Post CCC Trip

Dano says:
I would like to say...thanks to everyone that participated in the CCC Trip in any way. I had lots of help directly and indirectly. There are a lot of great people out there that just want to help, my hat goes off to you.

The day after we returned back to my place, we ran to Chaparral Motorsports and to get Chewie a pair of American cowboy boots. With the clothes washed and everything all packed, me and the fellas loaded up in Marks truck and met some of the SoCal guys at a restaurant. We had a few hours to kill before the Aussies took off so we decided to have dinner and drinks. After we finished dinner, we dropped the fellas off at LAX and checked them in. As I was leaving the terminal, I was standing on a balcony overlooking them as they went through security. Guess what I yelled...AUSSIE, AUSSIE, AUSSIE, OUI, OUI, OUI. Ah the look on Buckets face was worth it.

I had the time of my life and I wouldn't have changed a thing. I hope you enjoy the blog as much as I had living it. Life is short, get out, make memories and see the planet. Take care 'till next time y'all.

Day Nineteen of the CCC trip

Dano says:
Knock Knock Knock, was the way I woke up in Prescott, Az. Bucket did his morning rituals and woke us up. Since we enjoyed the food last night at JB's so much we went for breakfast because it was so readily accessible. I tore up the breakfast bar and got my share of biscuits and gravy, and lets not forget the bacon.....who can forget the bacon. With a nice sunny morning overhead we scrambled out of town. The remainder of the 89 is nice and goes on for days, but so does the long arm of the law. They were scattered through the road and made it impossible to have any fun(at least without tickets). We stopped once or twice for water and gas before we hit the I-10. There wasn't a lot to see except for the wide open hot vast desert. There was one location where Chewie wanted to ride the RC51. It was on a open stretch highway that Chewie felt the 51 come to life and really opened her up. Go Chewie Go!!! After a few miles of that his back had enough and me and Bucket traded so that we all ended up on different bikes. I rode the Hawk, Bucket on the 51 and Chewie on the Sprint. We passed the entrance to Joshua Tree State Park because all of us just wanted the ride/day to be over with. It always seems like that, when you are close to home, that's the only place you want to be. We had a gas stop in Palm Springs to notify Buckets relative that we wouldn't be stopping as we were pressed for time. Just outside Morongo near the wind turbine farms we ran into some serious wind. It was blowing head on into us and it was some of the strongest wind I have experienced on a bike. WOW! it was bad, a great way to end our trip. NOT
After we got back to my place we shook hands and thanked God for the wonderful trip and that it went off without any real problems. We unloaded the bikes and went upstairs to clean up and relax. Time to get our drink on.


miles traveled for the day=440

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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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Day Seventeen of the CCC trip

Dano says:
With a huge day looming over us that consisted of Monument Valley, Gooseneck Park and Mexican Hat rock I got up extra early. I wanted to get some pictures of the the famous Mexican Hat rock in the rising sunlight.





I also wanted to get pics in of the surrounding area because of the stunning rock colors. It was about 15 to 20 minutes before sun rise and Chewie was still outta it when he got on the bike, how did I know? Well when we left the parking lot he proceeded to ride in the left lane....his sleeping brain was still in Australia and the wrong side of the road...haha. Well we were treated to some stunning views and got great pics of the area.















After a gas station breakfast we zipped outta town headed to Goosenecks State Park. What an up close and personal look at what a river can do.






Once we had our fill of that, we blasted, (well Bucket and Chewie did) up the Mugi highway. Reading the reports on this road are a little misleading, it is a fine road for all bikes, it was easily navigated and provides for some spectacular views.






With those two places done we went back to the hotel and loaded up and headed into Monument Valley. I expected to see cowboys and Indians or Wile Coyote and the Road Runner at any moment, but didn't. What I did see is the famous stretch of road that is in Forrest Gump. Its the spot where he stops his running, turns around and goes home. I did get to see the landscape that I have seen for decades in movies, it was nice to see it in person.








We stopped at one spot to take pictures and started talking to a German couple. Two out of the three bikes were Honda V-twins and the German dude starts smack talking about Triumph triples and that V-twins are the best, Ducati, BMW twins this and that blah blah blah. The dude was talking all type of smack and didn't even know what a RC51 or VTR 1000 was. I wanted to slap him. After that and a few other photo detours we set sail towards Tuba City. When we pulled into Kayenta, Arizona we decided to chow some Subway. While doing so it was determined that all of our clothes were just a little funky, sooooo we did laundry and tried to get a haircut, no dice on the haircut as the waiting line was four hours. With our clothes all fresh we bounced out of town with visions of beers at nightfall. We rolled into town and found some rooms. Chewie and me went out after we unpacked to try to round up some beers to enjoy in the room. As we went down Main St. on our search for beers we came to a deserted intersection. Imagine this, tumbleweeds being blown across the street, dust in the air, and cattle walking along the street and sidewalks eating grass. It was a sight to see, made me feel like i was in the wild west, haha. Guess what....we found out that we were holed up in the smack dab middle of a Reservation. And guess what they DONT allow on the Reservation? That's right, fire water, AKA, beers, alcohol. DAMN. So we faced the fact that we weren't going to be imbibing tonight so off to have a culinary experience. I took the fellas to an American Classic, Taco Bell. With their taste buds exploding, I made them try an carmel-apple empanada, they thanked me afterwards. Off to the hotel we walked, the day was done.


miles traveled for the day=160

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