Southwest Tour - Day 7

Day 7 - Gallup to Dallas TX, 783 miles

No pictures for the ride Sunday. The weather forecast had been warning of the rain front that had camped out across New Mexico and Texas. It looked like I would have a pretty clear ride through New Mexico, as the slow moving front had moved mostly towards central Texas and into central Oklahoma, but as I loaded up the bike to leave my Gallup NM hotel room, the ominous clouds coming in from the southwest gave me pause that I there might still be some rain in New Mexico after all ... so the camera stayed packed in the trunk. With almost all interstate to go from Gallup on home ... at least to Amarillo where I would pick up US287 to get back to the metromess, today was to be a simple ride-n-go kind of day.

I slept in a little later than normal today, knowing that it would be a fairly easy ride. I didn't actually get on the road until 8:00am MDT, but daylight combined with the 75mph speed limit let me make good time.

I made Santa Rosa, NM right at noon. A quick stop for lunch, fuel, and to let Cass know my status, and then I was back on the road.

Around Tucumcari NM, I decided to exit I-40 for a stretch, and ride down Rte 66 for a spell. I should have done this more out in Arizona where there were longer stretches of road preserved. The stretch through Tucumcari lived up to what I would expect a Rte 66 tour to look like. Several of the old motels, old gas stations, and old cafes were still there. Many were closed, but there were a few that were still in operation. For the past couple of weeks I've been chewing on the idea of trying to do a Rte 66 ride from Amarillo out to California, and the ride through Tucumcari reinforced that dream. It won't happen this year, but hopefully it's something I can put together before too much longer.

The sky would again darken up as I got into Amarillo, but no rain would fall while I was on I-40. Getting through Amarillo was much quicker today, since the construction that had things congested when I came through a week and a half ago was still constrained to the west bound lanes. Just outside of Amarillo I picked up US287, and was on my final leg home.

A quick stop for fuel in Memphis, TX, and it was looking like I would probably need just one more stop in Decatur. As I approached Wichita Falls, the rain began to fall. It stayed with me all the way through Wichita Falls, and a few miles south of town. Once I got away from the Wichita Falls traffic though, the rain seemed to let off, and I would make the rest of the ride to Decatur with just the threat of storm clouds looming on the western horizon.

In Decatur, I picked up US380 and my final gas stop. As I was fueling up, the rain would start again, but would be short lived. At this point, I got on the phone with Cass to start making dinner plans, and those last 60 miles from the Shell in Decatur to my driveway would just melt away. Home at last, it was time to stuff the bike into the garage, unpack the luggage, and shed the riding gear for the last time ... at least for another week and a half.

Even with the change in plans Saturday leading me to take mostly Interstate the rest of the way home, it was still a good ride ... and the cold beer at the end of the ride was also very much welcomed. That, and giving Cass the trinkets I had picked up for her along the way. :)

Southwest Tour - Day 6

Day 6 - Las Vegas to Gallup NM, 832 miles

Still catching up, but getting closer. :)

What's that? Las Vegas isn't 832 miles from Gallup? Not by a long shot, but it is when you start off with one plan, the divert to a different one on the fly. I didn't take as many pictures on Saturday as I had anticipated, primarily because of the route/schedule change.

Originally, my plan had me leaving Las Vegas at 6:00am headed for Hoover Dam. From there, I would run the loop around Lake Mead, take a short jump north on I-15 back into Utah, ride through Zion National Park and over to Kanab UT, down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, then down to Flagstaff and ultimately to Albuquerque for the night.

The day would start well enough. By getting on the road by 6:00am, I would miss the bulk of the tourist traffic on the Hoover Dam that I had been warned about. The morning weather was quite pleasant, with temperatures in the low 80s and a light breeze. On the way down to Hoover Dam, you get some great views of Lake Mead.


(I hate that the minivan got into frame while taking the picture)

I didn't get any of the typical shots of the Dam that you see from the south, but rather got pictures from the north as I rode across the dam, parked, took some pictures, then rode back across to the Nevada side of the dam. The trip across the dam was cool. The construction for the US93 bypass around the dam is progressing relatively quickly, and it won't be long before you can't drive over the dam any more due to security concerns. I wanted to make it to Hoover Dam while I could still travel across it, but having been there now, I don't think it will dampen things once the close off vehicular traffic as long as you can still walk across the dam.





