Ninety-Mile Pie

Back when I still owned my motorcycle rental business, my brother Guy came to visit. The original plan was for him to ride alone and see some Arizona, but my employees took a vote and decided they needed a vacation from me. Suddenly it seemed like a good idea to take a few days off. So I rolled out a Harley dresser for Guy and a BMW K1200LT for me.

Our very loose plan was to head south and maybe a bit east and see what we ran across. The Pima Air Museum, Old Tucson Movie Town, Sonoran Desert Museum, & Tombstone, were on our must see list. As we went along we added the Titan Missile Silo, the Buffalo Soldiers Museum at Fort Huachuca, the Chiricahua National Monument, the Amerind Foundation at Dragoon, and the Queen Mine tour in Bisbee.
We had a good trip and saw all of the above and more. But the one thing we didn’t plan turned out to be the memory we both bring up each time we get together. The Ninety-Mile Pie. And herein lies the tale, embellished only for effect.

One morning we found ourselves near Kartchner Caverns and decided to see if they had any tour openings available. And lo and behold, they did have two slots available on a tour starting in about an hour and a half. So we glommed the tickets and tried to decide how to spend those ninety minutes. I finally said, “Hey, I heard about a place called Stouts Cider Mill over in Wilcox that’s supposed to have really good apple pie. Wanna go? Guy, figuring that since I wrote a book about motorcycling in Arizona, I must know what I’m doing, naively said “Sure, why not.”

OK, this is where I failed to really think things through. Wilcox is 45 miles from Benson. Figuring time to get in and out of Kartchner State Park, and in and out of Wilcox, and the legal speed limit between the two points, we had like NO TIME at all to eat pie. But did I think of that? Hah! Nooooooo waaaay!! So off we went. We had a nice leisurely, safe, legal speed limit ride to Wilcox, found Stouts and ordered the pie. About halfway through eating we realized: a) where we were, b) where we needed to be in about 30 minutes, and, c) how far it was between a and b.
We ran out to the bikes and blasted out onto I-10. I figured that being on the K1200LT I’d lead the way. Hah! Nooooooo waaaay!! Guy shot out in front of me and I was hard pressed to keep him in sight. I mean he had that dresser flying! There couldn’t have been more than six pounds of bike on the ground because the rest of it was airborne!

We arrived at Kartchner with about zero seconds to spare, and ran huffing, puffing, and smiling out to the gathering point. We were laughing like fools because we had made it! Just about that time a cute young couple came out and asked “Is there anyone who would be willing to trade their tickets for a later tour?” It seems they had tickets for a tour an hour and a half later, but if they stayed for it they might miss a flight reservation in Tucson. Guy and I waited for someone to volunteer, but no one did. So I stuck up my hand and gave them our tickets. They were very grateful.

And there you have it. After all that effort, Guy and I had another ninety minutes to kill. We looked at each other and said, “Wanna another piece of pie?” Answer, “Sure.” Then we laughed! Hah! Nooooooo waaaay!!

Keep the rubber side down, the shiny side up, and Ride On!

Frank Del Monte is the author of Motorcycle Arizona!, a biker’s guide to our great state of Arizona, available through bookstores and Amazon.com. He also owns, a Motorcycle Electrical Systems Repair Shop in Phoenix.
 
Arizona Motorcycle Electrics, Inc.
602-647-2965 1429 E. Griswold Rd.  Phx.
AzGetWired.com