2-5-08

Portal & Bisbee

Here is Lonnie getting his Sportster started and warmed up for our ride. Lonnie picked out a route down to Douglas, gas up, and then on up to a little town of Portal for lunch. The mornig was on the cool side but warmed up nice as the day wore on. His damn bike is just TOO damn clean for my taste but then I didn’t have to ride the thing.

We pretty much had the roads to ourselves.

We stopped at this historical marker that says that near here General Miles (the same General Miles of Miles City, Montana) arranged the surrender of the Apache Chief Geronimo. That Gen Miles really got around in the early days of the country as the military sent him all over to work out treaties with the Indians. I guess for some reason the Indians trusted him. This monument has several of the grinding stones the Indians used to grind the mesquite beans. I have heard from several people that the bread made from the mesquite beans is really great. I have never seen the flour for sale and if I do I will try it.

We went on through Portal and went in to the little park in the canyon beyond. I think the road went up it only five or seven miles but it was really nice ride and looks like a super nice place to camp especially in the summer when you would want to get the hell out of Tucson or Phoenix.

I thought this was interesting.

Some parts of the road were completely covered over with the trees.

The sycamore trees were not yet in leaf. I did see some of the cotton wood trees just starting to green up with buds.

These rocks didn’t look that safe to be under.

Nice rocks.

On the way out I stopped to take a picture of a house that the Forest Service uses as an information headquarters.

Here we are back in Portal and going in to have lunch.

Across the street is the owners VW van. I had to walk over and check it out. It is covered with some really nice stickers. Notice the solar panel and bike mounted on the  top.

I really liked this sticker. My favorite on the bus.

This one is for you Tova……..

Here we are headed back out to the main highway. It seems like there are individual types that live in the area.

Back at camp I was having some trouble with my motorcycle and after a ‘doctor’ call to my friend Bob (Bob’s Motorwerks) in Montana I took the coil off the Blue Tick and put it on the Bloodhound as these coils are what is known as a ‘Crack-O-Matic coils. The insulating material cracks and allows the spark to sort out and doesn’t let the bike run right.

Here is the coil that I have cleaned off the top and spread some epoxy on to hopefully eliminate the shorting. I waited for the stuff to harden over night and put it on the Blue Tick and it works great!!! Before all I could get was maybe half throttle.

Here is little better photo of that Blue Tick Hound. I guess you can see that this camp has lots of oak trees as well as desert plants. A lot of the oak trees are dying and dead here. I asked the forest service people and they said that the trees have been hard hit by the drought as well as some sort of bark beetle and maybe fungus. If you go up the mountain the problem is not so severe so maybe it is drought effects. This area is supposed to really dry out when global warming takes full effect. This could be the signs of the start.

I decided to make a run down to Bisbee to see a friend down there I met several years ago. On the way I spotted this bookmobile with a dish on top and had to stop and see if they by any chance were connected to the internet.

It turns out that they sure are and had a couple of computers available for public use. Gee, what a nice service for the folks in the far reaches of the county. He said I could try it if I wanted so I checked my email but headed on out as I had some miles to do that day.

This truck with all the attachments cost $190,000 and he was showing me that all he had to do was push a button and the dish deployed and found the satellite on it own. Pretty cool eh? He called up the Ground Control website and it looks like they have really cool little portable units that you hook to your laptop and you can go anywhere and be connected. I must look into that little unit.

There are big fields that are irrigated with center pivot sprinklers. The other day I went by one field that was just filled with Sand hill cranes. As I was going by a huge corn field these cranes were circling over head. These cranes KNOW it is not time yet to head north to Montana. I think I will wait until the cranes tell me it is time to move north…..

Just as I was coming into Bisbee I stopped in at the little trailer park that has the old small trailers that they rent out as motel rooms. When I was there before the little diner was closed. This time it was open and packed. I think there are only ten stools and I got the last one available. I was at the end of the counter and snapped this photo of the inside. This diner is fifty two years old and it is really compact and very busy place. The food is good.

Here is a front view. They were sold and delivered on a truck, set down and open the door. … you are in business. I met this woman in front with the jeep when she came out and fed her dog some left over French fries. One dropped on the ground and I picked it up and made friends with the dog too. He likes pets. The woman’s name is Carolynn and she was telling me about her ‘ranch’ just over the hill from Bisbee. She was telling me that she built a rammed earth home and invited me up to see it.

It is truly a beautiful home and a wonderful setting at the end of the road with a running spring for water. This was a stop on the old road over the hill to Bisbee and a place where they changed mules. The big rock wall below the house is a part of this mule exchange stop. Hell, they might just have added mules for more power to make it over the top. That rock she is leaning against is a sculpture that a friend made and gave to her. It is a beautiful hunk of marble.

On the old road through town is this statue of a copper miner. This is an old copper mining town and there is a huge open pit just out side of town.

On the way out of town I saw this beemer with sidecar and had to stop and check it out.

It is a pretty funky machine and would have loved to hear it crank up with those straight pipes. It must be made to ‘run’ with the Harleys….

It turns out that it is a bike shop and they were inside putting together new bikes with these little engines in them. They are sort of like the old Whizzer bikes. This one is a custom model but the other ones were nice ten-speed bikes with the sprocket and motor. They are made in China. Check their website out… http://spookytoothcycles.com/

It looks like I may go on down into Mexico to see a friend Tom Suby that lives in Bisbee but recently bought a house in a small town in Mexico. I’ll have to make a run down to Douglas border and see what it will cost and if I have enough papers to get me and my motorcycle down and back with out too much hassle.