Complete write-up and photos will be added when I get some time.
10-11-19 motorcycle ride to Payson, Arizona. Had breakfast at the Crosswinds Restaurant at the Payson Airport, rode to the Tonto Natural Bridge, stopped by the Payson Rodeo Grounds and the Payson Casino.
Rode a 2014 Yamaha V Star 650 motorcycle. Actual mileage for the ride was 182 miles and got 47.1 mpg.
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| Above: Sunflower area |
Complete write-up and more photos coming when I have some more time.
I rode to Gila Bend and back, rode through Liberty and Buckeye, saw the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, then down old US 80 and saw the old Arlington Cattle Ranch, Gillespie Dam bridge, 3 Solar Plants, Gila Bend 9-11 Memorial Park, had lunch at Sofia's Mexican Restaurant, and a stop at Holt's Shell station before heading home via Maricopa.
I rode a 2012 Honda Rebel 250, round trip for the ride was 228 miles (got 61.0 mpg).
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| Above: The historic Stout's Hotel (now closed). |
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| Above: At Holt's Shell station. |
Complete write-up and more photos coming when I have some extra time.
Yarnell Hill is a stretch of Arizona 89, from Congress, AZ (Elevation 3,045') to Yarnell, AZ (Elevation 4,780'). It winds, twists and turns for about 5 miles, up to the "Colorado Plateau," and is the original pass through the Weaver Mountains to the first Capitol of Arizona, Prescott. The population of Yarnell was 649 at the 2010 census.\
Total round-trip was 194 miles on a 2013 Kawasaki Vulcan Classic 900 LT.
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| Above: The statue is mounted on a pedestal with the names of the 19 firefighters and depicts a firefighter with a chainsaw and other firefighting gear. |
Complete write-up and photos coming when I have time.
Made a 165 mile loop south on March 20, 2018, stopped to see the California Zephyr at the Maricopa Amtrak station, stopped at the Harrah's Ak-Chin casino in Maricopa, rode by the Red River Cattle Company (old John Wayne ranch), stopped at The Domes near Casa Grande, and one final stop in Sacaton, Az to see the Matthew Juan and Ira Hayes Veterans Memorial.
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| Above: The Domes near Casa Grande. |
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| Above: Ira Hayes statue. |
Planning the ride
The
year of 2017 for me having outdoor fun was mostly kayaking and hiking,
I had made only one 2017 motorcycle ride and that was a ride in March.
The end of the year was approaching, the weather was ideal for motorcycle riding, and I was eager for one last ride before the calendar year was gone.
Motorcycling is a satisfying activity for me, getting out on the road
to see new places in Arizona and snap a few photos is a great way for me
to spend a day. On a motorcycle you see and experience places
differently than you do in an automobile. Whoever invented the
motorcycle was a genius.
I don’t recall where or when I first
read about the Globe Triangle ride, but I decided that would be the ride
I would take to end out the year. Three Arizona old mining
communities, Globe, Superior, and Winkelman define the Globe Triangle.
The starting town for me would be Superior, and I chose to ride it
counter-clockwise.
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| Above: Google Map showing location of the Globe Triangle. |
Below is an annotated Google Earth Map of the Globe Triangle.
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| Above: Google Earth Map showing location of mountains and rivers. |
I
have never gone on a motorcycle road without planning it in great
detail, I’ve always created an Excel spreadsheet with all my stops
planned out, with estimated arrival and departure times for each
location where I will stop for photographs, food, fuel, etc. And this
ride was no different, my spreadsheet (with mileage, riding times,
elevation input from Google Map) estimated this ride would be 232 miles,
take 5.2 hours on the road and 8.6 hours overall after all the stops
were factored in. My starting elevation would be about 1,500 feet in
Scottsdale and I would ride as high as about 5,000 feet in the
mountains. I am a Google Maps/Street View freak, when planning a ride I
street-view the entire ride. I'm making the ride in my mind long
before I hit the road.
I was familiar with the communities of Superior and Globe from previous rides, but not Winkelman. I read up on Winkelman, plus Hayden which was next to Winkelman.
After reading about Hayden I definitely wanted to spend some time
sightseeing there. A lot has been written about the prejudice toward
Hispanic workers and their families in these old mining towns, including
Hayden.
I rented a 2017 Harley Davidson Sportster SuperLow 1200T
from the Harley Davidson of Scottsdale, my favorite rental place. I had
been renting Harley Davidson SuperLow 1200T motorcycles since 2015 and
they have become my go-to rental ride.
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| Above: The rental 2017 Harley Davidson SuperLow 1200T on the night before the ride. |
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| Above: The rental 2017 Harley Davidson SuperLow 1200T on the night before the ride. |
This route of about 30 miles wasn’t the shortest or fastest way to get beyond the city sprawl, but was the more scenic ride and kept me away from the heavy morning work traffic of Loop 101 and US 60. From that point I then headed east again on US 60 towards Superior, Arizona. Just getting to my starting point of the Globe Triangle Superior was enjoyable, 70 easy miles with good roads, beautiful scenery with an excellent view of the Superstition Mountains.
I didn't take a photo of the Superstition Mountains on this ride, but the photo below is one I took in March of this year on an earlier ride, This photo taken at US 60 at South Kings Ranch Road.
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| Above: Superstition Mountains (in March, 2017) from US 60. |
1st leg of the Globe Triangle starts at Superior, Arizona
Superior
is one of my favorite places to ride a motorcycle. It is a small mining
town within the Tonto National Forest and is at an elevation of around
2,800 feet and has less than 3,000 people. One of the things I like
about Superior is that it is at the base of the Apache Leap Mountains,
which is a jaw-dropping view. Apache Leap, so named legend says because
when a US military expedition was sent to round up Apaches in the
1870s, the Apaches decided to leap to their deaths rather than be
arrested.
