Kitt, Koffee (not), and Kurves

Me riding the road to Arivaca, AZ. nice curvy scenic drive... no cop stops.

We left Tubac and headed towards Arivaca for coffee. It was a bummer… the coffee shop is closed Tues-Thur. Those are nice hours… 3 days off a week. We sat at an outdoor table and had snacks and water. We continued rolling through the curves until we found ourselves at the foot of Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO). Just going up the mountain was worth the ride/view. We knew we were not timing the trip well enough to stay for the evening show, or even tour the telescopes.  I’m going to have to return for that. See,  the thing is, this place is out in the middle of nowhere on account of the light pollution from the cities. This means, when you leave the night presentation, you need to drive a fairly long distance in the dark. I don’t like to ride that far on a motorcycle on account of all the critters. One of these days I will come back in a car, but for now, I settled for the drive up the mountain.

Several of the telescopes on the drive up to Kitt.

Picked up Astronaut Ice Cream at Kitt.

Didn't look or taste much like ice cream.

 We spent some time enjoying the view, and looking to see what we could see.  KPNO, part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), supports the most diverse collection of astronomical observatories on Earth for nighttime optical and infrared astronomy and daytime study of the Sun. Sharing the mountaintop site with the National Solar Observatory, KPNO, founded in 195 8, operates three major nighttime telescopes and hosts the facilities of consortia which operate 22 optical telescopes and two radio telescopes.  When we finished, we drove slowly down to the gate and headed back to Ajo, Az. then Goodyear. We rolled into the drive way with only 1 hour of night driving.

Squirrel had an "accident"

 This last weekend was spent packing up the house, moving stuff to storage, having a garage sale, and sending some items up to Alaska.  Aside from Michael’s tools and pedal bikes, we sent a KLR. The goal is to have two KLR’s up in Alaska to do some riding next summer. Michael has decided to come back to Alaska and work a bit in Anchorage.

Michael's  KLR packed for the ride.

 We are getting ready to roll out of Phoenix on the BMW’s. We have packed them fully loaded. The goal is to sneak into Salt Lake City, Utah around snowy passes and not have any weather issues. We were going to try to go through Page and see the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, but Linzy (my youngest daughter) has offered to cook us Thanksgiving Dinner. Not wanting to miss that or chance getting stuck in snow through the higher elevation, we are going around through Vegas. If snow hits further North in Salt Lake, we will park the bikes in storage in St. George, Utah and fly into Salt Lake.  Either way, we hope to be in Salt Lake for the holiday.

I catch a flight to Anchorage, on Friday. Michael is going to play and fly to New York and visit a friend. He has stand by tickets, so he can be flexible. He will show up in Alaska sometime in December. He already has a job lined up.

We will have the tracker on for the ride to Salt Lake City. We are hoping to find a really cheesy motel on Route 66 in Kingman, AZ.