Talons Tips and Tales from the seat of my motorcycle

North from Wickenburg

Running on the original pavement of HWY 93 leaving Wickenburg this morning.  From Nogales to Wickenburg the old road has been buried under an interstate.  A few miles down the road survey crews are measuring and marking the roadway.  New signs ahead.  "Future corridor of Interstate 11."  HWY 93 will soon become extant.  Replaced with a high speed multi-lane interstate running border to border.  Good to be experiencing the old road as its known today.

Morning light illuminates the ancient Joshua trees along the road.  A forest of prehistoric beauty.  The Joshua tree is a yucca that grows as a tree and has clusters of spiky leaves, native to arid regions of southwestern North America.  Mile after mile they stand as sentinels across the desert plains.

Late morning breakfast at the Wikleup Trading Post.  Spanish explorers, padres, and miners came to the area as early as 1550.  Indian encampments  are dated much earlier.  Flo and Milo Morgan came to the area, gathered up discarded materials, surplus ammunition crates from WWII, discarded railroad ties, and river sand from the Big Sandy River to build their restaurant.  Flo soon became famous for her tasty family meals and delicious pies.  It is easy to say their proud history and tradition for good food and service lives on.

North of Kingman a short detour from HWY 93 leads to the town of Chloride.  Following the discovery of silver in 1860, Chloride became the oldest mining camp in Arizona.  Dedicated residents preserve the once booming mining camp.  Digger Dave's Biker Bar is the classic spot in town.

Digger Dave came to Chloride to dig over 350 holes and trench a ditch for a water line.  He decided to stay when the water line was completed.  Dave is a biker, family man, lover of all mankind, and owner/operator of DIGGER DAVE'S BIKER BAR.  In less than five minutes we were like a couple of long lost friends sharing and working out all the problems of the world.

Dave is proud of his bar, his home, his Harley, and the special lowrider bike he is building for his grandson.  The world needs more people like Dave.

Back on HWY 93 fingers of Lake Mead began to appear in the canyons.  Mountains rapidly pop up from the plains.  Lake Mead is the largest man-made lake in the western hemisphere, contains 30 million acre-feet of water, just over nine trillion gallons.  It irrigates some 2.5 million acres of land in the US and Mexico.  Hoover Dam just around the corner.  

Kickstand down near the dam.  Looking for the big wedge of concrete in the morning. 

be strong, be safe, Carlan