Grand Canyon Ride

The map said 100 miles, it looked so close on the map, about an inch or so. After over 1500 miles, 100 more sounded easy enough! They arrived in Flagstaff earlier than they had expected, at almost 3 pm, it seemed like going up to the Grand Canyon would be doable if they left soon. It was cold but nice and clear, the old Harley had been running good in the cold mountain air.

Leaving everything in the motel for the first time this whole adventure, the bike looked lean without the hundred pounds of stuff bungeed to every available inch! The oil was already thick and it took a few kicks to fire up the old bike! Finally it roared to life and off they went to see the Grand Canyon for the very first time!

What a ride, a solid hundred miles of forest, with the road free of potholes and other common obstacles! It was cold but nice and fresh. It didn't look this far on the map, almost two hours later they arrived at the park, the sun was thinking of hiding behind the beautiful colors of the canyon already, the view was enough to take your breath away, with the sun so low on the horizon, it concerned them already, they had not ridden at night and this road was as lonely as they come!

After only 5 minutes of picture taking, they decided it was time to head back to the motel in Flagstaff, the air had went from cold to really cold and the light was fading fast, casting a surreal orange glow on the sandstone. With one more shot of them both on the old bike, they were off. No more than 30 minutes passed before the sky was already dark, this was not good since there were no street lights for the whole distance back to the motel, it was not just dark, it was black as ink!

As soon as the blackness set in, the cold set in even more, it went below freezing and they were not prepared for it, they had left most of the extra clothing back in the room! After a half hour of pure blackness with no houses or even cars to be seen, it was very nerve wracking to ride in these conditions, he didn't like it!

The cold was freezing his hands even with the warm thick gloves on, he had to reach down and grab the exhaust pipe and count, 1,2,3,4,5 and then let go, he could smell the leather burn, but the heat seared into his freezing hand, helping for only a few short minutes before he had to repeat the whole procedure again. His left hand just had to take it, he would take it off the grip for only short periods, just to squeeze it over and over to get the blood to come back!

With at least another hour to go, it was getting scary, only able to go 40 mph in the dark, it slowed the whole ride down so much that he started to get frustrated and concerned that maybe there would not be enough gas to make it back to Flagstaff!

Only a couple of cars passed them going in the direction of the canyon, and no cars followed them, it only added to the dread of the situation, already they regretted going to the canyon this late. All of a sudden, he noticed that his headlight was flickering more than usual, it is always an issue with the old sporty, since it runs only from the generator, not even having a battery, at night, there would be no light if the generator failed to produce the power needed.

The light suddenly went out for a second, complete blackness going 40 mph down a remote road in the mountains of Northern Arizona was not their idea of fun! Now he started to freak out a little, he was freezing trying to block as much wind as he could from freezing his love too, she was quiet and only squeezed harder and harder as the nightmare continued!

Not sure about the amount of gas, the light was acting up and it was below freezing, what could make this any worse? Glancing in the vibrating mirror to see if anyone was behind them, he saw a faint white light, good he thought, finally someone was behind them, if they ran out of gas, at least there would be help! For some reason the light just didn't seem right, he couldn't put his finger on it, but it just didn't feel right!

The light didn't gain on them, which he thought was strange since he had slowed to probably 35 mph now, even though he had no way of knowing for sure since the old sporty didn't have a speedometer or any other unnecessary crap that was not needed! Now he couldn't take his eyes off the mirror, what the hell was that light, it didn't seem right! It was too bright for how far away it seemed to be?

He was freezing his ass off and so was his babe, he didn't like this shit at all, the head light kept flickering on and off, causing him to almost panic from all of the stress he felt now! Looking back at his wildly vibrating mirrors, he could swear the light was not on the road at all, but above the road, what the hell? He started freaking out, not a soul on the road, yet this light kept a perfect distance and didn't appear to be a normal light!

There were no other motorcycles at the Canyon, so it was not possible for it to be a bike! He looked in the mirror and noticed the light was gone, just to make sure, he turned to look over his shoulder into the black ink of the road behind them! It was gone, there had been no roads or driveways to turn off , that was strange, where did it go?

As soon as he turned back to the road in front of him, he saw it, she grabbed him hard, yelling "what is that", he wasn't sure and didn't say a word, he just stared straight ahead, off the ground about 50 yards ahead was a bright white light! It was glowing and hovering just above the trees, right over to the right of the road, suddenly, a blue light beam hit the road right in front of them! When they got to Flagstaff, they were no longer cold and couldn't remember riding the last part of the ride?

What was that light, were did it go? When they finally got to the room, they had noticed small triangle burn marks on each others necks. What the hell are these? All night long they tossed and turned, both dreaming of small people with big heads, had they been abducted?

The next morning was the coldest day of their cross country adventure, it was well below freezing at the high elevation of Flagstaff. The bike wouldn't kick over since the 60 wt. oil had turned to almost a solid overnight! They had to push the bike down the road to get the engine to run!

Off they went towards the Pacific Ocean, never able to figure out what had happened to them on the road from the Grand Canyon, from that day on he had special abilities, he just simply knew things, he wasn't sure how, but he did! The lights have not returned yet, but he expects them to return one day, the triangle remains, his babe is long gone, but the memory of that dark night lingers to this day!

copyright thewind 2008