Day 2
Today I was going to iron butt as close as I’ll ever get.  I rode 600 miles by the time I arrived at the Essence of Tranquility Hot Springs and not without some light evening full moon action. ; )

The Map from Beatty, NV to Safford, AZ

Gotta love NV

Lots of this on this day

The closer I got to AZ the clouds became less prevalent.  Pretty soon it was clear beautiful skies and lots of these.

and these…

A bit of advice…never head through Phoenix at rush hour…at least LA can handle it.  They have an HOV lane too, but it’s the first one I have experienced with stop and go traffic.  It look me over an hour to get through onto the highway to Globe.  I was already 8 hours in the saddle with only pit and coffee stops.  I was burning out and it was then that i realized I’d never make Safford until well after dark…damn.

The area around Globe is quite scenic.

The full moon begins to rise.

yep…very pretty, but dark was quickly approaching and I was less than excited.

Without any more dawdling, I headed straight to Safford.  I had 60 miles in the dark so found a vehicle going about my speed and tailed them so I could share their lights and figured if anyone was gonna hit a deer, it was more likely them than me.  I got into Safford about 8ish, hit the store for dinner and headed soutn to Hwy 191 to find the hot springs.  Well, that was when my gravel ordeal began…

I found the road to the hot springs and made it nearly to the place but my recollection of driveway was wrong and I ended up on a private drive of deep gravel, the worst of the worse. Now this road was filled with no trespassing signs and there were dogs in a fence running along barking.  I knew i needed to turn around but it was narrow so it took me a 40 point u-turn.  Nice.  I didn’t drop it and felt rather fortunate to be facing the right direction and being able to move away from the attack dogs.  I went back to the main road and saw another drive into the what I thought was the back way in.  NOT…another drive with the same gravel only this one I buried the tires.  I was stuck.  I used the gate into the hot springs but it seems most every one had already retired.  Where the hell were the party animals with i needed them.  It was pitch black with a full moon, and about 9PM.  The drive where I was stuck, had a trailer on it so I decided to knock on the darkened trailer.  The bonus was there was an old cruiser in the yard.  I knew whoever lived here could help.  He answered the door in his underwear, now that undoubtedly improved my evening, for the help of course. ; )  He dressed and pushed me out and told me the right way to get into the place.  When i got back to the main PAVED road I decided screw it, i was parking in the day parking lot and walked my stuff to my room.  I needed a soak in my private tub!!  I was done for the evening!  My savior helped me unload my bike and I was off to lose my clothing and have a soak.  YES!

I opened my vino, had and hour soak and then offed eating anything good for a spot of salted dark chocolate and good irish cheddar and then went to bed.  No more 600 mile days for this kid!  

But I did live through it!