The Return Trip - Across Kansas and Home At Last

If you are reading this for the first time you should understand that you are coming in at the end of the story. In other words, a blog is written with the most recent post at the top, so for a long story with many posts the last post is at the top. If you want to read my blog posts in order use the "Chronological Contents Page" on the top tab bar. Also make sure you read the "Trip Overview."  

Hope you enjoy it!

Jerry

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This was Friday, July 23rd, and day 15 (the last day!) of my trip.

When I woke up everything was completely dry. I have no idea what happened to all those storms that were just a few miles away and closing in fast. There was no way they were going to miss me, but somehow they disappeared.  Well, sometimes you get lucky.

So I packed up and loaded the bike for what I knew was the last time. I knew it was the end of my trip and I was looking forward to getting home, but at the same time I really enjoyed the daily adventure of seeing new places, not knowing quite which way I was going next, and meeting people along the way.

I got a later start than I intended, most likely because I had taken those couple of Tylenol PMs about 1 am. They really work but sometimes more than you want. But it was ok because I didn't have that far to go.

I headed down the highway intending to stop in Dodge City for breakfast, about 60 miles away.

I had stopped in this pancake house for breakfast on my previous trip and remembered it was a nice place with a big breakfast buffet. I had a good breakfast and checked and found I had good Sprint cell service there.  So I checked my emails and sent a few. I also talked with brother Tom and Joanne about their move to Louisville.

I had also been corresponding occasionally with Mark Hopkins, a former coworker at Sprint. He sent me some kind of email the day before asking how it was going. In his email he said "Whatever you do don't go through Dodge City!" 

I wrote back to him and told him it was too late I was having breakfast in Dodge City. To my surprise he responded quickly and said basically that's ok but don't go east through Hutchinson or Wichita (which was the way I went 2 years before, and was planning to go again). He said the fastest way back home was to go northeast through Great Bend and on up to interstate 70 and then east to Kansas City.

Well, I looked at my map and plotted the route on my GPS and I don't recall the details but he was right - there was a substantial time difference between my former route and his way up to I-70. Normally I avoid the interstates just since they are so damn boring. Motorcycles just do not belong on interstates! But I was headed home and the difference of 30 minutes or an hour began to make sense to me.

I wrote him back an email and said that looked great and thanks for the tip. His timing was perfect since I was paying my bill and getting ready to walk out the door.

So that's the way I went. Here is a map showing the route home.

That's about 330 miles and it was a good, fast highway up to I-70 and then a fast but boring run across. I was stretching my gas again and I could see I wasn't going to make it all the way home so I had to stop in Topeka to fill up. Very frustrating since it was quite hot again and I was even more anxious to get home.  I just wanted to keep going and not deal with local traffic getting in and out of a gas station.

I realized I had come over 5000 miles in 15 days and had been lucky enough to have a safe ride up to this point. I became more cautious and backed my speed down on the cruise control to about 5 or 7 mph over the speed limit, which put me about on pace with most traffic. I didn't want to take any chances of getting a ticket at this stage.

So finally I turned on Shawnee Mission blvd just a couple miles from home. It was a strange feeling, looking at the cars and a few bikes around me sitting at the traffic light. They were going to the grocery store or running some little errand, worried about some little thing they had to get done next in their day. But I sat there thinking there was no way for them to know I was half a mile away from my home after what would be 5,600 miles in 15 days. I felt a tremendous sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

I pulled into the driveway and beeped my pukey little horn. Susan came out and gave me a big hug and a kiss and I felt oh so relieved. Finally I could relax, let the world stop moving in front of my eyes, stand up and walk around for a while. I went inside and let the dogs go crazy on me for a while. It was a great long trip with lots of memories of beautiful places but it was sure good to be home.

Here is a couple of pics Susan took of me right after her hug and kiss, me sitting there in the hot sun, drenched in sweat, with a full 15 days of growth on my face, trying the get the energy up to actually get off the bike for the last time.

And here is my final ending odometer.

The starting odometer was 46,832 and the ending was 52,432, so the total miles were exactly 5,600.

So then I woke up the next morning and thought to myself - what a great dream I had last night!

The Return Trip - Across Colorado

This was Thursday, July 22nd, and day 14 of my trip. I got up the next morning at the hotel, packed up, and hit the road early following highway 50 eastbound.This was the same highway 50 that I traveled through Nevada on 2 days earlier, but then I detoured south to go through southern Utah and Colorado. As an interesting side note, for those of you who might be reading this in Kansas City, this is the same highway 50 that comes across Kansas and merges and follows Interstate 35 from Emporia and then becomes 435 across the south side of the city. I never thought about that before this ride. 

It was somewhat warm out, in the 70's, but I had looked at the map and I knew I was going over some more high mountain passes so I put on my Gerbing heated jacket and gloves. I got a little warm at first but it wasn't long before I started climbing in altitude and it got cooler. I also started getting into the clouds and the roads were wet. I didn't get into rain but obviously it had rained not too long before.

Because of the wet roads and the cool temps I didn't take my gloves off to take any pictures.

