Another Hampton Adventure in the worx

[gmast1100]

Bob, hope you and your brother and an enjoyable and safe trip.

 

[SupraSabre]

Thanks guys!

Khris, see you on the 27th! Don't let them change your schedule on you! That's an order!

 

[Tankereng]

Thanks guys!

Khris, see you on the 27th! Don't let them change your schedule on you! That's an order!

I'm definitely not working... But the wife decided we're going camping overnight on the 26th... Hopefully we'll be back early enough in the 27th.

 

[SupraSabre]

I know how the boss can Be!

 

[SupraSabre]

So Dave and I have made it to Cody. It's too hard typing on this tablet, so I'll be writing it all up later.

 

[SupraSabre]

We had a great trip!

Dave came down a couple of days early. I had Byron come down and work with Dave to make sure everything on his bike was in order.

Day One – Friday August 19th

Planned route for the day :

Was to Ride north on Hwy 79 to I10 East, take that to Hwy 62 North/East through Twenty-Nine Palms and the take Amboy road to Amboy and Route 66. Head east on 66 to north on Kelso-Baker road, catch I15 and ride thru Las Vegas, on to Mesquite, where a room was waiting.



Chris left Friday morning as scheduled, except, my son, Bobby was supposed to take her to the airport, leaving Dave and I to head out early on our trip to Mesquite. That didn’t work out, Bobby’s schedule would cut into the time Chris needed at the airport, so Dave and I drove Chris down. That delayed us getting away by several hours. This was all figured out in the morning!

Dave and I finally got away around 11am. We made our way North, up Hwy 79 to I10, then over to the Twenty-Nine Palms turnoff. As we rode down Hwy 62, we could see some rain clouds in the distance. Lucky for us they were not heading in our direction. After taking a break, we headed for Amboy and Kelso so we could catch I15 near State-Line.

As we were approaching I40 on the Kelso-Baker road, we could see that there were some nasty looking thunderstorms ahead of us (Dave saw some lightning also). We decided to head east on I40 and take off at Goffs/R66 turnoff. That turned out to be a good choice, and we avoided the rain, although it wasn’t too far behind us. Dodged that bullet!



We rode through Las Vegas at 109* and continued to Mesquite. The road was long & hot, but we made it to Mesquite around 7pm or so. Our room smelled like smoke, but most of Nevada does, so you just got to deal with it. I had a small can of Lysol spray, so I used it.

Our Actual route took a little longer than the planned one, but we avoided the rain and lightning, so it was worth it.

Total miles for Day 1 was about: 401

 

[SupraSabre]

Day 2– Saturday August 20th
Planned route for the day :
Was to Ride north on I15 to Ogden Utah.



The next morning, we got up and decide to go hit McDonald’s for breakfast. So that meant we needed to load up before heading out. We got away a bit later than I had hoped, but we were on our way. We made stops in St. George, then at The Cove Fort turnoff. Back on the road and we headed for Provo. Once there, I called Chris to find that she and Aaron & family were at the Thanksgiving Point.

As Dave and I were heading up I15, I started noticing my headlight acting strange. It would come on, then go out and then back on/off. No real pattern, just on & off. (So I figured I would check it out later) Once Dave and I passed Thanksgiving point, Chris and they would be behind us as we rode up to Ogden. I stopped at the motel and Dave headed up to our (91 year old) Aunt’s house where he would be spending the night. I had reserved a particular room for us at the motel and I had Chris check into the day before. When she got there, she was told that the room was occupied and that she would just have to take a different room.

I found out from Chris, that we were not given the room that we wanted. So, after sitting waiting for Chris to get back, I got pissed and went to the front desk to find out why. By then a number of rooms around the back, near where we wanted to be were open, so they were accommodating, and put us in one of the rooms around back. When Chris got back I told her and she was thrilled. She said that she knew I would do something to get a better room. She hated the room she was in. I do, do good at times!

After we swapped the rooms around, we met Aaron & Family and Dave and my Aunt at the Golden Corral for dinner. The Grand Kids like it there, because they get to pick what they want to eat! After dinner, we all followed Aaron back to his house and had a great time visiting.

Dave and I were able to stick to our route, with no changes and we just made our stops based on gas or hunger.
Total miles for Day 2 was about 380 (Dave did a little more riding up to our Aunt's house. About 5 miles)

 

[SupraSabre]

Day 3 – Sunday August 21st
Planned route for the day :
Was to Ride north on I15 from Ogden to Idaho Falls, with a stop north of Pocatello, to see our cousin, Vern. It would be a short riding day.



Day three started without a hitch. Okay, not exactly. Dave was going to pack up and meet us for breakfast at the restaurant that was in the same parking lot as our motel. So when Dave told me that our Aunt wanted to join us, I figured cool! Well Dave got there okay, but our Aunt (driving in front of Dave) continued driving right past!

We went out looking for her to come back and waited for over an hour. When she didn’t show up, and since she didn’t have a cell phone, we tried to call her Daughter, but no answer. So we called our mom (sisters) and talked to her about others we could call. I finally called her house, just in case she went back there. Well, she did. She had gotten confused on the motel (she said she was thinking about a Motel 6, down the freeway a couple of miles. She also stopped by a construction worker and asked if he saw two motorcycles go by – lol)

She decided to call Dave after getting my call, and Dave told her we hadn’t ordered our food yet, so come on back and we can still have breakfast together. Dave dawned his bright Yellow motorcycle jacket and went out to the curb to wait for her and flag her down to make sure she made to the correct restaurant. We were very relieved when she made it. We were concerned for her, but as I told Dave, I could just see us telling our Cousin Vern that we lost his mother!

After breakfast I loaded up my bike and told Chris goodbye. She was staying a couple more days before Aaron was taking her to Meridian Idaho to visit her father and sister.



As expected the trip up I15 to Pocatello was long, straight and boring, but we made good time. We had a great visit with our cousin and then headed up to Idaho Falls.

After checking in, we decided to go over by the (Mormon) Temple and take a few pictures, then head to Walmart.



I was again reminded that my headlights were not working correctly. So after Walmart, I tore into removing the headlight modulator. I had headlights once again.

Dave and I were able to stick to our route, with no changes.
Total miles for Day 3 was about 180.

