe first, and popped in. To be 100% honest I was totally scared to eat anything from there. It was this tiny little hole in the wall and the they were cooking the food on a large grill top right there in the same room. Much to my surprise, I ordered an egg and veggie “burro” aka burrito and Lorie got eggs and bacon. We were both completely blown away. Their food was 100% fresh made to order. The veggies were all cut in house and were fresh and the tortilla for my burro was so fresh I could have eaten it plane. It reminded me of the fresh tortillas you got in Costa Rica. It was so good I practically ate the entire burro that looked too big to eat when it landed on the table. The waitress was fun as well. It is obviously a family establishment, I am pretty sure the 3 big women cooking and serving were all related. After she gave Lorie directions to the bathroom, she told her “they don’t like it when you pee outside there” and gestured toward Main Street! what a crack up! We left with full bellies and smiles on our faces. When we got back to the bikes we found this awesome Buick parked next to us. Lorie is really into classic cars and even has one herself, so as she admired it, I got a brief lesson. She is pretty bad ass, knowing all that about cars!

As we rode out of Globe we spotted a few bikes sitting in front of what looked like a biker bar. Guess I will have to go back next time I am in town to check it out! Meanwhile, I am writing my blog sitting in our back yard with the fire going and a nice 75* on the thermometer. I could get used to this…unfortunately I am too young to retire, so I will be heading back to the cold land of Alaska in a couple days. In the meantime, I am going to explore the area on my Harley, since my parents are taking the rental car back tomorrow.