After leaving Hoover Dam, I headed back to the Lake Mead Recreational Area, to make the loop around Lake Mead on the west/northwest side of the lake. Again, being early in the morning, traffic was light so it was easy to enjoy the excellent pavement ahead of me. I did notice after completing the route that if you came in from the far north, you could miss the pay booths needed to access the recreational area from the south or west. No worries, Lake Mead would be one of the lowest priced parks that I visited at just $3.00, and the ride plus the view were well worth it.

After the loop around Lake Mead, I met back up with I-15, and continued north up towards Utah. I stopped in Mesquite Nevada for my first gas stop of the day, plus a breakfast stop.

Next on the route was the take I-15 up through the northwestern corner or Arizona into southern Utah, then jump on UT9 over to Hurricane UT and into Zion National Park. It was when I made the trip through Hurricane UT (how an area as far from the coast as this little town in southwestern Utah gets a name like Hurricane is beyond me) that I would get a taste for just how busy Zion would be. People were parking 10 or more miles outside of the park, and taking shuttles into the Park. As I got closer to the park, they had park rangers stationed along the roads asking if people were planning to stop at the park or just driving through. If driving through, you were clear to proceed ... otherwise you were forced to park and take one of the shuttles. Turns out all the parking spots within the park had been taken as of early Saturday morning, so they had to divert people outside the park to keep things flowing.

When I finally made it to the park entrance, the waiting line just to pay to drive through was a good indication of the delay that awaited. They had two lines up, and while there were several bikes in line, it seemed like each spot in line took about 8 minutes on average to pay then move on. The biggest problem seemed to be the $25 fee for cars going through the park ... most drivers decided they needed to pay by credit card, thus slowing down the progress. Fortunately, bikes were ONLY $12 to ride through.

Just after making it into the park, the road slopes uphill, towards a narrow tunnel running through the mountain. It was here that traffic stopped for roughly 15 minutes, waiting on the oncoming traffic to make their way through the tunnel. Some drivers were just driving through ... others taking a very long time to stop and exam every piece of the tunnel while we were stopped waiting for them to proceed. The heat and traffic finally got to me, and I decided to head back towards the west entrance.



Seeing how packed Zion was, and knowing how packed the Grand Canyon gets during peak season, I decided to reroute to miss these two National Parks. I have been through the Grand Canyon in 2004, and had seen almost half of Zion up until the point that I turned around, so didn't feel like I was short changing anything on the trip. That, and it still leaves me things to do the next time I'm riding through the area, or new sights to see when I can get Cass to make the trip out there with me.

Back out of the park, I stopped in Springdale to plan my new route. Still trying to make it back to Dallas by Sunday evening, it looked like I had basically two choices; back to Vegas in order to meet up with I-40, or up to central Utah to pick up I-70. While the I-70 route is on my list of rides to do at some point, it looked like I'd lose too much time heading that far north, and would put my Sunday return in question. I opted instead to back track to Vegas, run down to I-40, and hi-tail it home.

Running back south, I made it back to Vegas around roughly 3:00pm. It was a bit frustrating to be back in Vegas where I started at 3 in the afternoon, when I had started the day so early to make good progress. My original plan had me in Albuquerque by 9:00pm that evening, and there was no way I could make that plan now. Adding to the time frustration, the wind had definitely picked up, along with the heat. As I rode through Vegas, Cass called to check in on my status, and while I was able to talk with her for awhile, the wind eventually turned to a cross-wind making it difficult to hear her on the phone as well as adding noise to her end of the call. I decided just to slab it out with the goal of making the New Mexico border before I stopped for rest.

A quick stop in Flagstaff for a quick chow break, combined with a face shield change and donning the Gerbing gear as the temps were starting to cool down significantly. Actually, from about the time I hit Kingman AZ, the temps had calmed down to comfortable levels, and the wind was now less of an issue. By Flagstaff, I needed something to act as a windbreaker, so putting on the Gerbing without actually powering it up did the trick.

I ended up making it to Gallup NM right around 11pm MDT and decided to call it a night. I managed to secure a room at a Red Roof right off the interstate. Up to the room, I set up the laptop to upload my pictures to smugmug, then turned in for the night.

Southwest Tour - Day 5

Day 5 - San Jose to Las Vegas NV, 635 miles

I'm back from the trip now, but still have some catching up to do. When I got to the hotel in Las Vegas, after showering up and grabbing dinner at the hotel next door (this time I substituted a chocolate cream pie for beer), I got back to the hotel to find that Smugmug was doing a service update. Since I couldn't upload pictures, I didn't do my daily blog update either, and instead passed out for an early night.

