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.
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| 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. |
The Gallopin' Goose was established in 1935 but other than that I don’t know much about the history of the bar or how it got its name. There were quite a few motorcycles there that day, as shown below.
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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. |
Heading Home
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.
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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. |
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