So, do you see what I did there?
The title of the ride report? Tying it into Forrest Gump, then seeing the Forrest Gump Road?
Yah, I know… I amaze even myself sometimes with my wit.
And then there’s now.
Ahem.
Anyhoo.
There are no signs, no markers, that you are at the Forrest Gump Road. Just a shack selling turquoise jewelry and a shart-load of people, including, while we were there, a group of some kinda Asian persuasion yelling at each other in their native tongue, a group of Harley folk just hanging out, folks in cages almost running us over, folks “re-creating” Forrest running… The re-creators were funny as shit to observe.
If you go there on a bike, and use the side pull-offs, they’re not really bike friendly, so just be aware. If I can do it. So can you.
We used one of the pull-offs to turn around…
And got ourselves pointed in the right direction, and took some pictures.
We had some miles to get in, so we didn’t dilly-dally too long and headed out, heading back north on 163.
In a similar fashion, heading north on 163 offers different views than when you are heading south, same as on the Million Dollar Highway.
Time for me to admit something here.
I had put absolutely, positively, zero, count it – ZERO! – time into planning today’s ride. My attitude was, basically, “Meh – we’ll just head that-a-way, and then head that-a-way, then figure out which-a-way to go next, and, you know, just ride. We got all day.”
And, believe me, we used All Day.
When discussing where I was thinking of heading, Sooze suggested checking out the Four Corners because, you know, it’s right there, not too far, and we’ll be in the area, and when will we be there again. My reply was, “Sure! What the hell! Let’s do it!”
So we headed towards the Four Corners.
We got into Arizona (with no ‘Welcome To Arizona’ sign; I guess they’re taking cues from New Jersey) and eventually headed east.
Once we got onto US160 in northern Arizona, I was watching the fuel level, and looking for fueling opportunities. To put it mildly, there aren’t a whole lot of said opportunities, but, well before being in anything close to an emergency, an opportunity that was not in the GPS presented itself, and I pulled in to fuel up.
Red Mesa was kind of an odd thing to us. Just west of here was what looked to be a school, complete with school buses, football field, that kind of thing… But it was contained within a fence, complete with homes. It was just kinda weird to us. But, I got the bike fueled up…
And I took the opportunity to use the Little Geek’s Room. As I was heading back to the bike, an older Navajo gentleman was talking to Sooze. As I got to the bike, another Navajo gentleman joined in the conversation.
They asked which direction we were heading.
“Four Corners,” was our reply.
“Well, there is a bad accident east on 160, and traffic is backed up for a couple of miles, so if you want to avoid that, take that road right where that truck is pulling out. Take that into Montezuma, then head back east. It’ll add a few miles, but you won’t have to wait in that traffic backup.”
Thank you. Thank you very much to the kind gentlemen of the Navajo Nation.
We took their advice and headed out.
Yeah, it added some miles and, potentially, more time in the saddle, but we’re here to ride, right?
We got to see more free-range cattle.
And more scenery.
And we eventually made it to the Four Corners.
I don’t really have a whole lot of ooh’s and ahhh’s aboot the Four Corners.
We parked next to a fella on a Harley with a North Carolina plate and started chatting with him. Nice guy, and definitely a chatterbox, but in a super-nice kind of way. He spotted my “US421 The Snake” sticker and commented, “Oh – I see you’ve ridden down my way.” Which led to a nice chat about roads back east compared to out west. You know – stuff that happens when you’re on a bike away from home.
His name was Dave. Dave offered to take our picture at the Four Corners thingamabob, but there was line and I just wasn’t feeling it, so we walked around, snapped a few other pictures, had a cold water, and got a spiffy pin for my hat and Sooze got some postcards.
Note the folks in line. No, thanks. And that’s the back of Dave’s head bottom-right.
The line.
Good enough for me.
Besides, it’s not the geographical four corners, but that’s not important right now.
As we were chilling with our water in some shade (it was kinda warm), Sooze asked, “Did you make a hotel reservation for tonight?”
Me: “Nope. Guess I should prolly do that, eh?”
Sooze: “Good idea.”
A few minutes later, thanks to S-M-R-T phone technology and hotel apps, we had a room reserved. This would prove to be a good thing.
We moseyed back to the bike, said farewell and safe travels to Dave, and headed towards Flagstaff.
