Bikes parked at the Holiday Inn
Gassing up in the morning, it was all bikes at this gas station
Almost home, a gas stop in Iowa
We arrived home before 9PM, at least it was not raining at home. What a great trip! Tomorrow morning, I go back to work.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Day 10: Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois
We woke up to rain and fog, it rained pretty much all day as we rode though the flat landscape.
Bikes parked at the Holiday Inn
Gassing up in the morning, it was all bikes at this gas station
Almost home, a gas stop in Iowa
We arrived home before 9PM, at least it was not raining at home. What a great trip! Tomorrow morning, I go back to work.
Bikes parked at the Holiday Inn
Gassing up in the morning, it was all bikes at this gas station
Almost home, a gas stop in Iowa
We arrived home before 9PM, at least it was not raining at home. What a great trip! Tomorrow morning, I go back to work.
Saturday, September 9, 2006
Day 9: Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska
My chain needed adjustment for the first time at approx. 12,000 miles
Sandy washed her bike, Paul helped :)
Then, Paul got a test drive on the ST4s
And on the ST3
After a wonderful breakfast and some hanging around, Sandy and I were packed and ready to go. Paul and Deb were going to escort us toward Limon, CO.
Paul and his R1
Deb and her R1
Straight roads all day
Welcome to Kansas
Welcome to Nebraska
It started to rain at the border of Kansas and Nebraska, by the time we got to Lexington, NE it was dark and we had been riding in the pouring rain for a while. We grabbed a room at the Holiday Express and ordered a pizza to be delivered to our room.
Friday, September 8, 2006
Day 8: Utah to Colorado
The morning started with rain, continued with rain and ended with rain. You could say it rained ALL day, the roads were amazing but it was chilly at times with the rain.
Near Moab, UT
Rainy and foggy Colorado
It was pretty chilly at Monarch Pass at 11, 300+ feet
We arrived in Colorado Springs and found my friends house. Then Paul, Deb, Sandy and I went out for dinner and beer. We had a great time chatting about motorcycles and rides.
Near Moab, UT
Rainy and foggy Colorado
It was pretty chilly at Monarch Pass at 11, 300+ feet
We arrived in Colorado Springs and found my friends house. Then Paul, Deb, Sandy and I went out for dinner and beer. We had a great time chatting about motorcycles and rides.
Thursday, September 7, 2006
Hatch to Monticello, Utah
We had a lot of ground to cover today so we were to leave and on the bikes at 7AM. We headed toward the amazing route 12. The scenery on 12 was breathtaking and it was hard not to pull over for pictures every few miles. The road itself was great too, the curves twisting and turning though beautiful rock formations and changing colors and shapes.
This has to be one of my favorite roads in the USA. Some people go to Deal’s Gap for twisties, I rather come here and ride 12, 24 and 95. It’s THAT good. This is open range country, so there were cows hanging out in the road, but not where you’d expect them to hang out. Not in the flat areas, where there was grass near the roadway. They were up in the hills and near the canyons. We would go through a corner and there would be a cow standing in the road or a cow just about to cross the road.
On 12 near Bryce Canyon
That is a huge sign
The temperatures were cool this morning, the skies were overcast and there was a light drizzle at times also, but it didn’t spoil our fun at all, even when at times drizzle would turn to light rain, the road was still so much fun that it didn’t matter to us if it was wet or dry. The small towns we passed on the way were really neat, too bad we didn’t have time to stop and look around.
Then in Torrey we headed east on 24, which is another one of my favorite roads, through Capitol Reef the rock formations are just amazing and the curves here are my favorite type of sweepers. You can really get in to a rhythm as you turn left and right and left and right and left and right. We stopped for a mi-day snack at one of the scenic pull outs. The sun had come out and the temperature was in the high 80’s now. There really weren’t a lot of people here, we’d only see a car go by once in a great while.
Rt 24 though Capitol Reef
Our lunch stop on 24
In Hanksville Sandy took off to buy some fossils and I hang out at one of the gas stations where I talked to a few HD riders and the lady that ran the gas station. The wind was picking up again and the HD riders had come from the south and told me I’d be riding in to more rain on 95. As we departed, it seemed we were riding in a full blow sand storm, the winds were pretty strong and we were being blown all over the road.We were enjoying the awesome sweepers through the canyons and then the rain started up again just as we approached the Glen Canyon overlook. At the scenic overlook we found two Triumphs with Texas plates. We chatted with the riders a bit, one of them frequents ST.N. After a few minutes they headed north and we took off towards the south.
Glen Canyon
View from the Glen Canyon overlook on 95
The rain was light, sometimes a drizzle and sometimes none at all. Since I’ve been on 24 and 95 before, I rode it a bit harder then before, even when it was raining. That road is just like a roller coaster and is great when going fast. Since there are no towns or gas stations for 122 miles between Hanksville and Blanding, I bet the only way they could catch speeders is using air planes and with the clouds and rain they would have to fly pretty low. This road was just as amazing as I remembered, actually it was even better traveling south then it is traveling north, because you can see the nice scenery all around as the road dips down in elevation.