Arriving in Superior I made a few photos from the Visitor's Center before heading south on State Route 177 (SR 177), also known as The Copper Corridor.
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| Above: Apache Leap as viewed from US 60 at Visitor's Center. |
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| Above: Smoke stack in Superior, AZ, photo from US 60 at Visitors' Center. |
The first leg of the Globe Triangle is about 30 miles and after about 12 miles goes by the Ray Copper Mine where there is a pull-off with a good viewing spot for an open-pit mine. I had originally thought about stopping there but once there I realized it involved another ride off the paved road (and riding off a paved road was a violation of the motorcycle rental contract) I didn’t make that stop. Some people consider open-pit mines as an ugly blot on the landscape, others find them beautiful, like man-made miniature Grand Canyons.
Although I didn't see the Ray Copper Mine, I am going to include the following photo from the Internet, it's from https://prd-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/Ray_copper_mine.jpg.
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| Above: Ray Copper Mine, photo from above URL. |
I then continued on to Hayden as that was the place I really was interested in visiting on this leg of the triangle. The town of Hayden was founded in the early 1900s and was a company town owned by the Kennecott Copper Corporation, the town was laid out on three distinct hills. The eastern hill was referred to as 'Smelter Side', smelter and housing site of American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO). The central hill was referred to as 'Mill Side', and was the site of the mill, stores (downtown area), and schools. The western hill was referred to as 'San Pedro', where Mexican-American people lived.
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| Above: Google Earth Map showing San Pedro location. |
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| Above: View looking up San Pedro Avenue. |
Mines and mining towns were segregated in the early 1900s. White workers lived in the better houses in the nicer parts of town, got better jobs and earned more salary than Mexican workers. That started changing after WWII, after WWII many of the old segregated patterns collapsed.
One of the things that got me interested in San Pedro was a song I ran across in my research for this trip, a song titled Corridor de San Pedro. Some of the lyrics (translated to English) are “Entering San Pedro you will see, Houses that are leaning, houses that are leaning, But they don’t fall. Beautiful San Pedro, beautiful San Pedro that you are, The people love you, the people love you, They will not forget you…"
On a side note, totally unrelated to this ride and to be deleted from this ride journal, I
was unable to find the original source that first led me to this song,
but some later googling I came up with the following 2013 3-minute vimeo
video, titled "Corrido de San Pedro: A Tribute to Frank Amado"
at https://vimeo.com/77874199. Frank Amado was the son of the man that
wrote the song, and Frank sings part of it in this video. Below is a
screen shot from that video. An interesting video. Complete lyrics for
the song can be found at "In Search of Hayden's Past" @ https://www.theirminesourstories.org/post/in-search-of-hayden-s-past.
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| Above: Screen shot of video with Frank Amado. |
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| Above: Google Map showing my 2.7 mile ride through Hayden. |
I
made stops at the Rex Theater, the fire station and the police
department. The Rex theater building is located on Hayden Avenue, but
hasn’t shown a movie since 1979. In some of the older photos of the
building the words "UNION YES! FOREVER!" was scrawled across the top.
The building has since been repainted but if you look closely in the
photo below you can still make out the words. Even today the local news
is filled with company-union conflicts in Hayden.
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| Above: Rex Theater with the Harley Davidson motorcycle. |
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| Above: Hayden Smelter Stack, 1,001 feet tall, view from the Rex Theater. |
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| Above: Looking north-east from the Rex Theater. |
Unlike other old towns in Arizona, Hayden has been unable to shift its focus to tourism. According to one article I read, Hayden "lacks charm” and "is too polluted" (toxic metals in the air and soil from the smelter) to attract visitors. Today Hayden continues to lose population, an early 2017 newspaper article stated “Since 2000, the population has decreased by almost 38 percent, Hayden is in the process of becoming a Ghost town." The base of Hayden's economy is the Hayden Smelter which is only one of three operating copper smelters in the United States.
On a side note, totally unrelated to this ride and to be deleted from this ride journal, reading the history of Hayden reminded me of a town I read about in 2005 in a book titled “Chavez Ravine, 1949 - A Los Angeles Story,” an awesome book of text and photos. Chavez Ravine was a Mexican-American community in California that disappeared in the 1950s. Musician, songwriter Ry Cooder also put out a 2005 album titled “Chavez Ravine” about the story of that town. Singer, guitarists Lalo Guerrero (born in Arizona and known as “the father of Chicano music”) sang several songs on this album. Lalo Guerrero was posthumously inducted into the Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame (AMEHOF) during a ceremony in 2005. I had the good fortune to be one of the photographers at that event. Years later in 2012, I edit the video clips from that night for one of Guerrero’s sons so that he could have a video of just his father’s induction.
The police department in Hayden is still active and there were five police vehicles parked outside the building when I was there. The mayor of Hayden was quoted in a 2017 newspaper article, "We actually have more police vehicles than we do officers." The police department now occupies a former bank, which has long closed its doors.
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| Above: Hayden Police Department (the tall, former bank building). |
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| Above: The Harley Davidson next to a Hayden police vehicle |
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| Above: Hayden Fire Department. |
Life in Hayden can't be easy as the
closest grocery store is about 8 miles away in Kearny, although one
restaurant is still open, Maria’s Mexican Restaurant on the outskirts of
town. I stopped by
Maria's but it was too early for me for lunch, so I just took a few
photos. All the reviews I've read said
Maria's is a great place for a meal, so perhaps I will make it back
there someday. One of the cool parts of any motorcycle ride is stopping
at some restaurant you've never been to and having breakfast or lunch.
