Earache

That's the truth! But it made beers by the pool so much better...

Ridden PCH quite a few times. It's not all that great - but if ya wanna ride next to the ocean then that's what ya have to do. Ride report with pics here:

Just one day, that's all I want. Just one day when I can go outside and not be under some threat of imminent death from an animal, weather or some shit....

That's it. About 3,500 miles over 6 days of riding. It was fun and I can't wait to do it again.

Todd dropped me at my house and then blasted east to try to get ahead of the incoming storm. He got down the mountains just before the shit hit at my house ....

Next morning we stopped at our friend's house to pick up the truck and trailer and load the bikes....

Made to Grand Junction for dinner - but beers got in the way of that again. Hit a Irish type place called The Goat Tavern ....

Our last day of riding turned out to be a long one. We hadn't wanted to do it but decided halfway through to just do it. 780 miles from Las Cruces, NM to Grand Junction, Colorado. Not gonna do that again ...

We were far enough north and at a higher elevation so the snow starts to return and the temps are down to the low 50'sF / 10C. Saw a few forest fires / prescribed burns in the distance...

This road made the whole ride down here worthwhile ...

It just never ends ...

The road snaked it's way north for about 170 miles with no stops along the way. Almost ran outta fuel but it was a fun ride....

Then we headed north again on a good twisty mountain road. The road surface was kinda fucked up due to the heat - had lots of tar strips and patches but the ADV bikes soaked up the imperfections without too much issue. Would have sucked on a crusier type bike...

Headed back north and stopped off to see Todd's grandfather in Safford, AZ . Nice place to spend eternity ....

A mile or two outta town and we've gone as far south as we can as we hit the wall at the border with Mexico ....

Saw this cool old steel entrance door. Almost looked like the top of an old stamped steel coffin. Very cool ...

Not a lot happening here but some nice older architecture. Most of the town is just kind of over run with hippie types, not doing much of anything . Pretty stark contrast to the last time I was here about 30 years ago. It was a vibrant little town then....

Next day and we head further south to the old border town of Bisbee, AZ ...

To soothe my pain, we're off to the hotel bar and then a fine dining experience at the restaurant. As usual, we got drunk at the bar and never made it to the restaurant. Maybe tomorrow night....

Had a bit of an injury on this trip. I'd like to say it was a result of staving off a tank slapper with my superior riding skills while doing 135 mph through a tight sweeper. But the truth is a bit more mundane - I slipped in the bath tub and biffed my arm on the way down. Fuckin' hurt!

Relief wasn't far off though as we made it to our hotel north of Tucson ...

Stopped by a reservoir for break and it was officially hot as fuck out -105F / 42C. Had us rethinking our decision to ride Arizona. Heat was hitting hard as I was still used to below freezing temperatures of home ...

Passed by an old schoolhouse in Strawberry . Not open so I shot through the windows ....

And then up into the hills of AZ ...

Blasted through Jerome, AZ - a hillside town full of shops and galleries ....