Motorcycling in March

31 Mar:  OhMyGod, March has done marched out the door.  Tomorrow we have to come up with a new catchy title for the April post.  Cynthia had foot pains that kept her from sleeping for a while last night, so she awakened late and hungry.  Exercises were done in a hurry so that she could stand on the scale and eat ASAP.  After a leisurely morning and lunch, we finally got out the door for a walk and talk about current events.  On the Big Park Loop, we met for the second time John, with whom we talked forever.  His opinion is that 4 o'clock is the name of the interesting plant that resembled Ron's grandmother's African violets a week ago.  (It has grown and bit and the resemblance disappeared.)  John worked for IBM for 25 years, then he and his wife traveled for three years in an Acura sedan - - so he understands our life style.

30 Mar:  After exercises and breakfast and pills, Ron walked to Clark's grocery for blueberries, grapes, carrots, and spinach.  All of these things are still available here in the Village of Oak Creek, and Ron found white JiffyPop popcorn and a 4-lb bag of frozen blueberries.  On the other hand, the Snyders pretzels are still in short supply.  I wonder if grocers are noticing which brands still linger on the shelves now versus the brands that disappear immediately.  We took the short, 2-mile Big Park Loop for our walk in the afternoon, and the direct sun was a bit too warm.  We met several lovely people at a respectable distance of six feet.

29 Mar, Sunday:  And we awoke on another Sunday in the Village of Oak Creek, another Sunday to spend thanking and loving God, although church services are closed to the general public for fear of spreading COVID-19, especially in this community full of retirees.  We might opt for a new hike today if we can find one perhaps a little longer than our longest to date.  We did that by adding the Baby Bell loop to our Courthouse Butte Loop, and we both arrived home tired, but happy by 4:30... after 8.5 miles!  Dinner of salad, potatoes, and broccoli with popcorn and pretzels for chasers leave us happy for the evening.  Goodnight! 

 Fleurs Say I Love You

28 Mar:  Exercises did, breakfast eaten, and then Wisch called me from Bremerton, hunkered down and reaching out for amusement.  I promised to send him a link to the Grateful Dead concert at MIT, so goodbye for now. He sent me a link to the Bob Dylan Nobel Prize lecture, a pretty amazing piece of poetry.  Now I need to take that shower "before noon."  Oops, Cynthia has filled the bathroom with bleach and those fumes are lethal, so I chose to clean the kitchen instead, an odious job.  Now that requisite is done, and Cynthia will come hiking with me.  Oh joy, oh joy.  First, we visited for about an hour with our neighbor Shelly from Indiana.  We are doing our part to maintain sanity despite social deprivation, and we all maintained a six-foot social distancing outdoors in her back yard.  Cynthia and I finally got off walking and did the four-mile Big Park Loop, arriving home just as the sunlight was brightening all the red rocks in our vicinity.  Looking at our nearest cliff, I realized that it is unusually thin and has suffered a major collapse not too long ago, geologically.  I wonder if the local homeowners' insurance covers rock damage.

Ron arrived home in time to alert Cynthia for this photo

27 Mar:  The forecast snow didn't show, nor have any showers, so Ron has decided to walk again to the Post Office to mail one postcard. (2.6 miles round trip)  While in the vicinity he checked out the frozen foods at Clarks and found a 4 lb bag of blueberries.  Now he has an adequate supply for a week.  Then he worked on Swedish Colonial packages, moving e-mails from Google into text files for permanent storage.  Around 4 PM Ron decided to hike the six-mile Courthouse Butte Loop despite forecast snow and rain.  It rained, snowed, and hailed at home.  Ron felt very lucky to see just enough snow to accentuate the trail for 100 yards and to display thin films of white on the landscape.  It was a surprise to see another large man hiking along in shorts, a sweater, and a stocking cap.  The second surprise was a thin woman in a raincoat with hood.  This spectacular sunset heralded his return.

26 Mar:  Ron has promised to walk to the grocery for a can of tomato sauce for pasta.  Let's see how early he gets out the door.  (What he really wants is big bags of frozen fruits and frozen berries.)  Well Clark's grocery was as devoid of large bags of frozen stuff as they had been yesterday.  Ron had misremembered a conversation with the stocker at Basha's market and thought that the conversation was at Clarks.  He was out the door shortly after 9 AM and back by 10:30, 1.3 miles each way according to Google maps.  Cynthia was on the phone to an attorney discussing foreclosure since her house buyer hasn't paid or responded to her in two months.  We finally exited the house on our typical walk around Courthouse Butte by 11:45.  We were tired by the time we finished that 6-mile loop and met a neighbor, Shelly from South Bend, Indiana.  Shelly informs us that the javelina and mule deer hang out in our yard and that there are coyotes and a bobcat in the neighborhood.  Boy-O-boy.