 

[SupraSabre]

Day 4 –Monday August 22nd
Planned route for the day:
Was to Ride north on I15 for a very short distance and take Hwy 26 East towards Jackson Hole WY, then ride north on US 191 through the Tetons and Yellowstone, around the Yellowstone Lake and go east on US14 to Cody, where we had a room waiting.



We left the motel, all packed up and were going to eat at a JinB, but the McDonald’s was right there, so we stopped there and ate.



We then headed north to Hwy26 where we met my nephew, Matt at a gas station along Hwy26. He rode with us for about 30 miles to an area call Swan Valley. After giving Matt some advice about properly maintaining a motorcycle, Dave and I took off on Hwy31 over to Hwy33 and on to Jackson Hole. It was slow going due to the traffic we came across on Hwy33. It would have been a fun road!

We took a long break in Jackson Hole and then rode north on US191 that took us through the Teton National Park and on to Yellowstone. We had planned on stopping at Old Faithful, but decided to keep heading towards Cody. So that took us up US20 and then to US14 and the lower East Gate.



The whole time riding through Yellowstone wasn’t as exciting as we had expected, (lots of trees, but we were expecting to see some wildlife). We stopped at the lake to take a short break and get a few pictures. This area looked like it had a fire a number of years ago. We finally got through the park and rode into Cody from the West. We found our motel and unloaded the bikes. We then did some laundry and after that we headed over to the Walmart, nearby. While we were approaching Walmart we noticed that the sky was getting really Smokey. And that continued into the evening.



After Walmart we stopped by one of the local restaurants, had a nice dinner and headed back to our room. We found out that the fire wasn’t near us and it was just the wind coming from the north that was blowing the smoke there.

Although Dave and I were able to stick to our route, with no changes, we found out a few days later, that there was a really bad fire go across 191 between Teton NP and Yellowstone. Dodged another Bullet!

Total miles for Day 4 was about 295.

 

[SupraSabre]

Day 5 –Tuesday August 23rd
Planned route for the day:
Ride back through Yellowstone, go see Old Faithful and head north east to Beartooth Pass and Red Lodge and then back to Cody for a second night.



We left the motel and only took the gear we thought we would need. I should have grabbed some cold weather stuff since Beartooth was colder than expected.

The smoke in the air was pretty much gone, still a hint of smoke, but basically the air quality was good. We doubled back through Yellowstone the way we came the day before and decided to forgo Old Faithful, since we knew we had a long day ahead of us. We turned right just past the “Fishing Bridge” and headed north on US20.

We took a break in the Canyon Village area, grab another shot glass and then continued north. At one point there was a couple of bison herds, one off to the right and another to the left, so we stopped and took some pictures.



One bison was just about 50 yards away, so I took a selfie with it in the background. We continued riding, which seemed like forever when we came to the Tower General Store. We took another break there and met a family (minus mom who was working) from Ririe Idaho. It just happened to be a town we just went through two days before. Small world. After our break, we continued up to Tower Junction and headed East to the Yellowstone Northeast gate on US212. As we were traveling through, we could see a number of bison here and there, with lots of people stopped to look at them. We continued on.



We crossed over into Montana and finally found the gate and continued on through Silvergate and a few other communities, including Cooke City. The road was pretty good and as long as we didn’t have any regulators (cages going too slow) in front of us, we kept a good steady pace of about 5 mph above the posted limit. (I wasn’t looking to get tickets on this trip!) We were on the Beartooth Hwy and is was a fun road with lots of sweeping curves. Rather enjoyable I would say. These are the kinds of roads I like. Just sweeping curves with a bit of scenery so it isn’t boring! At one point my GPS told me to turn right, but it wasn’t the way we wanted to go. We had only gone about ? mile when we figured out we were on the Chief Joseph Hwy, and even though we would have loved to ride it too, we wanted Beartooth Pass. So we turned around and headed back.



We were soon making our way up, hitting the sharp curves, some only a few MPH and of course, we had to pass a few slow moving cages. What a fun road! As we climbed, it got colder! As we reached the peak, it was around 45*! COLD! According to the sign I took a picture of, we were 10,975 feet above sea level. We were soon heading down the other side. We made another stop at an overlook, called Rock Creek Vista.



There in the parking lot was a ‘07 ST1300 from Canada. I can’t remember his name, but he was a nice guy and was traveling around a lot! After taking some pictures, we were again heading down the mountain. After a short time, we came across a Harley rider that we had no choice, but to pass (legally) and it wasn’t long before he disappeared from our mirrors.

We continued on the Beartooth Hwy until we came to the little town of Red Lodge. We first looked for a gas station and filled the bikes up, then went back through town looking for someplace to eat. We found the “Red Lodge Caf?” on Broadway Ave, in the middle of town and it looked like a nice place to take a break and have some dinner!
Our waitresses were a Mother/Daughter team, Alison & Izzy. They were excited when we told them where we were from and how we had gotten to Red Lodge. They came out to our bikes and the Mom took a picture of the bikes, her daughter and Dave & I.



You can see the sign for the Red Lodge just above Dave's head.



The food was fantastic, so if you are going through Red Lodge, stop by and say Bob & Dave from CA sent you!

Just as we were heading back to Cody via Hwy308, Dave spotted a deer right next to the road, I never saw it, but it stayed there, so no threat! We then caught Hwy72 south, which turned into Hwy120 once we were back in Wyoming. As we were coming down Hwy120, I saw a big buck and a doe (Dave said he saw another doe right behind the first two deer) They were just walking and the buck was just about to step out on to the roadway when I hit my horn, they bolted the opposite direction and away from us! We made it back to our motel room, safe and sound a little while later.

With the exception of not going to Old Faithful and cutting off almost 70 miles for the day, Dave and I were able to stick to the rest of our route, with no other changes, we found out a number of days later, that Yellowstone and Beartooth Pass had gotten snow, which closed down Beartooth Pass. Dodged another Bullet!

Total miles for Day 5 was about 285.

 

[SupraSabre]

Day 6 ?Wednesday August 24th

Planned route for the day:
The ride for Day 6 would be started by checking out of the motel in Cody, riding all of a block to the Buffalo Bill Cody museum, then head east out of town on Hwy14 towards Greybull, Wy, then up the Big Horn Scenic Hwy to Burgess Junction, continue east to catch the I90 up to the Littlebig Horn Battlefield, before going south and east on I90 to Gillette, for our room for the night.