Friday was a trip of many highs. Having gotten the work done on the bike in San Jose and wrapping up a week worth of meetings, it was good to be back on the bike ... new shoes and new clutch working perfectly. What had originally been planned as a 5:00am start, things wouldn't actually get started until 6:30am. To my surprise, rush hour getting out of San Jose was pretty light. Either it was because so many people took off work Friday to make for a long weekend, or if I was just heading away from where everyone else was going to, it made for a nice commute out of town.

My first stop was to be Yosemite National Park, on my way to Nevada. When looking at the map to plot this trip, I never realized how close Yosemite was to the Bay area, so this would be a great time to run through there. Zooming in on Yosemite a little more, I noticed a mountain pass called Tioga. I remembered a discussion about Tioga Pass over on the BMW SportTouring forum, so I did a little more digging on the subject. The Tioga Pass had just opened for the year on May 11th. Only a couple weeks earlier, they had plowed the road to clear all the snow, and done any necessary road repairs to open the pass. Being this early in the season, I knew the scenery would be fantastic, and I was hoping that by hitting it on Friday I would miss any of the holiday weekend traffic.

On the way into Yosemite on CA120, the first hint of nature's beauty came from the Don Pedro Reservoir.





Just up the road from the Reservoir was the entrance to Yosemite. Speed limits inside the park where significantly lower, 35-45mph, but no matter as the number of stops I would take for pictures pretty well negated any speed I would have made through the park if there were higher speed limits.



There were a couple of places where there was water flowing down over the landscaped rocks as the snow and ice melted from the caps. I was hoping to get a picture of one, but I didn't find the right one without a significant amount of car traffic already around it.

As I worked my way east through Yosemite, the elevation was slowly climbing. The highest point in Yosemite would end up being over 9900 feet above sea level, it was the climbing in elevation that brought on more of the snow ... along with much cooler temperatures.

Just before I hit the Tioga Pass, I'd come up on an incredible lake, nestled in the higher elevations, surrounded by hard rock and spectacular trees:









From there it was over to Tioga Pass, and descending into the town of Lee Vining. After getting several tips about the the Mobile gas station in Lee Vining (Hank, the Exxon turned Mobile), I had planned on making that my lunch destination. The food court inside the Mobile is called Whoa Nellie Deli. Based on the recommendations of others, I went with the World Famous Fish Tacos. Ohhhh ... incredible! The air outside still had a nice chill to it, but to spend a half hour or so sitting outside, at that picnic table, overlooking Mono Lake to the East ... definitely good times.





After finishing up in Lee Vining, it was time to head towards Rachel NV for a trip along the Extraterrestrial Highway. My second concern when planning this route was that I had learned that there was to be some big UFO spotter event in Rachel over the Memorial Day weekend. Again, I was hoping to make it out there before the crowd.

Along the way to Rachel, immediately upon leaving Lee Vining, was a trip out through the Inyo National Forest. Just to the east of the Mono Lake area, the forest was pretty scorched, looking like it had recently been involved in one of the area's wildfires in the not to distant past.

At Benton, I would pick up US6 and continue heading East. US6 would run into US95, and from there to Tonopah NV. There, US95 continues south, but I would continue running east on US6 towards NV375. Just before coming up on NV375, I would have my only deer scare of the trip. Coming upon what looked to be a recent deer hit, I let myself get distracted by that and didn't notice the two deer standing in the left side oncoming lane as I round the next turn. Hard on the brakes, the two deer would dash off the road away from me, with nothing more to come of it from that.

Making the turnoff from US6 onto NV375, I was now headed south/southeast towards Rachel. There were signs up at US6 and all along NV375 warning of low flying aircraft, but I never saw any. Maybe the signs were referring to us motorcycles, but more likely it was a training area for the flights out of Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. Or maybe they meant the secret flights into Area 51, which was also near by.

Finally hitting Rachel, I pulled into the Little Ale Inn (Little Alien) bar and motel. Since there was a sign for the ET highway just outside of town, it made a good time to stop for pictures, plus pick up a tshirt for Cass.







With the convention going on this weekend, it was readily apparent that there are people out here who still firmly believe that area 51 is a UFO mecca. On that note, it was time for me to get the wheels turning again and get on to Vegas before night fall.

The rest of the ride into North Las Vegas would be uneventful. I made it to the hotel just as sunset. Today being the warmest day I've had to ride through this trip, I decided a shower before dinner was appropriate, followed by dinner.