We start where it says "You are here"

Ron, footless, and Rock, topless

Cynthia is a small, lovely girlie

25 Mar:  Village of Oak Creek, near Sedona, Arizona.  Cloudy and chilly today.  Immediately after breakfast, we rode to Clark's grocery to buy our weekly supplies and found most of what we want, then to Safeway in Sedona to look for whatever wasn't available locally.  The Safeway was really quite well-stocked, apparently because their warehouse gives them a priority for shipments because they sell a large volume consistently.  Cynthia made an egg-white veggie scramble to fuel her towards another good hike this afternoon.  It was a treat for Ron to have frozen pineapple after a couple of weeks without.  It is still quite a puzzle to notice which items are missing from shelves (like flour) versus which items seem untouched (like cake mixes, chips, and sodas).  Our walk around the Big Park Loop is getting easier, and we did see a couple of new flowers and plants since yesterday.  Ron did get his clothes washed and the kitchen half cleaned, but it is now time to brush teeth and hit the sack.  G'night.

24 Mar:  Again awake, half-fed and starting to use the electronic devices.  Today looks to be another beautiful, sunny day.  Maybe we can get out for a walk early.  And we did get out for a nice long hike around Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock on the Courthouse Butte Loop Trail (click here.)  Now our legs and feet need a rest.  It has been another day of James Lea for Ron, but tomorrow will be different projects, cleaning the kitchen and mending and washing pants.

23 Mar:  Awake in the Village of Oak Creek, 1/2 fed, 1/4 computerized, planning to walk after lunch on this chilly day.  Self-quarantined, we are completing projects.  Ron is platting properties for the James Lea book that will surely make this a two-volume publication.  He has photographed and transcribed hundreds of deeds from Orange, Caswell, and Person counties, North Carolina to plot into a platplotter.com map showing all of the various Lea properties and their neighbors.  It is a slow, tedious process, like the 5,000-piece puzzle of Rembrandt's Night Watch which consumed him years ago.  Today he was excited to finally locate the property that Lawrence Bankston owned on Richland Creek.  (No deed or grant has survived to describe the property, and; it is mentioned only a few times as a neighbor.)  That obsession completed, maybe he will actually get to work proving which grandchildren belonged to which families in order to complete the book before the beginning of the next century.  Cynthia continues to work on a recipe book for her home town hotel where her grandmother cooked.  Weather was cold today (59 degrees at 1:30pm before the tiny, brief rain dropped it to 54 degrees); Cynthia luxuriated in an excuse to avoid hiking in the cold.  Ron left to hike at 6:18 PM in the COLD and enjoyed the magnificent rosy colors from the bright setting sunlight on the massive red rock that towers above us here.  The last several hundred yards of the Big Park Loop Trail (click here) disappeared as the light faded, but Ron got home more by guess than by golly.  It seemed that the stars became superlatively brilliant in the last few steps before reaching the house.  Ron has been eating a bowl of oatmeal and a portion of cornbread every night just before bed and has been awakening much less often than usual.  It seems to be a good recipe to improve his sleep.

22 Mar, Sunday:  In the Village of Oak Creek, the day dawned late for us.  We were delighted to have a full night's sleep to help our bodies recover from overdoing our hike yesterday.  It looks like a great day to repeat the hike if our bodies can stand it.  Once we arrived at the trail junction where a decision must be made for a short hike or long hike, we prudently decided to keep it short, and then at another decision junction, we decided to try a new, shorter return route that shaved 4 tenths of a mile and a rocky route (a former jeep trail) from our hike on the Big Park Loop Trail.  Ron continued being obsessed with James Lea until midnight but slept wonderfully well.

21 Mar:  Ron continues to work away at James Lea document, now improving the references to Hofmann's Granville books. (Cynthia says, "Smooch!  Thank you!")  We had a great hike circumnavigating Courthouse Rock - all six miles of it.  Cynthia took videos of plants, flowers, Bell Rock, Courthouse Rock and mountain views for her grandchildren, "Nature Walk with Grandmother." Adding to the six-mile loop is the one-mile trip to the trailhead, plus a mile return.  8 Miles.  Poor Cynthia has sore feet and a tighter IT band.  