We packed up and left the motel and rode the one block to the Buffalo Bill Cody museum. After stowing our gear under the bike covers, we walked inside and I asked for two Senior tickets. The Guard at the door saw our hats (Dave?s Vietnam Veteran and my Air Force hat and asked if we were both veterans. I told him yes and he said to keep our money, the museum was no charge to Veterans! That saved me about $36 to $38, I?m not real sure what the cost was for seniors, but Dave and I were happy about that!



We toured the main part of the Bill Cody area of the museum, and then we went back out to the bikes to gear up and take off for the long day of riding we knew we had.
Hwy14(US20) wasn?t too bad for a little two lane road, just long and mostly flat. We hit the small towns of Greybull and Shell and a few others, but mostly just a lot of open space. The real good thing was we didn?t see too much traffic, and what we did, we would pass it the first chance we got!

Not too long after getting out of Shell, the highway turned in to a biker?s paradise! The road became twisty and had a number of hairpins! This was called the Big Horn Scenic Highway, and was it ever scenic! We also started climbing in altitude. As we neared the top, it became tamer, but was still a great roadway to ride! We also noted that the clouds were getting thicker.

When we came to Burgess Junction, we decided to stop and take a break. Dave found that the Elk View Inn had Bar/Restaurant and had some good eating too, so we decided to have lunch while there. They were right, I had a BLT and whatever Dave had, he enjoyed it!

By the time we were ready to go, the clouds got thicker and we even had a few drops on us. We covered our gear and took off, continuing heading east, as soon as we could. The road soon turned into another bunch of twisties, but there was a little moisture on the road, so we were taking it easy.
I was just following the GPS and at one point in the town of Ranchester, it told me to turn left, and looking at that road, it didn?t look like I wanted to go there, so I went straight and soon found I90. Time to head north about 80 miles to the Little Big Horn Battlefield.

We found the Battlefield and wanted to look it over, so after showing our Senior Passes, we found a parking spot and it was near the restrooms, perfect! We saw that it would be a walk to the Memorial and saw that there were some parking spaces up there, so we rode our bikes up there, only to find Wheelchair only spots, although there was a turnout/regular parking spot, but it was taken, so we continued to ride down the road where it showed where some of the soldiers were found after the battle. They had white markers to mark the places that they found Custer?s soldiers. We then went back to the Visitor?s Center where we bought a few things and then Dave felt like he could walk up to the Battlefield Memorial.

So we hiked up to it and then over to the Indian Memorial, before returning to our bikes and heading out. We stopped for gas, just down from the park and then head south on I90, heading to Gillette, WY.

As we heading south on I90, I saw a flock of birds fly low, across the road to the right, in front of us. I was just about to say something to Dave about them, when I heard ?Deer, Deer,Deer? and I looked to my left and saw a buck running hard towards me. I hit the horn and it looked like maybe he changed course and ran just behind both of us. Dang, another close one!

As the freeway started turning east, we could see a big thunderstorm off to our right, heading our direction, so we were happy to see the road turn east. We did get a couple of drops, but that was about it. We dodged another storm!

We continued on I90 east for another 70 miles, and the terrain was mostly hilly, but flat too. The day was getting long fast, and we were glad to see Gillette coming up. I found our off ramp and a short distance later, our hotel for the night, the Arbuckle lodge. Very nice place and our room was real nice too! They even let Dave and I park our bikes out front under the overhang to the lobby.



It took a little to get settled, since we had to use a bellhop dolly to get our gear upstairs. We then found some microwavable food the hotel was selling and just had dinner in our room.

Total miles for Day 6 was about: 376 (including riding around at the battlefield.)

 

[SupraSabre]

Day 7 –Thursday August 25th
Planned route for the day:
The ride for Day 7 would be riding to Devil’s Tower, then head east out on I90 and take US85 south for our first stop, Deadwood, to see it and gravesites for Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. Then on to Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Monument, and for our room for the night, we were stopping in Hot Springs, SD.



Our first stop would be Devil’s Tower, we just headed east on I90 to North US14 and followed the signs. There was a bunch of construction going on, on US14, so the going was a bit slow, especially since we had a big box truck up a few vehicles ahead of us. Those vehicles started passing said box truck, and soon it was my turn. I went around it, but Dave was caught stuck behind it for a few miles due to lack of a passing zone. Once he was able to get around them, then we took off and enjoyed the road a bit more.

Following the signs soon put us on Hwy24 and a few more miles we could see it. We found a pulloff and stopped to take pictures, when I heard my onboard camera saying; “Recording Stopped”, continuously! So, before I could take any pictures, I had to completely unload and remove the rear saddle so I could remove the battery from the DVR. So, who knows when it started, but whenever it did, means we didn’t get any recording at that time. (This happened one more time too, at Zion. Both times I had put a 128GB chip in. I think I need to stick with the 64GB chips!)

I got that fixed, then I was able to snap a few pictures of the Tower. We then took off to it and found that they weren’t collecting $$$ that day, although I did have a pass, so it really didn’t matter to Dave and I.

Riding in to the Visitor’s Center, you pass an area full of GroundHogs. These are small ground hogs. Not much bigger than our Ground Squirrels. But there was a lot of them.
We continued to follow the road around the mountain, and to the other side, where the parking lot is limited on how many vehicles it can handle. Dave and I finally found a spot as someone else was leaving. We parked the bikes and wondered around a little.

After seeing it, I sure don’t know how Hollywood used it for the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. It could not of housed all they had up there…Hollywood doing their “magic” again! LOL

It was interesting though. They say the way it formed was hot magna coming straight up and cooling. You can see where parts of it have been falling off over the years too. They even allow people to climb it. I was shocked that they would let people climb it, since it looks like any part of it could come falling down! After getting our fill of Devil’s Tower, we retraced our steps back to US14, but this time headed the opposite direction than what we came. On to South Dakota and Deadwood.

We found ourselves back on I90, again heading east. Deadwood was about 74 miles away. There were a couple of different directions we could have gone, but I90 to US85 south looked like the best route for us.

