In Search of New Dirt

We often get spoiled by our riding weather during the 'cooler' months here in the desert. So, when a storm is predicted for the weekend many of us try to jam in a ride before things get nasty. If I don't have to ride in the rain, I'm not.

We figured it would be a safe bet to head out early & get off the trails by 11a. There was some recent chatter about new trails being developed on the northern fringe of the Brown's Ranch trail system. Jeff, Nancy & Arturo were all game for a little exploration, not to mention it was Arturo's first time on any of the BR trails. Shame on you. Plus, my wrist was still bothering me and I knew the Brown's Ranch trails were tame by Phoenix standards. It would be a good test for it.

Our main goal was to first find the new stuff, but take a fun route getting there. Maverick & Cholla Mtn trails were the obvious choice. A short connector on a defunct Pima/Dynamite system trail led us to the new swath of dirt.

We figured we'd just ride the new stuff westbound and return. What we found were a few new trails crisscrossing the desert.

While new trails are nice, we're still hopeful that some technical features will find their way into Brown's Ranch.

We found the work equipment along with the neon flagging for the new routing. The new dirt was fun, but it was also more of the same for Brown's Ranch. I hope the northern fringes incorporate more of the natural rock features into the trail design. It'll never be another National trail, but at least spice it up a bit!! I often compare the new trail construction to ski resorts. It's like opening a huge ski resort with tons of downhill runs, but they are all rated 'green'. Just like skiers, mountain bikers enjoy a good technical challenge, a steep switchbacked climb and gnarly descent - even if it means getting off your bike once in a while. Thrown in some blue, black & double black trails!! Please!!

Let me drive this thing, I see some rocks over there!!

We made some loops, doubled back on some sections and looped around towards the parking lot on the Granite Mtn. & Balanced Rock trails.

Great friends and beating the weather.

As we approached the trailhead the weather was still holding off, so we jumped at the opportunity to add one more loop. Jeff probably wished we didn't, as his front tire slid out on him barely a mile later opening a nice trail donation on his knee. He rode back to the car while the three of us finished off the loop about 15 minutes later.

Don't get me wrong, I love Brown's Ranch, it's fast, flowy and very scenic Sonoran desert riding. A nice change to some of the other local punishing rides we have in the Valley of the Sun. There are plenty of dirt sidewalk miles close to the trailhead now, so it's time to up the skill level for the trails farther away, we want it. Build it!!

I was also pleased with how my wrist fared, onto the next test.

Here's our route from the day, new stuff is in the upper left.

Oh, Savannah

I was due for some time off the bike (give my wrist a rest) and overdue for some quality time with K. We hatched a plan a while back to meet some of K's lifelong friends from Tallahasse over in Savannah, GA for a long weekend. We were both excited to go, relax, see some new sights and hang out with good people.

We made an attempt to get out of PHX on a red-eye to CLT Thurs evening. Things didn't look good as the flight was slightly oversold and we were now slotted in 7/8 on the standby list. As luck would have it, a bunch of folks didn't show and we made the flight! Vacation started!!

9º?!?! It was 62º when we left PHX, at least Savannah was a bit warmer.

We hopped in a taxi over to our hotel, which was walking distance to everything downtown, and hoped we could check in early....way early. The hotel staff had no problem accommodating our early arrival. We took advantage, time for a nap!!

A few hours later we were somewhat refreshed and ready for some food. While we waited for our friends to arrive we figured we go check out the City Market area near our hotel.

Hotel view.

City Market.

We found a place for a lite lunch, then strolled through the nearby streets for a bit. Our friends arrived a couple hours later and we had a fantastic dinner in the City Market area.

Mmmm, fried gator tail!!

The next day we got going with another superb meal, I just love southern cookin'!! Most of the day was spent walking around taking in the architecture, local history and getting our haunted pub crawl & carriage tour all set up.

Savannah river bustling with activity. The river is dyed green for St. Patrick's Day festivities.

Old time candy shoppe.

These steps were a bit tricky to walk down with the shallow tread.

Cobbles near River St.

Southern greenbelt.

Cotton Exchange.

A multitude of historic plaques dotted the city showcasing Savannah's rich history.

Dating back to Georgia's statehood in the late 18th century.

Ahh, time for a brew!!

After we sampled a few of Moon River's finest we were off to River St. for dinner reservations at the River House. Once again the food was terrific, but our waiter stole the show. His constant wit had us all laughing the entire time, it was a great lead-in to our upcoming haunted pub crawl.

Perfect way to kick off the weekend.

