A Taste of Hell on the Devil’s Highway

Yesterday we helped Mary prepare for the cocktail party and Tom helped Mary with her honey-do list.

Cathy and Mary went to her church to drop off Starbucks donated food to the church’s food pantry. We then picked up a few last-minute items and went home to get things ready. The bar was already set up when we arrived yesterday… the woman has her priorities after all.

Cathy knew some of the nineteen attendees. It was great to catch up with them. Tom enjoyed visiting with the folks who all know Mary from different parts of her life.

After the party, we cleaned up (Mary’s dishwasher broke down earlier that day) and then went out on the patio for a nice visit.

This morning, we woke at 6:30 in order to beat the heat. By 7:30 we were geared up to go. We said goodbye to Mary and gave her back the use of her garage.

We worked our way through Tucson and passed the Airplane Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Then we rode past the Pima Air and Space Museum. We will definitely go there next time we’re in town.

Once on Interstate 10, we droned on for 90 miles. It was already warm and we stopped to take off our liners. The scenery didn’t change much until we jumped onto Highway 191, also known as Devil’s Highway mostly due to its former title of US-666 (the sixth spur off of US-66).

We stopped in Morenci because Cathy was nodding off and need a caffeine boost. We looked for a coffee shop but could only find Starbucks. We committed the sin of parking a GS BMW in front of a Starbucks (Google it). Feeling a bit refreshed after a double shot and half a sandwich, we motored on.

The first 25 miles of the Devil’s Highway lived up to its name. It was hellacious; dusty, bumpy and super curvy. The road began at the Morenci Operations copper mine. They are basically scraping away the mountain and filtering the copper out of it. The air was thick with dust.

Once we passed the mine, the road was rough and full of tight switchbacks. Not a pleasant ride until about 30 miles in. Then the road was better as we gained in elevation.

We rode through a burned area and the aspens were making a comeback. Some were starting to turn color. The rest of the ride was really nice and we pulled into Alpine around 3pm. Plenty of time to unpack and seek out a meal.

Our motel room’s heater was set for 90 degrees when we got here. After turning off the heater and opening the windows it was still warm when we got back from dinner. The room is Harley-themed and along with the temperature in the room, the flames everywhere made us feel like we’re staying in our own little corner of hell!

We’re hoping for some good stargazing tonight even though the moon is bright.

Tomorrow we’ll go to Telluride where we will spend two nights. We have another 20 miles on the Devil’s Highway before crossing into New Mexico and traveling through Zuni and Navajo Reservations. The morning temperature is forecast to be 49 degrees so we will layer up. Hopefully we have left the 100 degree days behind.

This is as close as we could come to a barn pic today.