Side by side in Moab

No motorcyle content 

It's probably time for me to change my lens protector....but here is a cloudy selfie of my brother Keith and your's truly. 

Keith has purchased a side by side so we go on its maiden voyage to Moab.

We stopped in Green River to see the Golden Ratio Sculpture.

Placed in 2013 this Andrew Rogers creation has its share of haters and lovers.

I come down on the lovers side. But then I think the "Tree of Utah", on the other side of the state is also art.

IMHO art is simply an expression. It might be beautiful or it might not. However, it is still art.

But I digress.

Soon after leaving Green River we find our selves in Moab...to early to check in - we find a little sandwich shop (I wish I had written the name down) where we both ordered a sandwich from the young, cute woman behind the counter.

By the time we each had finiched half we were sated. They gave us to go boxes, we secured each sandwich in a box and off we went to find a trail to ride.

And that trail happened to be The poisen spider trail. (I hope that is  the correct name).

We noticed the large crack in that cliff and wondered when it would break the rest of the way and be coming down....

Since we had arrived in Moab at mid day and started late on the trail, we didn't get to the end, combined with some gnarly obstacles the going was slow.

All that riding and heavy thinking about the rock cliff....  made us hungry. We were both looking forward to our waiting sandwiches but.......when we returned to the take out boxes (left "hidden" in the open trailer) they were completely empty!

Birds? Crows? Likely.....damn those birds!

Despite remaining hungry until we fixed dinner, we got a good laugh about the sandwich thieving birds.

My oldest son's name is William....

The next day we ride "Hurrah Pass" that turns into "Chicken corner"

I believe this 'lake' is manmade and the result of potash mining....

Incredible rock formations abound!

We even saw a couple of Whetstones!

One of the highlights of this very fun trip was taking a side track and stopping at the Wind caves. 

I'm not a fan of caves or tight spaces, but I stayed in the light enough that I didn't sweat it to much.  That is until I thought Keith was going to climb through a small passage into another chamber.....oh yes....and when I exited but Keith took another 20 minutes or so to come out of the caves. Before he did appear and me still not knowing our sandwiches had been stolen - I was trying to figure out how long a time it would be proper to wait before I took the Rzr down to the trailer, ate my sandwich and then called for a rescue....

There are NUMEROUS openings and chambers to explore or ignore if one is claustrophbic.

And soon it is time to turn around.

Chicken corner is an easy in and back out trail, but I for one thoroughly enjoyed the day. The incredible scenery was breath taking to say the least.

So having spent two days in a side by side will I be trading in the motorcycle any time soon?

Nooooo.....as fun as it was, and as much as I enjoy spending time with my brother.....no. I liked our time in Moab, but I LOVE riding two wheels!

Final two stamps west of the Mississippi

I still  have two National Park stamps to get west of the Mississippi.

Both are in California, Channel Isle NP and Joshua Tree NP.

O K...so off we go. Well, off I go...I will meet Beverly in St George where we will spend the night and then Indio, Ca will be our next stop.

But first, on my way I stop at what is likely the most photographed building in Utah.

A man living in Eureka has restored this building at his own expense and placed these interesting things around it.  This is a popular place for weekend rides so it get photo'ed a LOT.

I arrive at St George first and while checking in jokingly say something about an upgrade....so they did. We got this spacious place with a private hot tub on the deck.  It was really too bad we were only staying for one night!

And all to soon it is time for us to get back on the road. We'll super slab it until we pass Vegas when we will come to the road that goes to Kelso Jct.

And....there it is, closed as usual.

Pushing on we soon arrive at Route 66 and even though we plan to ride the 66 in its entirety this summer we stop for photos. We are at Amboy for this photo.

I miscalculate and we end up riding through Joshua Tree NP in the dark....whew, that was not a whole lot of fun! We then arrive at Indio for a relaxing couple of days, the we move on to Solvang for the next stamp.

The next stamp is at Channel Isle NP, and I get a picture of Beverly in the walking path at Channel Isle.

I just had to get a picture of the ocean!

Mission accomplished - Two more stamps in my NP book.

While we were gone a storm had dumped snow around the country.

I was nervous and geared up as much as I could, but it really wasn't that bad...just another awesome ride home  to close out, 'just another ride' and that means it was a GRAND OLE TIME!!!

Life is sooooooooooo good!

And now it is the east of the Mississippi parks that I need.

 

Big Mo. (big rain too)

It was the best of trip's -  It was the worst of trips.

It was a meticulously planned trip -It was a nearly total failure of those plans.

It was beyond belief curvy roads - It was....crossing Kansas...nuff said.

It was, as always, safety first - It was a trip plagued with an inordinate number of close calls.

But when all was said and done, even with all the negatives,  it was another typical time spent with family and that means an incredibly wonderful visit...and that...made everything else entirely insignificant.

It was in fact one of my best of trips ever! 

(Equaled only by other cross country, cross state, cross city  family visits)

Let me expain;

We have a son who is putting down some deep roots in Missouri.

The plan is: I'll leave a day before Beverly then we meet up in Colorado and continue together.

We take the insanely curvy 36 across Kansas - my arms grow weary, and the chicken strips shrink from the constant Kansas corners,..... ahem...yea right...

And we pass Lebonon

We didn't actually go to the town, but stopped on the 36 for this;

I thought this was kind of cool but I can't for the life of me remember where I saw it....

And then we finally arrived in Gallaten 

In time to see grand-daughter pitch and another grand-daughter play. And grand-son's football games (two).

There were two injuries during the game - Moments after the final bell, both teams spontaniously met in the middle of the field for a prayer on behalf of the injured players.

An action by the players that I found extremely heartwarming!

