Jerome and the 66

Okay, so I got a little off-track. I haven't posted like I should have! So let me tell you about the big trip about three weeks ago. We, my husband I, decided one Friday to take a trip to Jerome, AZ. I was very excited for this trip. It is gorgeous up there! So that's just exactly what we did. We tried to get all packed up the night before. WE didn't take much for clothes, just a change, a jacket for each of us, our sleeping bags and a small, two-person tent. Early Saturday morning, we were off. We rode to Wickenburg, up Yarnell Hill and into Prescott. From Prescott, we went up the 89A to Jerome. What stunning scenery! And I really, really love driving up that winding road! When we arrived in Jerome, it was PACKED! Beautiful motorcycles lined the streets and leather-clad bikers stood in the doorways of the local saloons. Everyone was laughing and happy and it created such a fun atmosphere. So we backed into a parking space along side the big bikes. It was really amusing to see scores of Harleys and other bigger bikes and ONE, little scooter. We walked around a bit, but it was difficult because the sidewalks were quite crowded. After a bit, we popped into a small cafe and had a soda and some pie and ice cream. While we were sitting there, I noticed the amazing view out the front window-you could see into the valley below. The rocks and mountains are all red and the sky was a glorious blue with puffy, white clouds scattered about everywhere. After a while, Brian, my husband, suggested that we ride on up to route 66. I agreed that it sounded like a lot of fun. So, we got back on our bikes and headed back down to Prescott Valley and then up to Ashfork. We spent a little bit of time having dinner and cruising around Ashfork, but the sun was going down and we needed to start heading west to find a place to camp for the night. Unfortunately, there weren't any paved roads that would take us to directly to Seligman, the next stop on our little trip, so I had to jump on the 40 for a short distance. I wasn't thrilled with the idea, but my scooter will do about 62, and I figured that would be enough for the nine or so miles we had to go. And it was. We stopped in Seligman at a small gas station to use the restroom. Then we decided we wanted to see more of this town in the morning, so we rode west to try to find somewhere to camp outside of town. It was very, very dark and we could only see what the headlights allowed. We pulled off in a few places and finally found somewhere that seemed quiet enough and had a few trees to block us from being seen too clearly on the road. There was nearly no traffic and we hadn't seen any trains (we were near some tracks) and so we put up our tent and laid down for some rest. We could see the stars through the top of the tent. They looked amazing! We heard a train go by in the near distance. It wasn't too loud and I figured that such a train passing in the night wouldn't be enough to wake me. So I slowly drifted off to sleep. Some time later, maybe less than an hour, I heard some horrendous noise. It sounded like a semi truck was coming off of the road and headed straight for us. I knew that that wasn't the case here, but it still sounded terrifying. I already knew it was a train. And this kept happening, all night long. About one train every hour! Why were they sometimes SO LOUD and sometimes SO QUIET!? Then, some time during the night, a pickup pulled off of the road near our camp and then they drove off. That scared me pretty good too. Needless to say, we didn't sleep very soundly that night. I woke up around 6 am and got up and looked around a little bit. Brian said that we were right next to the BNSF mail line-and just a ways over, there was another train track-which is why we were hearing a 'quieter' train from time to time. We took a few pictures and packed up and headed to Seligman. It was a quiet, little town early in the morning, but by 9:00am, tour buses began to roll in and the streets filled with people from Japan, France, Germany and other places. They were all fascinated by the little shops and all of the Route 66 memorabilia. We hung around, walking from shop to shop and then headed on out of town going west. It was a beautiful drive, but we were going to have to hurry a bit because my husband needed to be home fairly early to rest up for the next day, as he had to go to work early. We cruised along and stopped briefly at the Grand Canyon Caverns, buy only to have a quick look, then we pulled into Peach Springs, again, just to stretch a bit and then we rode to Hackberry and browsed in the General Store. There were several bikers there as well. Finally, it was off to Kingman for some lunch. We were all out of time so we decided to head back down toward Wickenburg. Unfortunately, there only way to get there quickly was highway 93, and you must travel about 18 miles on I40 to reach it. And what a terrible road the 93 is! People were in such a hurry! They were passing us constantly, even when it wasn't safe to do so. One guy ended up forcing two cars off of the opposite side of the road! We finally made it home safely. It really was very enjoyable! And the weather was fabulous!