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| Above: Maria's Mexican Restaurant, with the Harley. |
In 2005 ASARCO filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing environmental liabilities as a primary cause. Under the terms of the bankruptcy ASARCO continued to operate its existing Arizona mines.
Before leaving Hayden I rode up through the eastern hill ('Smelter Side') on Asarco Drive for a closer view of the stack. On my way back to SR 177 I took the following photo of one of the conveyor belts used for carrying ore, and then I headed for Winkelman.
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| Above: Conveyor belt carried ore |
I saw a few trains going by on SR-177 but didn't get any photos. But the trains were from the Copper Basin Railway, an Arizona short-line railroad that operates from Magma, Arizona to Winkelman, Arizona, about 54 miles in length, and also has a 7-mile branch line that runs from Ray Junction to Ray, Arizona. The train carries ore. I didn't get any photos while riding but attached is a photo I found online, from the following URL, https://elevation.maplogs.com/poi/san_pedro_river_arizona_usa.368454.html.
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| Above: Copper Basin Railway, photo from above URL reference. |
On another side note, totally unrelated to this ride and to be deleted from this ride journal, when planning out this ride I ran across the following tidbit. Dwight Yoakam released a music video in 1993 titled "A Thousand Miles from Nowhere"
which features him riding on a Copper Basin Railway train across the
Arizona desert. There is a video on YouTube at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu3ypuKq8WE . Although I'm not a fan of
Yoakam,
and not usually a fan of music videos, this one is not too bad,
...except for Yoakam's crazy-legs dance moves, tight-ass jeans, riding
the train on top of the box cars, riding in front of the engine, etc.,
etc., etc. The song was featured in a favorite movie of mine, "Red Rock West."
I
stopped in Winkelman only to top off the motorcycle fuel tank, the town
has a population of around 350. Winkelman is the smallest incorporated
town in Arizona, and most of Winkelman’s economic activity is based on
copper. The scenery in this area is spectacular and I would like to
make another ride to this area and spend some more time.
The 1st
leg of the Globe Triangle ride on SR 177 was certainly enjoyable as the
scenery is beautiful and the road has lots of curves. All the
communities on this leg between Superior and Winkelman were founded by
the Kennecott Mining Co. to house miners and their families.
2nd leg of the Globe Triangle starts at Winkelman
The
second leg of the Globe Triangle was the ride from Winkelman to Globe, a
distance of about 35 miles. At Winkelman I took State Route 77 (SR
77), which would take me to Globe, and for about eight miles SR 77
parallels the Gila River, but then the river bends off to the east and I
lost sight of the river corridor. I had never seen the Gila River
before this ride as it is dry by the time it gets to the part of Arizona
where I live, but it is a nice flowing river along SR 77.
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| Above: Looking toward Gila River Corridor from SR 77. |
I didn't get a good photo of the Gila River itself, but attached is one photo I found online at https://elevation.maplogs.com/poi/san_pedro_river_arizona_usa.368454.html.
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| Above: Gila River, from above URL reference. |
At
Winkelman is also the confluence where the San Pedro River runs into
the Gila River. The San Pedro River starts in Sonora, Mexico and was
the last major, free-flowing undammed river in the American Southwest,
but it’s mostly dry now also.
SR 77 is a two-lane highway with
narrow shoulders and light traffic when I rode through. The elevation
at Winkelman is around 2,000 feet, but the ride to Globe took me to an
altitude of around 5,000 feet at a place called El Capitan Pass Summit
(also called Pinal Pass) in the Pinal Mountains. I got there around
11:20 am and there is a pull-off that allowed me to take in the gorgeous
view.
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| Above: Pull-off at El Capitan Pass in the Pinal Mountains, with the Harley. |
For some reason I neglected to make a good photo of the mountain scenery from the pass, but below is a photo I found online that is what I viewed at the pass. This photo is by Henry Lee @ https://fotoeins.com/2019/09/06/fotoeins-friday-az77-pinalpass/.
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| Above: View from El Capitan Pass, photo by Henry Lee (not me), at the above URL. |
Globe is located at 3,500 feet above sea level, and in the heart of Arizona's Tonto National Forest and is surrounded by some spectacular mountain views. It was founded in the late 1870’s, well before Arizona even became a state, and is one of the older mining towns in the state, and mining is still the biggest employer in the area, Globe has a population of somewhere around 7,500. One of my favorite movies "Midnight Run" with Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin was partially filmed in Globe.
I've read that Globe is one of the most historic small towns in Arizona, whose entire downtown district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. But I didn't have time to check out old buildings, perhaps another day.
By the time I arrived in Globe it was around noon so I decided to stop for lunch at the Drift Inn Saloon, a popular destinations for motorcycles on the weekends.
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| Above: My Harley in front of the Drift Inn Saloon. |
After I parked my motorcycle I ran into a couple of minor, stupid problems.
The first problem was that I couldn’t get my motorcycle helmet off. I had previously purchased a Quick Release Buckle for my helmet, which makes buckling and unbuckling super fast even when wearing gloves. I had used it twice before on motorcycle rides and it always worked fine, but not this time. I tried for over 5 minutes to get the strap unbuckled, with no luck. I had just about decided to go into the Drift Inn Saloon and ask if they had any heavy-duty scissors or a sharp knife to cut the strap off. But the thought of walking into a biker bar whining that I needed help in getting my helmet off was something I definitely did NOT want to do. So I tried some more and the buckle finally unbuckled. I removed the Quick Release buckle at that time and reinstalled the regular buckle and haven’t used the Quick Release buckle since.