As soon as we entered Deadwood, we stopped for gas, and then continued through the town. We wanted to stop in Deadwood and look around a bit, but the town was full of classic cars, they were having a car show that weekend and they were getting an early start, so we just continued to ride through town until I saw the sign pointing to the Cemetery.
We followed that up some steep hills and even the parking was a bit uneven, so we parked the bikes the best we could and then paid to get in and see Wild Bill Hickok’s and Calamity Jane’s gravesites. A bit of interesting trivia, Hickok never really like Jane, but the city elders thought it would be a great touristy draw to have them next to each other. And it worked!

As we approached their graves, there was a tour bus, with the gal giving her speech to a medium sized crowd. So we had to wait until they were done so we could get a couple of pictures and leave. I also picked up another shot glass there. Dave and I rode back to the highway and looked for some lunch, a Taco place that I wasn’t impressed with.

After eating, we were on our way south to find Mount Rushmore. I just followed the GPS, but sometimes wondered where it was taking us. The area sure reminded us of the California Foothills. The town’s look a lot alike and the countryside the same. It was really strange that way.
Mount Rushmore was about 50 miles south and it took a bit to get to, since it was mostly a two lane highway. But once we hit Keystone, I knew we were close. We just followed the GPS and it got us there.

Again as we approached the gate, we were informed that $$$ was not being collected that day. And again, it didn’t matter to us since we had our passes. We followed the road into a parking structure and eventually found a parking space big enough for the two bikes. The elevator was real close, which was nice.



By this time it was already mid-afternoon, and since there wasn’t that much to see, we took a few pictures of the monument, and then went to see what we could find in the Visitor Center’s store. While in the store, this one gal (employee) started talking to us and when she found out that we had been through Yellowstone and over Beartooth Pass, she told us that they had had snow a few days back and made a mess of everything, including closing Beartooth Pass. We just had someone looking over us, obviously!

After the store, we took a break. They had a nice patio and there was hardly anyone there, almost had it to ourselves! There we could see the monument very clearly and we even watched a couple of Chipmunks running in and out of the chairs and tables.

The clouds were thickening up and it even looked like we could have some rain, so we went back to the bikes and headed out of the park. I told the GPS to find the Crazy Horse Monument, which it did. While we were on our way there, we got a couple of sprinkles, but again, nothing to get worried about.

We found our way into the Crazy Horse Monument area. You couldn’t get too close without taking a bus and Dave and I were too tired to even think of going there. So we looked around in their building and took a few pictures of this and that. After finding the “store” at the end of everything, we bought a few things and headed back to the bikes.



While we were still in the building, I went to pull my bike keys out, only to discover, I didn’t have them. We got back out to the bikes and there they were, still in the ignition! Good thing that place wasn’t too busy!

When we were at the Mount Rushmore store, we talked to the one gal that had told us about Beartooth Pass being closed due to snow, she also told us of a bunch of roads that we needed to ride. After looking at the time, the weather, the map and how far we still had to go to Hot Springs, we decide that encountering Elk and other creatures on the roads wouldn’t be our best choice, so we took the road that we thought would be less traveled.

Not real sure about all those other roads, but we didn’t encounter any on the road we took. So we found our way into Hot Springs and our motel. After checking in and parking the bikes in front of our room, we took a short break and started talking about some dinner. We checked out what was near and selected a place, but by the time we got there, they were closed. So we rode a little farther and found a restaurant/bar and went in. Cozy little place, looks like it hadn’t been updated for a few decades, but their cook did a great job on the steaks we ordered! We then went back to our room and sorted things out for the next day.

Total miles for Day 7 was about: 247

 

[dmulk]

Awesome trip! It was really good seeing you guys. Wish I could have spent more time visiting but we always seemed to be on the go.... hope to see you in Reno again next year if things work out!

<D>

 

[SupraSabre]

Awesome trip! It was really good seeing you guys. Wish I could have spent more time visiting but we always seemed to be on the go.... hope to see you in Reno again next year if things work out!

<D>

Thanks Dan! I still have a bunch of days to cover, stay tuned!

Dave and I are planning for Reno, since it is in his back yard.

Hope to see you there too!

 

[SupraSabre]

Day 8 –Friday August 26th
Planned route for the day:
The ride for Day was to zip out of SD, hit Chadron Nebraska, continue south until we hit Colorado and go farther south to bypass Denver and end up in Colorado Springs.



It had rained during the night, so the bikes and covers were a bit damp. Our Motel owner(?manager?) had left a bunch of rags on the bench outside our door to wipe off our bikes. Very thoughtful of him and I thanked him for thinking of us like that!

We wiped our bikes down the best we could, and I shook off as much water from my cover that I could, and just put it inside-out so it wouldn’t get everything in the saddlebag wet. I then packed my bags on the bike and Dave was doing the same. We grabbed a couple of eggs and had eggs and Pepsi for breakfast. Before checking out and leaving. We had gassed up the night before, so we didn’t have to make any stops before leaving South Dakota.

We didn’t expect too much, other than seeing a lot of miles go by this day. As we continued south, through the middle of Nebraska, the cloud cover continued to get darker and darker. As we were riding through the town of Alliance, we decided to stop for gas and survey the road ahead for storms, because it looked pretty nasty ahead of us.

After gassing up, we looked at the storm south of us and just felt we needed to wait before heading that way. We spotted a McDonald’s just down the street and decided that it would be a great place to spend a little time. So we pulled in. There, we could get the Internet and see from the App; MyRadar, that the storm to the south (maybe 5 to 10 miles away) was pretty nasty and it was best for us to stay put for the moment.

After about an hour, I went out to cover my bags on the rear saddle when a gal stopped and started talking to me. She also rode a motorcycle and was curious where we had come from and going. She then asked me if we had stopped by Carhenge? I told her “no”, but I had heard of it, years ago. So she informed me that it was only 5 miles away and that it would be worth the stop and told me where to find it.



I went back in and told Dave about it and he was all for checking it out. So from McDonald’s we rode east a number of blocks and then turned north to follow the road “Flack Avenue”. Sure enough, it was about 5 miles from where we were. So we stopped to take a look at it. As Marty (from Laugh-in) would say, Verrry Innteresting! One reason I had remembered it was that I remembered a Vega Stationwagon being on top. (I was into Vegas [just not the engines] way back when).



