Day 8 and 9 - Arrival in Phoenix - 260 miles.

We arrived in Phoenix at about 1:30 pm local time (Arizona does not have Daylight Savings Time) on Thursday following the most beautiful ride of my life (by myself....thus far!) :)

We left Gallup, New Mexico at 5 am on Thursday in the pitch dark and headed into the desert towards Flagstaff on I-40. The picture above taken by someone on an overpass shows the main convoy west of Gallup. According to the map, we passed through the Petrified Forest National Park, but since it was dark I never got the opportunity to enjoy it.

The temperature in Gallup was only 50 degrees, and once we got going on the motorcycles it was definitely cold! I wore everything that I brought with me and I was still very cold.

We turned south at Holbrook, Arizona and headed towards our first fuel stop at Snowflake, Arizona (about 125 miles away.) We were driving across the Painted Desert and as the sun came up to our left, the sunrise appeared behind some mesa formations. It was absolutely beautiful as I snatched careful glimpses as I was driving the motorcycle.

Snowflake was a nice little town, and my responsibility there was to block an intersection. Doc and I worked with the local police, who were great. It was still chilly, so we kept our jackets on and headed towards Globe, AZ and our second fuel stop.

Globe was a lot of fun. First of all it was HOT!

Secondly, the ride from Snowflake to Globe was breathtaking. Snowflake was still up in the High Desert at about 7,000 ft elevation. The whole ride to Globe (about 3500 ft elevation) was downhill and through some incredible scenery. The sun was fully up and the massive rock formations and canyons was everything I had imagined.

I saw something I had never seen before - "beware of Elk" signs! They look just like the deer crossing signs, but they have a picture of an Elk. We passed through dense forests of tall pine trees, which were very beautifuil. Everything was green and pristine. It smelled different... clean.

Some of our riders were crazy enough to snap pictures as we drove, and another rider I know actually pulled over to take photographs. That is how I managed to get some good shots. I've also "borrowed" some from the official American Legion Legacy Run blog at:http://www.legacyrun.blogspot.com/.

We passed through an Apache reservation for about 40 miles. I never saw any people, but I continued to be amazed by the scenery. We then came to the Salt River Canyon, which was unlike anything I had ever seen or imagined. I keep using the word, but it was unbelievable. The road snaked both down into the canyon and then up again. The scale was enormous. It was hard to not gaze around, but I was able to snatch glimpses.

It was a very challenging road to negotiate with our convoy of vehicles and 13 motorcycles. There were many tight "twisties" and grades. We passed some small rest/scenic overlook areas where people were waiting with cameras and news cameras to catch the main body. From one side of the huge canyon you could see the road wind its way down to the bottom and then wind back up the other side.

There was a large crowd of American Legion riders waiting in Globe to join the ride to Phoenix. We all stripped down to just our T-shirts there and then rode down to the floor of the desert and Phoenix. I am told that the police in Globe shut down all the traffic on the main road out of town, and the main body got to use all four lanes to drive South out of town. It supposedly was an awesome sight.

As we got to the floor of the desert, the heat became oppressive. Even while riding at 75mph, I could feel the heat. The sun was very hot and the air seemed super-heated. We drove through Mesa and then into Tempe, where our hotel was located. We later learned that the temperature was about 108 degrees.

We arrived in Tempe and ended our ride at American Legion Post 2, which was about 2 blocks from the Fiesta Resort, where we were staying. The Post had a lot of people waiting, with signs and flags and decorations. The American Legion National Commander and his staff were also there. They also served us lunch and there was some speechifying and check presentations.

On Thurday night Doc and I drove around and had to find a laundry. We managed to find one about 5 miles away next to a tatoo parlor. Very interesting people there at night..! We got to bed late once we returned to the hotel.


Friday, 22 Aug


We got up at 0500 (incredibly enough) and met for a briefing at 0615. The National Commander, Marty Conatser, was scheduled to be interviewed by the local Fox News affilliate at about 7 am, and he had asked for some support from the American Legion Riders.

We had a convoy of about 20 bikes that rode downtown to the Fox studios. The actual interview is at:

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=01AA737A8BB83B2CDEFF7B07912CD2BE?contentId=7265282&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1

It was fun!

We returned to the hotel area in Tempe, grabbed breakfast and then joined the parade of bikes back to downtown Phoenix and the convention center. I was flying the American flag all morning on the back of my bike, so at least I had the opportunity to use the thing that I had been dragging around the entire ride.

There was a series of speeches and check presentations on the steps of the Convention Center. Unfortunately, the heat was so oppressive that most people could not just stand out there for over an hour. The good news is that various Posts presented checks that totaled about $48,000 which brought our overall total to date to approximately $280,000!!

Doc and I then went to the Harley-Davidson dealeship in Apache Junction, AZ for oil changes. We have done about 2,700 miles thus far in some very trying situations, so we wanted to protect our bikes. While at the dealership, we learned of a nearby "Ghost Town" and tourist trap called Goldfield. We visited it and it was a quaint old town with a few restaurants and restored church and jail.

From there we went to a place called Tortilla Flats, which was about 12 miles farther, past Goldfield. It was quite a challenging ride with many twists and turns. There is a breathtaking descent down into something called Canyon Lake, and then you arrive at Tortilla Flats - which is mainly a small store/restaurant. Most of the scenic pics of the Arizona landscape were from this side trip.

Good night,

Mike