The
second problem came when I finally did take my helmet off, I
accidentally knocked my right hearing aid off and it fell between the
engine and the frame of the motorcycle, in a spot where I could hardly
see it, much less get to it. I tried for several minutes with a pen I
had, but with no luck. Finally I found a long twig and after several
minutes of using that the hearing aid all of a sudden just fell onto the
ground. I figured the heat of the engine probably killed it, but it
worked fine. So with my helmet off and my hearing aid working like a
charm, I strolled manly into the biker bar and ordered lunch (a toasted
BLT sandwich, with fries), complete with a Four-Peaks draft IPA. The
sandwich, fries and brew were outstanding.
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| Above: My BLT sandwich at the Drift Inn Saloon. |
After lunch I went outside the Drift Inn Saloon and noticed that the location for the Radio Free Phoenix (RFP) station was just two doors down. I did a guest DJ spot for them in early 2007, I play songs by 15 of my favorite Arizona blues-songwriters, adding a few comments about each songwriter. In 2007 RFP broadcasted out of Phoenix, but in 2017 they were broadcasting out of Globe.
3rd leg of the Globe Triangle starts at Globe
Before
I rode off from the Drift Inn Saloon I turned on my helmet camera to
record some videos as I started the third and last leg of the Globe
Triangle, from Globe back to Superior, a little less than 25 miles.
Earlier in December I purchased a DBPOWER N6 Action Camera (a cheap
GoPro knockoff) for $59 and this would be the first time I’ve tried it
on a motorcycle ride. The intent was to make videos while I was riding
in areas where I couldn’t stop for photo, then later I would extract
frame grabs from the videos to create still photos.
The ride from
Globe to Superior is on US 60 and is a fun ride as you go through a
couple more old mining towns, Claypool and Miami, plus a few other
interesting locations. In Claypool I rode on Railroad Avenue, which
parallels the railroad tracks that run from Clifton, Arizona to Miami,
Arizona. So I got to see a lot of interesting railroad cars with boxcar
graffiti/art.
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| Above: Helmet camera view riding through Claypool on Railroad Avenue. |
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| Above: Helmet camera view of scenery around Miami. |
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| Above: Pinto Creek Bridge photo, from BridgeHunter (credit to Royce and Bobette Haley in 2014) |
Beyond the Pinto Creek Bridge was Top-of-the-World, a town with a population of a little over 300. The altitude is only 4,500 feet so it’s not the top of anything that I know of, I read in one article it got its name from an old dance hall that used to be there.
After zipping through Top-of-the-World, I rode through the Queen Creek Tunnel before reaching Superior, the tunnel is short, about 1,200 feet, but fun to ride through.
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| Above: Helmet camera view entering the Queen Creek Tunnel. |
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| Above: Helmet camera view coming out of the Queen Creek Tunnel. |
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| Above: Helmet camera view after leaving the Queen Creek Tunnel |
When
I arrived in Superior I rode around sightseeing for a while, took a few
photos, had memories of the last time I rode a motorcycle through
Superior with two friends in 2016. Some of my better motorcycle rides
have been with others, the previously mentioned 2016 ride, a 1970
cross-Florida ride with my wife, a 2016 3-day ride to Laughlin, Nevada
with a friend from California, and a couple other Arizona one-day rides
with a fellow Harley Davidson rider. But I also love solo rides, I like
the freedom it gives me in slowing down and making photos when I see
something interesting, taking in sights that a fellow rider might not
care to make, etc.
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| Above: Helmet camera view when I rolled into the downtown section of Superior. |
I had been reading some good reviews on Superior's La Mina Bar and Night Club ("good atmosphere, good music, excellent joint for a cold beer, etc.")
so wanted to stop by and see what was inside, but they had not opened
as yet, so I just took a photo with my motorcycle parked in front.
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| Above: La Mina Bar and Night Club, with the Harley. |
Below for no special reason is a photo from inside La Mina Bar that I found online, but I forget where.
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| Above: inside La Mina, photo from the Internet, not mine. |
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| Above: Another view of the Harley Davidson at La Mina Bar and Night Club. |
The following three photos were not taken on this ride, but from a ride I made in 2016. I'm including them only because I liked the photos and didn't take many of Superior on this 2017 ride.
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| Above: Building in Superior with a mural on the side, photo taken in 2016. |
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The following Google Earth map shows the relative locations of Superior, Apache Leak and the Queen Creek Bridge and Tunnel.
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| Above: Google Earth Map showing relative locations. |
My $59 helmet camera worked fine until I was about to leave Superior. This is where my third problem happened, the camera fell off my helmet and bounce around on the ground before finally rolling to a stop. The double-sided tape between the camera mount and my helmet had failed to hold. Picking the camera up I expected the worse, but it looked fine and was still working to my surprise, and all the video to that time was saved. But I was unable to remount the camera on the helmet (no backup double-sided sticky tape) for the rest of the trip.
The
ride from Superior back to Scottsdale was 70 miles and I turned the
Harley Davidson motorcycle back to the Scottsdale Harley Davidson dealer
at about 4:10 pm. The motorcycle ran like a dream the whole trip, I
ended up using 5.3 gallons of fuel and getting 46 miles to the gallon.
The bike's odometer showed 247 miles for the round trip.
The
cameras I used on this ride were my Panasonic Lumix LX100 purchased in
2014, Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS50 purchased in 2015. my iPhone SE purchase
in 2016, and my DBPOWER N6 Action Camera purchased in 2017. I always
try to document my rides with photos, it's a great way to go back and
relive those rides, each photo brings back memories. But combining
photography with riding isn't all that easy as basically you are just
wanting to ride so sometimes it's hard to make yourself stop riding and
make some photos. After every ride I always wish I had stopped for more
photos, and made more photos when I did stop.
The photos found in this journal entry are just a few from that day, all the photos can be found online at my Google Photos site at https://photos.app.goo.gl/HszjHUEXhGSTPVE22.
