May 12, 2005

Three Princes Hit Kingman

Four days into this part of the trip and I have 400+ images, 2000+ bugs on each fork of my bike, 800+ exhilarating moments behind an eighteen wheeler's turbulence, 150 worries that I may have another flat, and an unlimited number of great memories.  I would be taxed greatly to recall them all.

Don had to handle business via Fed Ex before we could leave Tucson. He had arranged for a package to arrive early, sign the papers, and send them back.  If life was easy, we'd be bored to death and probably be like the dairy cattle we saw west of El Paso...smelly and worth nothing more than was 'udderly' possible.  At any rate, he handled the business promptly and we hit the road to Kingman at 10:15 am.

The trip to Kingman had many qualities - good pavement, great scenery, unbelievable blue skies and horrendous traffic.  I was reminded of IH 35 near San Antonio and points north...NASCAR with no one possessing a yellow flag.  Somewhere north of Wickenburg the road narrowed to a typical Texas ranch road without shoulders and the ride, because of the traffic, became a contest...could I make it to Kingman or would Kingman annex the territory to include my remains.

The three of us ( Gary , Don, Jake ) rode on fearlessly through Phoenix [I must add that fearless was meant to include Jake and me...Don was in the truck sucking up goodies my wife sent along for all of us.  His fear was that we would get so far ahead of him that he'd run out of snacks before we found him on a backtrack].  I truly jest as you should know by know.

We hit Phoenix about noon...a good thing.  I will never live in, drive through, fly over, think of, nor wonder about a city that covers an area the size of the San Antonio-Austin corridor on IH 35.  I t seemed to take forever and the stop lights seemed ( NO..NOT SEEMED, WERE!) timed to make us stop at each one.  It was obviously planned as a road tax as there were numerous police collecting taxes at the side of the road.  It would be much more efficient if they made it a toll road.  Go figure. Too many small, local communities needing money for speed bumps instead of good schools.

We finally escaped this environment and continued north on US 60.  It was a glorious ride through the Joshua tree forest on US 60/93.  We made good time in spite of a 15 minute stop waiting for some construction delays.  The hills and the surrounding mountains gave us tremendous views of the country.  We were alternately hit with warm blasts  from the tarmac below and an occasional waft of cool air from the arroyos to the left and right.

The three Princes without credentials finally arrived at Kingman.  We unpacked, had dinner, told lies (never an end to them) and crashed.  The life of a Prince on two wheels is a hard life.  We needed sleep...don't you know.

Here's a few pictures of no special note (Full Album Here):