by Dean Sarrocco
The postponed first ride of the year to the Nuclear Power plant I knew was going to be awesome when on that Friday I saw over 30 people were registered to go on the ride. Plus, my buddy Sam & my wife decided they would be joining us on the ride!
Glad we postponed this ride because even though the storm for Feb 3 didn’t materialize, that would have been a cold ride. This new date worked out great for the weather. As the wife & I headed out of the garage to GOAZ in Peoria, Mr & Mrs Luxury only needed one additional layer & heated seats set to three not max…=)
Upon arriving at GOAZ I was impressed with how the staff already had the doors open, facilities available, and riders talking motorcycles in the parking lot. Once we got everyone inside and paperwork signed off, we had a brief riders discussion to go over the route. Even with the Buckeye air show going on we decided to proceed with that route as it was a paved road which most of us like. We let everyone know that we would most likely get separated by traffic lights on Bell, but not to worry as we would join up again on the Sun Belt parkway. It was pretty cool to look in my mirrors from up front and see about 20+ motorcycles behind me going down the parkway. Fortunately for us, the Buckeye Air Show was not yet in full swing when we arrived at the airport and traffic was light. Funny though, was that the road was already coned off to direct traffic into the parking area. However, as the leader, I made the command decision to ask for forgiveness instead of permission and split the cones with the motorcycle and everyone followed with no problems.
Once nearing the nuclear plant, I accidentally turned into the delivery driveway which worked out great because we were able to get pretty close to see the big towers. Once we turned around, I correctly found the main entrance and we went into one of the lots a little further out and stopped for a brief break. There we all marveled in the size & science that goes on to create electricity for us here in the Arizona valley! As we had over 20+ motorcycles with us, I let everyone know we would not be stopping as a group at the Historic Gillespie Dam Bridge, but they were welcome to pull in and view it.
Thus, from the plant we headed off to ride through the bridge, past the state prison, and into Buckeye for Lunch. Fortunately for us, we had some local knowledge from Earl about a backup restaurant that was across the street from the one I selected as it was full. As always, we had a good meal, good conversation, and an AWESOME day of riding motorcycles in beautiful Arizona. We look forward to seeing everyone on the next ride to Bisbee, Arizona on Saturday April 13th!