The End
--------------------------------------------------------------
On another side note, totally unrelated to this ride and to be deleted from this ride journal,
after just now writing the description of this ride it suddenly hit me,
I vaguely recall someone telling me years ago that they had bought a
house in Hayden. So I went back through all my old emails and found the
source in a 2007 email. The person (Liz Boyle) was someone I had
worked with on the Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame (AMEHOF)
organization in 2006 & 2007, and she was also a regular DJ on Radio
Free Phoenix RFP), and still is, plus she does a lot of other voice
stuff. In her 2007 email she wrote the following.
“Lowell.
As you may know, we have a little home in the barrio of Hayden, about a
mile away from the Gila river. It is so beautiful up there. Our house
was $25k and we just bought a fixer upper, on a small cliff, on the
edge of town, that looks out over a gulch and mountains, an for an
additional $11k that's going to be our retirement home. No one's really
heard of Hayden. I call it the Mexican Mayberry. We just love it.
Andy's got a place there, too. His house is 100 years old, in the
downtown, behind the old Rex movie theater that used to be segregated.
The whole town used to be segregated, as he lives on the "white" side
and we live in the barrio! Our neighbors are wonderful- they've all
lived there all their lives, through many generations.
The
beauty of the desert is incredible up there and the San Pedro Nature
Preserve is world renowned for bird watching. The mines up there are
world renowned for gems ( we climb the mountains and pick up cool
crystals all the time) and there's even a world renowned area for
fossils, as we can go up to the rock quarry and pick up fossils off the
ground!
Anyway, Lowell, anytime you have a request that you'd like to hear on RFP, let me know!!! I'd love to play it for you.” "
I
wish I had remembered this info before my 2017 Globe Triangle ride, I
could have made photographs of both these houses. I actually did ride
by her house on Lower Road but didn't know it was her house at the
time. I did just now find out the location of these two houses and
viewed them on Google Street View of course, of course. The Andy she
mentioned is Andy Olson, founder, owner and also a DJ on RFP. The "barrio of Hayden" she referred to would be San Pedro on the western hill.
The Plan
In early 2017 the weather was beautiful and I decided to take a 1-day motorcycle ride. It was still cold in the high country (e.g., Payson, Prescott, Sedona, Jerome) so I decided to head south.
Like many others I am a fan of Waylon Jennings, he was one of the biggest stars in music and he got his
first big start as a solo artist in Arizona. Waylon passed away in
Arizona in 2002 and was laid to rest in the City of Mesa Cemetery, which
is about 20 miles south from where I live in Scottsdale. I’ve thought
about visiting the gravesite many times, so decided to make that my 1st
major stop on a "first-motorcycle-ride-of-the-2017-year."
I
had read Waylon's autobiography in 2010 and he wrote that after he came
to Arizona in 1960 from Texas he started performing at the Galloping'
Goose Saloon in Coolidge. So on this ride, after visiting the
gravesite, I also planned to ride on to Coolidge and have lunch at the
Galloping' Goose. That would be my 2nd major stop.
Tom Mix, known as the first Hollywood cowboy star, also died in Arizona. After
Coolidge I planned to continue my ride south to the Tom Mix Monument,
about another 25 miles, this would be my 3rd, and last, major stop.
At the monument I would turn around and head home.
Those were the 3 major stops I wanted to focus on for this ride.
I decided to squeeze in three more stops that were on the way, the KCKW radio station where Waylon once worked as a disc jockey, a horse ranch owned by friends Ed and Kristen in Queen Creek, and the Casa Grande Ruins in Coolidge.
The
total ride for the day would be around 200 miles round trip and about 4
hours of actual riding on the road, and maybe 8+ hours total time
including stops for sightseeing, taking photos, lunch, gas, etc.
The map below is my planned route.
.jpg) |
| Above: Map of planned ride. |
March 2, 2017-The Ride Starts
A few days before my 76th birthday. I rented a 2017 Harley-Davidson Sportster Superlow 1200T from the Harley-Davidson of Scottsdale dealer. I’ve been renting this motorcycle model since 2015, they are a pleasure to ride, low seat height, windshield, saddlebags for carrying my stuff, ...and of course have that Harley rumble.
Jean dropped me off at the dealer around 9:00 am, the air temperature was 65F and forecast to be a high of 77F, nothing but blue skies, not a single cloud in sight. I loaded my cameras, tripod, water bottles, etc. in the saddlebags, hopped on the bike, turned the key in the ignition, checked all the gauges, shifted into 1st gear, said bye to Jean, and then headed south to Loop 101 to McDowell Road and east over to Alma School Road which would take me across the Salt River and into the city of Mesa for my first scheduled stop at the Waylon Jennings gravesite.
As I was riding across the bridge over the Salt River I was surprised to see there was rushing water in the normally dry riverbed. I found out later that the Salt River Project (SRP) had released 20,000 cubic feet per second of water from the Granite Reef Distribution Dam to reduce excess water that was due to snowmelt and storms earlier in the year.
This
part of the Salt River is normally dry because the diversion dam
diverts the river into canal systems where the water then flows into
metropolitan Phoenix for irrigation and drinking water. The diversion dam is where the Salt River, to paraphrase a Richard Thompson song, "runs out of road."
But
upstream of the diversion dam the Salt River is a normal flowing river,
I've kayaked there several times as it is excellent for kayaking. You
can kayak from the upstream Saguaro Lake Dam down to the Granite Reef Distribution Dam, a paddling distances of about 15 miles, which also includes a few small rapids.
That 15-mile section is where I've seen a lot of the free roaming horses know as the Salt River Wild Horses, an absolute amazing sight to see them in the river, especially when you are also in the river kayaking.
I took some time at the bridge to make a few photos of the river.
