SMAZ 2005 Trip Report

Nothing like getting a kitchen pass at 8pm the night before everyone is taking off for a ride! (-:

All week long I was being bugged for not going to SMAZ. I had a few problems, one was the wife has been sick. And that I went to Santa Barbara on the bike the week before. And she hates being left home and being bored. So I knew my chances were pretty slim in going to SMAZ. I had said something to her around Tuesday night and about it and got my head bit off, so I didn’t want to say anything else. Then on Thursday night I told her I wanted to meet up with everyone at Chaparral on Friday to see them off.

She said that she knew I wanted to go, so just go. She had to really twist my arm to get me to agree to go. So after we got home from dinner, I rushed to my phone, called my Mom to get my sister’s phone number, so I could get my nephew, Mike’s phone number so I could call him. Before I could ask him, he offered me their spare bedroom. I thought they were only a few miles away, but I found out it was more like 25. But no problem there, it was worth it, since I was able to spend some time with Mike and his wife Stacy. I also called Dennis to see if I could "borrow" the pimp seat from him for the trip to see if it’s something I would want to buy from him. By about 9:30pm, I had everything arranged.

So, I quickly threw everything together and loaded up in the morning. I had to be at Dennis’s by 8:30am, and I got away at 7:15. I made it to Dennis’s at 8:40. A little late, but him and Lief were there waiting for me. (-: I quickly unpacked my bike, mounted the seat and repacked everything. The red went real good with my Helmet and tank bag! LoL

Soon we were on our way to Chaparral to meet up with everyone else. When we arrived, Pete, Terry, Roger, Ed, Rand and Harry were already there. The bikes that they were riding, were: Dennis was on his V-Max, Lief, Ed, Harry and I were all on V65 Sabres. Pete and Terry were both on V65 Magnas, Roger was on his FJR1300 and Rand on his Kaw 1200.

After chatting and going inside to look over all the goodies at Chaparral, we loaded up to take off for the gas station. As we were gassing up, something was said and the next thing I knew, Roger and Ed took off. As the rest of us were gearing up, Shawn called Pete and told him that he was at Chaparral. Pete told him where we were and soon Shawn was there gassing up his ST1100.

At this point, there were eight of us, since Roger and Ed were nowhere to be found. We were soon on the 215 southbound zipping around cars. We soon caught the 10 East bound and off we went! Cruising speed was soon set at around 80mph and we were all having a heck of a time keeping up with Harry who was leading us in between cars at said speed. Most of us pretty much found open slots to jump in and out, but Harry sure gave us a run for our money. I never knew he had it in him like that!

Harry split off around Palm Springs, and the rest of our group (all seven of us) continued east bound on the I-10. Our first stop was Chiriaco Summit. There was a Patton Museum and Lief wanted to go see it. Rand and I walked down and saw they wanted actual money to go in, so we choose not to part with any of it. Since this turned out to be an extended stop and due to the fact I never had breakfast, I was hungry, so I got a hamburger and fries while waiting. Soon Lief returned and off we went back on the Slab!

A few miles down the road, we were pulling off at Desert Center for a little two-lane hwy stuff. This helped in making the trip a little more interesting. We past a number of other cars and trucks and at one point, we came across this "Shoe Tree". This tree was full of shoes, swimming suits, under wear and anything else you could think of. Pete even found himself a thong, which he promptly stretched across his lawn chair that was strapped on the back on his Magna.

We were soon crossing into Arizona and on our way through Parker and had a pit stop some wheres along the way. When we looked at the front of our bikes, we found them just covered in bugs! We must have ridded the world of a zillion of them little buggers, including our share of butterflies. The majority of the bugs that committed suicide running into me were on the fairing so I was real happy to have it! (-; Because Rand’s fairing is so small, most were on his leathers.

We again mounted our bikes and heading back towards I-10. Once there, for some reason, Dennis stopped and pulled over. Since Pete’s mirrors weren’t working, he didn’t know we had left Dennis behind. After a number of miles, we pulled over for another gas stop and since Dennis wasn’t with us, we decided to watch for him. About that time, Lief took off looking for Dennis. The problem was, when Lief took off, we (the group) didn’t see which way he went. So now we were trying to figure out if we should stay and wait to see if either showed back up or continue on into Phoenix.

Rand and Shawn decided to take off, and I had also decided, but they were gone as I was still getting my gear on. I was a good two minutes behind them, so I was in catch up mode. It took me about 20 miles to catch up with them, and a short time later, there was Lief on the side of the freeway waiting to watch us go by. We all saw him and waved for him to follow. It took a few miles, but he was soon with us.