We met back at Moon River and found our guide, all dressed in 19th century garb. This was a cool idea as it made him easy to find when we left each establishment. Our pub crawl however, started at Moon River...in the basement, where we learned of our first haunts of Savannah. Come to find out, the Moon River building is one of the most haunted structures in the city! As we learned later, it seems like most buildings in this town have some ghostly story to tell.

I thought this was a cool building, I later found out it was Paula Deen's Lady & Sons restaurant.

Stop #2 on our crawl, complete with stripper pole as a reminder to past establishments.

Giant Jenga at stop #3.

K & B posing with our guide.

This was our favorite stop, tried some aged Scotch for the first time & loved it.

The haunted pub crawl was wonderful, highly recommended if you're ever in town. We were all ready for a bite to eat afterwards and the pizza by the slice was calling our name. We heard about the size of the slices, so I ordered one for each of us. Good call.

Now THAT's a slice of pizza!!

On Sunday our only plans were for a carriage tour of the historic district. In the meantime we were off for another delicious southern breakfast.

Shrimp & grits. Mmmm.

We had some time to kill before our afternoon carriage tour, so we took in some sights downtown. We popped into the Savannah Bee Company to pick up some spun honey. There also happened to be a mead tasting going on. I had never heard of it, fermented honey. It was quite different, but we found one we enjoying and picked up a bottle.

The Mead tasting offerings. We bought the one on the far left.

Savannah Bee Company.

I really like this town!!

It was now time for our carriage tour through the historic district. We started across the street from Moon River, which seemed to be our epicenter of the weekend. I'm not going to try and recount the entire tour, but I can say that most of the pics I took were related to some kind of haunting story. This city has an interesting past for sure.

BTW, good beer too!!

Wayne-Gordon House, birthplace of the Girl Scouts. Cookies for sale year round here.

Spanish moss everywhere.

A little Russian architecture.

The ghost of a little girl reportedly haunts this place. Doll in the window as a reminder.

K and our tour guide.

After our tour we made our way over to Leopold's for some homemade ice cream. They make their own flavors on site, this is the place that invented Tutti Frutti. The tidbits you learn on a daily basis.

Ice cream that is worth the wait.

Something I could do with all my old license plates.

Historic Lucas theatre.

Marshall House.

We all made our way back to the hotel and decided to meet up for dinner. K and I still wanted to walk around a bit. We hatched a plan to re-visit the Scottish pub from our crawl, Molly Macpherson's and sample a scotch flight. Win!

Where to begin?

We went with the region we liked from Sat. While we enjoyed these, we both agreed our random choice from Sat was our favorite. Glenfiddich 15-yr.

Old time candy store for some goodies to take back to AZ.

We wrapped up our afternoon and the others were a bit disappointed they didn't join us!! One final dinner together and we were packing up for our flight home the following day. As always, it's great to see our Tallahassee friends, next time may be in Vegas this summer.

Our return home ended up being a bit of an adventure all on its own. We were listed on a morning flight from SAV to PHL since the PHL to PHX flight looked wide open for our standby needs. Of course the first flight filled up at the last minute and we missed getting on by one seat. Plan B: fly to CLT and hope we can get home that day as all the flights were booked to PHX.

We barely made the flight out of SAV a couple hours later and arrived in CLT with a 30 minute connection. I had rolled the dice a bit by listing on the earliest CLT flight, but you always want as many chances to get out of there as possible!! We hoofed it across the CLT airport arriving at our gate as the final passengers were boarding. The gate agents had been calling our name to board, so we were good to go!! There were still 18 passengers unaccounted for, so we were told to get on board and grab any seat. Bulkhead it was. High fives exchanged, we were going to get home earlier than we thought.

Then the bulkhead passengers arrived. K was able to stay put, I headed towards the back of the plane. All the empty seats were apparently occupied, but the attendant assured me I'd find a seat. Next thing I know, K is calling to me from the front of the plane. Then she gets off the plane!! What?!? I made my way up front, with everyone staring at me, grab our things and we end up getting pulled from the flight as all 18 late passengers made the flight and the flight wasn't closed out fast enough for us to stay on. Drat.

We had one more flight to get on that evening before getting stuck in CLT. There were only a few seats left. As we waited, I kept checking the status over dinner, slots kept opening up and by the time boarding commenced we were given seat assignments and knew we'd be on our way home. Hooray!! Flights out of CLT always seem to have standby drama, but this was the first time in 10 years I'd  boarded a flight and then had to deplane. Oh well, I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. Bottom line, we still arrived home in PHX the same day, success!!

Final approach into PHX!! South Mtn towers on the right.