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| Above: Salt River below the Alma School Road Bridge. |
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| Above: Salt River downstream of the Alma School Road Bridge. |
Waylon Jennings's gravesite
After the stop at the Salt River for photos I rode on and about 15 minutes later I arrived at the entrance to the City of Mesa Cemetery (which is huge!) where Waylon Jennings was buried after passing away at the age of only 64. I rode inside the cemetery and parked across the road from his gravesite to view his headstone.
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| Above: Entrance to the Cemetery. |
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| Above: Waylon's headstone is where the red flowers are, bottom row. |
The black-polished-granite headstone is small, unassuming, and lays flat on the ground, if you didn't know it was there you wouldn't notice it. The headstone includes a visual image of Waylon, the famous Flying W emblem, and two inscriptions: “A vagabond dreamer, a rhymer and a singer of songs, a revolutionary in country music, beloved by the world,” and “I am my beloved’s. My beloved is mine. A loving son, husband, father and grandfather.”
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| Above: Waylon Jennings's headstone. |
On a side note, Jean and I attended Waylon's posthumous induction into the Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame (AMEHOF) in 2005. I was one of the AMEHOF staff photographers for the night. Waylon's wife Jessi Colter (a famous singer/songwriter in her own right, born and raised in the Phoenix area of Arizona) was also inducted that night.
Ed & Kristen's Horse Ranch
After
leaving
the Waylon Jennings gravesite I picked up Loop 202 and Ellsworth Road to
get to Ed & Kristen's ranch in the small town of Queen Creek, near
the San Tan Mountains.
Normally
freeways aren't especially interesting to ride (straight and lots of
traffic) but that 20-mile section of Loop 202 curves around from east to
south and is a pleasure to ride. And Ellsworth Road is also a nice
ride, 10 miles through a mostly rural area.
I worked with both Ed and Kristen at Honeywell before I retired in 2006. Although I've stayed in contact with them through a few emails, texts and lunches, I haven't been to their ranch in about 10 years. My plan was just to do a quick ride by, take a photo and email or text it to them with a message something like "Ha, ha, guess where I rode by today," and then continue my ride.
I parked in front of their ranch and took the following photo. I noticed one rider on a horse on the left side of their main gate, but it wasn’t anyone I recognized.
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| Above Ed and Kristen's ranch in Queen Creek. |
After I took the photo and went back to my bike I heard a voice call out “That looks like a Lowell Hollars on a Harley!” I looked around and there to my surprise stood Kristen walking down on the right side of the main gate, I had not noticed her before. I don’t know how she recognized me from the distance with all my motorcycle gear on, plus she had never seen me on a motorcycle. We chatted for a short time, I took a photo of her with my iPhone, and sent it to Ed who was at work that day.
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| Above: Kristen at her ranch. |
Both
Ed and Kristen were engineers at Honeywell and are interesting and fun
people. Kristen, who also breeds and raises Hanoverian horses, left
Honeywell three years after I left to spend more quality time with their
young son and also to open a related horse business offering Equine
Therapy.
One of Ed's passions has been his involvement in the
Chinese martial arts Qigong and he holds a high ranking. Ed has made
several trips to China to study this martial arts.
Ed and I (and
Kristen a few times) had many offsite lunches over the years, and even
attended noontime outdoor musical events held in downtown Phoenix on our
"extended" lunch breaks.
Arriving in Coolidge
I left Ed and Kristen's ranch around noon and headed south again, following Hunt Highway and Attaway Road. After about 25 miles I arrived in the small city of Coolidge (named for Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President) at the area where Waylon Jennings
worked at the KCKY radio station a short time as a disc jockey. I could
see the KCKY radio towers but the
side road that went to the radio studio was blocked off, so I didn't get
a close look at the radio station.
A side note, Lee
Hazlewood also once was a DJ at KCKW, and Duane Eddy graduated high
school in Coolidge. KCKW is where the two met, but that's another
story.
Casa Grande Ruins
I then continued on to the Casa Grande Ruins in Coolidge and arrived around 1 pm, Casa Grande is Spanish for Big House (or Great House). These ruins were built by ancient Sonoran people in the 14 century, but abandoned about a century later. Apparently little is known about these people as they left no writing behind.
I've
been to a few Arizona ruins, e.g., the Pueblo Grande Ruins in Phoenix,
Montezuma Castle near Camp Verde, Wupatki near Flagstaff; all with Jean,
and the Hohokam Indian Ruins in Tempe on a solo hike, but this was the first time to visit the Casa Grande ruins.
I paid the entrance fee, picked up some interesting literature, visited the visitor’s center, the bookstore and then did a self-guided tour to explore the ruins area, which covers 473 acres according to the literature, but I covered only a few acres.
It was well worth the stop, although I probably spent only 30+ minutes there. I did make a few photos, three shown below.
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| Above: Yours truly in front of the largest structure (4-stories high). Photo using my tripod. |
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| Above: A closer view showing some reinforcement repair work (the metal bar). |
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| Above: Small remains of a structure. |
Leaving the ruins and around 1:30 pm I arrived at Momma Juggs in Coolidge, a biker bar that has live music. I stopped only for a photo as I had read months earlier they closed due to some legal problems, but it appeared they were open for business. I would have gone in just to look around, but I was running late on my schedule. The online reviews of this place for food, drinks, music and just all around fun are favorable, so perhaps one of these days I can make another ride this way.
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| Above: Momma Juggs (my Harley on the right). |
Gallopin' Goose Bar and Grill
My
choice for lunch that day was the Gallopin' Goose Bar and Grill as I
have wanted to visit this place since reading Waylon’s autobiography.
The name change from "Saloon" to "Bar and Grill" came in 2016.
A few side comments on Waylon. Waylon lived in Arizona from 1960 to 1965 before he went to Nashville and became a national star.