Now, before I left my home, I had printed a map to SMAZHQ. I just like knowing where I’m going. So when Rand didn’t turn off at Queen Creek rd, I thought maybe he knew a quicker route. Nope, he didn’t and we were off the next off ramp and making a U-turn to go back to the previous off ramp. We were soon going down Queen Creek when Lief got caught behind a light. Rand and Shawn continued on their way, and I waited for Lief. Once Lief caught up with me, we proceeded on our way, following my map. Thank goodness I had it, because Rand and Shawn were long gone.

We soon found our way to Lynn and Wallace’s and started greeting the crowd that was already there, including Dennis, whom we had lost earlier. After about 45 minutes to an hour, Pete and Terry came riding in. Glad to see that we had found Lief and the Dennis had found his way to SMAZHQ.

After chowing down on Pizza, I said my good nights and headed the few miles to my Nephew, Mike’s house. I had gotten directions from them, and it looked easy enough, they were just off Octotillo and just a couple of blocks from SMAZHQ, was Octotillo. No sweat! WRONG! Octotillo was not all the way through, so I figured no sweat, I’ll just go up to Queen Creek and go across to Ironwood.

Well, one thing for sure, Arizona wants to make sure you get to see as much of the countryside as possible! Queen Creek dead-ended shortly and I knew I wasn’t anywhere near where I wanted to be. So I called Mike and his sweet wife looked on MapQuest and told me the route I need to take. So, I go down to Chandler (something or other) go east on it, until you hit Power Rd, then go north on that and you run into Octotillo. And after all of that, I still had ten miles to go! But I made it and was relieved.

Mike and I had to get up early because Lynn said they wanted everyone there by 7am. Now remember, 7am Arizona time was 6am California time. That meant that I had to get up by 5:30 Arizona time (or 4:30am California time) to get ready and be there in plenty of time. Mike and I rode up to SMAZHQ right around 10 minutes to 7am. We did good! (-: Of course, I wasn’t paying too close attention to the posted speed limits. Here you are out in the boonies and they want you doing 45mph? HUH, what’s with that?

Mike and I went in to find most were polishing off breakfast. I grabbed a ¼ of a muffin and went out to the backyard where Pete, LTL and Terry were sitting basking in the good life eating breakfast poolside!

Not long after that everyone was gearing up. Pete said anyone that needed gas, follow him. At first I wasn’t sure where he was taking us, but I saw a few other maggots there and knew it was the right place. We gassed up and off we went back to SMAZHQ, only to find the rest of the group heading the opposite direction. Mike and I soon made a U-turn and caught up with them.

Have you ever tried to stay up with a group of twenty bikes. It’s not easy. The back is always trying to play catch-up, while the front is always out having a great time! I tried to keep Mike and I as close to the front as possible, so we didn’t have to play catch-up too much. That plan worked pretty good. There were just a few times in that first leg we fell back and had to play catch-up. I did have the map, so I wasn’t all concerned about getting lost, but I prefer to stay with the group and not get separated.

The route was to go east on the 60 to Globe, then up the 77, north through the Salt River Canyon to Show Low, then west on the 260 to Payson, then south on the 87 and back to Chandler. Simple right?  It was IF you had a map!

We all (almost) made it to Globe. Rand and Lief we both low on fuel, so Rand stopped at one station and Lief, even after I told him we would be stopping in Globe for gas, stopped at a different station. Well, Rand found us at the station that the rest of us all stopped at, and as I was getting ready to start gassing up when I see Lief riding by and not even looking our way. I guess at that point, I should have gone after him, but it I didn’t know we were not going the same direction Lief went. I found that out only when we were about to embark up the 77, across the street from where we gassed up.

We waited about 20 minutes for Lief to return, and since he didn’t, Dennis took off after him. Then Roger decided that Dennis needed company, so him and Teresa (riding pillion) went after Dennis. More to this story later.)