Tomorrow would be the longest day of the trip ... only I didn't realize just how long yet.

The Trip Between The Trips

After getting to San Jose on some well spent tires Sunday, I had to wait until today to put a call into San Jose BMW in the hopes that they would be able to get me set up with new tires and back on the road. We happened to have a break right around 9am when the shop opened, so a quick call indicated that they would fit me in since I was traveling, and to come on in. As we hung up, Dan says something like "I'll see you in a few minutes", so I decided not to press my luck and to get the bike up there sooner rather than later. I headed right up there.

San Jose BMW is just a short run from the office, so I'm there in no time. Dan is tied up when I get there, so I get turned over to Pete. Pete agrees that while the schedule is busy this week, they can get me worked in for a tire change since I'm traveling. After a quick check of the computer, we decide to go with Metzler Z6's since I've used those on the ST, they didn't have the Bridgestones in stock, and I didn't really have a strong preference on what to try next. They indicated that they stock more Metzlers because they've been a favorite for other R12RT riders who visit the shop.

Getting the work order set up, they did a quick search for any outstanding recalls affecting my VIN number ... uh oh ... there is one. Turns out my VIN number matches a recall from March of last year ... a recall affecting 64 bikes where clutch components can come loose while the motorcycle is in operation. The loose parts could exit through the engine casing, causing a wreck. Hmm ... that's no good. A quick call back home confirms that they don't have any record of this recall having been done either; another quick Internet search confirms the recall as well. No problem says Pete, they can still get the work done before I need to get back on the road ... in fact they'll get started on it today. So their off and going.

San Jose BMW seems to be one of the most communicative service centers I've dealt with. They've called 3 times this afternoon to update me on progress. The last call, they suggested that since they were in the clutch replacing all the components except the friction plate itself, if I wanted to replace the plate and essentially have a completely new clutch ... for just the cost of the plate (no labor for the teardown, etc), they would put in a new plate. You bet ... over 9000 miles on the bike, some of it spent learning to ride a dry clutch, it beats me having to pay the 6+ hours to have a shop tear into the bike down the road. The bike should be back together sometime tomorrow.

They even gave me a loaner bike while they worked on mine. (that's a subject for another day)

So by the end of the week, I should have my bike back ... new clutch, new tires, and ready to ride back home no worries.

Southwest Tour - Day 4

Day 4 - Torrey to San Jose CA, 851 miles

Today's ride was very event focused ... ride the ride, without alot of pictures. It's not that the scenery wasn't incredible ... to the contrary, the route out of Torrey on UT24 was a different view of UT than I had seen before. The landscape in Nevada similarly appealing. And today's entrance into California was by far, hands down, the best way to experience California for the first time. But all that was overshadowed by one little nusance ... my tires. It couldn't be just one. No, it had to be the both of them. Having checked them before leaving the house, the plan was to ride this ride, and then get a fresh set once I got home and had the 12K mile service performed. Yet somehow, either the dessert temperatures, or the off-road excursions, or maybe just the aggressive riding though the mountains and across the plains. Either way, by the time Saturday night came to be, I was looking at less than 1 mil before I hit the wear bars on the rear, and maybe a solid mil before hitting the wear bars on the front. The likihood was very high that I would end up wearing through the rubber to the steal cords on at least one of the tires, if not both. The combination of more dessert riding, plus elevated temps, meant that I would need to keep my speeds lower in order to conserve what little tire I had left. I let the group know I wouldn't be making the ride with them from Torrey to Fallon NV, as they were planning to be a bit more "spirited", and settled into another solo ride at my own pace.

I departed Torrey right on schedule for once, right at 08:00am local time. By 10:00am I was at the intersection of I-15 and US50. I would hopscotch with a couple of riders on the initial couple of gas stops. Sagerider would pass me at the I-15/US50 stop, then I would pass him back in Delta, UT. He would pass me for the final time at the UT/NV border, after which I wouldn't see him again.

The biggest part of today's trip was Nevada, from a sheer mileage perspective. I had heard so much about US50 through Nevada, I had to try it for myself regardless of the impressions it had left on others. At the end of the ride, I have to say it was not what I expected at all. The overall jist of the route is as it had been explained ... you're crossing mountain range after valley after mountain range. But the vision I had built in my head more more bleak than what reality would unfold for me today. First off, the wind today was something mean. Not West Texas mean, change direction and intensity at will to find a way to catch you off guard, but she was pretty stiff for sure. The wind would alternate between being a crosswind from the North, a crosswind from the South, or a straight on head wind. I think the only thing it didn't do for me was give me a tail wind ... and after a couple days of really good gas mileage, today's number would reflect the stiff wind.

