It was a beautiful sunny morning around the Old Pueblo and good start for the day’s ride. It also was great timing for Patti and I, as we had picked up a new motorcycle Friday afternoon putting 85 miles on it. We arrived at the Chevron station and topped off the tank to be ready.
Norm and Mary Hubbard arrived and a few minutes later, Harry Barden rode in. We waited for a few minutes, had a drink of water, took a picture and decided that we were the only brave soles who were going to ride today.
We headed out south on Silverbell, curving around onto W. Congress and making a right on Grande, which turns into Mission Rd. We rode passed the base of A Mountain and headed toward the San Xavier Mission. I will admit I thought about the FryBread as we rode south near the Mission, but fought the urge to turn for a piece. Traffic was light and we continue toward the mines. As we rode south we came to a several mile section of new pavement, which made the ride much nicer than the last time I rode through there several years ago. There were a few nice curves and plenty of desert scenery as we rode on, coming to the STOP sign at the Duval Mine Rd.
I sat in disappointment and I am sure Norm and Harry wondered why I stopped so long at the sign, with no traffic in sight, but when I rode through there several years ago, you could see over the tailings looking south. There was a full layer above what I remembered and all you could see was the result of the mining operation. Not a real pretty sight to see.
We turned east, riding a short distance, then making a right on Continental Rd.. We followed that around into Green Valley and all you could see was bright, white shining teeth from all those “Green Valley Grinners.” We then took the access rode, instead of getting on I-19, and cruised south until we were coming into Arivaca Junction.
Harry hadn’t had breakfast, so we stopped at the Cow Palace for a bite. I think the waitress had been waiting for us to come in, because she started in giving us a hard time, poking fun at us and in general giving us a good ole “hard time.” We are all seasoned veterans in returning the favor, so we had a good time bantering back and forth with her.
With that refreshing stop, we started south again, continuing on the frontage road until we were forced onto I-19 north of Tubac. We rode I-19 until we got to Ruby Rd., which is a nice place to get off to avoid driving through Nogales. On this day we had no reason to ride through Nogales, so we went east on Ruby Rd and made a right on Via Frontera, which goes for a block, then we made a left on River Rd.. Riding River Rd in a nice curvy, tree lined road, but the speed limit is 35 for most of it and the local PD likes to run radar out there, so we took it easy. It slows to 25 for about the last half mile until you stop at AZ 82. We traveled east, riding by the entrance to Patagonia Lake and on into Patagonia.
I was going to continue on, but glanced to my right and on a parallel road, near the Stage Stop/Home Plate Cafe, there was a string of antique cars parked along the walkway in front of the stores and restaurants. We turned right at the next corner and parked to check things out. I have included a couple of pictures from looking at those cars. We continued on, stopping in Sonoita for a pit stop, before riding toward Elgin. Continuing toward Elgin, you ride through nice rolling hills with homes on acrerage every where you look. It’s just a nice leasurely ride back through there and it curves around coming back to T intersection with 82. We turned back to Sonoita and made a right on 83 to head to Vail, AZ.
The “Sonoita Highway” is a favorite of local riders, who like to ride curvy roads. It was a nice day, little traffic northbound, so I had a little fun trying out the new bike on some of those curves. We turned onto Old Sonoita Highway and rode through that curvy section, heading for lunch at Montgomery’s in Vail. Lunch was another time of tasty food and good conversation. It was a nice way to end a fun ride.
RWP
President
Stan Thibaut
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