Uraling within the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and meeting fellow Uralisti!.

 Friday, February 18

First thing after breakfast, I checked the valve clearances on Scarlett this morning after breakfast, found the left side clearances too tight, the right side exhaust valve too loose.  Remedied them to .004 for intake and .006 for exhaust.

Then it was time to ride Scarlett!  I headed on down AZ Highway 85 to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.  I was there just over three years ago, in December of 2018.

Not much has changed except that this time, instead of me having the loop basically to myself; I struggled to stay away from the crowds of tourists in their cars.  Lazy bums couldn't even be bothered to exit their cars to take pictures, instead clogging up the one way road.  Sigh.

Anyways, here's the pics that turned out OK.  I hope you like them, it could be I'm seeing the cacti later in the season; but they seemed a bit forlorn to me.

Next two pics are same cacti, three years apart:

2022

2018

Approaching Arch Canyon, can you spot the arch below?

How about now?

There was a clusterf*ck of cagers at the Arch Canyon parking lot, thoroughly filling it with milling tourists getting in each other's way.  I bypassed this particular hike.

Not much else to report, I headed on back to the camping area to get away from the already burgeoning crowds all seemingly headed towards Mexico on AZ Highway 85.  

It's the way, you see, to Rocky Point which is this part of Arizona's "beach access" in the Golf of California.  It is also known as Puerto Peñasco.  I'm guessing, with this being the President's Day holiday weekend that's where the almost steady stream of cagers was headed as I proceeded north.

I got back by 2:00 PM and the rest of the afternoon was spent building a fire ring, reading and just resting in the bright sunshine of a warm winter day here in Southern Arizona.

Saturday, February 18

Today was the warmest day of the week with a forecasted high of 81°.

I rode Scarlett to the nearby town of Ajo and turned west on Darby Wells road to map the campsites that were visible for future years.  It was easy to spot the campsites cuz they were campers in them!

I mapped several campsites that could be used in the future.  Here's some pictures of mountains and rock formations I found interesting.

Then I headed into the nearby town of Ajo to drop off the used oil from all the oil changes at the NAPA store for recycling.

I made one stop before entering the town, to check out a stone monument I'd seen before:

I also spotted something and made a stop at the town's open air market place:

Sammy!  The owner wasn't around....

After I dropped off the used oil, I went to the nearby grocery store.  Scarlett lost all power as I made the left turn off of Arizona highway 85 to head into the parking lot!

I coasted to a stop thinking something had come loose at the battery terminals again.  As I did troubleshooting a fellow stopped his ATV and offered to help.  Tim was his name and I told him I  thought I had a handle on things and thanked him.  He stood by for a bit while I did some trouble shooting.  

The battery terminals seemed fine, at that point Tim offered a shady spot at his nearby home to work on the rig, turns out his wife owns a 2010 Ural Gear Up!

I decided to continue troubleshooting for a bit after he showed me how to get to his home.  Both Tim and Nancy returned with me back to the rig and stood by for a bit.  After 10 minutes he left, and having confirmed that there was nothing wrong with the battery cables, it was time to check out the ignition switch again.

I removed the headlight to access the wiring within, and using the multimeter I found the right wire, connected it to a hot wire when the key is turned on, and things worked from that point on!

I buttoned things up, rode over to Tim and Nancy's place and we chatted for a long while.  Nice people from Minnesota, farmers, and just all around nice folks.

Tim and Nancy have this cool vintage Land Cruiser

I said my goodbyes after taking a picture of them:

I then went to the grocery store as was the original intent, got some groceries and then headed back to camp.

I was back at camp by 3:00 p.m. and I just relaxed the rest of the day away.  Scarlett gave me no for the problems, glad I asked Martha to send me the replacement ignition switch.