In October 2007, John bought himself a new toy: a brand new motorcycle.

It used to be that John's primary vehicle was a motorcycle; for years, before he and I met, he drove a Honda Nighthawk and had been riding motorcycles since he was sixteen years old.  Even after he no longer had a motorcycle, he kept the motorcycle endorsement on his driver's license, just in case.

For a long time, John didn't talk much about wanting a motorcycle.  Every now and then, he would say that he missed riding a motorcycle, but the subject wouldn't come up again.  Then, in 2005, when we went on our Alaskan Cruise, we did the Harley-Davidson motorcycle tour...and that got John to thinking again...

Two years passed, and John began intensely researching motorcycles; I knew that it wouldn't be long before we had one parked in our driveway.  Sure enough, one Friday afternoon in October, he called me from Western Honda, where he had just purchased a 2007 Honda Shadow Aero!

Naturally, upon hearing the news, all of my co-workers asked me that burning question: "So what do you think about that?"  I'm sure that they were probing me to see if I was mad.  Much to their surprise, I wasn't mad at all!  True, it was quite the impulse buy, and he never really asked me what I thought about it; but I certainly wasn't going to tell him no.  The truth is, I think motorcycles are pretty cool, and I had no problem with him buying one.

John's new motorcycle is a cruiser motorcycle - not a "crotch-rocket" like the ones that you would see zooming down the freeway at break-neck speeds; and he bought it for recreational purposes (although he does occasionally drive it to work).  One of the things he hoped to be able to do with his new bike was to take me out cruising on the open road every once in a while, especially during the spring and the fall when the weather in Arizona was at its best.

Of course, finding the time was the big challenge.  It would be several weeks before John and I would find a day in which to take the motorcycle out for a spin out on the open road.  Until then, we did little trips around the city whenever we had a chance to do so.

Finally, on Sunday, November 18, John and I had a free day.  Mary would be spending the day with Aunt Janice, and no one else required our presence.  It was time to take the bike out for a ride!

Our journey began at 9:00 in the morning, after the sun was out and the day was warming up.  After dropping Mary off at Janice's house, John and I geared up and took off on our road trip. 

Our plan for the day was to head east on I-10 to the US 60 and continue all the way to Globe.  From there, we would hop onto the SR 188 and take that scenic route all the way past Lake Roosevelt, to SR 87.  We would then merge onto SR 87 and continue southbound, all the way back to Phoenix.  En route, we planned to find several geocaches and to hike in Tonto National Monument.  The whole trip would take us about six hours, including stops.

Our first stop along our route happened while we were still in town.  As we were traveling east on I-10, John surprised me by making a quick exit on 48th Street & Broadway.  "Where are we going?" I asked after we stopped at the light.

"To go find that geocache that I've been looking for near work," he replied.  "I figured since it's Saturday, there won't be so many 'muggles' around today."

"Muggles", in geocaching terms, are "non-caching folk" (yes, just like "muggles" in Harry Potter are "non-magic folk").  When geocaching, it is very important to avoid detection by "muggles", to prevent our secret treasures from being stolen or damaged.  This isn't such a big deal when caching in unpopulated areas, but when caching near businesses and popular meeting places, discretion is required.

As we had hoped, there were no "muggles" around today to prevent us from claiming that geocache.  We were finished and back on the road again in just a few minutes.

Our journey continued on US 60, eastbound towards Globe.  Along the way, we stopped twice near Florence Junction to look for more caches; we found one but didn't find the other.  We stopped a third time to claim a "virtual" cache.  A virtual cache is different from a traditional cache in that there isn't a container to locate.  Instead, the GPS coordinates will bring you to a site, where you have to gather information and e-mail it back to the cache's owner.  In this case, the GPS took us to a historical marker just outside of Superior, in front of Picket Post Mountain.  In order to claim the cache, we had to take a picture of someone on our team, holding the GPS, next to the marker, with the mountain in the background.  So, John took a couple of pictures of me claiming our find!

We kept going on US 60 until we reached Globe, AZ.  There, we stopped to find yet another cache and to fill up the motorcycle (a fill-up that cost us a whole whopping $9!).  We also started thinking about lunch; it was almost 11:00 a.m., and we were getting hungry.  Unfortunately, there weren't a whole lot of options around the US60-SR188 junction, and we were trying to avoid fast food.  We decided to go our favorite Mexican food place along SR 188, since it was on the way out of town; but when we got there, we discovered that it was closed, because the owners were on vacation!

So, we continued on our journey...

Our next stop was at the Salt River, where we looked for two more caches; again, we found one but didn't find the other.  The one that we did find required us to do a little hike into the brush and trees.  We had to bushwhack a little bit to get to it...and when we found it, we also found a lovely little trail leading right to it!  (Lesson learned: don't just follow where the GPS is pointing; follow the contour of the land and go where it makes sense.)

Once we were back on the road again, it wasn't long before we arrived at Lake Roosevelt...and a restaurant!  It was already past noon and we were starving, so we were grateful to see that it was open for lunch.  If it hadn't been open, we would have had to wait until we got to Punkin Center...and that was another hour away.

After eating a good lunch, John and I continued on SR 188 towards Tonto National Monument, to visit the ancient cave dwellings that are preserved there.  These dwellings were the home to the Salados, who inhabited the area between 1150 and 1450 AD.  The Hohokam Indians had settled in the Tonto Basin sometime during the 8th century AD; the Salado were apparently an offshoot of their culture.

Some of the cave dwellings, in which Salado families had once lived, are open to the public and are accessible by trail.  We decided to visit the Lower Cliff Dwellings by hiking a half-mile long paved trail, that gains about 500 feet in elevation. 

The paved trail was easy enough to hike - though it was a bit of a groaner so soon after lunch!  It took us about fifteen minutes to make it to the top of the trail, which, of course, ended at the Lower Cliff Dwellings.

The cliff dwellings were beautifully intact and quite interesting.  Using the map provided in the Park Service brochure, we took a tour through the various rooms and learned what purpose each one served.  After we were finished, we then started hiking back down the trail, back to the Visitor's Center.

Having completed our hike and our visit to Tonto National Monument, we decided that it was time to head back to Phoenix.  From the monument, we continued along SR 188 - non-stop - to SR 87, which we took all the way back to town.

Of course, we did have to make one more stop on our route, to claim another geocache near Tatum and Shea.  This was one that John and Mary had tried to find a few days earlier but couldn't find because John had forgotten to bring the GPS with them!  We found it with no problem this time...

Completely exhausted, John and I arrived at home around 3:00 that afternoon.  It had been a great first road trip on the motorcycle, and we are looking forward to many more to come...

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