Picto Diary - 22 April 2016 - Gouldings, Monument Valley
On the road... On the Duc... Mesquite, NV. 22 April 2016.
Mr. Z3 points to a politically charged message on a moving van in Mesquite, NV, Best Western Motel parking lot.
Earlier, at motel reconstituted egg breakfast, Mr. Z3 and Mwah (sic) had been exchanging Draayer stories.
One, which occurred over ten years ago, nearby:
We had been doing 80 in a 70 thru the AZ section of northbound I 15.
A Mercedes roadster, driven by a woman, flashed by doing 100. Chris rolled it on...we followed... he caught up and road, in tandem, to the Mercedes' left. Mr. Z3 and Mwah (sic) followed. At 100 mph he started giving the woman little waves and high signs. She sped up to 110. So did Chris. Finally she slowed to near speed limit and we sped on our way.
On the road... On the Duc... St. George, UT. 22 April 2016
Mr Z3 needed a phone charger. So we stopped in St. George, UT after riding I 15, the spectacular Virgin River Gorge, north from Mesquite, NV.
Draayer story again:
10 or so years ago Draayer, Elk, Mr Z3, and Mwah (sic) stopped at a Texaco north of Flagstaff, AZ. Draayer asked the female convenience store sales clerk if they had any petite sized condoms. The clerk, and everybody near by, broke into guffahs.
On the road...On the Duc. Jacob Lake, AZ. 22 April 2016.
Four years ago, 20 miles west of here on US 89A, got a speeding ticket riding the previous owned Duc Multistrada. There was no shoulder on the road...and, I don't stop in dangerous places...so, I slowed and I rode on, waving to the trooper to follow me. About a mile down the road there was a pull out. The cop...60 something... was livid. He chewed me out for not stopping immediately. I told him I didn't do unsafe stops in highway lanes with fast traffic. He angrily wrote me up and went on his way.
Mr. Z 3 motorcycle story:
Once Mr. Z3 shared a cabin on a ferry across the sea of Cortez, from Guymas to Santa Rosalita. I was up all night, on a heavy sea, up chucking my Guymas consumed tacos.
Above: Contrails above where Vermillion Cliffs meet the Kiabab Plateau. US 89A. Arizona Strip, AZ. 22 April 2016.
Tic tac toe in the sky.
Image by Mr. Z3.
On the road... On the Duc...Mr. Z 3. Navajo Bridge, AZ. US 89A. 22 April 2016.
Mr. Z3 basks in the sun on the original Navajo Bridge at Marble Canyon. Five miles upstream, on the Colorado River is Lees Ferry, where travelers crossed the river before Navajo Bridge was completed for traffic use in 1929.
A new bridge runs just adjacent, downstream. Sometimes California condors are seen perched on the girders of the new bridge. We didn't spot any today.
In the 1890's my great grandparents, Abel Alexander DeWitt and Caroline Skousen DeWitt traveled by wagon from Eager, AZ, more than three hundred miles south of this point, to cross the Colorado River at Lees Ferry, and continue their travels to Salt Lake City, a further 375 miles north from Lees Ferry, to be married in the Salt Lake LDS temple.
Another Mr. Z 3 story:
2001. Riding the Duc ST in France with Mr. Z3, on a beemer. Paris. Went to Jo Goldenberg's deli in the Marais. Eggs and bagel. French guy comes up and says hello. Introduces himself as .....Jo Goldenberg. We invited him to sit and he told us, in French, the whole grisly story of the 1982 terrorist attack by the Abu Nidal organization, which resulted in the death of six, including two Americans.
Above: Mr Z3 and Duc. Arizona Strip Vista, looking west. From US 89.
Distance: Kaibab Plateau. Right. Vermillion Cliffs. Center "line:" Colorado River canyon, 49 miles upstream from start of Grand Canyon.
Mr. Z3 motorcycle story:
Circa 2003, Mr. Z 3 and Mwah shared a room at the Post Hotel in Lake Louise, Alberta. My gold wedding band was missing from the room. On departure from the hotel, I told the hotel manager that I "misplaced my ring." I was in John Day, OR, when three days later the Post Hotel manager called me to say that my ring had been "found."
Above: On the road... On the Duc... Gouldings Trading Post, Monument Valley, UT. 22 April 2016.
Cocktail hour on the deck outside the room.
Mr. Z3 and the Bishop swap motorcycle stories.
2001. Mr. Z3 and Camarillo were supposed to meet me one evening at the Post Hotel in St. Moritz, Switzerland. I, somewhat crazily, accomplished Julier Pass on my Duc ST1100 in an early fall snowstorm to make the rendezvous. Those pussies, coming from another direction, held back, citing the weather. I dined alone at the Post Hotel that night. Waiter was a beemer rider and we had a nice motorcycle related conversation. Mr. Z3 and Camarillo arrived the next day.
Addendum:
My dad lives in Santa Barbara. The one picture you took with the view of the ocean looks to be near where he lives.
There is some great riding there!
Phil,
Anchorage, AK
ojai!!!
in my new 'hood. great ride down the non freeway to Ventura.
Brandman,
Ventura, CA
You sure do get around. Good for you!
Bridge,
Palm Beach, FL