I went to Las Vegas to see a good friend, Russell, who I had not seen for over 25 years.  Russell has a Harley-Davidson Fat Bob. We took a great ride West of Las Vegas towards Death Valley.  During that ride, Russell took me to a place locally known as the “Cathedral Canyon”.  Its located in the desert and you do not know it is there until you are right upon it.  Over the years, the site has been vandalized but some of it still remains intact.  It is said that the last Indian in Nevada is buried there.  I provided a photo of a fine stand of tires someone set up to burn.  The pictures following show the current state of this weird landmark.

As an interesting aside, Cathedral Canyon is near the town of Pahrump, NV.  Pahrump is the location of the first brothel in Nevada.  It is currently the location of the famous Chicken Ranch.  There is an organized motorcycle ride there every year to celebrate the town’s history.  Perhaps I will ride along to document the event.

		Cathedral in the Canyon VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

So 18FEB2012 I went to see my friend Howard Shapiro in Davis, CA.  It was 27 years since I last saw Howard.  He has a beautiful motorcycle collection.  He introduced me to his friends Jerry Kaplan (the famous Norton and other vintage bike mechanic) and Mike the motorcycle (and other motorized things) collector. Mike’s motorcycle collection is housed in his private museum.  You will see him in the photos.  There are also some photos of the Indians and Ducati’s in Howards collection and some photos of Jerry’s collection. There were too many to post so I tried to pick out some of the more unique ones.   In the first slide, Howard is the bearded one.

		Howard and Jerry Show VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I stopped by the Mad Maps offices in San Francisco to meet Jenny Lefferts, the founder of the company.  Mad Maps are great for motorcyclists or RV enthusiasts looking for specifically mapped scenic routes around the US.

Jenny has the energy of a nuclear reactor.  She took me to coffee, introduced me to Christopher Gil, Vice President – Editorial & Production, sorted and organized some maps for me, and posed for a few pictures.  This all took about a half hour.  Jenny then laid out a custom route for me to take towards Santa Cruz.  It was a marvelous route.  More about this later.

Jenny and Me

12FEB2012 – Michael H. in Santa Cruz on his BMW R1200GS.  Michael has a deck full of motorcycles in a community that doesn’t allow motorcycles.  There was a gunpowder factory where his community now stands but it blew up and they didn’t rebuild it.  Compared to his brothers Mitchell and Matt, I think Michael is the most stable.

I drove back down to Tucson this weekend to take a ride with Robert. We drove to Parker Canyon Lake in the vicinity of the Santa Rita Mountains and Canelo Hills. To get there, one drives a wonderfully twisty road that is full of deep potholes and severely eroded edges. It is a two way road that narrows to one lane at times because of the edge erosion. This narrowing occurs usually at the beginning of blind curves. This is where Mr. Ram 5000 hangs out until he sees you coming. Then he pulls out suddenly and heads swiftly in your direction swerving to miss you at the last moment possible.  This is an excellent ride for people who want to practice not dying.   For the most part, a jolly time was had by all.

Being with Robert was even better this time.  He still has his anti-social edge but a heart of gold to go with it.  He strongly resisted letting me take his photo but he has agreed to let me do a photo portrait of him next weekend.  I will stop there on my way to El Paso.

		AZ Steak Out Motorcycles VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

While we were out in the middle of nowhere on our way to Parker Canyon Lake via Death-Wish Highway, we happened upon “THE STEAK OUT RESTAURANT & SALOON” in Sonoita, AZ.  This place has been serving steaks here for 50 years although its a mystery to me to whom.  You can get a steak there the size of a toilet seat.  However, what was most notable for us was the parking lot which was full of motorcycles.  They were mostly Harleys, two BMW’s, a couple of trikes.  The ladies were driving the trikes.  The black flags you see on two of the motorcycles belong to an organisation of Vietnam War Veterans.  Beyond that,  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.