Jerome, AZ Trip

[shysue2_imp]

After seeing the ride reports and photos on this forum I feel like a slacker, but I'll post a little bit here.

Last Wednesday I took the CB in for its first service, so I felt free to take a longer, faster, more interesting trip than short jaunts around the valley here, just getting my break-in miles racked up. Hubby & I decided to do an overnighter up to Jerome, AZ and putt around Verde Valley a little bit. I found a Nelson-Riggs tail bag (made for sport bikes but it fit the CB1100 pretty good) for under $100 on Amazon, and it was perfect for an overnighter trip. Probably could even make it work for a week-long trip if I tried hard enough.

Saturday a.m. we managed to leave home around 7:30 a.m. heading west towards Wickenburg, up 89 and Yarnell Hill, Congress, then over the mountain into Prescott. They were having their 150th celebration there, but we've been to Prescott many, many times and didn't want to stick around. We zipped thru town and caught 89A up over Mingus Mountain and into Jerome. This pic is of a pull out area that overlooks Verde Valley before you get into Jerome. That parking lot is just as slanted as it looks, believe me.

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The twisty roads on the way up were a lot of fun and traffic was light so we didn't get stuck behind a line of cars. The CB1100 handled the uphill curves and switchbacks easily. Such a great bike.

We just cruised on thru Jerome, because we were headed over to Page Springs for lunch at Up the Creek, "a rustic on the outside but refined on the inside kind of restaurant" that overlooked Oak Creek. We had Cowboy Caviar and Tacos for lunch, washed down with some of the best iced tea I've had in a long time. As Arizonans we truly appreciate good iced tea, lol.

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After lunch we rode into Main Street Cottonwood and just hung around, had an iced coffee, looked in some of the shops, and just killed time in general because our check-in time for the Connor Hotel in Jerome wasn't until 3:00 and it was only about 1:00. At 2:30 we headed up the hill to Jerome and managed to find some parking, which is always a challenge in this old mining town on the side of a mountain. We had to park a little ways away from the hotel because the entire curb in front of the hotel was packed with bikes.

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After we got settled into our room (and the old Connor Hotel has a lot of "character," for sure; the floor of our room slanted downhill very noticeably), we walked around town and checked out a couple of the wine tasting rooms there, Caduceus Cellars and Cellar 433, which has the best view out over Verde Valley. You can relax with a glass of wine and look out over the valley until you get bored or drunk, whichever comes first. Here is the view from the tasting room:

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We had dinner at Grapes, one of the best restaurants in town. Stepping out of the restaurant at dusk, we were surprised to see many bats flitting around the streetlights just turning on for the night. Fun! After dinner we took a walk to The Grand Hotel up the hill, and on the way we saw a strange little door and, I guess you would call it an alcove in the side of the hill. We peeked in with Russ' flashlight and saw this:

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/shysue/media/2014%20CB1100/DSCN1490.jpg.html]

Jerome is an artists' community and there's interesting graffiti in some of the most unexpected places. Anyway, we walked up to the big hotel, used to be the hospital for most of Verde Valley many years ago. Someone bought the abandoned place and converted it into a hotel a few years ago. They say it's haunted, of course.

Which reminds me, our hotel was supposed to be haunted but we never saw or felt anything during our stay. Of course, after getting up at 5:30 a.m., riding the bikes most of the day, sampling a few wines, a big dinner, a hike around town, and the band in the bar downstairs not hanging it up until midnight, we were pretty tired and slept well, looking forward to the ride home on Sunday.

After 329.5 miles, using just a bit under 6.2 gallons for 53.4 MPG, and having a blast on the twisty mountain roads, I gotta say I'm very happy with this bike. Think I'll be keeping it for awhile!