12-20-09

I had the bike in the back of the pickup and couldn’t get it out, so I headed off to Tucson one day. I only made it down about ten miles when I saw this guy with a huge pile of stuff for sale, sort of like a flea market or large permanent yard sale setup. I was thinking I would probably not find anything there but ended up stopping anyway. It turned out that he had these three ramps that I guess was for a quad loading ramp but it works wonderful for me and the bike. Those two chains actually hook to the bottom of the bumper so they don’t slide off while you are loading. Very cool and they seem to be made for my pickup.

 
I can ride it up and off using two ramps together.

I was riding by this pecan orchard and saw that they were harvesting the nuts. They have shaken the trees here and have the nuts, leaves and twigs all windrowed.

Here is the harvester in action. That dust plume can be seen for miles down the valley.

This guy was raking out the little branches and twigs as they were loaded in the trailer.

I rode into Tombstone to visit the new museum there. I came in to see the owner about my little Virgil Earp token.WOW, yeah, he sure was wanting that token but didn’t have the deep pockets to buy it from me. He said he had around five million dollars in this museum. He sure did have a nice collection of STUFF…..

I didn’t realize that I wasn’t supposed to take photos in there but before I got told I took this one of a shot shell with a window in it for my buddy Roger. Roger has a major collection of shot shells but don’t know if he has one like this. There was a nice collection of Stevens rifles and pistols as well as lots of other gun stuff.

He did have a couple of documents that Virgil had signed and some old photos of the Earp brothers. He had quite a few tokens as well but NO Earp token….hee, hee….. He did offer to give me a big tax write off if I wanted to donate it to his museum…… not much chance of that with my taxes being so low.

Here he is with a one of a kind bike and his Duesenberg car. He said it took him twenty years to gather up all this sutff.

A nice piece of silver.

I had to take this photo for Cactus Jack as he rides one of these.

He has a soft spot in his hart for these Doudle Bugs. He had one when he was a kid.

I was talking with one of the guys that works in the western event shows that they do downtown Tombstone when this guy comes up and pulls up his shirt and shows me his BMW tee shirt. It turns out he is from Canada and is down here riding his big plastic wonder (PW)  aka V-strom. Hell, I will ride with almost anyone, even Canadians on plastic, so I offered to show him the dirt road over the mountain to the Cochise Stronghold. His name is Rolland and we had a good ride over the hill.

We took off the main road here and headed for Soren pass and it was a rough little road for sure.

We stopped after a ways at this old watering hole and took some photos and mostly just visited. It stared getting darker and we split up going our own way. It was nice to have company on that little rough road in case anything happened like it did to my friend Dennis down in Oz land. He spent an hour stuck under his bike in a steam until his friend came back to see what was the matter. It sure can be dangerous out there by yourself. I try not to do the really rough stuff by myself.

Yikes!! Christmas has come sneaking up on me. I got busy on my work bench to make some smaller size hair clips.

I was lost and saw this guy pushing this bike while holding a big box. I stopped to ask directions and the guy invited me over to his house to see his three wheel motorcycle. I put the big box on the back of my Bloodhound and we rode over to his house. He bought the place from a guy that was a geologist and he had made all the walking stones as well as a fence almost all the way around the place. The rocks he used he must have collected over a lifetime.

Not all but a lot of the stones are cut and polished.

Here is the little three wheeler. He said they only made 19 of them. He gets it cranked up and takes it to the local bike show but doesn’t go anyplace in it because he says the big trucks almost blow it off the road.

If I squinched all the way down I think I might be able to fit in it but I still wouldn’t be able to see out the windshield. It is made for little people.

Powered by a Honda goldwing. He modified it so it only has one carburetor.

It sure is a nice looking rig.

I could have spent an hour down on my knees looking at these rocks.

he took me in his shop and showed me some of this bikes. This little electric one he has had for years and his grandkids that are now grown, one is a doctor, used to ride it everywhere.

it has two speeds. One six volt and the other twelve volt. He says it does about thirty in high.

on the table were some tire irons that he uses for his motorcycles. He said he has had 87 motorcycles in his life.

the steps going into his house.

For some unexplained reason the following photos cant be uploaded, at least for now....

Here he is, James. We went inside and had a cuppa coffee. We must have talked for two hours. He sure is a nice guy.

Here is a pistachio orchard that seems to be already harvested. This is a nice area for sure. James says he gets 100 days of frosty mornings so apples can grow here. water is the big limiting factor.there are a few farms as well as the big power plant up the road. He says the water level is dropping but his well is still ok.

I took this photo so my friends in Montana could see that I am enduring cold frosty weather much like they are. Well, I might not be quite as cold but that is real frost my friends.

I was on a back road and happended to come by when this guy was shaking the pecan trees to get them to drop the nuts. This machine clamps some hard rubber jaws around the tree trunk and shakes the shit out of it.

I thought it was kind of cool that the machine has the little brushes in front and behind the wheels to keep the machine from running over the fallen nuts when it moves.

I had a hell of a time to find him but this is Lowell Neff who is/was a major motorcycle sidecar guru/mechanic and manufacturer of related gear for attaching sidecars to motorcycles. He is really nice but is a recluse and wants to keep it that way. He was injured several years ago and is in a wheelchair. 

Not far from Lowell’s place is his museum. I had been here before but thought it was some sort of church deal. It turns out that a very rich guy got interested in native American stuff and collected things from Alaska down into south America. I guess he has too much stuff in the house and his wife told him to get it out…… so he built this museum. He started his collection back in the 30’s and there is some really nice things here.

The art gallery was wonderful too. They even had some Fredric Remington drawings and his famous bronze of the Bronc Buster.

these gals were great welcoming committee

This was back when you could get antiques out of mexico. I think this was carved back in the 1600’s

The woodwork and iron work sure was nice. Actually I guess this is bronze.

Back near Sunsites is a place that rebuild or restores these old birds.

The power plant….. coal fired…. And the cooling towers.

I was thinking that this was the carbon footprint in the sky. I will have to say that it is a clean burning one as there is no smudge in the air after the water vapor melts away.

the lamp post outside the postoffice was still squatting and looks like it will be taking a shit soon. I couldn’t tell if it was male or female.

Down at the Windspirit commune there is a new resident that rides a three wheeler. Dad has complete control………… until he grows up a little more.

I was listening to the little radio Friday night and was so thrilled to hear Art Bell back on the radio. I listened to Art many a night when I was down in the Nevada desert. He lived and broadcasted from Pahrump, NV and was the main person to bring attention to Area 51 over on the Nevada Test Site where they had (or so they said) flying saucers that had crashed and maybe even ones that they were flying around over there. Stories of even little gray bodies and possibly even live ones. It is a very remote area and VERY secrete. Art had a wide variety of guests on and it was always interesting to hear him. The only problem was that he came on late at night and it was hard to stay awake unless he had a really interesting person on to interview. Art moved to the Philippines with his new (very young) wife and that is where he is now broadcasting. I am not sure how often he will be on the air but it is sure good to hear him back.  After Art left, they called his program Coast to Coast AM but it sure went down hill or at least that is the way I hear it. Wow, Art is back!!!

Tomorrow is the Solstice and there will be a party of sorts. I am going to come down and bake some ‘Tova’s wholesum oaties’ for the community. It should be a lot of fun with food, sauna and large fire circle.  \