20 Mar:  Ron hiked alone; it was too cold for Cynthia to venture forth.  He continued working on James Lea until much too late and found his night vision challenged by the intense darkness hereabouts after the sunlight fades.

19 Mar:  Snow - well, no, not here actually in Sedona, but Ron guesses (incorrectly) that Courthouse Rock is the one where we see the bright snow festively festooning the rock.  After breakfast, we decided to rush off early for groceries and rode the motorcycle to Sedona to enjoy the snow-covered mountain landscapes.  The huge surprise was seeing multiple areas where the red rock was adorned with glistening water rivulets in the brilliant morning sun.  Ron continues transcribing deed abstracts from Kendall's Person County deed books.  James Lea may never die.

18 Mar:  Wednesday, is a great day to sleep late and hike.  The taxes are turned into the CPA, proposals completed, and now it is time for fun - for Ron: the jigsaw puzzle.  And once that puzzle was muzzled, we hiked the same Big Park Trail for four miles, round trip, and returned home with wet coats and pants.  (We shoulda worn rain pants and better raincoats; Ron's favorite raincoat has deteriorated so that it is now good only for wind protection.)  He is back at work on James Lea while our Sedona world turns white; it is snowing.  Ron pulled the motorcycle into the garage after first brushing off all the accumulated slush.  We were disappointed to discover that the snow was short-lived and our world did not actually turn white.

17 Mar:  Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  We were delighted to see waitress Claudia at Sedona Red’s; she said they may close temporarily.  Cynthia has decided that we plan to stay at home for the next two weeks except for hiking and grocery resupply.  We are happy; Ron submitted six proposals, and Cynthia sent two proposals for lectures to be given at the National Genealogical Society annual conference in Richmond, Virginia on May 19-22, 2021.  Oh, joy (delivered deadpan without enthusiasm by Cynthia), Ron found a jigsaw puzzle.  It was colorful and fun, but only 550 pieces, missing 7, so it only lasted about a day. 

16 Mar:  Sedona, Arizona: After exercising and oatmeal, we rode to Sedona Red’s for omelets, but, our favorite waitress had the day off.   We stocked up on food, and OTC meds.  We hiked almost four miles on the Big Park Loop Trail (click here.) 

View From Our Veranda

15 Mar, Sunday:  The ride to Sedona from Dan and Donna's in Phoenix was a delight (as were Dan & Donna.)  After gaining entrance to the vacation rental, despite our confusion with the newfangled locks, we unpacked and hustled off to Clark's grocery (formerly IGA) to see if the shelves still held anything that we can eat.  We were delighted to find quite a few things that work, especially rolled oats.  Hiking is right out the door so we boogied off to locate Bell Rock Trailhead, a mile walk up and downhill on rough asphalt to the trailhead.  

The Happy Smooches

Cynthia at Donna's Lovely Home

Helmet in hand

Cynthia with Northwood friends

14 Mar:  It wasn't as difficult as usual to get packed and checked out of the hotel on time.  We then rode to Jason's Deli again to stuff ourselves full before riding north to visit Cynthia's friends from Northwood, Donna, and Dan.  Dan is a retired mechanical engineer, so he and techie Ron found lots of interesting things to talk about: interstellar collisions (how can the collision of two dark holes emit light?), the insanity of panic about coronavirus, push-ups, etc.  Unfortunately, Ron didn't realize that Dan also loves to do jigsaw puzzles; we coulda puzzled while talking.  Donna likes ping-pong and cribbage, but she and Cynthia had a ton of more important talking to do.

13 Mar:  Scottsdale, AZ.  This is a quiet day apart from a wet return ride to the hotel from Jason’s Deli.  We got soaked.  Why did we ride to the restaurant without rain gear when the forecast called for rain?  At least we were quite full enough for the rest of the day.  Ron continues working on his proposals for speeches.

12 Mar:  Globe, AZ to Scottsdale, AZ ... the rain has turned the mountains green and alive!  The roadside from Superior, Arizona into Apache Junction was bright with bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, white flowers, and yellow flowers; what a treat in this normally dry environment.  Our first destination was GOAZ Motorcycles to buy a new bike, but they only had one BMW R1250RT with a "Manhattan" green finish in stock.  We put a deposit on it, and they are searching for a blue model to match our eyes. 

