DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

4 hours today was the most in the car we'd had together, had to make her walk for a bit....



The Navajo tribal areas are alcohol free so we didn't hang around, the thought of Mrs Mike without a drink of a night doesn't bear thinking about.
Not a lot of auto stuff here unless you're into RV's so we pushed on to Sedona. After the flats of Utah's Monument Valley, the red rocks of Arizona looked beautiful.



Just an aside here for those interested in camera stuff. There's a photo shop in Sedona called Rollie's and with a name like that I just had to take a look.
They showed me a pic of the store taken by the owners grandfather in 1926, interesting to compere it to now, at least the rock formation hasn't changed!





Their sign's bottom right, no Rollie's though.

That is quite a 'gentle' change of scenery.
In the late 70's I worked in Santa Rosa, north California and went back about 15 years later, not good.
And after the last 2 weeks...devastating.

Are you travelling far in the USA or just the hot parts?

911hillclimber wrote:Are you travelling far in the USA or just the hot parts?

Don't worry Graham finished by the time I get to Phoenix, yep that's on the playlist too... nearly there!

Sedona's another beautiful place, sadly everyone else has knows about it!
If to head out of town though and keep off the highways there are fabulous places around, trails to hike with no-one on them, and great little places full of stuff like this.....

Mike

I seriously don't know how you do those photographs but...my goodness...straight out of whatever machine, they're amazing!

Nothing else to say..

He should consider doing it as a profession don't you think?

Nige wrote:He should consider doing it as a profession don't you think?

Nah, he's getting too old to start on a new career.

All the best parts of the USA!

Magnum wrote:I seriously don't know how you do those photographs......straight out of whatever machine...

Thanks Magnus appreciate the comment! The machine for that last lot was an iphone.

I was hoping you would not say that!
I blame you for my habit of looking at Olympus Pens in Jessops every time I go in there!

911hillclimber wrote:Olympus Pens.......

Have a look at the next set then Graham, the Pen F is a beautiful camera.

So for the last leg down to Phoenix I wanted to take the Apache Trail, the old stagecoach route over the Superstition Mountains. As I researched the roads I saw a small town called Rye and it reminded me of a story I'd read about a couple of years ago. An old guy called Ron Adler lived there, a bit of a character by all accounts and he collected/hoarded old bikes, push bikes, motorbikes, minibikes, trikes, scooters, you name it he had one. 9000 in total, and that's not counting the old cars, pick up's and trucks he had as well.





Then 4 years ago a fire sweep through his lot and destroyed everything, Ron lost not only all the bikes and cars, but his home and all his possessions and sadly nothing was insured.



I wondered if I could find Ron, see what had happened to him and if he managed to get over losing all the stuff he'd collected all his life.
Rye's only a small place with a population of 77, could it be that hard to find him if he was still around?

Yep found him, it took all of 30 secs on getting into town and ironically he had a hose pipe in his hand, claimed he was watering the grass but I couldn't see any.....

He invited us in pointing to the only thing he saved from the fire, his transporter. He'd thought that by dragging that out he save some of his cars, but the fire
caught hold at the back and got the last two of those. He's a lovely guy and yes he's back collecting. Car's, pickups and trucks he scours the area finding wrecks
and bringing them in, people leave stuff for him and his shed is getting full of bikes again. He had to sell off the land of his big lot to get back on his feet, but
he's happy now with his smaller place and it's filling up fast.

Ron was happy to chat about all the 'junk' he had, though having said that he wasn't so forthcoming about the minibus with the bullet holes at drivers head height...

We got on well, especially when we discovered we were the same age, born two months apart, yes I know he's aged better than me. He offered to take the front
radiator grill and bumper off a 54, our birth year, Chevy pickup for me to take home, thought I might struggle at check in with it though. He saw me using my iphone
to take a picture at one stage and asked if it was "one of them there smart phones", it was I said, "don't necessarily make you smart though" he replied.

He seemed sanguine about the fire, thought it was started by a kid from the nearby trailer park, not deliberately, but just messing. What he did say though was that
the other 76 in the community didn't appreciate his yard and thought it an eyesore, he watched as the fire crews arrived and hosed down the joining lots and didn't
bother with his at all.

The little mini kids chopper out front he'd just finished putting together, and he's got a shed full of other bikes he's slowly accumulating. Maybe he won't get to 9000
again but I think he's gonna try.....