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Another good night's sleep after plenty of miles covered. First things first, luckily, I brought a small pack of Windex wipes because the one thing Utah has in abundance is bugs! It took quite a bit of scrubbing but I finally got all the bugs off my helmet visor. In retrospect, I probably should have taken care of this last night before the bug tar had a chance to harden like cement. So, the helmet is clean and I am raring to go!
I said my goodbyes to the KOA campground this morning. Again a nice, well-maintained campground except for the train they forgot to mention which crosses right behind the campground at 3:00 am with its horn blaring! Boy, if that doesn't wake you up, you are dead! Imagine, lying there, out like a light and all of a sudden you think a train is bearing down on you. Yep, that'll wake you up for sure! Other than that, the campground is well taken care of but I think I’ll pass on staying there next time.
Again, with the windmills! They are everywhere. Some mountain passes I went through, you could almost reach out and touch them; they were so close to the road and so huge. I can’t believe the size of these things! I’ve seen pictures before but until you are up close and personal, it’s hard to imagine the size!
Since there are mountain passes here, I got my first opportunity to use the new remote adjuster for my fuel air mixture. Unfortunately, there aren’t many places to stop on the mountain passes, at least none where a good picture opportunity was. My fuel/air mixture adjuster is a really cool little thing I found online at http://www.glensvtxgarage.com/. It allows the adjuster to hang down under the engine cover. Before, it was necessary to disassemble a bunch of stuff to make an adjustment if you wanted to. With the change in terrain, adjustment became necessary. Now it just hangs down where I can reach, make an adjustment, and try it for a while. Luckily my friend from work, Brent installed it for me and with a little tweaking, the engine was running smooth again.
Utah is pretty and has some interesting landscape and roadside buildings. There are lots of ruts in the ground next to the road and mostly dry land but off in the distance, there are a lot of mountains. I pulled over to stretch my legs in Price, UT and had to drive around an industrial area to check out the buildings. In particular, I had to check out the public works buildings. They consisted of what I can best describe as 6 geodesic domes right next to each other. It makes you wonder, whether they had them built for public works, or whether they took over someone else’s buildings. I made a quick ride around to get a look and then took off. I didn’t want someone in the building to call the cops on a suspicious person! For some reason, I have been referred to like that before! Utah does like to drive fast! I rode through Salt Lake City every bit of 100 mph at least! I was still getting passed! I would have ridden faster to keep up with traffic if it wasn't for the wind. It took all I had at that speed to fight the wind and close drivers and stay upright! I later heard from someone that bikers are not well liked in Salt Lake City for some reason. People were tailgating me and in general, not very careful with their driving. I was happy to get out of that city as quick as I could with all that traffic!
Now Green River, UT, what can I say. There is a place by this name but all I found there were an abandoned gas station and some guy selling beef jerky on the side of the road. Lucky for me, I had plenty of gas because by the looks of that gas station, there hasn’t been gas sold here in a long time! Being a huge beef jerky aficionado myself, I had to sample all the flavors as least once, maybe twice. I settled on a peppered beef jerky and a buffalo jerky both were excellent and made for nice snacks when I pull over for a rest. I met a couple of nice young college girls at the beef jerky stand. It seems they had the same craving for dried out meat like I did. We talked a couple of minutes and they said they were out exploring national monuments for a month or two depending on how long their money held out.
I made it to the Arches National Park at about the hottest part of the day. Let there be no mistake, this is desert country. So far, I have seen no wildlife but today that changed because I saw the weirdest little critter. It looked like a cross between a shrew and a rabbit so, since I discovered it, henceforth it will be known as a shabbit. I decided to go in the Park and ride through to see the arches and snap a few pictures. This is a really cool area and the landscape is pretty awesome. The terrain is really red and the rock formations are interesting. Some are in groups and then you see some that are out in the middle of nowhere with nothing around. They even have a balancing rock that I thought looked pretty damn precarious. It looked like it would not take much to get it to fall off its perch. I finally got to the place where they said the arches were and pulled over. I couldn't find the arches and all I saw were people going into the desert. So, I asked and I was told that I would have to walk a ways into the desert to see the arches. I paused, gave myself a close inspection, and determined that an overweight man with bad knees, wearing about 40 pounds of black leather, and sweating profusely had no business walking into no damn desert! Momma raised no fool! I rode back to the visitor center where you can see a reasonable facsimile of the arches in an air-conditioned room! Obviously, I was not the only person with this idea because there were plenty of people milling about. So, I thought to myself, I need a picture of an arch, dammit. I found that if you take the picture of the facsimile at the right angle, it almost looks real. NOT! I have to hand it to these folks because they made sure to have plenty of water fountains on hand to cool off with. A few people and I stuck our heads under a faucet and wet our heads. It makes a big difference!
Anyways, back on the road. This time I made it to "Hole in the Wall" which is close to Monticello, UT. This is a place my wife and I visited when the kids were really young on one of our road trips to Texas to visit my folks when they were alive. The hole in the wall is essentially a three bedroom house carved into the side of a mountain which now also has a gift shop carved in. This is a pretty cool little place to visit. By pretty cool, I mean it figuratively and literally. No need for air conditioning in the place, the temperature stays a nice cool temperature year round. I didn't do the tour because I didn't really feel like it and chose instead to tour the outside area where they have some interesting stuff. I snapped a few pictures of their creative art that is all done with a sense of humor. They even have a small petting zoo by the looks of it. I'll probably stop there again on my way back for more pictures.