Salt River Canyon on Apache Reservation

11 Mar:  Greer, Arizona, 8500 feet elevation and, on our day of departure, cold rain fell early this morning.  Today's destination is Globe.  Because of the rain/ snow forecast, Ron decided to take the lower route through Springerville to Show Low before turning south to Globe.  Light rain fell at Show Low and periodically thereafter, but none of it was enough to get us wet.  The most exciting part of today’s journey was riding through the amazing Salt River Canyon on the Apache Reservation.  The road is indescribable; imagine driving from rim-to-rim through the Grand Canyon.   At one point you are looking across the canyon at the serpentine road rising up from the depths on the other side of the canyon.

10 Mar:  The Rendezvous Restaurant is closed on Tuesdays, so we ate oatmeal and drank champagne.  Well, truth be told, we did go for a 2 mile uphill walk after oatmeal and before champagne, but we bought the bottle two days ago and leave tomorrow, and there is no room on the motorcycle for that heavy bottle.  Ron was able to move a huge fallen pine about eight feet sideways downhill to improve the step-over situation, and he delighted in moving several flat rocks into sloppy places.  Trail maintenance always in the forefront of his consciousness.  We ate all the salad fixings during and after champaign and watched the National Genealogical Society U-Tube video about creating presentations for their conference on May 19-22, 2021.  Tonight we return to Molly Butler's for the last baked sweet potato.  And it was just as good as yesterday.

Snow in Greer, AZ

Ron the tree-mover

Beautiful night skyscape

9 Mar:  Life is good here in Greer, Arizona.  We kinda hate to tell everyone about this marvelous little mountain town for fear that it will be overrun by tourists once the word is out, but we thoroughly enjoy staying here and hiking either to food or into the mountains along the Little Colorado River.  (Imagine that this little stream crosses a huge expanse of desert to empty into the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon ... after cutting an amazing canyon of its own there.)  We enjoyed visiting with another couple plus kids from Iowa (the quad cities) after lunch at the Rendezvous Restaurant.  Bad news at the Rendezvous is that our favorite grumpy old guy passed away in our absence.  Molly Butler Lodge did a great job on our baked sweet potato.  Hurray!!  

2 feet of snow in Greer, AZ

8 Mar, Sunday:  Daylight Savings Time has kicked in here in Magdalena, NM.  After the usual morning exercise routine, we walked to Kelly’s for breakfast.  Kelly did indeed deliver excellent omelets for breakfast - it pays to give him advance warning of specific needs and interests.  Thereafter we loaded the motorcycle and rode past the VLA across the rest of New Mexico to Greer, Arizona, where we will stay for three days.  The motorcycle ride was pleasant until about 2 in the afternoon when the wind returned for the duration of New Mexico; it "calmed" a bit after we entered Arizona.  Cynthia completed one lecture proposal, but she now must write a syllabus.  Ron is working on five lectures.  We recognized our waitstaff at Molly Butler Lodge and vice versa.  We enjoyed salmon, baked potato and steamed broccoli for dinner - perfect.  They agreed to bake our sweet potatoes for us for dinners for the next two nights.  Hurray!! 

7 Mar:  Magdalena, NM is an interesting old, almost dead, the town of 800-1000 souls where the population remains stagnant because old folks die in the winter and new folks move in the summer, and so the cycle continues. Retirees move here; some are lawyers and other degreed folks, but you would not know it by the homes or lawn care.  Fortunately, we carry oatmeal with us for emergencies like this, although Evett’s tried to make egg white veggie omelets.  Kelly's offered terrific spinach, kale and quinoa salad for lunch and an awesome entree of steamed vegetables for dinner.  He promises good omelets in the morning. 

6 Mar:  Do you know what too-much-overfull feels like?  We do.  Breakfast buffets are great places to overeat. We managed a thirty-minute walk before finishing our packing.  The keys actually stop working punctually at check-out time.  The ride to Magdalena was lovely and only interrupted by a very hungry girlie who wanted to eat at the Socorro Springs Restaurant, which we previously enjoyed in Socorro, NM.  The High Country Lodge in Magdalena is certainly a lot cleaner than our stay a few years ago.  The reason we returned is our interest in how the community is trying to restore the town.  Ron is preparing lecture proposals for the National Genealogical Society May 2021 Convention in Virginia.  Writing a syllabus is his present headache. 

