Coronado Trail

Tuesday's drive was short, on purpose, to get us into SE Arizona near US191.  Safford is a pleasant and quiet town where we have enjoyed a 2 night stay at Lexington Pines.  Wednesday's motocycle ride on the Coronado Trail did not disappoint.  Here is a sign from my lunch stop

This shows I was only 98 miles from Safford, but it took 3 hrs to get there.  Keep in mind the first half was through open country with a 65 mph legal limit, and you could see for 8 miles in any direction.  The last 50 miles, from Morenci, took 2 hours.  Here is why:

and

I stopped about 11:30 to consider lunch.  Here are the choices my GPS suggested:

At the speeds I was going, lunch came out of a saddlebag.  Going further would have been selfish, since I was having so much fun, but I was concerned that brain-fade might set in later in the afternoon, so I made a U-turn and enjoyed it all over again.  Here is another view of my break area:

At the same time the Phoenix area was experiencing 90+ degrees, I had snow alongside the road above 8000 ft elevation.  There was a lot to like about this ride, but the best was having it all to myself.  On the way north, I met fewer than 10 vehicles coming the other way, and even less on my way back, plus nearly half of them were other motorcyclists.  Although it is a public US highway, there is a length limit of 40 ft which keeps bigger trucks an RVs away.

By the way, Paige reported having a nice relaxing day without Bob being around.