Changes and scares

Because of the delay in the Grand Canyon (thanks to my bonehead mistake), we decided it is too late in the season to head further north. We already ran into snow and are really not looking forward to it again. Not with me on a bike I'm not familiar with.


Instead of heading to Yellowstone, we decided to head directly south. We need to break in the engine on the new bike gently during the first 1,000 miles and the drive from Flagstaff to Tucson fit the bill.



Tucson traffic proved to be a bear! Actually, the problem was not the traffic, though it was pretty heavy. The problem was the heat. And please keep in mind that I've been living in southern Louisiana for over a decade. When I complain about the heat, I know what I'm talking about. But don't take my word for it. When we checked in at the hotel - no way we were camping in this oven! - the hotel clerk told us it was the hottest day they'd had. And he lives here. If he thought it was too hot....


We spent a quiet night with the A/C going full blast and in the morning we discovered that we had slept through a sandstorm. Yes, sand. And, though we had to wipe down the bikes and the minivan's windows before we could leave, we were awfully glad we did not have to drive through it.


As we left Tucson, I thought of all the weather conditions we've driven through in the past couple of weeks and counting myself fortunate not to have to face a dust storm.


About 30 miles before Benson, we noticed that the sky was looking very odd. It had a tannish color and the air felt heavy. We were trying to decide whether what we were seeing was rain or dust, when we saw a rainbow. Then a double rainbow. Whoo-hoo!! Rainbow equals water, hence, rain. Right? 

But it didn't smell like rain. It smelled dry, dusty. Before we could make up our minds as to what to expect, it began raining. Not heavy but enough to need rain gear. Suddenly the wind kicked in and we had our hands full keeping the bikes upright! We took the next exit and found out we were not the only ones the weather scared off the road. There was a PT Cruiser and an 18-wheeler parked by the off ramp.


We pulled on our Frogg Toggs (awesome rain gear!) and took a look at the radar on my phone. The weather report showed the main part of the storm had passed just north of us. Yeah, we only got the tail end. The report also said that a dust storm will cause visibility to drop to zero in a matter of seconds and to stay off the road if at all possible. I expect we would have wiped out if we had caught this storm full on. Good thing we didn't have to find out.

After getting our gear and our guts squared away, we took to the road again. As we went along, we were passed by several emergency vehicles. Before we reached Benson, we hit a traffic jam. As we crept nearer, we wondered if we should take the next exit - whenever that may be. That decision didn't need to be made, after all. We crawled to the single-vehicle accident scene. A car had flipped over and caught fire on the shoulder. About a mile later, we saw another accident, this time in the median and blocking the westbound lanes. 


As we white-knuckled our way to our motel in Willcox, our unanimous decision is to never try to ride through a dust storm. Ever.