And another softball player that I failed to get a pic of while playing.

And the 'little house on the prairie"

Back at our hotel there was a tour of riders. I can only assume they continued to ride the bikes once the weather became more favorable.

My bike, Honda NT 1100

Sunday we attended meetings....I slept through them.

During the second part of the meetings Beverly suggested I go for a ride rather than sleep through more meetings... Good advice that I wisely took.

Ordinarily I will ride a long time and many miles without a close call with other vehicles in other words close calls are a rarity for me...usually...but not so this time!

A short recap of close calls on this trip;

* A mattress flying out of a truckbed on the superslab, doing a couple flips then landing in front of me...I was able to miss it.

* Rain, coming down so hard that on a 60 mph speed limit cars were only going 40ish, and I was happy to follow them at that speed.

* On a long 55 mph sweeper, right for me, left for the dump truck coming toward me- his passenger side tires left the road, he skidded very briefly then regained his sense's and got the truck back on the road before we passed each other...he was only 2 or 3 feet on my side of the yellow line.

    

* Going to Hot Springs National Park, on three different occasions, 3 poorly trained dogs tried to ruin my day.

* This was after my GPS led me to 4 1/2 miles of dirt road...nicely graded dirt but, really?

* Speaking of the Park, while there I was motoring on main street (25mph) and as approaching a cross walk some knucklehead guy RAN to the crosswalk, which I was close enough I couldn't stop - but luckily, I was not even close to the guy -

But that didn't matter to him, he commenced to yelling at me how he was going to kick my "grass!".. Haha...I didn't even have any grass with me! Anyway, I ignored him and motored on.

Eureka Springs is a beautiful town! The varied and spectacular architecture is eye catching and at times, breathtaking.

After Hot Springs NP I made my way back to Missouri and was able to watch my grandson play in another football game. They won again!

But then, sadly my time for visiting was over. I had decided to cut my trip short due to the weather. I really didn't want to follow a storm across country. So it was west bound for me.

As I was riding home. I backtracked to the Kansas 36.  Passing through tiny St Francis I saw a small sign "Motorcycle Museum". I thought to myself, this must be a "sign".   (ahem)_ So I followed the signs and ended up at the museum. 

It is a very well run museum and the selection of bikes was a real treat.

I had an enjoyable couple hours looking at the beautiful machines they had on display.

Billy Bike and Capt America (replicas of course)

Then back on the road - two more days and I was home.

This really was a super trip, about 3400 miles of good weather and bad weather....its all part of the fun. 

Life is still good!!

More National Parks Stamps

So I plan a trip north to pick up a couple more stamps.

I have to take the freeway80 until Malad, Idaho. I've found a back road shortcut from Malad to   up around Pocatello that is fun to ride and
only adds on a 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour or maybe a bit more. Nice shortcut eh?!

I keep working my way north and then stop in Arco and stay at this colorful motel.

The Lost River Inn - has some unusual and fun decor.

Outside my room

Inside my room

The neighbors

The owners are bike friendly.....in fact they are everyone friendly...just some real good people!

So, I stay in the colorful Lost River Motel the night then the next am I'm up and riding south west to get the Craters of the Moon stamp

Whew...One more stamp for the book.

Then I make a U turn and go north. I make it to Missoula and get a room. Because I'm so close, the next day, I made it to Glacier NP way before noon...waited in line and finally got my stamp. I've been to Glacier NP probably 3 times before so I'm not to disappointed that I'm not riding through the park. Besides going on roads outside of the park are incredible by themselves. Once again the scenery is incredible!

These photos are from Bonners Ferry area off of the deck of where I stayed.

In the morning I plan to stop to get gas at a station on the edge of town  There at the station they have two islands with two pumps on each island. As I pull in I observe two domestic cruisers and owners sitting astride their bikes but they had already fueled and were just casually chatting while they effectively shut down half of the stores pumping ability.

I stopped at the other island because the two bikes were blocking anyone from using 'their' island. Still the two owners continued their convo.

Finished fueling and moved my bike from the pump and over to the building and parked in a designated spot.

  Meanwhile the two cruiser dudes kept chatting.  Into the store I went, and bought a large soda and breakfast sandwich. Paid for and heated I went out by the bike and enjoyed my meal.

.

Just as I finished my food I noticed the cruiser dudes preparing to leave, then they fired up their machines and I found myself hoping we were going in opposite directions.....but no such luck, they pulled out in ahead of me and those bikes were LOUD.

Down the road we go, they are about 100 yards in front of me while I decide whether to pass them or slow down and get more room between us. Then I notice an object lying across the lane - at first I thought it was a tire alligator - the two bikers continued to think only of themselves, and rode around the object continuing on there self focused way.

When I got to the object it turned out to be a bumper jack, the kind 4wheel drives carry with them. Obviously this would cause considerable damage to a car or truck, but if a bike hit it the result would most likely be catastrophic. So I did what any responsible adult would do, stopped and moved the jack off the road. I leaned it against the fence hoping the owner would see it.

It took me mmmmmaybe 3 minutes, but I"m glad I did it and likely saved someone a big headache!

After I got my Glacier stamp, I turned south west riding over to Spokane Valley to see good buddy Don. 

(far left on this file picture)

I have a deadline I need to meet,  so after a good chat it was south bound down to Oregon's excellent 12 to Orofino, Idaho.

Then two more easy days and I was home.

About 1850 miles and I now have 33 NP stamps 30 to go!

 We've had the NT for about 2 months now and it has 9600 miles on it.

The DCT has some good points and some not so good points ...if I had to buy another bike right  now I would pass on it in favor of the clutch and gear lever.