But putting the wind aside, this day in May might well have been the perfect time to make that ride. The temps didn't get that hot down in the lower elevations, and while there was still snow showing on several out the mountain peaks ... the temps never got that cold at altitude either. The temperature range I encountered was somewhere around 55 degrees outside of Torrey, generally low 60's in the mountains, and low 80's in the valleys. Temps would push 90 once I got into the lower elevations in California, but that's not relevant to this part of the discussion. :)

The mountain passes all had variety, with each one being unique. There was a fantastic mix of sweepers, switchbacks, tight turns, and all the way over to 270 degree cloverleafs. And you could take each of those uphill or downhill, with camber or without. From a purely visual perspective, it was fascinating to see a couple or three mountain ranges off in the distance, and as you worked your way through the first one, a new range would show up on the horizon that you couldn't see before because the last range blocked it's view, or you would finally see yourself staring down that huge snow capped range that you had seen standing tall behind the past three ranges that you have just taken down. The approach from one range to the other changed, so while there was a lot of straight stretches across the valleys, it wasn't a cookie cutter or scripted transition. Add to that the occasional small town that you'd roll through between passes ... small towns like Eureka NV where I meet the group of riders out on a lunch run ... one of their members being a recent convert from his old Goldwing 1200 to a 2002 BMW K1200LT, of the rustic town of Austin NV, with it's quant good looks until I realized they were going to pound me with the highest gas prices of the weekend ... over $3.80/gal for 91 octane. I might need a new fuel filter after that stop ... there's no telling what kind of contaminates are in the fuel tanks, but the pump itself had to add enough rust to the mixture to make things bad.

But the good and the bad, I'm still very much looking forward to my return trek through Nevada, this time on a more rural set of roads than the 2-lane stretch of US50.

And with Nevada knocked out, and after grabing my first meal of the day at a Burger King in Sparks NV (I was scoping out stopping locations near BMW dealerships in case I pulled over for food/gas and realized my tires were showing cord) at 5:00pm PDT, it was time to come into California. Oh what a treat.

I don't know if it was a combination of it being a Sunday afternoon, or if there was some other factor(s) at play, but that run on I-80 into California from Nevada was an absolute zen-like motorcycle experience for me. Maybe it was the hi-viz jacket, or the fact that CHP is also riding R1200RTPs, but traffic just seemed to clear out of the left lane and let me have my fun. The right lane was a horrid road surface, all pitted up from the winter's tire-chain cladded traffic, but the left lane was all mine...expired tires be damned. It wasn't until I had to merge onto I-880 that I would be brought back to reality, but for all my times coming into California ... I can think of no better route than to take I-80 from Reno into Tahoe, with snow still being on the hills, the streams carrying melted snow down to the rivers flowing, and on one stretch the train tracks cut out on the side of the mountain, just opposite the flowing river off to the left of the Interstate. No pictures there either ... not because I was worried over the tire situation, but because I was enjoying the road to much to take my hands off the bars ... to set the cruise while I tried to frame up a picture ... those images will just have to live in my head, it was a special time for me.

When I did finally roll into the hotel parking lot at 8:30pm just as the GPS had originally predicted, the tires were still not showing cord yet, the hotel had a great room waiting for me, and the Applebee's across the parking lot had cold beer and great conversations there at the bar. Riding always has it's challenges, not always of the magnitude of whether you'll be stranded somewhere with dead tires and missing work, but it's overcoming those challenges and being able to sit down at the end of the night with a cold beverage of choice and all those images running back through your mind ... oh yeah, that's the gratification I get from sitting on the bike for repeated 14 hour intervals. I won't even get into how many contingency plans I had for if/when the tires decided to not cooperate. :)

Southwest Tour - Day 3

Day 3 - Torrey to Torrey, 127 miles

Casual day today. Caught up on some much needed sleep this morning (ie, I over slept), so since everyone had left by the time I woke up, I decided to fiddle with the computer in order to get online with the hotel's WiFi. Having had luck there, I was finally able to get Fridays pictures and blog entry posted.

