Cape Henlopen DE Nov 2011

The Dawgs, minus Richard with a bum solder, took advantage of the unusually warm weather in November for a ride to Cape Henlopen, DE. The temps started out at 47'F for Dale this morning, out in the sticks, and hit a high of 75'F for use today. As usual we like to travel the roads less traveled and enjoyed a chance to ride together. It was all flat land riding with a few sweeping turns, roads lined by trees with the colorful fall leaves floating down, followed by open fields, farmers and their combine's harvesting the fall crop. On the way back we road into the sunset with breathtaking views of a fiery red sky that ended as we came down the peek of the Bay Bridge. The Bay Bridge was a little hairy though, the winds were quite strong up there.
We all had a good time and made it home safe.

Another great ride for the Over The Hill Dogs

Fort Miles was an American military installation located on Cape Henlopen was built to defend Delaware Bay and River and to protect domestic shipping from enemy fire within the capes, particularly from the German surface fleet. The fort was completed days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Battery 118 (Smith) being declared operational on December 4, 1941. The United States declaration of war on Japan compelled the U. S. Army to man the fort with the 261st Coast Artillery Battalion, who days before were slated to leave. Fourteen vessels, including the USS Jacob Jones, a naval escort, were sunk off the coast of New Jersey during the first six months of 1942. Numerous batteries (ranging from 90mm guns up to 16 inch) were installed at the fort and a large mine field was laid in the waters off Lewes, Delaware

Day Ten - Monday - Davis-Monthan AFB Boneyard and Back to Phoenix

We are trying to get going this morning after a late night of playing dice and losing $$ with my buddy Captain Morgan.
We mad it to Davis-Monthan AFB and museum. It just amazing to see how many plans are just sitting around collecting dust.

After finishing the Davis-Monthan Boneyard bus tour we got a nice send off. As we saddled up to ride two F-16 went screaming by with full afterburners than a F-4 took-off climbing nearly straight up. It was very cool Top Gun stuff.


17:00hr
We just got back to our Phoenix hotel all safe n sound.
It was a hot day riding, the temps were in the 90's and we had some heavy traffic with lights then about 70 miles of desert to cross. The winds picked up again and were blowing across the road at about 25-30mph creating little sand devils, swirling clouds of sand, so we backed the speed off a little. This was a small straight two lane bidirectional road and every time a large truck would approach and pass us head on we all got sand blasted.
We stopped in a two bit town of Florence for a break, gas and a drink. After leaving there we had trouble finding AZ-79 again and found ourselves in the middle of the Arizona State Prison Complex. It didn't take long to get the hell out of there and get back on track.
We stopped one more time inside the city limits of Phoenix to fine-tune our directions to the hotel.

After we got back to the hotel we got the bikes loaded on the trailer then went out for dinner and beer.
The Courtyard hotel worked out great and treated us well as always. Thanks to Allen, the hotel manager, for giving me the air crew rate and letting us leave our truck and trailer there for the week.


We road a total of 1,600 miles in wind, rain, snow, sleet, hail, sand, and sun.

We had a GREAT bunch of guys, good bonding, good riding, great views, and an experience of a lifetime we'll never forget.

This is a great bunch of OLD DOGS, or as Richard would say "One old Dog and 4 Pups"

We are all thankful. We didn't have any major breakdowns, flats, dings, losses or speeding tickets that we know of. A very safe ride, now we need to get Dale and Richard back home with the trailer safely.

Day Nine - Sunday - Great Pics

Bill"s Friend Tim and wife Julie ride in the support vehicle and took some pictures of us.

Day Nine - Sunday - Loop Around Sahuarita to Tombstone and Coronado National Forest

Day 9 Sunday: 08:00 The 4 of us had breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express. It may not have been as good as Bill's breakfast in the BIG HOUSE.