Off again until I got to Cortez, CO where I decided I had gone far enough for the day. I located the KOA campground. Nice place but once I saw that the ground was really rocky, I decided a cabin would be in order. No sleeping on rocks for me tonight! This and the fact that I had lightening striking around me as I rode convinced me that getting a cabin was a good idea. The cabins are tiny, about 12 x 12 feet in size I would guess. They have a full size bed, a pair of bunk beds, a TV, and AIR CONDITIONING! It did not hurt my decision to rent the cabin that I could see lightening all around me the last few miles! I figure I deserve this upgrade about now.
Here it gets funny! A couple of states back, I stopped at a rest area and got to talking to another biker who was going a different direction than I. He was zig zagging back and forth and said he was going up the mountains for a ride. His name was Kenny. I checked in, unloaded my bike and was headed to get a beer when who rides up but Kenny! We both started laughing at how here we were, two states later and run into each other again. Talk about coincidence that we both chose this KOA campground. He went to get a cabin as well because of the weather but I had taken the last cabin. We had such a good conversation when we initially met that I told him he was welcome to take one of the bunks in my cabin. His payment was that he supplied the beer. Well, by the time I got back from the showers, he had us a twelve pack of ice-cold beer waiting. We sat on the porch until we ran out of beer having great conversation and talking to a couple in the cabin next door. One of the two women was kind of gruff but the other one was really talkative. They didn’t seem to have a destination in mind and were just out exploring in general. That or they were on the lam or in witness protection! What an imagination! We ran out of beer and off to bed. You get a foam mattress on the bed and no other bedding. You have to supply everything else, so sleeping bag it was. Damned comfortable it was!
My end of day miles for today was 413.7 miles. It felt good to cover that much ground today.
Following is some detail on the pictures:
Pic 1 - The Helmet: One thing I'll say for Utah is they got BUGS! It’s going to take a while to make my helmet usable. The first thing to do before I leave Salt Lake City, UT is to scrub this helmet clean.
Pic 2 - Goodbye KOA: Goodbye Salt Lake City. I will not stay at this KOA again! All was nice till 3am when trains went by for an hour blaring horns the entire hour!
Pic 3 - Windmills: South of Spanish Fork, UT. Seeing windmills everywhere I go. I have got to get me one of these!
Pic 4 - Mountain Passes: Wish I could actually post pictures of the mountain passes I have come over. The views have been awesome but no place to stop for pictures on the road but here I am in Helper, UT. What a name for a town.
Pic 5 - The Adjustment!: Thank you Brent for installing my remote air/fuel adjustment knob. A little tweaking and the bike adjusted to the altitude change just fine. I finally used my adjuster as I pulled into Price, UT.
Pic 6 - Odd Building: Price, UT public works buildings consisted of 6 geodesic domes just like this one. This is very weird looking.
Pic 7 - Beef Jerky: Good old roadside jerky. I just had to stop for some. Got some buffalo honey smoked and buffalo peppered. I met a couple of nice college girls out touring the monuments. They call this Green River, UT but there isn’t anything green around here!
Pic 8 - Where's Green River?: Jerky was right next to this fenced off abandoned gas station. Luckily I still had a full tank. This is the only other thing I saw in Green River, UT
Pic 9 - The Arches National Park: Arches National Park just north of Moab. Time for a quick look and off to find lunch. The only live animal I have seen looked like a cross between a shrew and a tiny rabbit. I shall call it "Shabitt" .
Pic 10 - The Arches National Park: Arches canyon. I’ve been riding through tons of stuff redder then this.
Pic 11 - The Arches National Park: Just driving through the park looking at some interesting rocks.
Pic 12 - The Arches National Park: This is a peculiar rock formation just out in the middle of nowhere all by itself. I shall call it lonesome rock.
Pic 13 - The Arches National Park: Too bad I don't have zoom or I would get a better picture of these weird rocks.
Pic 14 - The Arches National Park: Here you go, a little education thrown in just for fun.
Pic 15 - The Arches National Park: More interesting rocks.
Pic 16 - The Arches National Park: Balancing rock. They make sure to tell you not to mess with it
Pic 17 - The Arches National Park: So, I drove around looking for the arches. I found a sign and pulled up. Some people told me I would have to hike through the desert to see them. So this is the booby prize, because I am not walking through no damn desert wearing this much leather!
Pic 18 - Hole in The Wall: Hole in the Wall, officially in Monticello, UT. I had to stop on the side of the highway for this shot.
Pic 19 - Hole in the Wall: At Hole in the Wall.
Pic 20 - Hole in The Wall: Hole in the Wall again.
Pic 21 - Hole in The Wall: And finally, the real Hole In the Wall.
Pic 22 - Wilson Arch: Can you believe it; I had to almost slam the breaks on to get a picture of an actual arch. Wilson Arch.
Pic 23 - The Cabin: Camp Fred 3.0. I have upgraded! I was riding along comfortably when lightening started striking all around me. Guess who isn’t sleeping in a damn tent tonight? KOA in Cortez, CO
Pic 24 - The Cabin: Nice little cabin, nothing fancy. It even has bunks for 2 more and a small TV. A great spot to be when heat like today's totally kicks your butt.
Pic 25 - Kenny: This is Kenny. We initially met at a rest stop in Idaho. Had a nice visit and then he pulled into the same KOA I got a cabin at. He was looking for a cabin but I took the last one. He is going to stay in the spare bunk in my cabin. He brings the beer!
Pic 26 - End of Day Miles: And today's miles......413.9! I could absolutely go no further. Got hit by a small rain shower and within 5 miles I was dry and hot again! This includes the 25 miles I went through the Arches Park.
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