Waylon and his last wife Jessi Colter moved back to Arizona in the early ’90s and were still living there when Waylon passed away in Chandler. Jessi still lives in Arizona, in Rio Verde, about 18 miles north of where I live. I’ve seen her perform many times at local venues for charity events over the years, and have taken quite a few photos of her performing.
Even though I
have seen Jessi perform live locally, I didn't become a fan until she
released her "Out of the Ashes" album in 2006, the song "Please Carry Me
Home," written and sung with Jessi and Waylon's son Shooter Jennings,
is my favorite on the album.
I’ve never seen Waylon in person except one time in passing at the Phoenix airport, I don’t recall the year, a long time ago, maybe the 1980s or 1990s.
I have seen Shooter
Jennings perform in Scottsdale once, and took photos of that night for
the Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame in 2006.
Waylon eventually left Coolidge and lived in both Phoenix and Scottsdale and performed at many local venues. In 1964 Waylon had a major break when a new nightclub was opened in the river bottom area on Scottsdale Road between Scottsdale and Tempe (just over the Tempe border) called JD’s. Waylon became the feature and mainstay artist at the two-story nightclub. He wrote in his autobiography that performing at JD's "was such a success, it put him on the map."
The
first album Waylon ever released was recorded in a Phoenix studio in
1964 and titled “Waylon at JD’s." That album is all covers but has some
good songs, like "Sally Was a Good Old Girl," which is my favorite song
on that album. I would have a hard time picking my all-time favorite
Waylon song, but "I've Always Been Crazy," or maybe "My World" might be it. Those are my choices at this writing anyway.
Back to my motorcycle ride. After leaving Momma Juggs and topping off my gas tank at the Circle K in Coolidge,
I rode over to the Galloping' Goose to have lunch. As the Gallopin’
Goose has live music I asked the bar girl if the current stage was the
one that Waylon performed on and she said "no, there has been a lot of remodeling since those days." The Gallopin’ Goose was featured on the TV show called Bar Rescue in 2016 and they did a lot of remodeling on the show. The name change from "Saloon" to "Bar and Grill" came as a result of this TV show.
The
place is larger today than the Waylon Jennings days, they’ve added more
indoor floor space plus an outdoor eating area. The TV show also added
a special wall showing Waylon Jennings memorabilia; photos of Waylon
(one with Buddy Holly, Waylon was playing bass for Buddy at the time
Buddy was killed), and a guitar.
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| Above: Gallopin' Goose Bar and Grill (my ride on the right), |
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| Above: Closer view of the Gallopin' Goose Bar and Grill sign. |
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| Above: Two signs inside. |
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| Above: Memorabilia wall. |
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| Above: Outside of Gallopin' Goose. |
On a side note, I later found out a motorcycle club by the name of "The Galloping Goose Motorcycle Club" was founded in 1942 in Los Angeles, but there is no connection between the Coolidge bar and the motorcycle club. I later also found out that "Galloping Goose" was the popular name given to a series of seven railcars built in the 1930s, starting in 1931, by the Rio Grande Southern Railroad and operated until the early 1950s, but again no connection with the Coolidge bar.
The
Gallopin’ Goose has a very rustic atmosphere and I sat at the bar, my
lunch was an excellent toasted BLT (juicy tomatoes, lots of crispy
bacon) and coleslaw, with an Arizona brew Four Peaks Kilt Lifter, my
beer of choice since from back in my working days at Honeywell. BLTs
are also a favorite of mine when I’m on the road, ...actually a favorite
anytime. The Gallopin’ Goose is a good place to stop when on a motorcycle ride and I hope to make it back someday.
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| Above: BLT lunch at Gallopin' Goose. |
After lunch I went outside and ran into a tall guy walking into the bar, for some reason he chatted me up, asked how I enjoyed the place, the weather and my ride, a very friendly guy. I didn’t recognize him but later got to thinking it might have been the bar owner as he also is a tall guy from what I remembered from the TV show.
Tom Mix Monument
After the chat with the tall guy, I mounted my bike and rode over to pick up SR 79 that would take me to the Tom Mix Monument. I’d visited the monument before in 1998 when Jean’s nephew and niece paid us a visit, so it wasn’t new to me, just a good turning around point for this ride, something to take a photo of. Motorcycles and cameras, what a great concept!
Tom Mix died before I was born and I don’t recall ever seeing a movie with him when I was growing up. But a few of the items written about him I’ve read are “he was Hollywood's first Western star and helped define the genre," "he was the screen's most popular cowboy star,” “he appeared in close to 300 films,” etc.
As
a kid I had heard of him of course, but didn’t start developing an
interest in him until after moving to Arizona and learning of his many
connections with Arizona; he lived here for awhile, rode many rodeos
here, made many of his movies here (at least 65 I've read), and as has
been written "rode into his last sunset in Arizona."
His stone monument is in a roadside pullout with
some shaded picnic tables. He
died close to this spot in 1940 when his car crashed into a dry riverbed
now known as Tom Mix Wash on the Google map. He is buried in California.
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| Above: Roadside pullout for Tom Mix Monument. |
A statue of a riderless horse marks the spot with a plaque which reads: “In memory of Tom Mix whose spirit left his body on this spot. And whose characterization and portrayals in life served to better fix memories of the old West in the minds of living men.”
The monument was originally erected in 1947 by the Pinal County Historical Society and is today an official Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) rest stop.
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| Above: The riderless horse. |
As I was leaving the monument I looked toward the south and in the far distances I could see snow on the Santa Catalina Mountains, which has an elevation of over 9,000 feet. That came as a pleasant surprise as the last thing I was expecting to see was snow since I was riding in the Sonoran Desert, the elevation I rode varied from only 1,200 to 2,400 feet. Seeing snow was my third pleasant surprise of the day, the first was the high water flow below the Granite Reef Distribution Dam, the second was running into Kristen at her ranch.