We road mostly south & southeast of Tucson,AZ. We had views of mountain ranges such as:
The Santa Rita Mountains, located about 65 km (40 mi) southeast of Tucson, Arizona, extend 42 km (26 mi) from north to south, then trending southeast. They merge again southeastwards into the Patagonia Mountains, trending northwest by southeast. The highest point in the range, and the highest point in the Tucson area, is Mount Wrightson, with an elevation of 9,453 feet (2,881 m), The range contains Madera Canyon, one of the world's premier birding areas.

Day 9 - Sunday - Enjoying Tombstone, AZ
We had a nice ride out to Tombstone, what a neat old western town. It took a while but I managed to talk the Dogs into an old-time photo. LOL

Day Nine - Sunday - In the Copper Mining Town of Bisbee, AZ

The "PUCKER OF THE DAY" Nothing major today just some road kill. I think it was a dead coyote.
Ohh Yea, and I don't know if this counts as a PICKER but 4 of us sure did, while getting ready to leave Bisbee one of the Dogs, I won't mention names (red motorcycle), ripped one that sent a fog across the parking lot that brought us to our knees. Needles to say he had to ride #5 position. LOL

Day Eight - Saturday - Pertrified Forest (Hollbrook) to Sahuarita (Tucson)

Estimating about317 Miles for today.

Leaving Petrified Forest today by noon then heading south through Tonto National Forest to Sahuarita just south of Tucson, AZ.

Road to Roosevelt Lake that we planned on taking but, didn't because it turned to 24 mi of gravel

After leaving the Petrified Forest we headed SW to Tucson via Rt 377, Rt 277, Rt 260, along the Hashknife Pony Express route to Payson through the Tonto National Park. Then Rt 87 and 188 to Roosevelt Lake and Dam. This was a beautiful ride through the Tonto Basin which had many different views of water, mountains and curves. We stopped several times for pictures and to remove clothing. Temperature when we left Holbrook was 43, and now we were in the 90s.

14:30 The temperature in the 90's, and we are finally happy to start shedding clothes. Leaving Tonto National Forest and Roosevelt Bridge/Dam.

At one stop, park rangers stopped to ask us where our park stickers were, and said we had to leave as soon as we shed our clothing. We stopped at the Roosevelt dam for more pictures, it was a rare site to see the large body of water at the base of the mountains. Then back on the road to Rt 77 and Rt 19 to Tucson where Bill's friends live. We rode along spectacular views of mountains and canyons along the way. Bikes are running well, but a few minor concerns are Tony's bike has developed a shimmy at low speed deceleration from front tire wear, Richard's bike sometimes has trouble shifting from 1st to 2nd and Glenn will need new tires when returning to MD.
We have 3 PUCKERS OF THE DAY: oil, gravel, and dirt. I'll elaborate later, too tired to text. Good night.

Well yesterday we had 3 "Puckers of The Day":

"Pucker #1 of The Day"
For Bill and the Gang it was the U-Turn on the divided hwy after missing our poorly marked exit and the exits out here are few and far between. Well first we had to back our bikes 30 yards down the hwy, fortunately there was very little traffic.When we made our cut to cross the hwy we found ourselves in 5" of loose gravel.

"Pucker #2 of The Day"
For me and the Gang it was going through a mountain pass at 60mph as we came across a sign that said caution Highway freshly oiled. The road didn't have any makings left and was glistening with oil.

"Pucker #3 of The Day"
For Richard and the Gang it was the ride in the dirt and turn around on a bumpy unfinished dirt road in a back country community. Bill was trying to find his friend Tim's house and made 1,2,or 3 wrong turns turning us into dirt bikers for a moment. The kids in the neighborhood went running inside to get daddy and a gun. Not funny Bill. Also, had to miss all the cows walking down the dirt roads! Finally arrived at Tim's house at about 6:30 and found out that our "bunk house" was actually a concrete floored workshop with no bedding. That's when Bill claimed his bedroom in the BIG HOUSE. After hearing about scorpions and tarantula and poisonous toads, the remaining four of us decided to stay at the Holiday Express. Not funny Bill.

Hollbrook (Petrified National Forest) to Sahuarita, AZ