Saturday, July 10, 2010

Nomad Rally June 2010

Beverly and I arrived home from our couples trip on Saturday July 12, I left for the Southwest Regional Nomad Rally on Sunday the 13th. The Rally would be held in Cortez Colorado.

I met Kris, a rider from Washington at the Denny's at 4500 South and I-15, we rode to Provo where we met up with Jared. The three of us had breakfast, then left for Cortez. We ran into this weather while on hwy 128 near Moab. Normally 128 is peaceful, charming and bulcolic as it follows the Colorado river from I-70 to Moab, but today with the weather, and road maintenance it was just another road.








We arrived at the hotel to find 13 or 14 other Nomads already there. But of course when Kris, Jared and I arrived the party REALLY started...

Since I was a new owner of the Nomad, I got a lot of advice from the other attendees. I really appreciated their knowledge and willingness to help me learn about my new machine.





The Kawasaki Voyager is one step up from the Nomad. A little later that day three Voyagers showed up, and were warmly welcomed. One of the riders was a Kawasaki rep. and with him was a writer from the Accelerate magazine which is a Kawasaki oriented mag. I'm not certain of the paticulars of their jobs, but I can say I was impressed that Kaw would send them to a relatively small regional rally! Good job Kawasaki!




Dinner that night was at "Blondies" on main street in Cortez. The food was great! Lots of laughter, conversation and bench racing. Good times!

This mural was on one of the outside wall of Blondies
Next morning we gathered and left for Arches National Park located near Moab. The scenery there was incredible!




Some of the scenery was SO much better than incredible!
The obligatory bike line up pic.


The Accelerate writer wanted a pic of the different models of Nomad, my bike is second from the left.

Lunch stop in Moab. Good food if you're passing through.

That night dinner was pizza provided by the Kawasaki folks. Then a drawing with the proceeds going to help a private animal shelter. More laughter and good times!

This is Teri, the Accelerate writer

John, Teri, and Brian. Brian is the Kaw rep.
Next day's ride was over the Million Dollar Highway. Take your pick on why it's called that, two good ones I've heard are; it cost a million dollars per mile to build, which in 1924 must have seemed like...well, a million dollars! The second is the fill dirt used contains a million dollars of gold ore (now that I think about it, there were a lot of deep pot holes!).





In the 1930s in order to save money, the Rio Grande Southern Railroad built seven motor cars to use when the heavier steam engines with longer trains were not needed. These seven motor cars were named the Galloping Goose (Geese). The first Goose was paid off and making a profit within three weeks of going into service. They operated until 1952


Lunch stop at "Kates" which has excellent service and equally tasty food! I think Kates is in Ridgeway where 550 and SR62 meet.


Kates is located on a dirt road, while we were eating the water truck came by and splashed mud on some of the bikes, luckily most of them were already kind of dirty from the days ride!
Jared and Joel, the two who did the lions share of the work to put on this Rally.


The Kaw folks gave Jared this little guy to keep him company on the way home.


Isn't it great when you have.....



I arrived at home on Wednesday June 16

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