After getting our fill of Carhenge, we found our way back to the main hwy, 385, and continued south, avoiding Denver. We went through the towns of Bridgeport, Sidney and found ourselves crossing the border to Colorado. Our planned next stop would be Sterling for gas and a break. I just followed the GPS and we found a gas station on the south side of the town. Good place to take a break!

After our break, we soon found ourselves on I76, heading to Denver. We took I76 for just under 30 miles and headed south on Hwy71, which took us to Limon. Hwy71 was not what one would call exciting, just long and mostly straight! Once in Limon, we got to where we needed to head south on US24, but saw a McDonald’s and decided to take another break. (By this time if my boys would have been with us, McDonald’s would not be where we would be stopping! LOL)

After our break, we hit US24 and headed to our last destination, Colorado Springs, some 77 miles away. Again, US24 was not exciting, just our path to get where we wanted, Colorado Springs. Numerous little towns kept popping up, slowing us down! But we finally got to CS and I just kept following the GPS, hoping it was taking us the right direction. After having to stop at EVRY stop light, or so it seemed, we finally got to the west side of CS and soon found our Motel room. Nothing exciting, but it had two beds and we could park right in front of the room, so it was great!

Although we didn’t expect to get off course for the day (we had a lot of miles to cover), but seeing Carhenge, was worth the 10 extra miles we traveled to see it. Although I had heard of it years ago, it was never on my bucket list. But since we were so close to it and thanks to that thunderstorm causing us to take a break in Alliance Nebraska, why not go see it. I’d like to thank that gal that told me about it.

Total miles for Day 8 was about: 433

 

[SupraSabre]

Day 9 – Saturday August 27th
Planned route for the day:
Planned for the day was to go have breakfast in Green Mountain with other ST-Owner's Riders, then up Pike’s Peak and then spend the rest of the day at Daniel’s (Dave’s Son) Place.



Dave would not be riding this day. His back was giving him fits and he decided that it would be best for him to just ride with up with his son, Daniel in the car. Once Daniel got there, we took off, me on the bike, following Daniel to our breakfast appointment that Chris Chassey set up on the ST-Owners forum.

There were seven bikes and Daniel’s car that showed up, at “The Pantry” in Green Mountain. We had a great breakfast and then headed for Pike’s Peak. It was different than I expected, but we all got through the entrance, and then headed up the mountain!



As we were heading up, I had two riders behind me and that made me nervous, since I had no idea how good they were, also, Dave and Daniel were at the tail end of our group, so that gave me a good excuse to drop back and let those two riders ahead of me. Besides, it was going to be slow going anyway, might as well be in the back.

Slow going wasn’t the word. One big problem I was seeing was that it was so slow and we were going around some hairpin curves that were at a crawl. I kept expecting to see the guy in front of me, Mike, dropping his bike, so I wanted plenty of room and time to move around him if I needed. Thank goodness, Mike didn’t drop his bike, but after we got to WeSTOC, we found out that Mike did miss a curve on his way there and dropped his bike. So I guess I wasn’t too wrong for giving us lots of space between us!

That road is definitely a challenge to ride up. Very steep curves and nothing to keep you from going over the edge! Chris, my wife, would not have liked it at all! We finally made it to the top. So Dave, Daniel, Daniel’s son (Beau) and I walked around the store a bit (I had to pick up another shot glass) and then went back outside. Besides being chilly, because the air is so thin, I could feel it affecting me and Dave had the same issue.

It was interesting up there, you could see a lot from that height! So after snapping some pictures, we headed back down. I let Daniel lead and I just followed him. About mid-way, there is a check point. At first, I didn’t understand why, but coming back, the Ranger checked Daniel’s brakes and told him they were too hot and that he needed to go into the parking lot there and let them cool off. So we both parked there and went and used the bathroom, since we weren’t going anywhere any way!



After sitting for 20 to 25 minutes, we continued down the hill and drove back to the Motel. At one point, Dave told me that my left headlight was out. Hum, what’s up with that? Since we were pretty busy the rest of that afternoon, I waited until the next day to check it out.

We spent the rest of the day at Daniel’s and since they were getting ready to move to Phoenix, the house was mostly packed up. No biggie, but it was good to rest a bit and just relax.

Total miles for me for Day 9 was about: 60

 

[SupraSabre]

Day 10 – Sunday August 28th
Planned route for the day:

None, fix my headlight(s), then spend the rest of the day at Daniel’s Place.

Yep, you saw that right. No riding, other than for me to go get some new H4 headlights to replace my LED headlights with. I ripped into the bike to figure out what was going on. I tested the fuses and power coming from the headlight left side socket. I had power, but the headlight just wouldn’t light up! I had already removed the headlight modulator, so those wires weren’t in the way and since I had it all opened up, I figured why not just replace them both and not have any more issues with it. So that’s what I did. I borrowed Dave’s bike (I might add here, that Dave doesn't let ANYONE ride his bike, but me I guess. , rode about an mile and saw an autoparts store. Went in there, grabbed a set of headlights and rode back. My riding for the day!



That fixed that and as I was finishing up, Dave told Daniel to come on by and we rode in the car to Daniel’s and spent the rest of the day relaxing again.
This seemed to help Dave’s back out a lot!

Oh yeah, it snowed on Pike’s Peak that day and for the next two days. Dodged another one!



Total miles for me for Day 10 was about: 2, but not on my bike, so it didn’t count!


Day 11 – Monday August 29th

Planned route for the day:

We were going to ride down to US50 and catch that to Grand Junction.



But, checking the weather the night before and that morning, we decided to head north and take I70 West instead. (We found out later that we made the better choice. US50 got drenched that day!

So the new route was I25 to Hwy 85, to 470, to I70.



We went down south a little to meet up with Daniel for breakfast. (He had his daughter, Aurora, with him) At McDonalds of course! We ate then said our good byes and on to finding a gas station for Dave. We then headed north on I25 and on to DENVER! But at least we’ll only hit the outskirts!

As we were leaving Colorado Springs, I started looking for the Air Force Academy. Dave was able to point it out off in the distance. At one point heading north, there was a truck hauling a really wide load and the guy in the right lane to me came over into my lane without looking…been there before, so I was watching him closely, so when he came over, I was ready for him. I turned my highbeams on (I was wishing my modulator was still attached!) and hit the horn! Once around the truck he moved to the right! Idiot!

