3-15-12 Thursday day 7 of New Calizona Vacation

We are up and on the bikes early as we have some miles to make back towards Oklahoma. Cool morning, and the leather feels really good. We leave Sedona, and head towards Jerome. The ride is great, and the road leading up to Jerome is amazing. The town was once a copper mining town, and according to Doug (remember our jeep tour guy), by 1929 Jerome's population was over 15,000 and Arizona had become the nation's leading copper producer. By 1950 there were less than 50 people left in the town. Jerome reminded me a lot of Eureka Springs, AR. We just rode though it, and it was fairly early, so didn't get to check it out. The rodes were very curvy and extremely narrow through town. 
The ride over the mountain was just another beautiful bit of Arizona that we get to enjoy today.  There was still snow in some areas.


Amazing how the scenery can change so quickly. Coming out of the mountains into the valleys, and seeing all the towns that are scattered around is pretty cool. Prescott is a nice looking town, and is really pretty large. We make our way through numerous mountain ranges, and stop in the Phoenix area for gas, and a quick lunch. Diana and I are in amazement of all the cactus that we are seeing as we come into the Phoenix area. They are called Saguaro cacti. They are thick as can be. She does a little reading about them and these things have to be old. Takes 85 yrs. to grow arms. They are actually on the endangered plant list. They seem to only grow in this region, along with Mexico, and one part of California. One cool cacti is all I can say. Diana tells us if you have a saguaro cactus that is a foot and a half tall, it would be 10 yrs. old. The cacti collect rain during the rainy season, and swell up, and that is how they live during the very hot times.
We make our way to Deming New Mexico and decide it is time to find a place to sleep for the night. We find a little place, and pull the bikes up to the rooms, and go and get something to eat at the local restaurant that is next door in another hotel. The daylight savings time is strange, as Arizona doesn't observe it. We had no clue what time it was in Arizona, other than our phones would change according to the time region we were in. Kept us guessing all the time.  
I had no idea we were so close to the Mexico border either. Saw signs on the roads and it would say where the next town was and would show a Mexico town also. Some were only 5 miles away.