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I’d heard about Mt Lemmon and I’ve been wanting to go up there for about a year or so. Today was the day.

We were running a day ahead of schedule to get to Inde Motorsports Ranch, so we stopped at a friend’s house in Tucson to stage for a ride out to Mt Lemmon.

A quick summary: don’t go up there on the weekend if you wanna rip and have some fun. I’m pretty sure we saw every single license plate from all 50 states about 6 times each. However, the views are breathtaking. I wasn’t mad about the 35 mph speed limits or all the quacks in cages doing 27 mph because soaking it all in is well worth it.

If there was less traffic and less law enforcement, it’d be a decent run. It’s only about 25 miles of fun and there’s no outlet. It’s a there-and-back kinda ride. I don’t know of any other fun twisties in the Tucson area though.

mt lemmon aerostich
All about that ‘stich life.
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EDIT TO ADD on Feb 26th, 2019:

These are the guys. I just found a youtube video with the same “roper” and grey 2007 Honda Odyssey Ohio plate # GTW 1060

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPA_vdYAGt0
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I’m gonna start this off by saying I feel like a total fucking idiot. I’ve never been played so hard in my life. I’m dumb, I’m stupid, I’m a moron, I’m a fool.

I woke up to excited knocking on the door of the RV in the WB Sacaton rest area off the 10 near Phoenix at about 8:35am. I open the door and there’s a guy all super excited saying “Didn’t you hear?! That guy just won $180,000 on slots and he’s just giving money away!”

robbed by truckers
I reviewed the dash cam…this was the guy that got everything going. The time code is off by 1 hour. It was actually 8:38am
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I got to ride the Yamaha Niken today at the track with the Yamaha Champion Riding School. Niken means “two swords” in some language, I’m told, in case you were wondering.

But before I get into any of that, I want to preface this little review with a little known fact about me: I’m an oldschool dick.Especially when it comes to motorcycles, I’m very resistant to change. I’ve never owned a motorcycle that had a quick shifter. I don’t like slipper clutches or Rekluse clutches. I don’t want auto-blip. I don’t use traction control…I’ve ridden damn near every modern day motorcycle known to man, both electric and petrol based. All I need is for someone to gimme a motor and two wheels without all the frills and I’m happy. Now get off my lawn!

Back to the Niken review…the TL;DR version: WOW. FUCKING WOW.

The more in depth review: WOW. FUCKING WOW.

yamaha niken wheelie two up
And to answer the number one question I’ve seen to date about the Niken: “Why yes, sir, it does do wheelies.” Photo: Anthony Sansotta
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Well, it’s wintertime. Work is really slow. Brianna and I spent 3 weeks at Kevin’s house in Elk Grove for the holidays and before his HOA could get too mad that we’d been parked for 3 weeks, we decided to push off for a few days into the wilderness until we were scheduled to go down to Arizona.

Those plans changed as well…as with my line of work, you never quite know exactly what to expect until it’s happening because at any moment, things can change.  Arizona has been pushed back a couple weeks…so we filled our time in one of my favorite places of all time: Mosquito Ridge Road. :)

oxbow rubicon mosquito ridge road
The view from up high on the Rubicon River
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Well, in case you’ve been wondering what we’ve been up to… LOTS! We just recently wrapped up the final Rickdiculous Racing school of 2018…Also, we’ve shot a few expos! Totally out of our normal routine, I know, but still fun…in fact, I’ve learned more about side by sides and RV’s and travel trailers and such than I ever knew possible!

We’ve been shooting these expos and such for New Atlas, an online publication based out of Melbourne, Australia. My friend Loz is a writer there and he helped dial me in with the gig. I’m rather liking it.

A couple weeks ago, we shot the Mullin Auto Museum down in Oxnard, CA. Holy wow. Art Decco, but for cars. Check out the gallery here:

https://newatlas.com/mullin-automotive-museum/57035/

mullin auto museum race car art decco
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Brianna and I recently went and did some touristy stuff. We’re pretty much constantly on the road, but 90% of the time it’s places we’ve been to over and over. Often times having taken the same route we’ve done a million times purely for efficiency’s sake. Now and again we’ll detour, time and money allowing, and check out something we’ve not seen before.

