Day 5 - Casa Grande, AZ

Day 5 puts me in Casa Grande to visit and stay with Joanie, Jason, Jessica and her boys. It’s great having a GF from AZ that still has family living in the Southwest for places that I can visit and stay. Tonight is a short stay since I need to be in San Diego tomorrow which I just realized with this writing that it’s already Saturday morning. I’ve already got my days mixed up cuz it doesn’t feel like a Saturday, but then again I couldn’t tell you what kind of day it feels like. Anyway, I get to write this blog about yesterdays adventure after having some of Joanie’s awesome biscuits and sausage gravy. I normally don’t order that kind of meal for breakfast, but this breakfast was awesome.

So for day 5’s ride from Alamogordo NM to Casa Grande AZ all I kept thinking is how much I enjoy riding in these parts given the nice warm sunny weather. I did start out with a jacket since the desert heat wasn’t as full as it eventually turned out to be, but it was off pretty quick after my first stop at the Harley shop in Las Cruces. I figured it eventually be off the road I was traveling and even though I missed the exit and had to wait until the next one, you can’t miss this shops with the high signs they always have since most of us are looking for stops like this along the way. Nothing like meeting some other friendly bike enthusiasts and telling them about the travels.

From there it was more barren land with a lot of signs warning of dust storms with warnings not to stop in the driving lanes when the visibility is low. I have ran into that with thunderstorms that you want to make sure to get far enough off the road, but I couldn’t imagine a dust storm. Thankfully the winds were light and there were no signs of dust blowing in the area. I did try to capture the pic of my entry in to Arizona and this state did decide to announce your arrival. Well, ok, I was also watching the mile markers and knew when I was close after seeing the 1 mile marker. And for anyone who doesn’t realize that’s what those signs along the road with numbers are for, and believe me I’ve heard of some people that don’t know, those are the mile markers for the state from border to border. When entering a state I do get an idea of how far it’ll be before I get to the next. Lesson number 3 with being able to read a map.

That reminds me of something I forgot to mention with Day 3’s ride from Oklahoma City, Guthrie OK to Alamogordo NM and that is how strong the sun is in these parts. I thought about putting sunscreen on before leaving, but thought I’d wait and guess what, I waited a bit too long that I did get a burn. Not too bad to be able to manage, but now I am making sure I always lube up before the days travel and for today’s ride to San Diego, I can already tell it’ll be a hot one.

So back to yesterdays ride, while at a gas stop, one of the few along the route I did run into a group of bikers that I asked where they were heading and they told me Tombstone. Well, once I found out that was only 27 miles out of my way and I only had another 3 hours to get to Casa Grande, I figured I should make a stop there myself and I’m glad I did. This place was really cool, a traditional downtown with many of  the original buildings and so many people dressed for the times. There were cowboys, the law and the ladies of the night all over the place. It reminded me a lot of visiting Deadwood in South Dakota, but even more back in the time since they haven’t replaced a lot of the original sites with new buildings. I could definitely see spending a night or two there and partying for a weekend dressed as a cowboy. I guess for today I did fit in even though I was walking around in a leather jacket and biker garb.

From there it was another warm ride to Casa Grande that I really got heated in Tucson that I had to pull over at one of the easy off easy on exits pretty quick before getting lost in the traffic that was flying by. No where to pull over for a rest stop or even on the side of the road cuz people sure drive fast around here, which works well for me since I do the same with the bike. That’ll be a different story when I get to Mexico, but for now I’m just trying to get to my destinations with last nights ending on a great note, another hour out of the way since I was in AZ and gained another hour and a wonderful homemade meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans and some Corona’s to wash them down. It doesn’t get much better than that. Thanks much to Joanie, Jason, Jessica and the boyz for their wonderful hospitality. It’ll be great maybe being able to spend a little more time with them on my return trip without having to pack up and ride off right away. 

My last day of riding in the states before I cross the border. Stay tuned. 

Day 5 Casa Grande and Tombstone pics