One thing I noticed today while going back and adding captions to the pictures posted so far ... as long winded as I think my blog entries are getting, when I go back through the pictures there are so many more details from the trip that come back to me ... like Thursday as I rode through New Mexico and not only could I not get a picture of the "Welcome to New Mexico" sign because of construction, they had the first three rest stops closed for construction, with signs suggesting you visit the next one some 40-60 miles up the road ... which of course would turn out to be closed as well. There's so much going on that while I had anticipated these blog posts would help me write down memories to make for better trip reports, I'm starting to think my trip reports won't reflect ANY of the blog posts. Maybe that's a good thing, maybe that will get more of my memories written down to relive later.

Anyway, after fiddling around with the computer it was finally 10:30am by the time I was ready to get out of the room. The original plan was to find some food, but because of the awkward time I decided to just head down the road and I'd find something along the way. With only the very loose plan to ride down UT12, I headed south.

When I rode this area in 2004, the last stint of UT12 from Boulder to Torrey was done in darkness. That was when I learned the true meaning of "open range", but it also marked a significant shift in the way I ride and the bikes I ride. As a result of that after dark experience, lighting has become a bigger factor when considering new bike purchases. Along with lighting,
and in some ways tied to it, is having the alternator output to be able to power extra lights, but also for powering heated gear. While I wouldn't need extra lighting today, the heat would be nice.

Since my last trip up the final 40 miles of UT12 was done in the dark, while dealing with the wildlife problem, it was like riding a new road for the first time. The scenery was again amazing, and totally different from what I've seen out here to date. The northern portion of UT12 runs more through the Dixie National Forest, reaching a peak altidude of something like 9600 feet. It is much more densely forested than anywhere else I think I've ridden ... the trees packed in so tight in some places, it looked more like a wooden wall as you rode by.



I stopped just south of Torrey to get some pictures of the mountain ridge that surrounds the city. I was hoping some of the pictures would show off the snow caps still showing up on some of the peaks, but looking back through the pictures I don't think they did. It was quickly obvious that I would be racing against the weather at times, as the dark clouds were building up over the mountains.



One of the first scenic turnouts that I made was just a breath taking view. Looking out through the forest, you can see the rock formations that make up the Capitol Reef I believe, along with a reservoir in the valley below. It was spitting a little rain here, but not enough to dampen spirits at all.

After making the ride to Boulder, the landscape began to look more familiar. One of the highlights from my 2004 trip was the Grand Staircase headed out from Escalante. I'd get to ride it twice today; once in each direction.



Continuing a trend I picked up on yesterday, there were some sections of the road that were made a little unnerving by UDOT's liberal use of tar snakes to fix problems with the road surface from the winter freeze. There's nothing like riding along the top of a mountain ridge, no guard rails on either side and nothing but a steep drop off at the edge of the road, and having tar snakes cause the bike to move around under you. Usually, the tar snakes would cut across the road, and so weren't so bad, but occasionally they would snake along the line of travel, and usually in the typical wheel paths on the road. Setting a line to avoid these tar snakes would make things interesting.



As I made my way through the Grand Staircase and into Escalante, it was becoming clear I was heading towards a big thunderstorm. After about a dozen or so dramatic lightning strikes across the canyon, I decided to make Escalante my turnaround point. I rode into town and up to the gas station I used in 2004, but didn't see any intriguing restaurants calling my name. I snapped a couple more pictures from the gas station parking lot, then set out to ride through the Grand Staircase again, this time trying to outrun the rain.



The ride back would be quicker than the ride down to Escalante, not because of the rain influence, but because I had already stopped at all the good overlooks for pictures on the way down, so there were fewer pictures needed for the return leg. I caught up to a few more cars than before, but most were pretty good about finding a turnoff to take to allow me safely by. After getting back through the Staircase and into the Dixie National Forest, the rain returned. The temperature also dropped, and while not quite cold enough to stop for electrics, I did decide to turn on the grip heaters to warm my hands. About 6 miles south of Torrey, near Grover UT, I started seeing deer crossing the road again. First it was a single buck, followed later by a couple groups of doe. Nothing like that evening in Sept 2004 where the deer were everywhere, but it was enough for me to bring my speed down and be even more alert. Add to that, it had either snowed, or the rain from earlier was freezing on the side of the road. The streets were getting slick, and there was some minor accumulation starting to build on the road in some spots, although usually more towards the center line and not on the tire tracks themselves.



As I exited the forest, the streets started to dry out, and there were no more signs of wildlife lurking to bolt across my path. I made it back to the hotel just over 3 hours after I started the ride, and finally grabbed some food. Subway never tasted so good. :)

Southwest Tour - Day 2

Day 2 - Durango to Torrey UT, 384 miles

Today was supposed to be the easiest day of the whole trip. Less than 400 miles to go, gorgeous scenery, and no time constraints to push (400 miles would be easily doable in daylight hours), today would be the ride to enjoy.

