We
rode to breakfast at the cafe. The breakfast was as good as the dinner
had been the night before. There were a lot of locals and a few others
who were obvious tourists cruising route 66. After After breakfast,
we went to the indoor phones at the truck stop next door. Brian wanted
to see if he could reach Tera, and I had to call the auto repair place
back in Phoenix. After a failed attempt at reaching the guy who is
fixing my car, we pedaled off toward Prescott.
The
road alignment on which we were travelling took us over Hell Canyon.
It was built in the 1950s. Before this road, we would have been headed
down and up into the steep canyon. Because of the road, we barely
noticed it. Hell canyon was the site of many skirmishes in the late
1800s. Nomadic warriors would hide out and ambush the settlers and
cavalry. I was pushing a bit harder than yesterday because I was
afraid that we would get caught in the wind again. I don't mind working
hard to get up a hill, but I hate it when I have to work hard to travel
on a flat stretch. I wasn't going do that today!
There
was a lot of pretty scenery along the road before Chino Valley, but not
much else. We could see our target (the mountains) off in the distance.
It is always fun to watch them get closer and closer as the day goes on.
I also like knowing that the next day I will be beyond those mountains.
We had to stretch a lot because Brian's neck was a little stiff from riding
in a more aero position than he is accostomed to. My tandem is threadless,
so the stem could not be raised for him. Tandems are usually very
comfortable for the captain, and the stoker gets beat up on the back.....
in this case, both of us were trading a bit of comfort for the team.
We moved more effeciently and together, but Brian had some neck discomfort,
and I had a whole set of issues. I have 12 cm less space in the cockpit
of the tandem than I do on my favorite road bikes. I cannot reposition
myself on my saddle because I do not have room to slide forward or back.
I also can't use many hand positions on a tandem because I cannot lean
as far forward without interfering with the captain's leg movement, or
getting way too personal with his rear end....
The only spot on the map between Ash Fork and Chino Valley was Pauden.
It was little more than a spot. You can see almost all the buildings
in Pauden in this photo. There was also a residence across the road
that had a sign out on the road advertising antiques for sale. I have heard
that there was more of a town here before highway 89 was built 1/2 a mile
away and bypassed the town.
Arizona boasts some of the most colorful mini marts! This lovely
Pepto Bismol pink shade was visible from quite a distance.....
I guess this is all that there is of Del Rio Springs. All kidding aside,
this was a great place to stop. The shop has a large assortment of
food and beverage, they have a comfortable place to sit, and they
were really nice.
This
is the original spot on which Camp Clark (predating Fort Whipple) sat.
It was established in 1863 near where an expedition had discovered gold
as a temporary capital and was named after Gen. John A. Clark. The
next May it was moved 18 miles to the south and came to be called Fort
Whipple.
Chino Valley was named by the Mexicans in Whipple's surveying party in
the 1850s. They called it Chino for the long grass "de chine" that
grew there. I really didn’t start to relax until we were in Chino
Valley. We stopped for some local cuisine in Chino valley (MacDonalds)
and then rode on through the dells and into Prescott.
There were plenty of restrooms available in Chino Valley.
The
mountains were getting closer and closer.... This was one of the
last of the roadside venues as we headed out of Chino Valley.
I
think the smile on Brian's face had to do with the possibility of DOWNHILL
ahead!
My
favorite part would have been riding from Chino Valley to the SR-60 interchange,
but there wasn’t A single break in the rumble strip and Brian had chosen
to ride on the traffic side because he didn’t know that there would always
be at least 3 feet of lane on the other side.
I just liked this tree and the hills behind it.
The
dells is an outcropping of rocks just north of Prescott along the highway.
It was a favorite place for war parties to wait for miners and freighters
travelling in and out of Prescott. There is supposed to be a lake
hidden somewhere in the rocks. I have never found it, but I haven't
looked very hard either.
Prescott was established in 1864. That would be when the camp up
at Del Rio Springs moved closer to the mining strikes and was renamed Fort
Whipple. Fort Whipple was pretty busy throughout the late 1800s defending
the settlers from Yavapai and Apache raiding parties. In 1871, the
US Gov. closed Fort Whipple. There was a huge massacre and public
outcry that led to the reopening of the fort the next year. It was
closed and repoened a few times between 1880 and 1902, then remained open
until 1922 when it was turned into a hopsital facility. In the late
1800s, after the threat of Indian attack had passed, Prescott became the
fort of chopce for ranking officers and their wives in AZ because it was
more scenic, had a nicer climate, and more ameneties than any other part
of the state.
We
locked the bike to a pay phone outside the restraunt across from the town
square in Prescott. My butt hurt, but it was a lot better than yesterday.
They seated us at a table just by the window so that we could watch our
bike and we had a very nice meal. I really wanted a beer, but I refrained.
I knew that we had a little bit more riding before we would get to our
destination, and I didn’t want to have any problem pushing my half of the
bike.
We wandered around Prescott for a while. This photo is facing Whisky
Row. The saloons along this street have been in operation for over
a hundred years, and other than the addition of electricity and phones,
only a few have been remodeled since that time. A few of the wooden,
glass and brass bars and back bars were brought by ship to San Francisco
and then hauled out to Prescott. The salespeople at the sporting
goods store allowed us to walk the bike inside the store. We left
it there while we walked around. We went to a few antique stores,
but that got old pretty quick.
The town square is around the courthouse. The park area is well kept
and is used regularly for community activities. It is common to see
dozens of people spread out on the lawns talking and relaxing on a weekend
evening in the summer. They usually gather for square dancing or concerst
on Saturday night. We wandered around the square for the last half hour
before Paul arrived.
We
leaned the bike against one of the statues and walked along the timeline
for a while. The area behind the statue is where the square dancing
is held on summer evenings. The stairs are a nice place to sit. Paul
rode up to us around 5:30 pm or so.
Paul
led us to Prescott Valley via a route that would circumvent a very busy
intersection he preferred to avoid. We didn't really care about the
traffic. We had just arrived through that intersection. We followed
him across the creek and up a hill, then headed East through a series of
steep short hills on narrow roads. It would have been delightful
to fly down the steep hills and up the other sides, except we were on a
110 lb bike with a ridiculously long wheel base and a wobble in the rear
rack. Paul is a racer guy, and I don’t think he appreciated the difficulty
that we had navigating his hilly route. I know he understood that
we would have difficulty when he led us through Fort Whipple. He
was right on that account, but not for the reasons that he had imagined.
Paul thought that it would be difficult navigating the very long bike through
the pedestrian gates and sidewalks. That wasn’t a problem.
Brian is a very skilled captain, and maneuvering through gates and sidewalks
was not even a challlenge. The real problem was the recycling bin
that someone had placed in the middle of the sidewalk. We had to
get off and walk past that obstacle because the bike was wider than the
space through which we needed to pass. We came out of that twisty
route just north of SR-69 in SR-89. We backtracked the route that
we had used earlier that day throuh the dells.
This time we chose to ride on the inside of the rumble strip. It
was a lot faster because we had a very nice tailwind. Paul would
slow down to wait for us, and Brian would slow down, unaware that Paul
was waiting for us to catch up. Paul always rides to go fast, and
I think it was tough for him to travel at less than half his normal speed.
He would have been mildly annoyed at 15mph, 11 must have been almost intolerable!
I pushed Brian a little harder than I should have, but we arrived at Paul's
house with a computer average of about 15mph. I also noticed that
Brian and I couldn’t wait to get to a shower and food after our ride.
Paul never eats out, but dragged him out for dinner anyway. Brian
and I bought dinner, then we returned to Paul’s house and collapsed.
