Day 14

This morning I think everyone was feeling a bit subdued because today was our very last day on this amazing trip of a lifetime, yesterday we all loved the 89a twisty turns so much we decided to do it again, and as it was heading out of town the wrong way, meant we would do it both up and down, but not before we had eaten, the resort we were staying in was fantastic but did not serve breakfast so we were all going to drive into town have a look around and come back, check out, and leave for the 89a, BUT Rob and Stuart were nowhere to be seen at the arranged meeting place and time, so after we worked out what room they were in and checked out we all decided that we might as well ride into town and go on from there. We found a great place to have breakfast which had outside seating and as the weather was just perfect it couldn’t have been more perfect, the backdrop in Sedona is fantastic with red faced mountains all around us. After breakfast we had a look around town and met back at the bikes 40 minutes later and geared up. We rode out of Sedona on the 89a and tried to hold back from traffic ahead to give us a chance to hack it round the bends, the 89a is a great road, a bit bumpy in places but what a thrill, Once we got to the top we parked up at a vista point and took some photos of the road below us that we had just ridden up. After a group photo we walked back to the bikes, Rory Ken and Stuart said they would drive down a bit park up on the side of the road and take some photos and video of us riding down, after a blast over the walkie talkie that we were good to go we all headed back down the 89a. The guys had setup on a bend and got some great photos and footage. Almost at the end and just before Sedona there was a stop off point by a river called “Slide Rock State Park” so we peeled of a few layers and walked down to the rivers edge, Rory had decided that he was going for a swim, and had his trunks on. This place is seriously beautiful and there were loads of people chilling out on the rocks, there was a deep section that a few brave idiots were jumping in off a rock face into the very cold 52 degree waters. Rory walked up and took his position, now just before he jumped, he stated to all that were watching that he could not swim, we all laughed and assumed this was good old Rory having a laugh. Well in a split second he was off splashing into the freezing waters. We all roared and laughed and then all of a sudden there was a look of fear on Rory’s face he was struggling to stay afloat and was panic thrashing in the water, now we all just thought he was trying to get someone in to save him on purpose so he could laugh about it afterwards and claim he got one of us wet and cold. So we stayed on the sideline laughing and watching him put on a very convincing drowning act all of which I was videoing, eventually when 2 locals guys dived in and saved him we suddenly realised he was not kidding around he really was drowning and we were all watching a laughing. After he was dragged out he said “I told you I couldn’t swim” we all burst out laughing and could not believe that he would do that knowing he couldn’t swim, but over the last 2 weeks nothing surprised us about Rory this included. We all walked back to the bikes after a ice cream stop geared up to continue onwards towards Phoenix, we had a bout 100 miles to go and we were all laughing to ourselves pretty much all the way at what we had just seen. We had a brief stop off and had some food in a small place about 50 miles from Phoenix and this were where we discovered that the girls were on the same road US17 and only a few miles behind us having driven from Las Vegas. We re fuelled and hit the 17 again knowing that the girls we somewhere behind us, we could not believe that about 1 mile from the hotel we heard a honk of a car horn and sure enough there they were. After 2 weeks on separate holidays we ended up on the approach to the hotel together. We all pulled into the hotel where we started this trip and then it was over. Just like that we all had made it. A final group photo sealed the deal and a very happy bunch of guys were back safe and with a ton of great memories to cherish for ever.