And it was a great ride. I think the pictures from today will give a glimpse at just how magnificent the geography is out here. Even though today's ride had alot of duplication from my 2004 Southwest tour, I was riding it in the reverse direction as well as throwing in some new sites. Specifically, I was adding a run down to Kayenta AZ in order to make a run up through Monument Valley. There were some minor routing changes needed in order to fit Monument Valley into the plan, and I wasn't real clear on all those changes until I found myself on some of those roads ... but we'll get to that later. :)

The day started off pretty much as planned. I was up by 6:30am, although I had scrubbed my plan to try and leave at 7:00am. The new goal was to leave by 8:00am. As I was loading up the bike, I met a pair of bikers from California who were still working their way East somewhat, and planning to ride back home over the weekend. These two riders were on a pair of Ducati's; a yellow Monster and a black ST4. Apparently the ST4 rider left his parking lights on overnight, or at least for a few hours, leaving the bike with not enough juice to start the mighty v-twin in the elevated 54 degree morning. They put in a call to AMA, was told the tow truck would be there in 90 minutes, and 5 minute later it was there to jump start the bike. They headed north out of town while I headed West. As I left Durango, you could see some of the higher peaks still had snow capping the top, while the ski lifts I passed along side US160 had obviously been shut down for a few weeks at least.

This trip, my ride along US160 was significantly more positive. In 2004, I had gotten stuck behind a police officer who either intentionally or coincidently liked to drive 5mph below the posted speed limit until a suitable passing zone came up at which point he would speed up to the speed limit. Today there was no troublesome drivers to get stuck behind. I was surprised at the amount of traffic on the road. While traffic wasn't really busy, there was a noticible amount more traffic all the way down to the Four Corners monument than there had been in 2004. I did deviate from my previous trip once I got to the Four Corners monument. Having wised up to the scam (probably a bit too strong of a word, but it's not a fair price in my mind) that is the admission fee to see the Four Corners monument, this time I stopped just outside the gate and took pictures with the signage in the background. You can tell I was at the Four Corners, but I'll have to resort to using my old picture of my pasty white legs under black shorts and tucked into riding boots.

From the Four Corners monument I headed down to Kayenta in order to ride through Monument Valley from South to North. The ride was uneventful, basically following the AZ/UT border for 40 or so miles. There was one small village where Arizona DPS was operating speed enforcement, but otherwise no LEO presence was seen. At Kayenta I turned North on US163 and headed for Monument Valley. As many times as I've seen it pictured in various books, the size, scale, and just overall beauty can't be done justice ... it really is something you just have to see in person. A few of the monuments are close to the road, while others are spread out in the valley. I know my pictures won't portray just how big a sight they are, but they'll help me remember.

After going through Monument Valley, this is where my plan started to fall apart. The original route had my riding through Blanding UT which was a stop back in 2004, and I was thinking that I would be stopping there again this time. My rough plan as I headed through Kayenta, passing up both food and fuel was that I would stop in Blanding for fuel and a quick snack, while stopping later on in Hanksville for real food. Well ... Blanding wasn't on the route, not after I added Kayenta, and apparently not on the version before that change. It turned out, there was no fuel between Kayenta and Hanksville. I had gassed up in Cortez CO just before hitting the Four Corners area, but Hanksville would turn out to be 290 miles away. I made it, but not without riding over 20 miles with the onboard computer telling me I had no fuel remaining. This stint netted me the best gas mileage I've seen yet ... the trip computer reporting 49mpg, and a calculated figure of 47.3mpg. After all that, I was still only able to squeeze in 6.1 gallons of fuel, so I wasn't hurting as bad as I thought. 290 miles is still the longest stretch I've ridden one one tank of gas so far.

To make things a little more interesting, to get from Monument Vally to Hanksville, the mapping programs all added Utah 261 to the plan. A gorgeous stretch of 2 lane blacktop, for the most part, it did hold one little surprise ... a 3 mile stretch of gravel road, all 5mph switchbacks as the road carves it way up the face of mountain. There's no guard rail, no "lanes" to speak of while there is bidirectional traffic along the road. The sites were astonishing, but there was no way I could take my hands off the bars to snap a picture. I probably severely shorted the lifespan of the BMWs dry clutch on that ride. After making the climb, there were several warning signs reminding drivers that Utah is open range, and the closer I got to UT95 the more cattle were grazing roadside. Not in pastures next to the road, but on the road's shoulder. I also got introduced to Utah's tar snakes. At first I thought I had damaged a tire making that gravel climb over the mountain, but it would turn out to be just "traction events" when riding over these tar snakes. They are scary slick out here, and on some roads almost invisible against the black asphalt road surface.