Once past Blanding the rain started up again and we decided to again grab a motel room for the night. We checked in to the Best Western in Monticello and by the time we got on our bikes to move them in front of our motel room, it was pouring rain. I’m so glad I brought that small folding umbrella, I unpacked my hard bags without getting the contents too wet, I’m just to lazy the bags all the way off. We also used the umbrella to walk next door to the Spur restaurant for dinner. The Spur was a real western type place and we were served by real cowboys and cowgirls. It’s a family owned place, the daughter which was our waitress had on her boots, wranglers and big silver buckle and a toothpick in her mouth. His was not a fancy place and there were only 5 things on the menu plus a few specials. This was also a dry town, so no beer for us - again. The food was just OK. Sandy went to soak in the hot tub outside in the cold rain and I stayed inside the dry motel room to figure out the route for tomorrow. It kept raining hard all evening and all night.
Spur restaurant menu 1 meat 2 meat 3 meat 4 meat 5 chicken
Spur restaurant check
This has to be one of my favorite roads in the USA. Some people go to Deal’s Gap for twisties, I rather come here and ride 12, 24 and 95. It’s THAT good. This is open range country, so there were cows hanging out in the road, but not where you’d expect them to hang out. Not in the flat areas, where there was grass near the roadway. They were up in the hills and near the canyons. We would go through a corner and there would be a cow standing in the road or a cow just about to cross the road.
On 12 near Bryce Canyon
That is a huge sign
The temperatures were cool this morning, the skies were overcast and there was a light drizzle at times also, but it didn’t spoil our fun at all, even when at times drizzle would turn to light rain, the road was still so much fun that it didn’t matter to us if it was wet or dry. The small towns we passed on the way were really neat, too bad we didn’t have time to stop and look around.
Then in Torrey we headed east on 24, which is another one of my favorite roads, through Capitol Reef the rock formations are just amazing and the curves here are my favorite type of sweepers. You can really get in to a rhythm as you turn left and right and left and right and left and right. We stopped for a mi-day snack at one of the scenic pull outs. The sun had come out and the temperature was in the high 80’s now. There really weren’t a lot of people here, we’d only see a car go by once in a great while.
Rt 24 though Capitol Reef
Our lunch stop on 24
In Hanksville Sandy took off to buy some fossils and I hang out at one of the gas stations where I talked to a few HD riders and the lady that ran the gas station. The wind was picking up again and the HD riders had come from the south and told me I’d be riding in to more rain on 95. As we departed, it seemed we were riding in a full blow sand storm, the winds were pretty strong and we were being blown all over the road.We were enjoying the awesome sweepers through the canyons and then the rain started up again just as we approached the Glen Canyon overlook. At the scenic overlook we found two Triumphs with Texas plates. We chatted with the riders a bit, one of them frequents ST.N. After a few minutes they headed north and we took off towards the south.
Glen Canyon
View from the Glen Canyon overlook on 95
The rain was light, sometimes a drizzle and sometimes none at all. Since I’ve been on 24 and 95 before, I rode it a bit harder then before, even when it was raining. That road is just like a roller coaster and is great when going fast. Since there are no towns or gas stations for 122 miles between Hanksville and Blanding, I bet the only way they could catch speeders is using air planes and with the clouds and rain they would have to fly pretty low. This road was just as amazing as I remembered, actually it was even better traveling south then it is traveling north, because you can see the nice scenery all around as the road dips down in elevation.
Once past Blanding the rain started up again and we decided to again grab a motel room for the night. We checked in to the Best Western in Monticello and by the time we got on our bikes to move them in front of our motel room, it was pouring rain. I’m so glad I brought that small folding umbrella, I unpacked my hard bags without getting the contents too wet, I’m just to lazy the bags all the way off. We also used the umbrella to walk next door to the Spur restaurant for dinner. The Spur was a real western type place and we were served by real cowboys and cowgirls. It’s a family owned place, the daughter which was our waitress had on her boots, wranglers and big silver buckle and a toothpick in her mouth. His was not a fancy place and there were only 5 things on the menu plus a few specials. This was also a dry town, so no beer for us - again. The food was just OK. Sandy went to soak in the hot tub outside in the cold rain and I stayed inside the dry motel room to figure out the route for tomorrow. It kept raining hard all evening and all night.
Spur restaurant menu 1 meat 2 meat 3 meat 4 meat 5 chicken
Spur restaurant check
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Page, Arizona to Hatch, Utah
I woke up about half an hour before sun rise and discovered that I had left the tent’s zipper open about 6”. I was just hoping nothing crawled into my tent overnight. There are scorpions and black widows here. I guess when I pulled my zipper to shut the flap last night, the zipper got stuck and since it was dark I thought it was all the way closed. We heard some coyotes hauling in the distance last night the left over cooked hot dogs we left on our picnic table were still there this morning.
Sandy and I took off for a hike to the lake to watch the sun rise, it was still dark as we walked toward the lake. It seemed like forever, we waited patiently for the sun to peek from behind the other side of the lake. Immediately the black and gray rocks turned golden-orange as the sun’s rays saturated them. The temperature, which was in the low 70’s also started rising the minute the run rose over the horizon. After watching the dark blue water turn golden with the sun’s reflection, we headed back to the camp to take our showers and get ready to leave. We also had some breakfast and I had to adjust the route for today. We were on the road by 11AM.
