Monday, April 4
It’s moving day
again…going to Holbrook KOA. It’s the
most eastern KOA campground in Arizona.
It should be a jumping off place for exploring the central to northeast
corner of the state.
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Before heading
north, we made a stop at the Stellar-Vision Astronomy and Science Shop in Tucson.
It had been recommended to Kim as a resource to help him figure out what his
problem might be when aligning the scope.
He spent about an hour there and came away with some good information,
plus a fun green laser pointer. When
pointing it at the sky, the green beam is actually visible. This will be so much more helpful than trying
to follow his finger when he’s pointing out a certain spot in the sky.
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| Curves at Salt River Canyon |
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Just before we
got to the little town of Oracle, about 40 miles north of Tucson, we saw a
white bike by the road. Kim said I betcha that was a memorial of some
kind. I thought it was just a decoration
at the end of a driveway. We went back
to check it out. It was a memorial and the bike had the name ‘Rafe’ on the crossbar.
Intrigued, I googled ‘white bike near Oracle, AZ’, hoping to find information
about ‘Rafe’. What turned up were sites
about ‘ghost bikes’….and based on various descriptions, I’m sure that’s what we
found.
This is what ghostbikes.org
says:
Ghost Bikes are small and somber memorials for
bicyclists who are killed or hit on the street. A bicycle is painted all white
and locked to a street sign near the crash site, accompanied by a small plaque.
They serve as reminders of the tragedy that took place on an otherwise
anonymous street corner, and as quiet statements in support of cyclists' right
to safe travel.
From the site mashable.com
: The group that
creates the ghost bikes is one run entirely by volunteers. Occasionally, family
and friends of the victims lend a hand to create and position the bikes, in
memory of their loved ones. Each bike is built with a simple goal: to remind
everyone to slow down, be safe and treat others with respect.
The memorials are set up inconspicuously.
Volunteers take a completed ghost bike (a bicycle stripped to its most basic
parts and painted matte white) to the site of the fatal crash. The bike is
locked to a street sign, and the volunteers quietly walk away.
The project began in 2003 in St. Louis, Missouri, and
has quietly grown to reach all corners of the world.
The bike we found wasn’t chained to a street sign, it
was installed on a pole which was set into the ground at the side of the
road. The bike was decorated with
Christmas lights and had several little mementos on the ground in front of it,
one of them being a bike seat cover. There was also a glass jar with a rolled
up paper in it…the lid was glued shut.
In researching the subject, I read several articles concerning the ghost
bikes in Tucson. The names and stories of
the bikers were included in one of the articles, but Rafe wasn’t one of them. At the end of the article, the reporter’s
name and email was listed, so I emailed her describing where the bike was
located and asking if she had any information about Rafe and the accident that
had claimed his life. I received an
error message saying the email was no longer valid. At the time we came across the bike, I had to
search using my phone. Now that I’m in
the campground, I am going to do some more searching on the computer. A ghost bike…what a fitting, yet haunting
tribute to a fallen bicyclist.
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Ate a very late
lunch at DeMarco’s Pizzeria in Oracle, AZ.
They had much more than pizza available on the menu and I have a new #1
on my top 5 list of favorite BLTs! There
was a BLT sub listed under ‘Hot Sandwiches’, so that’s what I ordered. The BLT on a fresh Ciabatta bun that I had in
West Yellowstone, MT, has slipped to #2.
Can’t really screw up a BLT…three ingredients and bread. But today’s had
a spice sprinkled on the shredded lettuce…turns out it was a little salt,
pepper and some oregano. And when I
asked the waitress what type of bread they used, she said “Oh, we make it here.”
That one will be a tough act to follow.
J
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