A weekend in Kingman…. Az
Monday, September 17th, 2007
Every day is a new day! Every day will present itself with a new face if you care enough to take the time to present yours. I am always open to take it all in as this past weekend visiting Mark ad Angie in Kingman. I had a choice to drop south by the outskirts of Los Angeles and only then head east, or make a turn near Bakersfield going through Kingman which will take us through Phoenix, Tucson, El Paso, finally dropping south from Alpine to Terlingua. The later of course was the choice.
I cannot pass up the opportunity to spend a couple days with Mark and Angie, their 4 children, 3 dogs, 7 cats, 2 horses and 2 chinchillas! A perfectly legal Zoo!!! Their home is our home and I always feel so fortunate to have met them a while back. The parameters of the Journey change when we are there. The experience to be considered part of the family is a rarity for us and a great one, a comfortable one showing us a facet that has been lacking in our own life. Can’t have it all I always say, I will take a couple days of it, the memories will linger filling that void till the next time, because I know that Kingman will always be on out path when moving back west again… one of these days!
Mark has been the proud owner of a BMW GS Adventure 1150 lately, he is still getting used to it as his background is more of a faster, lighter and more off road oriented motorcycles. But it is growing on him, the thought of having the ability to start some longer rides, even an Iron Butt run, is slowly making its mark. It is my favorite model, with its big fuel tank, great color scheme… I cannot even think about riding it however, I am too short for it!
We ate… and ate… even went to a birthday party filled with one year old toddlers screaming their heads off… and for the first time in a long while I went to a movie show… “3:10 to Yuma”. How was it?… What were they thinking? “Weak” to sum it up, does not stand a chance against the old Western Classics! The first thing that I noticed were the sets. So poorly designed, everything made with brand new wood, such clean materials… totally unrealistic! But it was an outing, a movie, I love movies and it was fun.
We took a ride yesterday toward the west entrance of the Grand Canyon which is only about an hour from their house. I had maybe not paid that much attention to the geographical aspect of Kingman, it is so close to some great and interesting sights. We were not planning to actually walk on that glass platform hanging over the Canyon, but maybe look at it, experience one more time this Grand Canyon which we had visited a while back at the south rim.
The road going to it was a great dirt road, we had to keep a nice speed due to the washboards, even passed a couple cars going the same direction, at the same time stopped many times for pictures of the sights filled with Joshua trees and incredible rock formations. Definitely a road to come back to the days we will have more time, maybe when Mark takes a bit of time off as there are opportunities for some serious hiking and eye candy.
The Grand Canyon made its appearance as we were getting closer, but getting near it, even taking some pictures of it was impossible! “No Parking” signs all along the one road which we would have liked to stop. Being on Indian Reservation, the signs of Tribal fines given out were also posted everywhere and fences were up in other places where we could have had a better view. And then suddenly, it was the end of the road, a huge parking lot with a couple buildings, tour buses and helicopters. All strategically designed for us to not even have a glimpse of the Canyon, definitely quite a distance from the glass bottom overlook.
Well sheltered beauty we thought, one has to pay to even get near the opportunity for some pictures. The cost we found out depended on the package purchased. Security was tight as we managed to park a bit closer than where we were allowed to park, I even thought that as a third security guard made its presence we were going to be asked to leave!
And that was allright with us, we were out for the ride and the road itself leading to our destination was more than worth the ride. Back on the saddle, this time right into the Arizona strong winds, we leisurely made it back to Kingman. As with many other areas of the West, much vast land, a dry lake called Red Lake, dirt roads going up the hills and in between them. Mark has been busy these past years working and providing for his wonderful family and… Zoo… He feels that now the time has come to start exploring what is right under his nose… and send me a full report for some more future riding the next time we visit, as there will be a next time, I am sure.
We are in Phoenix today, there is a Ford RV dealer we have to stop at for a cruise control recall. Something about the unit catching on fire even when parked… the RV is 7 years old, it is still alive and nothing has happened, but… needs to be taken care off. It is then on to Tucson where we will stop to see my friend Blane at Southwest Moto for a spare set of tires for the winter coming up. The best prices on tires in the country by the way, and free shipping when one orders two… I will be saving him some money by picking them up… and we will talk I am sure about his latest exploits as he runs the Baja race every year.
Not much time yet for some additions to the website, I did manage to post one more recipe. The rest will have to wait till we are still for a few days! Don’t forget to send me some articles if you so desire… Time to pack up again and get rolling, find a connection to post this Blog!
Till next time, you all be well…
Ara & Spirit
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You contributions more than ever are what is keeping this site alive. If reading it is worth $1 a month… the PayPal button is above to the right… snail mail address is below. We always “thank you”.
Ara Gureghian
853 Vanderbilt Beach Rd #245
Naples, Florida 34108
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September 18th, 2007 at 9:11 am
I am glad you took the recall from Ford Serious and stopped and had it fixed, most people don’t take it serious. I did not even have a choice whether to take this recall into consideration even though my car was a 1993 Mark VIII with only 86K miles it was not recalled earlier even though Ford knew it may have this problem with fires. Long story short, my son was driving his girlfriend home, and the car caught fire under the hood, caused the brake line to not work and they slammed into a tree. They both burned alive, and beyond recognition. This all happened 12-09-06 . you can see what Payton was doing before he was killed on his web-site if you like http://www.paytonsproject.org
Take care of yourself,
Delicia Lewis
October 15th, 2011 at 10:35 am
I see you drove through my neighborhood… 3 months before I arrived. next time, you’ll have to visit. 🙂