Just before sun rise at Lake Powell
Our camp site at Lake Powell
We took 89 south and stopped by a roadside native American jewelry stand. I happen to love Indian jewelry and so does Sandy. While browsing the many tables of silver and turquoise offerings, we noticed the nasty storm coming our way. I guess there was a good possibility of us getting wet today. It was hot too, in the upper 80’s or low 90’s. After purchasing some jewelry we headed to 89A north, pretty nice road with amazing scenery and nice sweepers. I was suddenly very thirsty, I still had not replenished my platypus, so at the next gas station in Marble Canyon we stopped for drinks. By the time we came out the wind was blowing really hard, kicking all kinds of sand in to the air and the storm was only 5 minutes away.
At the road side jewlery stand
Big rain coming our way
Twisties coming up on 89A
Curves on 89A
The beautiful southwest
We decided to wait the storm out and went next door to a gift shop to look at more Indian jewelry. The rain fell hard and fast and pretty soon it was over. We continued northwest. There were dark clouds still ahead of us, the rain was far from being over. It drizzled some more on the way but the big rain didn’t come until we hit the twisty mountain roads right outside the Grand Canyon’s North Rim. And it got really cold too as we climbed in elevation. The twisties were awesome though, we continued without stopping and before we even knew it, we were in Utah. The rain had stopped now but the sky still looked dark and dreary. Back on 89, there were phenomenal sweepers everywhere, I really enjoyed this road. The temperatures remained cool and the skies continued to be cloudy so we rode until sun set and grabbed a motel room in Hatch, UT. No camping in the rain for us. We got to park our bikes right outside our window. New Bryce motel had a café attached to the motel but the owner said that the cook didn’t show up to work today so the restaurant was closed. We walked down the road a bit and found an amazing place to eat, really cute inside and outside and so many great meal selections, I had a Navajo taco, it was delicious. This was a dry county so sadly no beer for us. We returned to out motel and went to bed shortly, we were going to get an early start tomorrow.
Near Marble Canyon
Near Grand Canyon's North Rim
New Bryce hotel
Adobe Cafe is the place to eat at in Hatch, UT, I had a Navajo Taco
Sandy had a burger
Sandy and I took off for a hike to the lake to watch the sun rise, it was still dark as we walked toward the lake. It seemed like forever, we waited patiently for the sun to peek from behind the other side of the lake. Immediately the black and gray rocks turned golden-orange as the sun’s rays saturated them. The temperature, which was in the low 70’s also started rising the minute the run rose over the horizon. After watching the dark blue water turn golden with the sun’s reflection, we headed back to the camp to take our showers and get ready to leave. We also had some breakfast and I had to adjust the route for today. We were on the road by 11AM.
Just before sun rise at Lake Powell
Our camp site at Lake Powell
We took 89 south and stopped by a roadside native American jewelry stand. I happen to love Indian jewelry and so does Sandy. While browsing the many tables of silver and turquoise offerings, we noticed the nasty storm coming our way. I guess there was a good possibility of us getting wet today. It was hot too, in the upper 80’s or low 90’s. After purchasing some jewelry we headed to 89A north, pretty nice road with amazing scenery and nice sweepers. I was suddenly very thirsty, I still had not replenished my platypus, so at the next gas station in Marble Canyon we stopped for drinks. By the time we came out the wind was blowing really hard, kicking all kinds of sand in to the air and the storm was only 5 minutes away.
At the road side jewlery stand
Big rain coming our way
Twisties coming up on 89A
Curves on 89A
The beautiful southwest
We decided to wait the storm out and went next door to a gift shop to look at more Indian jewelry. The rain fell hard and fast and pretty soon it was over. We continued northwest. There were dark clouds still ahead of us, the rain was far from being over. It drizzled some more on the way but the big rain didn’t come until we hit the twisty mountain roads right outside the Grand Canyon’s North Rim. And it got really cold too as we climbed in elevation. The twisties were awesome though, we continued without stopping and before we even knew it, we were in Utah. The rain had stopped now but the sky still looked dark and dreary. Back on 89, there were phenomenal sweepers everywhere, I really enjoyed this road. The temperatures remained cool and the skies continued to be cloudy so we rode until sun set and grabbed a motel room in Hatch, UT. No camping in the rain for us. We got to park our bikes right outside our window. New Bryce motel had a café attached to the motel but the owner said that the cook didn’t show up to work today so the restaurant was closed. We walked down the road a bit and found an amazing place to eat, really cute inside and outside and so many great meal selections, I had a Navajo taco, it was delicious. This was a dry county so sadly no beer for us. We returned to out motel and went to bed shortly, we were going to get an early start tomorrow.
Near Marble Canyon
Near Grand Canyon's North Rim
New Bryce hotel
Adobe Cafe is the place to eat at in Hatch, UT, I had a Navajo Taco
Sandy had a burger
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