We continued following the GPS, which had us turnoff at US85 and north on that to Hwy470. Then we went northwest from there, when we decided we wanted to take a break at the Morrison turn off. While on our break, we watch as a guy backed out from the station store, right into a truck that was filling up his boat, so he was a little father forward than normal, but the idiot that backed out wasn’t even watching, I know, because I was watching him!

After all of that excitement, we left there and headed through Morrison, since that’s the way the GPS said to go. It was another one of those, “Hope this thing knows where it’s taking us” moments! It did, we soon found the I70 and off to the west we did ride!

I really never paid too much attention to I70, because I hadn’t planned to go that way, because If I would have, I would have had warmer gear on. One or two of the passes were above 10K, and it was pretty cold!

We decided to stop in Vail and get some gas and something to eat. McDonalds was being remodeled, so we couldn’t go there. So we saw a Subway and had a sandwich! When we were getting ready to leave, Dave looked for a restroom, but didn’t see any, so we went back to the gas station and used theirs. While they we started talking to another biker, on an old Goldwing. He had been putting on some miles too. He was on leave with the Air Force and was also heading west. Nice guy. But I guess he couldn’t ride as far on one shot as Dave and I, we lost him about 100 miles down the road!

We continued on I70 and finally got to Grand Junction and our Hotel room at the Double Tree and WeSTOC. After checking in, we saw that there was a Burger King next door, so we walked over there for dinner and we were done riding for the day!

And to point out, just hours after we left Colorado Springs, they got about 6” to 8” of Hail! Daniel sent a picture of it to Dave. I’ll add it once I get it. Dodged another one!

Total miles for Day 11 was about: 327

 

[SupraSabre]

Day 12 – Tuesday August 30th

Planned route for the day:

We were going to ride down to Walmart and back and take it easy for the day!

Since we had been doing the riding that we had been, we rode down to Walmart, got a few things and then headed back. We needed some more rest! After we got back, we chased Richard from RKA down and bought a pair of Sena 20s(s). Richard installed them into our helmets and set them up for us.

Total miles for Day 12 was about: 10


Day 13 – Wednesday August 31st

Planned route for the day:

We were going to ride down to CO141, hit CO90/UT46, head up US191, and go to Arches NP.



We had been planning to do Hwy 141 and go see Arches, and since I had gone up 141, I wanted to go the other direction. So south it was and the day was perfect for it. And Dave and I wanted to test out the new Sena 20s(s) we bought from Richard (RKA) the day before.

We got up, got dressed and loaded up on the bikes what we thought we needed (not much, it would be a warm day). Stopped had breakfast at Burger King (Again – I think all four days, we ate there.) And then headed south, following the GPS to get us out of town.

We didn’t have to wait too long to get on 141, and the first part of it, while interesting to look at wasn’t that “great” of a motorcycle ride. But that was okay with us and I kept telling Dave that the good part was still to come!

We had traveled a ways when I realized I had forgot to put a chip in my DVR for my bike mounted cameras. So we made a quick stop and it only took me a couple of minutes, since I didn’t have the bags strapped to my rear saddle! That taken care of and off we went again!

This road is worth the time to go down it. It wasn’t as twisty as the Big Horn Scenic Hwy or Beartooth, but riding next to the river and around the curves it had were really fun. At one point we came across three riders from WeSTOC. They were doing a little slower than we were, so we passed them and continued on our way.

Later, we came across a large truck. I had enough time to double yellow it and get in front of him, but Dave wasn’t so lucky. So after Dave following him around a big sweeping curve, I saw that Dave was finally able to get around him and when he did, I could hear him again. So, the BlueTooth of the Sena 20s isn’t strong enough to go through a truck and a rock wall.

We soon stopped at an overlook, this is where you can see what’s left of the water plume built back in the late 1800’s. The Boy’s and I had stumbled on this overlook two years ago during our Southwest tour, just before meeting up with Dave. So I thought Dave would get a kick out of seeing this.



While there, the other WeSTOC group of three caught up with use and stopped there too. After a short talk, Dave and I finished up our picture taking and jumped back on the bikes.

Twenty miles farther down, he came to CO90 and headed west. Off to the south, we could see some big thunderstorms were brewing. But by heading west, we missed them. At first CO90 was just a mostly straight. But with some interesting surroundings, but mostly flat road. Once we got past Bedrock, that changed. And we found ourselves on a nice twisty road. That continued even as we went into Utah, the Hwy changing to UT46. But the problem we saw here was that Utah has this thing about trying to discourage aggressive motorcycle riding by putting tar snakes all over the roads!

Going around a tight corner with big nasty tar snakes cause a lot of puckering, so Dave and I just took it easy on that road! Since there were only a few tight turns on UT46, we were then able to boost our speed back up, until we came close to US191.

Once on US191, we headed north to Moab. But it didn’t take us very long before seeing a rest stop, but we had passed it up, so we turned around and went back to it. After a brief stop, we made our way up to Moab and found a gas station to fill-up the bikes. We also decided that we need filling up, so Dave, after having to go through the menu with the guy behind the counter, finally had a couple of Philly-Cheesesteak sandwiches made, which seemed to take forever! But we ate and continued on our way, right after I went next door to a small market like store, to see if they had any small gb chips…bigger than 4 or 8 though.

Since that store didn’t have any chips I wanted (I did pick up a few other items) we rode up the street a little and found another general market and they had some chips, 16gb, but I was hoping for bigger. There was also a Verizon store there and they had a 32gb chip for my on board cameras, so I bought that, then went back and bought a 16gb chip for my GoPro.

And on to Arches we went. Once through the entrance (Senior Passes are great!) we stopped briefly to get our cameras out and ready. As we rode through the park, Dave and I were snapping pictures left and right! We even stopped a couple of times to get a little more of what we were looking at. We made our way down to the Delicate Arch lower viewing point and hikes about 100 yards up the trail until we could see the Arch. (Same place where I stopped last time). We took a few pictures of it and decided it was way too hot (it was 97F) to try to see any more of the park, so we headed back out.

We stopped at the Visitor’s Center to see if they had any cold water bottles, but they didn’t, so we just left and headed farther north on US191 until we spotted a gas station and stopped there. We each bought a bottle of water and found some shade around the back of the building. We sat there for a while and even talked to some guy that was camping there about his adventures.