Old Tucson, Arizona is one such place. It’s basically a big western movie set. If I recall correctly, over 400 films have been shot there over the years. John Wayne, Clint Eastwood…even guys like Steve Martin and Chevy Chase! I thought it was pretty awesome. Even knowing there was very little historical significance outside of being a Hollywood set, it still felt very much Old West.

They have the entire day scheduled out with shows and tours that run pretty much every 30 minutes if you’re so inclined. You can walk about the park on your own accord if you’d like, but we opted to mostly follow the schedule they have laid out as there was lots of information and entertainment to be had. They serve beer and liquor at the bar. They’ve got some food and ice cream and all that other good stuff to aid you in parting with your money as well.

Here’s a map of what to expect:
old tucson map

Check out this scene of Old Tucson from the movie Death Wish

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Today is a day I’ll never forget. Today, I got to share the track with 11 of Phoenix’s finest. Today, I got to do epic two-up wheelies with Brianna all over Arizona Motorsports Park next to, past, and in front of the PoPo. Today was fantastic.

phoenix police motors unit
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Last night, maybe 5 mins after getting into bed, Bijou and I both heard it at the same time. My window next to my bed was open and we both stopped in our tracks and started listening, barely breathing. There it was again. It was quiet and almost imperceivable, but I was certain I wasn’t hearing things after the second gentle rustle of weeds in an otherwise completely silent, moonlit night.

Rather than go berzerk, Bijou slowly got up, staring towards the window, methodically and slowly inching towards the direction of the sound and started gruffing angrily. For a 3 lbs teacup poodle, it was a surprisingly deep and low, choked back, soft bark while growls came from within her tiny little vocal cords.

I opened the blinds and stared out into the darkness, using my periferals to help me see into the wild under the moonlight. I stared, quiet and motionless for several minutes. I thought I could see a shape against a darker shadow about 30ft away, but I wasn’t 100 percent certain…then it moved it’s head slightly.

“OH SHIT!”

I knew instantly what it was. I whispered over to Brianna to look out the window. She didn’t have her glasses on and couldn’t see anything. I didn’t have my flashlight next to my bed as I usually do, so I crept towards the front of the RV to hit my 52″ LED lightbar so she could see what I knew was out there. It turns night into day.

Nothing. It was gone from view, even with 25,000 lumens shining into the forest. I was certain I wasn’t imagining anything and I grabbed my favorite flashlight and went back to bed and stared out the window with Brianna also watching for many minutes. Movement again! I shined the flashlight directly at it, but first hitting the window screen with bright light nearly blinding us in the process…but there it was! It’s bright, yellow, knowing eyes reflecting 500 lumens of tactical Streamlight glare directly back at us! An adult Mountain lion was sitting just within the grass line, not 30ft from the RV.

Yeehaw. It’s been many years since I’ve seen a big cat in the wild. It was pretty exciting. It slunk off quickly after hitting it with my spot light. Several minutes later, I could hear angry barking from a dog in the not too far distance. I imagine it head that way.

I love RV life. :D

It was just in front and to the left of the grove of trees closest in this picture.
forest rv boondocking

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Brianna and I have been traveling full time in our RV since December of 2017. Nearly a year now. Before, I used to travel to the race track, wherever it may be, then turn around and come home when the event was over. Lather, rinse, repeat. 80+ times a year. “Home” back then was Reno for me. I spent as long or longer driving to and from events than the actual event some times. It’s a lot of driving. A lot of fuel. A lot of time basically wasted on travel where I could be doing something else. 1000 miles round trip to Utah. 1000 to Chuckwalla. 500 to Thunderhill. 1500 to The Ridge. Etc, etc, etc.

I’ve stayed here more than once in the Element.
honda element

Sometimes I’d just drive out into the middle of the desert…because why the hell not?
honda element mojave desert
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