Anyway, we left Cottonwood about eight a.m. and soared over Mingus Mtn. Now, I've done this dozens of times, but this was a first for Ski and her Helix. She did great! Slower in the turns than I'd go, but I have a bit of the berserker in me... We called our friend Jenn Chapman (who rides a Vespa GT200) when we got to Prescot Valley but she was running about an hour behind us. We took a Scootour of Prescot Valley and saw the sights at the local K-Mart (Ski wanted a pair of riding gloves).
Jenn caught up with us, we fueled up and took off. We motored through downtown Prescott and caught Hwy 89 heading south on the west side of town. This is one of the finest scooter roads ever designed! Smooth pavement, mostly downhill and a curve every 50 ft. (or so it seemed). Jenn hung with Ski as her "wingman" (I ended up calling them Maverick and Goose) and I led the way. Finally, I came to a section of what is called Yarnell Hill that I just couldn't ignore and I let the little Bajaj go. If the "suggested" speed limit sign read 25 m.p.h., I went 40, etc. What a GREAT section!! I did, however, have some significant waiting time at the bottom since Ski and Jenn were a little more reasonable about their riding.
We cruised down to Congress (a small town, not a political entity, thank God) through some highway-type roads where Ski and Jenn kicked my 145cc butt. Ate lunch at the Congress Cafe (imaginative name, no?) and met up with the other Scarabs out of Phoenix.
Eventually we all got our poop in a group and we headed uphill towards Prescott. The difference between this uphill ride and our earlier downhill ride is we hung a left at Kirkland Jct. and cruised through the scenic "Skull Valley". Hence the name of the rally. Got it?
Somewhere about 15 miles from Prescott, Damn Dirty Dave lost the muffler from his stripped down and...well, damn dirty Honda Elite 250. From that point on, he was never hard to locate. Brandon's Vespa P200 (mid-80's, I guess) needed but never got a jetting change, so it was quite slow. Those however were the only casualties on the ride...EXCEPT...
...sometime earlier, as they were meeting up in Phoenix, Jarod ran his Stella into the back of Hump's Bajaj. Again. And fell down and hurt his knee and scratched up his Stella. Again. Did the ride anyway.
So in Prescott we went to Encore Performance (where I bought my Bajaj...he's a Bajaj, Kymco, Royal Enfield, Gas Gas and Moto Guzzi dealer) where they had a BBQ all set up for us. Great brats, good company. Ski and I hung around for about an hour and a half, bought a rally pack (with 2 patches and a SVR T-shirt among other stuff) and went home while it was still light out. Ski didn't want to negotiate Mingus Mtn. in the dark. I don't blame her.
Got an e-mail from Jenn that evening...she had put her GT200 down in her driveway. Scratched it up and had her foot on ice. Nasty way to end a great ride.
Wish you had been there!! Well, gotta go...taking the Helix over to Prescott again today to get a new back tire....C-ya!
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