After a while we figured it was time to head back to Grand Junction. So we took US191 north to I70 and headed east and back to GJ. Before going to our room though, we decided to hit the local Denny’s for dinner, which was questionable as for the quality of the meal!

Then it was back to our room! The Sena 20s's worked pretty good, on the most part. At least we could hear each other a lot better and didn't have to ask each other to repeat what we just said, like we had to with the Autocoms.

Total miles for Day 13 was about: 325


Day 14 – Thursday September 1st

Planned route for the day:

We were going to ride down to the Laundromat and back and take it easy for the day!

We had done the CO141 and Moab loop the day before and we need some clean clothes to last us through the rest of the trip, so as Dave told a few, “we dawned our boots, jackets, gloves and mounted our trusty steads and rode down to the laundromat to wash our clothes, then headed back". We felt more rest was needed for what we knew we had ahead of us over the next few days!

Total miles for Day 14 was about: 10

 

[SupraSabre]

Day 15 – Friday September 2nd

Planned route for the day:

The plan for the day was to ride I70 to South UT Hwy 24, stop in at Goblin Valley, then back to Hwy 24, follow it through Capital Reef NP, and stop in Torrey UT for lunch. Then head south on UT Hwy 12 to Tropic, where we will spend the night. If times allows, we’ll go to Bryce Canyon.



We were up and loaded around 9am (early for us). A Quick bite at Burger King and we were off, heading west, on I70. The weather wasn’t too bad, but they were calling for rain in the afternoon in Grand Junction, so we didn’t want to stick around too long anyway.

I70 wasn’t anything to write home about and thank goodness we weren’t planning on riding it too far. Although we had only gone about 100 miles or so, we figured gassing up and taking a break in Green River seemed to be the best bet for us. That way we would have full tanks to get down 24 & 12.

While resting up, another biker came in. He was riding a Kawi V Twin. He had left Colorado Springs, after the hail had hit on the 29th (what Dave and I missed by hours) and had gotten wet riding down to Las Vegas and back. He had plenty of wet tells to tell us about. I believe he had told Dave that he left Las Vegas while it was raining, and was glad to be out of it.

Until we told him they were expecting rain in Grand Junction this afternoon! When the guy was ready to leave, he couldn’t find his key. Dave asked him were the spare was, and the guy said safely at home! Oops! Well, it took him a good 15 minutes of looking until he found it in his jacket. Seems a hole developed in his jacket pocket and the key found its way in there.

Dave and I took off right after that and we only had 38 more miles of I70, until we turned south on UT24. When the boys and I did our Southwest Tour a couple years back, we came north on UT24. It was a long, HOT, and boring. We even stopped on the way to Goblin Valley, but the boys didn’t want any part of it. One reason was because of the heat. The other, they just wanted to ride to our next destination, which was Moab.

I warned Dave not to expect too much, but since Dave likes to look at the landscape, it was more interesting for him than it was for the boys. When we stopped at Goblin Valley, we both found it very interesting. It looked like someone was playing with clay and just put globs of clay here and there! Big Globs!



After a short photo opt and rest, we were back on the road again. We had a lot of two lane miles to cover. While heading south on 24, we could see thunder clouds in the direction we were traveling! I had checked the weather and they were expecting rain on Hwy12, so I knew we were in trouble!

UT24 continues south to Hanksville, where it makes a 90 degree turn to the west and heads though Capital Reef NP. Capital Reef has some interesting mountains, but we didn’t stop to take many pictures, in fact. We were just taking pictures as we rode through.



From Hanksville, it was 57 miles to Torrey, where we would have lunch and watch the ugly rain to the south, knowing we were going to be going into it! While we were eating, we joined a couple of guys sitting at one of the tables. One of them was a Gunsmith for a specialty gun shop, and the other guy was a cop from Bountiful. They were there for some gun classes.

The one guy, a bit of a talker, was interesting to listen to. Although he wasn’t that old, he had a lot of experience with guns! But our lunch and theirs came to an end, and off we were to go into the rain!

We knew we were going to get wet, but neither of us donned our rain gear and we just took off. It didn’t take long before we were in the middle of it and it was getting colder the farther south we went, because the elevation was going up too. The coldest I saw was about 45F, which felt real good, being wet and all!

I was on a constant watch for the forest rats, and sure enough, we came across them a couple of times. We even had a cow run in front of us (about 50 yards in front of us) and that cow wasn’t stopping for nothing! Good thing there wasn’t any tractor-trailers going through at the time! We even had another rider behind us from Torrey. I kept expecting him to pass us, but he never did. I guess he wanted us to run point for the deer!

Once we hit Boulder UT, the rain let up and as we were making the 90 degree turn at the south end of Boulder, we didn’t see any more rain, for that ride and even that rider that was following us, he had stopped at Boulder. Now Escalante was only about 37 more miles down the road, but we stopped at the “Head of the Rocks” Overlook and took a quick break. We were already drying out.

We then took off for Escalante where we stopped for gas. By this time we were both getting tired. The rain took a toll on us since we had to go slow, but also be on the lookout for the forest rats! And we still had another 43 miles to travel before getting to our room.

We finally made it to Tropic, but we were so tired, there was no way for us to go see Bryce.

After getting settled in our room, we went down to the local store and then to the restaurant and had some dinner. After a bit (after 10pm) I realized I didn’t have any water, so went to get a bottle. I hit the water button and got a Dr Pepper! Grrr. I then went back to the store, which was closed, but I was hoping for a coke machine… there wasn’t. I then checked the motel’s laundromat, none! So I just went back to the room and said, Oh well!

Total miles for Day 15 was about: 380

 

[SupraSabre]

Day 16 ? Saturday September 3rd

Planned route for the day:

The plan for the day was to ride down to Rainbow Point in Bryce Canyon, ride back out, then head over Hwy12 to Hwy89 south, then Hwy9 through Zion. We would continue to I15 and head south to St George, then go back through Las Veags the way we came so we could stop by and see Hoover Dam and the new bridge and spend the night in Laughlin.



Sometimes things just don?t go as planned! So we got up, got dressed and headed to the Motel Office for their ?Breakfast?. After seeing everyone there, we choose to go eat at the restaurant that we ate at the night before. Besides, they gave 10% if you were in the Motel!