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| Above: Snow on the Santa Catalina Mountains in the distances. |
It was getting close to 4 pm when I turned around and started my ride home. I had chose a different route for my ride home, choosing to ride further east and through the town of Florence. I also wanted to ride by the Florence State Prison. This prison opened in 1908 to replace the aging Yuma Territorial Prison (remember the old "3:10 to Yuma" movie with Glenn Ford and Van Heflin?). I passed on taking photos at either place due to being behind on my time schedule.
After every motorcycle ride I always regret not making more photos, the one photo I regret not taking on this ride was a photo of the historic part of Florence. Oh well, next trip I will allow more time for photos, etc. In Florence I again topped off my gas tank, although I could probably have made it home without topping off.
This
route homeward (SR 79 and eventually US 60) included some new scenery,
beautiful views of the desert and cacti, including a pretty-good view of
the Superstition Mountains, a craggy, volcanic mountain range; and also
the location of the fabled Lost Dutchman Mine. When I reached the
community of Gold Canyon on US 60 I pulled off at S. Kings Ranch Road
(shown on the map at the start of this write-up) and took the following
photo of part of the mountains.
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| Above: Part of the Superstition Mountains, from US 60. |
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| Above: Talking Stick Resort. |
At home the following morning I took a photo of the Harley, topped off the gas tank and returned it to the dealer, and Jean picked me up.
An excellent 1-day motorcycle ride, I got to visit two places I've been thinking about for years, the Waylon Jennings gravesite and the Gallopin' Goose Bar and Grill, plus I had the three pleasant surprises I mentioned (rushing water in a normally dry river bed, snow on distant mountains, and running into Kristen). Also, the weather was perfect riding weather, the Harley ran like a dream, and I had an excellent lunch.
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| Above: The Harley in my driveway before returning it to the dealer. |
Miscellaneous Info
My
actual total miles (on the speedometer) for the ride was 205 miles, I
used 4.4 gallons of gas which is almost a full tank of gas for that
Harley (4.5 gallons capacity) and averaged 47.7 mpg. I spent $7.73
total for gas.
I had 3 cameras for this ride; my 2014 Panasonic Lumix LX100, my 2016 iPhone SE, and my 2016 Panasonic Lumix ZS50.
Almost all of the photos were taken with the ZS50. The only photo
taken with the iPhone was the one of Kristen. The few photos at the
ruins were with the LX100. I also had a tripod with me but didn't use
it much.
All of the above
photos (and a few more) can also be found in my Google Photos album in
higher resolution at https://goo.gl/photos/4FYf3dxjSNvnvusg8
This ends the ride report.
----------------------------
The following is NOT part of this motorcycle ride, just some random
thoughts that came to mind while writing this trip report...to be deleted.
(1)
Tom Mix was a hero of Rodd Wolff, a Hollywood stuntman/actor and friend
of mine In the early 1980s Jock Mahoney (another Hollywood
stuntman/actor) and Hollywood stuntman Rex Rossi planned to produce a
movie about the Life of Tom Mix starring Rodd, but Rodd told me the
movie fell through due to lack of finances. Rodd has a huge photo of
Tom Mix in his Phoenix shop.
(2) Rodd has been in several movies but the role I liked him in the best was the 1981 Masterpiece Theater production of "Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years." Rodd was referred to as Warner in the movie but the credits lists him simply as "The Cowboy," Rodd modeled his outfit after the outfits worn by his fancy-dress cowboy hero Tom Mix, crescent-pocket shirts, embroidered boots, etc. Rodd has a scene where he rides through the desert in Monument Valley being chased by Indians, gets shot with an arrow and does a horse fall stunt.
I was creating a Wikipedia page on Rodd in 2016 and asked him if he had one stuntman/acting memory that stood out above all the others in his 50-year career. He thought for a few seconds and said “Probably the time I did some acting/stunt riding in a 1981 TV mini-series on Winston Churchill called Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years, riding my horse Twerp in Monument Valley was really a thrill for me, thinking about all the great Western movies that had been made there, the absolute beauty of the place."
Attached are a few low-resolution frame-grabs from the film.
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| Above: Rodd Wolff in a chase scene in Monument Valley. |
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| Above: Rodd Wolff in a chase scene in Monument Valley |
(3) One of my favorite images of Tom Mix is the painting (based on an actual photo) titled "Hellbent for Leather" by Denny Karchner, from https://karchnerwesternart.com/portfolio-item/tom-mix-hell-bent-leather-1928/ and shown below.
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| Above: Painting "Hell Bent for Leather." |
(4) Many years before this 2017 motorcycle ride my 2005 New Year’s
Resolution was to read a Zane Grey novel, I felt that I should do that
since I lived in Arizona and Zane Grey had spent a lot of time in
Arizona and many of his novels were set in Arizona. I chose Grey’s 1912
“Riders of the Purple Sage” for no special reason I can recall, maybe because 1912
was the year Arizona became a state, maybe some other reason. This novel was later made into a 1925 movie starring Tom Mix.
(5) There’s a restaurant in Cave Creek called Bryan's Black Mountain Barbecue where I’ve
been a few times for live music, cold Four Peaks Kilt Lifter beer and outstanding BBQ, they have
a nice wall poster of Tom Mix from his 1926 “The Great K&A Train
Robbery” movie. The following photo I took one night.
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| Above: Tom Mix movie poster at Bryan's Black Mountain BBQ. |
Complete write-up and photos will be added when I get some time. 10-11-19 motorcycle ride to Payson, Arizona. Had breakfast at the Crosswin...
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