Observe snow on the mountain
(and there was snow below us too ! )

5 Mar:  The plan is to ride to Ruidoso to the Inn of the Mountain Gods on the Mescalero reservation.  We've stayed there before and liked it, but this time we've reserved a room with a lake view. We were greatly surprised to see a snow view on the mountain with a breathtaking view from our room. It would be nice if they had walking trails. The Inn of the Mountain Gods is a great place to retreat, with wonderful views. We walked the dam only to learn it isn’t allowed. At sunset, we hiked up to the dam, but curious Ron decided to find out if the trail is really marked no admittance by going another route. Seven curious horses followed him home.  Yes, indeed. Seven horses ambled down the trail following Ron. They were at the lodge grounds yet that night.  

4 Mar:  Roswell, NM is a great place to sleep.  We awakened refreshed, exercised and ate breakfast while Ron did his usual morning Sudoko.  Now we are looking to see if any walks are available here.  The forecast rain wasn't much and has vanished.  Roswell, NM is famous for its UFO history.  Cynthia’s brother-in-law is one of the scientists who participated in the Roswell government research ... and no aliens were discovered.  After another humongous lunch at the Cattle Baron Restaurant, we walked the Spring River Parkway (a bike trail) to the Spring River Park & Zoo populated with all kinds of geese and duckies, miniature horses, longhorn steer, goats, and a gorgeous peacock.  The park boasted a 1917 vintage carousel, a train track for the Christmas train rides, and various buildings used for Santa’s Village, but none were operative today.  The temperature was 52 with a real feel of 44 at 12:30 when we left for lunch, but two hours later it was so warm we walked without jackets.  

3 Mar:  Up before the crack of dawn, we are exercised and oatmealing as the light opens up the morn.  At high noon and hungry, we arrived in Roswell, New Mexico a discovered mountain time when our stomachs disagreed with their clock.  The ride from Lamesa to Roswell, NM started in a light drizzle for twenty minutes, then we enjoyed nice dry weather until we turned onto highway 380, smack dab into the wind that continued to get colder and colder (50 degrees).  Strange that previous to our departure, the color radar showed rain throughout our first hour, but we saw no evidence of any rain for most of that distance.  After checking into the Comfort Inn, we drove to the Cattle Baron Restaurant for a magnificent lunch.  (Their salad bar is awesome, and they bake sweet potatoes.)  Ron bought pretzels at Walmart and retired early, stuffed full.  Apparently, this is a good recipe for sleep.

2 Mar:  Awake in Fredericksburg, Texas, fed very full and still trying to reduce produce being carried by motorcycle.  We are nearly packed at 10:22 (check out is 11, so that's the end of this update.)  Destination today is the Best Western in Lamesa, Texas, 279 miles northwest on US 87.  And we did arrive late afternoon (although the GPS detoured us west on Texas 29 and north on US 83 to save a mile).  West of Fredricksburg (aka the Hill Country/Wine Country) is vast ranches, with fields freshly planted.  Not only are the crops visible, but oil and gas wells are scattered widely, and so too are acres of wind farms.  Today's ride was cold but very pleasant until the strong wind returned for the last hour.  In West Texas towns, tacos reign supreme.  We are figuring out exactly how to really, really get an early departure to reach Roswell, NM by noon while avoiding the forecast rain. 

Ah ha !! Caught playing footsie while watching soccer.

1 Mar:  Aaauuuggghhhh!  The most stressful days in our relationship are when Miss "gets everything done yesterday" has to endure the perfectionistic packing by Mr "gets everything done by the day after tomorrow."  Mr. Ron admits to vacating the condo a half-hour late (11:30 AM instead of 11AM), and we did run into a few sprinkles due to our late departure and the wind pushed us northwards strongly and noisily the entire ride.  Hurray !! We arrived in Fredericksburg in time for dinner at Red Lobster ... no, Trader Joe's ... no, oh well, another notable dining establishment.  Oh, yea, K-Bob's ... or is it Billy Bob's?  Cynthia is showered and ready for bed.  Ron is now absolutely full and ready to follow suit.  The footsie photo was taken in Bastrop, Texas about 2:30; we had a picnic by a soccer game.  Our picnic meal was a protein drink, broccoli, spinach, apple, and frozen pineapple mostly thawed. 

1 Mar: Packing and recycling consume our morning.  At some point, we leave for Fredricksburg, Texas on the first overnight of our ride to Sedona, AZ