Finally making it into Hanksville, I fueled up, chugged a Gatoraide and topped off my water supply, then headed the ~45 miles into Torrey. A quick shower, call home to let Cass know the cell phones and Internet connection don't work out here, then head over to the Chuckwagon for dinner and conversation. Back to the hotel early to get caught up on sleep, and plan tomorrow's recreational route. No particular destination, just taking in more of the Utah countryside, then back here for the big dinner tomorrow night. This report probably won't get posted until Sunday or Monday, but the ride continues.

Southwest Tour - Day 1

Day 1 - Dallas to Durango CO, 854 miles

In keeping with the tradition started last year, I decided to use the week long work meetings out in San Jose as a good excuse to jump on the bike and stretch the legs a little. As I was planning for this trip, my friends over at bmwsporttouring.com were kind enough to point out that their bi-annual Torrey event was the weekend before my meetings, and thus the seed was planted for conspiring to turn a week of work into two glorious bike trips. At least, that's the plan ... it's only Day 1 right now. :)

Today's trip was to get from Dallas to Durango as expeditiously as possible. Durango was chosen based on it's proximity to Torrey, the distance from home, the positive comments the town has gotten from friends, and my brief glance at the town as I passed through in 2004. Because of the remoteness of Torrey, I didn't want to try making the ~1300 mile trip in a single stint. My 2004 trip showed me what they meant by "open range", so the goal was to get as close enough to Torrey on the first day, so that I'd have an easy ride in on day 2. Along those lines, since it's an easy ride, it means I get to stop for more pictures.

Today started without the usual pre-ride picture that's becoming standard for these kinds of trips. Once I got the bike out of the garage and loaded up, it just wasn't located on the right part of the driveway to make the picture work. My original plan had my leaving at 7:00am, but I was hoping to push that forward and leave at 6:00am instead. 7:00am would be the time, and after a quick run to the bank and to fuel up, I was on the road by 7:15am.

The first stint of the ride was pretty straight forward ... US380 from Frisco over to Decatur, then US287 out to Amarillo. I stopped in Childress TX right around 11:00am for fuel and a quick sandwich. No pictures on the first leg as it's pretty routine ground for me.

From Childress I did start carrying the camera with me. I also noticed a larger number of Harleys out on the road, as we would continue to leap frog each other on gas stops and pass each other on the road. At one stop light, one of the Harley riders turns to me and asked "you wouldn't happen to be headed to the HOG rally, would you?". I thought it was great.

The next stop was Tucumcari NM. I'd been dry up until this point, but the rain was trying to spit a little so I put up the camera and actually broke out the heated gear (though didn't actually need to turn it on) as the temps dropped below 60. I hit Tucumcari around 1:45pm Mountain time. Just a quick gas and go.

My last stop was right around 5:00pm Mountain Time, right at the turn off from I-25 onto US550. The temps had come back up, so it was time to shed the warm gear, and go back to the more summer attire. I also used the stop to grab a little more food. I forgot to pull out the camera at this stop, and just a couple miles down the road I decided to pull over and get the camera back out. It would also be the one time I would miss Cass's phone call because I wasn't plugged in to hear it ring. The rain came back out on US550, and at one point it was looking like I was headed for a pretty nasty thunderstorm, with enough lightning that I would have needed to pull over and sit it out. Luckily, I managed to get out in front of the storm. I made the NM/CO border right at 8:00pm Mountain Time, and made it into Durango with 7676 miles showing on the odometer.

Pictures are available here: http://rocketcowboy.smugmug.com/gallery/2854525

Almost finished settin' up shop

Ok ... looks like the blog is going to work out hosted on my site, and the SmugMug account is coming together nicely. Together, I'll have a way of publishing pictures and stories from the road ... kind of as it happens, although not like actually *AS* it's happening ... I won't be blogging from the bike while rolling down the road. :)

Let's crank 'er up...

I've been playing with a couple different blogging ideas, ultimately hoping to find a place and a mechanism for putting down thoughts from the road. Hopefully this experiment will work out, and ideally I'll figure out how to pull over posts from my various other blogs as well. :)