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55th Class Reunion on a Two-Wheeled SUV |
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Home Page 55th Class Reunion on a Two-Wheeled SUV: A Two-Wheeled What? Laying On the Utility Thinking Small for a Big Trip Day 1: Tucson to Las Cruces Day 2: The Road to Santa Rosa Day 3: Kittycorner to Kansas Days 4 and 5: Wet Wichita, Sunny St. Joseph Day 6: This Way to Humboldt Enjoying Humboldt (Iowa) Gas Tank Blackjack The Real Kansas in Technicolor A Liberal Dose of Memories Holbrook? How Did We Wind Up In Holbrook? Painted, Petrified, and Perfect The Home Home Stretch |
The Home Home Stretch
Day 8 of return: Holbrook to Tucson, end of trip! Much of northern Arizona is 5,000 or 6,000 feet above sea level (the Painted Desert Visitor Center is at 5,770 feet), so there are long stretches of pine scenery. This blessing became, for a while in 2002, a towering inferno, when massive forest fires threatened towns along the way. Show Low, in particular, was in the news. Nonetheless, green, untouched forests still dominate the scenery most of the way. Then, somewhere between Show Low and Globe, the road dives into Salt River Canyon. There are eight consecutive miles of steep grade, replete with "runaway truck" pullouts and sharp turns. (Uh, huh, "TWISTIES"! But I won't pretend that I treated them as such.) After crossing the river, the road goes right back up, climbing the south side of the canyon. I'm not sure whether it regains the original altitude, or nets out to be the first installment of descent from the Mogollon Rim. In any case, Globe is at elevation 3,500, and much of Tucson is at 2,400. Back in Tucson, I feel like the Hobbit upon return from his adventures in the Lands to the East. (No scheming relatives, though, have taken over my abode, in fact it hasn't even been burgled, and of course the motorcycle has been with me for safekeeping.) Now I'm content to relax and be a homebody. Adventure? No, thank you, and GOOD DAY! By which, as Gandalf might observe, I mean, "The thought of it makes me quite uncomfortable, please BUZZ OFF!" And yet, by summer of 2005, all that I'll remember are the moments of good, clean fun, and my tune will change: On the road again, Not the end if I can help it! |
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