So, Dave and I order the same thing, but instead of a ?meat? omelet, she gave me a vegetable omelet! UCK! So she had to take it back and about 20 minutes later, I get my all meat one! The problem was, that delayed us even more. So now we were a lot later getting away than we wanted.

As we got to the Bryce Canyon gate, a line had already formed. Dave got in one line and I got in the other. As I told Dave as I was a car or two ahead of him, it only takes one to completely screw everything up! I hate it when I?m right! Dave was about 5 minutes ahead of me getting through the gate. I had several vehicles in front of me that caused issues!

But we got in and headed towards Rainbow point, about 16 miles away. The further south we went, the clouds got darker! But we made it to Rainbow Point and took a few pictures before leaving.



Off in the distance we could see even darker clouds and decide it was time to head back,



although there were a few spots we still wanted to check out.



At one spot we stopped, there were a couple of Ravens sitting on two large posts. After Dave and I posed with them, a couple of gals went to pose with them when they started Squawking. Really making some racket! I told the gals they are complaining, they wanted $15 an hour to have pictures with them! LOL



As we were getting close to the entrance, we were getting a few drops on us, so we stopped and put the cameras away. Then we stopped again and put some rain gear on. This made us a little too warm, but kept us dry.

And just as we were getting out of the park, it started coming down pretty hard! I knew that there were a couple of gas stations up ahead, so we picked the first one and ducked under it. After filling the bikes up we decided it would be a good time to take a break, so I told Dave to ride over in front of me, where a pump was out of commission and we could just stay there until the rain stopped. So we took a break and watched the rain and lightning for about fifteen minutes or so.



Once the rain was gone, we took off to get back on Hwy12 heading west. We had ridden about 16 miles when we came across Red Canyon and decided we needed to at least take a few pictures!



Just before we rode into Bryce Canyon, we had stopped at a store, hoping to pick up a simi large chip for my onboard cameras. Although they didn?t have any, the guy told me to go to the town of Panguitch, just a few miles north of the US89/UT12 intersection. They had a RadioShack there.

So we headed north on US89. As Dave and I were going through town, we saw a Rexall Drugs, and thought we could stop there if nothing else. We continued for about a mile more and not seeing a RadioShack anywhere, we turned around and headed for the Rexall Drug store we spotted earlier. As we came in view of the Rexall sign, we could see that the RadioShack sign was right below it! DUH!

I went in to pick up a 64GB chip, but saw they had a 128GB, so I got that instead. I went back out and Dave decided to go in and use the restroom, but also decided to get a chip. When he told the guy that he was really disappointed that his brother was just in and bought a 64gb chip, the guy corrected him and said I had bought a 128gb! Dave went ahead and got a 64gb chip. (And later I?m thinking I should have only gotten a 64gb chip, since it seemed that I had issues using the 128 gb chips in my onboard cameras.)

For me to get to my onboard cameras, I had to completely unload my rear saddle! Then remove the saddle to get to the DVR. Once I was all loaded back up, Dave and I took off south on US89. And it was a really good thing we weren?t speeding, there was a cop sitting at the edge of town as we were leaving!

So now we had about 63 miles to the east Zion gate. As we were heading down US89, we spotted a cop, who came in behind us, so I kept to the speed limit and played it safe! Also, as we got closer to Zion, we could see the clouds getting darker and darker!

We found 9 and turned on it to Zion and we felt we missed another storm! When I was going through the gate, I asked the Gal if they had gotten any rain yet and she said ?no?, then looked up and said; ?Oh my?, she could see the clouds above us at that time.



Dave and I pulled in, stopped nearby and set up our GoPros and other cameras and then took off with a few rain drops falling. I?ve gone through Zion a couple of times on my bikes, but only west to east, never east to west. This gave me new views of Zion. Right after we cleared the long tunnel, we came to a pullover area, an ?at an angle" pullover, and I had a heck of a time getting my bike to sit right. But as soon as I shut it down, there goes the ?Camera Stopped? thing again on my on-board cameras!

DANG! Off come my extra bags off the rear saddle and pull the rear saddle up and grab the DVR and pull the battery! Again, I had a 128GB chip in it. I really think it causes it somehow.

So I got that fixed while Dave was talking to another couple. I loaded the bike back up and after getting a couple of pictures, we were on the road again! As we approached the west entrance, Dave needed a break, so we pulled into the parking lot (what a mess, which is what it is every time I?ve been through!) We found some empty ?20 Minutes Only? spots and pulled into them. Once Dave was in, I pulled my bike next to his space, so others could use the other space I was in.



Again, we were ready to leave. Now trying to get out of that parking lot, pulling a left turn is bad at best! But we did it and then rode out of the park and on our way through Hurricane. But not as fast as we would have liked! Five cages in front of us didn't know what the sign 55 MPH in English meant, so I had to make short work of them! Then, it was slow going for the last mile or two of Hurricane, because they had it down to one lane due to construction, what a mess!

We finally got out of there, and it was like 5pm, but we kept going until we got to I15 to head south. I figured we could gas up in St George, and then ride all the way to Laughlin. It was getting late and by the time we were in Las Vegas, it was dark. So much for Hoover Dam! We were a few miles from a gas stop in Henderson, when my new Sena 20s tells me that my power was low. She said that two more times in a very short distance, and boom, no power! We pulled off, gassed up and then I connected my power cord from my tankbag to my Sena. Working again!

By this time is was just getting darker, so Dave and I just made a be-line to the hotel in Laughlin. Due to a late start, rain delay, traffic delay, we just never could get this day going for us. Oh well, off to the hotel and when we get there, what a mob!

Okay, so the hotel has to upgrade us, well, that didn?t work, since I wanted a non-smoking room! So she tried a few more, nothing! So the kid manager comes over and he gets us in a Handicap room (I don?t like Handicap rooms since an infection I got once a few years ago, but I didn?t have much choice! I then found the bellhop station and got help so we could get our stuff up to our room.

Dave stayed up in the room while I went and wasted a little money in the Casino. Waste of time, I could almost hear the sucking sound in the machines! Oh well, back to the room I went. At lease we were able to sleep pretty well.

Total miles for Day 16 was about: 375