Day Eighteen of the CCC trip

Dano says:
I must say the hotel was nice and offered a free sit down breakfast in their restaurant. We got our moneys worth, loaded up and got the hell out of Dodge, I mean Tuba City. As we were gassing up to leave we spied this sign across the street and I thought that Bucket was going to pass out from excitement.

A few miles out of town I spied a dinosaur foot print park, I made a detour into the park. I mean, how often do you get to see actual dinosaur foot prints?


As we parked the bikes near a few make shift stands we were approached by a little Native American woman. She was all smiles and energetic to show us the park filled with foot prints. We had a good half hour hour showing us the area when she dropped the bombshell on us.....that she gets 20 dollars per tour. WHAT? Damn little hustler...We argued for a few minutes but couldn't resist her till then humor and charm. It still burned me that she took us for some money, I guess we were suckers for a cute smile. Off to the Grand Canyon we go.

At the entrance of the Grand Canyon we were behind a car, this car was being driven by a man with his family in the car. This family was very religious, or so they made themselves out to be, because they had all types of window/bumper stickers to prove so. At the guard shack we noticed the man in the car shouting to the Park ranger that she was going to hell and other stuff. She was in tears and saying to please have a good day and move on, but the family wasn't having none of that and continued to dog her. After a few moments they moved on, wow I guess these freaks believe in WWJD. Way to hold their tongues. We paid and drove through as she apologized, we told her it wasn't her it wasn't necessary and entered the park. For those that haven't been to the Grand Canyon it is a must see, must do place. It is hard to describe, it has to be seen to appreciate. I'll let the pics tell the story.




















We started at the east side and worked our way west, from there we went south towards Flagstaff. We pulled over once to get some cold/wet weather gear on because it wasnt looking good ahead and the temps were dropping as we gained elevation. At a gas stop in Flagstaff we decided that we didn't want to have a repeat of last night and bought our bourbon right then and there. With that taken care of we set off onto Hwy 89 towards Sedona, Arizona. I will admit that it is a sweet road, but we got caught behind a slow moving traffic train of cars, BUMMER. I recall passing the spot that DirtMcGirt took his underwear swimming slip slide excursion. I also have never seen or smelled many dead skunks along the side of the road as we did on the 89. After we passed most of the traffic in town we decided to continue onto Prescott. Onward Ho.
Lets just start the next part by prefacing that I know from a LOT of reading and friends that Arizona is strict on speeders and likes to write up tickets. So with that in mind, we headed up the hill to Jerome. I was in the lead and we kept a legal speed going up the hill enjoyed the sights. As we got close to the bottom of town we came upon a slow moving car, a white Camry or something of that make. It was driven by a white older woman and there was some type of "Justice, Liberal, political b.s." on the bumper. I can still see her looking in the side view mirror with a scowl at us. Before we got into town the posted speed limit was 35MPH, she made the point to slam on the brakes and slowed to 25MPH. Now for those that haven't been through Jerome, let me tell you it is steep and full of switchbacks. It takes forward motion to keep bikes upright and this hag was doing everything in her power to piss me off. At stop signs we had to stop and then take off from severe inclines, after a few turns she went the opposite way we did. With the psycho driver out of the way, we sat waiting at a construction one way section before we could exit town. Not once did we break a law, we just took it slow and tried to enjoy the town and its sights. When we got out of town a few miles we were fortunate to be in no traffic and twisty roads again. It felt good to finally be moving again and even a compact truck turned off the road to allow us the lead. A good FIVE miles out of town I looked back in the mirror to check up on my mates and was rewarded with seeing some fast approaching flashing blue lights. Huh? I wonder who he is after I thought? I slowed down to let him pass to go catch whoever he was after, to my surprise he pulled in behind us. WTF? We pulled into a large pull out and got off the bikes. Cop dude looked pissed until we all pulled off our helmets and exposed ourselves as old white dudes. I had to ask, "Whats the problem?". He said, "You were speeding and tailgating a car". I said, "What CAR?", as there wasn't one in sight for miles. He replied, "You were speeding in town and tailgating a car and another officer saw you". I asked, "Who is the accuser, we have the right to know my accuser". He says, " I cant tell you, its for their safety/protection". He asked us for our Id's and registrations, with all of that in hand he went back to the car and in his words, "I'm gunna check to see if these bikes are stolen or ok". He also informed us that we were going to get speeding tickets because some other cop saw us earlier, I was stewing thinking about it sitting there. After the wait he came back and handed our papers back and sent us on our way WITHOUT tickets. NICE, thanks to my OZ mates I got out of another ticket because of them. "Slow down and don't speed", he barks and tears off in his car. Now riddle me this, can a CITY cop of Jerome issue tickets 5-6 miles outside the city limit? And give a ticket when he or she didn't witness the event? That stop still pisses me off, I know it was the stupid biotch that was going 25MPH in her Camry up through town. She had to be the one to call us in and complain about the 3 black leather clad whipper snapper sport bike riders terrorizing the town. By the look she gave us in the rear-view/side-view mirrors it was obvious it was her and she had some type of political tie in the city. So heed my warning, piss on Jerome ,Arizona. Don't stop or spend and time or money there, tread lightly and go elsewhere....bunch of jerks. Rant off.

Ok, with the cop stop behind us, we were SO fortunate to have a flatbed tow truck pass us just as we were about to exit onto the road. DAMN IT. With no passing zones available I didn't risk getting a ticket after our last run in. The douche driver of the tow truck never pulled over to let us and the line of cars behind him pass. I so seriously just wanted to get the hell off the 89 for the night. We arrived in Prescott just after dark and got two rooms at Motel 6. Bikes unpacked and us cleaned up we went to grub out at JB's. We all had a few brews and enjoyed a nice dinner then walked across the parking lot to the rooms. A few bourbons were enjoyed because we were on our last night on the CCC trip. I racked out early because I knew tomorrow was going to be hot and a long ride home.



miles traveled for the day=260

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