Words and photos by JK
Sunday July 20th. The ride up to the Grand Canyon was very pretty and Jax urged me on to ever greater speeds on this empty road. Honestly officer, it was all her fault! I was pretty shocked as she usually puts some strict controls on my distance and speed but I guess she was seeing why sports bikes exist: to cure all known illnesses! Wahoooo. We paid our $12.00 each (why don’t bikes get better prices since we take up less room?) and pulled over to chat to some Harley riders queued up at the side of the road just past the pay cabin. They were from Austria so I got to chat to them in German. The poor guy could not work out how a Canadian/Brit in America could speak Bavarian-German with an English accent using Austrian Zillertal slang. All of a sudden a park ranger patrol truck stopped in the other lane (blocking all traffic behind him), and yelled through a loudspeaker “All bikers return to your bikes immediately”. What? Was he mad? An Austrian chap walked over and, sounding like Arnold Schwarzeneger, asked what the problem was. We were not impeding anyone. The Ranger told him “You are committing an offence by walking over here”. Baffled the Austrian returned to us and passing comments about never allowing any American male to have a badge we all rode off. I managed to slip the leader my card and hope to hear from him soon. They were very experienced travelers.
What can one say about the Grand Canyon? It is awesome and I do not use that word like your average USA teen. It is so overwhelmingly grand that after an hour or so one is ‘awed-out’…
We saw a cute little squirrel eating pine nuts and Kleenex tissues! We guessed it was preparing a nest. How tasty can a used Kleenex be? Better than Cheerios I suppose. As rain threatened yet again we decided to head out for Flagstaff. It’s funny how the memory plays tricks on you. I remembered seeing Hwy180 east signposted to Flagstaff very close to the Grand Canyon entrance and well north of Williams. But riding back south towards Williams it seemed forever until we got to the Flagstaff turn off. At that junction I topped up the R1, looked askance at the lowering sky and hit the throttle hard towards Flagstaff. We did get wet again. And cold. But that run was very good fun! The first motel with a Jacuzzi got our vote and it was very conveniently situated for eating and getting off to Sedona the next morning. After thawing out in the spa (and laughing at this cute little boy dive-bombing his siblings in the pool) we found an Olive Garden to eat. Well, we actually found a freezer masquerading as a place for people to sit and eat until the icicles on their arms prevented the lifting of cutlery. Americans seem immune to this phenomenon. My guess is that a restaurant has 15 seconds to trap its customers (much like a stand at an exhibition) so the sudden effects of super cool temperatures after the blazing heat makes them quickly decide in favour of that place out of blessed relief. 15 minutes later they are frozen to their chairs and going nowhere until they pay up. The manager explained that they have no control over the heating/cooling. The food was great and the staff tried so hard to please us at a busy time. I guess that’s what one wants…that and non-arctic temperatures.
Now my real rant begins. My rant at Flagstaff. This town is NOT pretty. Railroad meets loggers meets cowboys. No chance. Pity, because the town is set in a wonderful place with lovely forests, skiing in winter, and spectacular settings close by. At 11:20pm, just as sleep was essential, they started. The jack-hammers outside the motel. I asked them what the deal was as the whole blasted street was motels and there were people pouring out of their rooms in disbelief. Out-of-town contractors. Town Hall instructions to drill and hammer all night because there was too much traffic in the day. But the road would still be coned off next morning so why bother at night? There is a serious shortage of brains at Flagstaff’s City Hall obviously. A different room helped ease the pain. I chalked it all up to a minor “adventure” and a good excuse for another rant about humans being the worst thing to happen to earth. I’m such a pleasant fellow…
What can one say about the Grand Canyon? It is awesome and I do not use that word like your average USA teen. It is so overwhelmingly grand that after an hour or so one is ‘awed-out’…
We saw a cute little squirrel eating pine nuts and Kleenex tissues! We guessed it was preparing a nest. How tasty can a used Kleenex be? Better than Cheerios I suppose. As rain threatened yet again we decided to head out for Flagstaff. It’s funny how the memory plays tricks on you. I remembered seeing Hwy180 east signposted to Flagstaff very close to the Grand Canyon entrance and well north of Williams. But riding back south towards Williams it seemed forever until we got to the Flagstaff turn off. At that junction I topped up the R1, looked askance at the lowering sky and hit the throttle hard towards Flagstaff. We did get wet again. And cold. But that run was very good fun! The first motel with a Jacuzzi got our vote and it was very conveniently situated for eating and getting off to Sedona the next morning. After thawing out in the spa (and laughing at this cute little boy dive-bombing his siblings in the pool) we found an Olive Garden to eat. Well, we actually found a freezer masquerading as a place for people to sit and eat until the icicles on their arms prevented the lifting of cutlery. Americans seem immune to this phenomenon. My guess is that a restaurant has 15 seconds to trap its customers (much like a stand at an exhibition) so the sudden effects of super cool temperatures after the blazing heat makes them quickly decide in favour of that place out of blessed relief. 15 minutes later they are frozen to their chairs and going nowhere until they pay up. The manager explained that they have no control over the heating/cooling. The food was great and the staff tried so hard to please us at a busy time. I guess that’s what one wants…that and non-arctic temperatures.
Now my real rant begins. My rant at Flagstaff. This town is NOT pretty. Railroad meets loggers meets cowboys. No chance. Pity, because the town is set in a wonderful place with lovely forests, skiing in winter, and spectacular settings close by. At 11:20pm, just as sleep was essential, they started. The jack-hammers outside the motel. I asked them what the deal was as the whole blasted street was motels and there were people pouring out of their rooms in disbelief. Out-of-town contractors. Town Hall instructions to drill and hammer all night because there was too much traffic in the day. But the road would still be coned off next morning so why bother at night? There is a serious shortage of brains at Flagstaff’s City Hall obviously. A different room helped ease the pain. I chalked it all up to a minor “adventure” and a good excuse for another rant about humans being the worst thing to happen to earth. I’m such a pleasant fellow…
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