The rest of us took off up the 77 and were soon in bike heaven. Nice long sweeping curves mixed in with nice sharp curves. Mike and I decided to stick with a slower crowd, Pete (if Pete could ever be slow), but since Pete was on his Magna, I didn’t think we would have any problems keeping up with him. After a number of miles, Mike sees a real nice sweeper coming up and decides to jump on it. I see this green flash go by me and realize it’s Mike and he wants to play with the big boys! So, I kick the V65 Sabre down a notch and I’m right on his tail, the whole way. There wasn’t a curve that he was on, that I wasn’t right there. His Kaw 900 Ninja couldn’t have out run me if he tried! ;-) He later told me that he couldn’t believe how we could lean those big Sabres into the curves like we were. And he was watching the couple (Randy and Marty) in front of us on their V65 Sabre. What Mike didn’t realize, they were actually slowing us down a bit. Randy needs to put radials on that thing, then Randy and Marty will be hard to catch and will know what these Sabres can do on corners! (-:

The little group that Wallace was leading stopped after the Salt River Canyon part where Lynn departed and went back down to take care of the dinner fixings. Now there's dedication for you. For her to ride only half way and go back to take care of us later! What a host! - although she saved Lief on her way back. See saw him at some gas station in Globe looking totally lost. He followed her back to SMAZHQ.

The rest of the ride up to Show Low wasn’t as twisty, but it was still a nice ride. We gassed up and regrouped at Show Low. No Dennis, Roger nor Lief, but at least at this point we hadn’t lost anyone else. The next leg we pretty much stayed together, even though we all took off at different times. Mike and I were not far behind Wallace, and because traffic was a little hard to get around in parts, soon we had the whole group behind us.

At one point I was behind Randy and Marty on their V65 Sabre, and they were behind a vehicle that wasn’t in any kind of a hurry and wasn’t about to pull over and let us pass. As soon as I saw it was clear and they weren’t going, I kicked the big Sabre down a gear as was off in a flash. Soon I had Ed on my tail. He obviously passed them all too. The rest of the ride into Payson was slow and tedious due to a few trucks and a bunch of cars backed up behind them. We worked ourselves here and there and got around whom we could, but the closer we got to Payson, the more backed up traffic was. We finally gave up trying to get around them but we were soon into Payson for lunch.

We all invaded the local Wendy’s. I was really surprised that they handled that crowd as well as they did. After we all ate and got our fill, someone yelled gas stop and everyone rushed to get gas. I was caught sleeping or something, because I was one of the last out of Wendy’s parking lot. Then, as I got to the gas station, there were two or three vehicles in line per pump. I got behind an OLD COUPLE (my mistake) that had just finished gassing up, but the old fart must have decided to have a cup of coffee and lunch, because he never came out. Nor would his wife move the blasted vehicle! Needless to say I was a little pissed. No, I wasn’t a little pissed, I was a lot pissed!

I had to finally jump over to another pump to fill up. And just as I started filling up, everyone else took off! What’s with that? Usually they make sure every one has filled up before taking off! Mike and I finally took off, but we were probably 3 to 4 minutes behind everyone. We rode a "brisk" pace (for me anyway) of between 70 and 85mph trying to play catch up. What did I say about playing catch up earlier?

Anyway, Mike and I were busting down the 87 back towards Phoenix and at about the 20 mile mark from the fill up, we spotted a group of motorcycles about two miles up the road. At about 25 miles, we caught up to them only to find out it wasn’t our group, so we continued on our trek to find the group. At one point, we saw a cop sitting by the side of the road. I was doing about 80mph when I saw him on the other side of a tractor-trailer rig that was turning left. The rig blocked the cops view of us, so Mike and I hit the binders to slow down. He never came after us, so we were soon (about five miles later) back up to 80.

A little farther down the road, I saw a headlight and the closer it got to us, the more it looked like a V65 Sabre/Hondaline Fairing headlight. It was, it was Ed. Where in the heck did he come from? I sure didn’t know. I found out later that he was separated from the group too and he didn’t know the way back to SMAZHQ.  All I could do was follow the little map we were given (the smart ones picked them up before leaving so we KNEW where we were going, just incase we were separated from the group). Anyway, not long after Ed joined Mike and I (we had given up thinking we were going to catch anyone), we caught up with Shawn. At one point I stopped on the shoulder and asked Mike if he wanted to go back to SMAZHQ or head home and he said he would just stay with me.

