AZ State Rally - Day 1 of the Rally

Thur was the first day of the rally. The web site said that the first ride was at noon and that was when registration started. It was already hot out, so we through some extra clothes in the saddle bags, dressed lightly, and headed out around 11:00:


Got signed up at the rally and saw that there were some earlier rides that we had missed. :( - But there was one at 1:00 that was going to the
San Xavier Mission. This was about the longest ride of the afternoon and looked cool, so we decided to do that. Met a few folks going through our registration packet and had lunch with them. Lunch took so long we *almost* missed the ride, but the road captain said he'd wait for us so I ran and got the bike and we took off with everyone. The ride was mostly through town and then out into the desert. You can see the mission from a ways off and it was under construction, but very cool:



The inside was pretty amazing. This little mission out in the middle of nowhere, and pretty ornate inside. Check the website for better pictures.




Tina and I checked it out and then I took a picture of her by some cactus:


and by this Saguaro:


Tina calls them "grandpa cactus". We found out on this trip that the reason the flowers open at night is because they are pollunated by bats!

When we got ready to head back, Tina - ever the bold one - said, "The trip out was too short! Can we take a longer way back?". The road captain, Kevin, was really nice and said sure. He asked for a vote of who wanted a longer ride back - and everyone said yes. So we went back through the desert and up over Grant's pass. Very pretty and nice twisty road up over some hills.

By this time Tina was bushed and hot, so we decided to head back to the pool once we got back to the hotel and the trip ended. When we got back everyone parked in the garage, but we followed Kevin around to the main area and he snapped this photo of us in front of the State Rally flag!



After that it was back to Tif's for an hour in the pool. Tina wasn't too keen on heading back out, but I talked her into it and we went to the BBQ at the dealers. Lots of bikes, loud music, good food. :) - Met a few more folks and bought some more cool baby clothes. A set of 7 bibs and a newborn black skull cap. :)