After we got back on the road, a short time later, Shawn was nowhere in sight. We followed 87 through Mesa and down into Chandler. We should have jumped on the 60 and found the 101 south, it would have been a lot faster. But we did get to see downtown Mesa...big whoop! I finally directed Mike and Ed back to HQ and there we found out that Wallace and his group were already there and that Pete took a group off to some other location. I’m sure I would have been up for a side trip, but I think Mike was pretty well done in by then. This had been his first ever large group ride and his longest ride he had ever done. He really enjoyed himself! (-:

After everyone returned, we started hearing stories of Roger ditching the cops and Dennis getting pulled over. As the two of them were on their way to Show Low, Dennis was in front and Roger decided he didn’t want to hear Dennis’s loud pipes any longer. So Ole Rog gets it on and passes Dennis doing about 80. As Roger is starting to slow down,. A cop is coming the other direction and Roger takes off and gets lost within some houses. The cop stops Dennis and asks him about "his buddy" on the other bike, and Dennis tells the cop that he was a lone and didn’t know who that other guy on the bike was. So the cop leaves Dennis there and takes off after Roger, whom has already disappeared by then! Anyway, that’s the way I thought I heard the story. Anyone can correct me if I missed any of the details.

Dinner was on and hamburgers and hot dogs were consumed, along with maggot type beverages, I stuck with the sodas of course. I snapped a number of pictures and whilst doing so came across the strangest thing I’d see in a long time. Ed and I were the first V65 Sabres back and we parked next to each other. When I came out, there were two others making an almost perfect formation. The only V65 Sabre (Mike D’s) from the rest of the group was parked just a few feet away. So my first picture shows all five of them. I just though it was a little funny to see.

Before everyone had time to get under the influence of their drinks, I took off back to Mikes, who had left earlier. Great riding day, that’s for sure! Before leaving, I told Dennis and Lief that in the morning I would be at SMAZHQ between 8 and 8:30am. That way I could sleep in until 6am. (Since California went to daylights saving time, it was also 6am California time, but my body was still saying it was 5am! )-:

The next morning I said my good-byes to Mike and Stacy and took off for HQ. It took me about 45 minutes to get there, so I got there around 8:15. Close enough, no one had left yet. We all said our good-byes and Pete, Mike D, Lief, Dennis and I took off for the gas station. Rand, Terry and Shawn were just leaving as we pulled up. Once gassed, we headed for I-10 and open road.

NOT! Just a couple of miles up the 10 and the whole dang freeway was shutdown! So we were caught in a traffic jam going around the stupid construction. Sheesh, why couldn’t they pick a better time to do construction, you know, like during rush hour or something! Anyway, that little delay cost us probably 30 minutes or better!

After a while, Dennis pulled into a rest stop and from there we could see a gas station just a few more miles down the road. So Pete, Mike and I take off for the gas station with Dennis and Lief following about five minutes later. As we are filling up, Lief and Dennis come. The conversation there was that Dennis and Lief want to stop at Quartz Site and the rest of us didn’t. Before I could even get my gear on, off goes Mike and Pete. Sheesh, I feel like this whole trip was going on the motto of "Pirates of the Caribbean", "He who falls behind is left behind!". So, I play catch up...again! At least this time I caught them, after about five miles.

As we were closing in on Chiriaco Summit, Mike D would slow down to below 70 and kept pulling over to the side of the road. I thought he was stopping, so I pulled over on the shoulder, but Mike kept going. Once he was riding over on the shoulder at 70 and did that for a good mile. I didn’t understand at the time he was having engine problems. Once we made it to Chiriaco Summit, we stopped for gas and while Mike and Pete were looking at Mike’s bike, I went in and grabbed a hamburger. Pete couldn’t understand why I would be hungry after the breakfast Wallace and Lynn fed everyone...except me, because I was coming from my nephews and was hurrying to get there so I wouldn’t be left behind, so I could ride back in a group.... so, yes, I was hungry! ;-)

Mike couldn’t figure out what the issue was, so they geared back up and was getting ready to take off. So I figured I better finish off those fries and gear back up, but I wasn’t too worried, because with Mike having the issue with his bike I didn’t think it would be a problem catching them this time. But I didn’t have to worry about that, because I was ready by the time they were.

Which was a good thing, because Mike was doing 80 most of the way back. By the time we hit Palm Springs, the wind was bouncing us all over. And the traffic was getting thick, to the point, it even slowed a number of times where we HAD to start splitting it.

Not long after that, was the 10/60 split and I went on the 60 and Pete and Mike took the 10. I hit a little traffic here and there on the 60, and even had to bust it as we approached the 215 turnoff. Once on the 215, the road was pretty open with a cluster here and there. All I could think of was getting home, so I was breaking through where ever I could.

I finally got home with 367 miles since we filled up in Chandler and spent just over 5 hours in the saddle. Thank goodness it was Dennis Pimp Saddle and when I got home, I was fatigued, but I wasn’t saddle sore like I was coming down from Santa Barbara the week before.