It was beautiful scenery but traffic was slow and the wet roads always keep me on my toes. Just can't relax. That's one thing about riding bikes - you get the best views and it is a lot of fun feeling the temperatures change and smelling all the smells as you cruise along. But you can't ever relax as you watch for traffic to do weird things, watch for potholes or dead animals in the road, other animals to run out in the road, pay attention to the corners to position yourself in your lane, all while thinking about where you are going, how much gas do you have, where are you going to eat next, man I got to pee but I can't stop now, and a hundred other things that race through your mind. All while you just sit there and you can't move to scratch your ass or your nose when they itch.

Is this fun or am I just a masochist?  Yes, it is fun but it takes a lot of discipline, patience, and tolerance for discomfort and risk. A trip like this is a culmination of a lot of planning and a lot of practice riding around the local area. You just can't have close calls or misjudgments about situations at home and expect to survive a trip like this. It is constant hyper-awareness of everything around you and planning for things ahead of you.

Anyway, I went through Gunnison and kept going, waiting to eat breakfast after I got some more miles behind me.

I kept going and just got into a groove. I wanted to make some time today as I was in position to make a good ride and get well into Kansas and make it home the next day.  I was hungry and really wanted a hot cup of coffee.

Finally I was ready to stop but then I saw signs to the Royal Gorge. I really wanted to see that bridge and ride across it if I could. So I took the exit and rode the 4 mile (I think) access road to the park. Along the way there are all kinds of really trashy theme parks and tourist traps. Buckskin Joes and other BS. I should have known what was coming.

So I finally got to the park and it was crowded as hell with cars. I rode to the front where I saw lots of people and found a place to pull over with some other motorcycles. I took all my riding gear off and walked over to the gate, but there was a long line of families, kids, older people and general random sons of bitches. Then I looked at some of the signs and saw it was $26 just to walk into the park and see the bridge. Damn!  That's just nuts! Then it finally sunk in to me what a total tourist trap the place had become and all I wanted was out of there. I was hot and tired and hungry and cranky.

So I put all my riding gear back on and rode the slow winding trail back to highway 50. Fortunately, Canon City wasn't too far away and as I got in there I found a nice local cafe just a block north of the main drag. It was lunchtime then so I got a big ole hamburger and iced tea and checked email for a while.

Canon City was much lower in altitude and consequently was warmer and the clouds went away so it was a hot sun. I took off my Gerbing jacket and heavy gloves and packed them away. I was back in the dry heat.

Hit the road again and continued east. Here is a map of my trip for just the morning. About 180 miles.

It was another 40 miles to Pueblo as I watched the tall mountain ranges fade away into the distance over my shoulder. I wish I could have enjoyed them more but I know enough about Colorado to know to expect any kind of weather when you get up on the mountain passes.

I was traveling now to make time. It was another 67 miles to La Junta and by the time I got there the temps had climbed to 103 degrees. I was a little surprised to find that I actually didn't mind it as long as I was moving. When I stopped I got hot quickly unless I was in the shade, like at a gas station.

It was another 150 miles or so to Garden City, Kansas.  A long hot ride across boring western Kansas. I pulled into Garden City and looked for a place to eat. My GPS told me about a nice sounding restaurant but when I got there it was no where in sight - probably another victim of the economy. So I found another, a sports bar, just a mile further down the road.  It was a nice place and I had a welcome beer and a large salad.  It felt good to be in some air conditioning for a while.

Then I rode another couple miles down to an RV park that I stayed at 2 years ago on my previous "Most Excellent Adventure". I checked in and set up camp. They had wifi and I could get it from the picnic table by my tent, so I checked my email for a while before I went to bed.

Some time later I woke up to some thunder. It was 1 am. Damn, I thought. I had seen those towering black thunderstorms to the north as I rode across 50.  I pulled out my little netbook and called up a weather web site and looked at the radar. Sure enough, there was a bright red line of rain training up to the northeast but slowly moving toward me just 5 miles or so away. That explain the flashes I saw and thunder I heard.  But I always pack all my gear inside my tent and it is a good waterproof tent so I took a couple of Tylenol PMs and put my earplugs in and went back to sleep expecting the worst.

The total miles for day 14 of the trip was about 450.

The Return Trip - Southeastern Utah and into Colorado

This was Wednesday, July 21st, and the 13th day of my trip. I got up early again to get a good start on the day and pulled out of the RV park about 7 am. I headed east on highway 24 intending to ride several hours before breakfast.

The scenery was very impressive as I rode by the Capital Reef National Park. I had heard a lot about it but I decided to skip it and continue as I knew I had a long ways to go for the day.

There were several places where the monster rain storm from the previous day had caused the normally dry creekbeds to overflow the road.  It was now a silt film with a few rocks but I could tell it was a lot of water when it flowed.

Here are a few pics from the early morning ride.

After about an hour I arrived in Hanksville, UT and took a look at my map and GPS. There didn't seem to be much at all in the way of towns or major highways ahead of me so I decided to grab some breakfast at a small restaurant and RV park there.

I chatted with a couple of the waitresses and asked if they had gotten any of the rain that had rolled through the day before.  OMG yes, they exclaimed. It was a beautiful (if hot) day until it started getting dark and stormy out. One of the women was leaving the restaurant about 3 pm and got on her 4 wheeler (they are everywhere out there) and rode about half a mile down the highway to her place (a trailer park was the only thing I saw coming into town). When she got across the street it started raining, then pouring down hard. She said by the time she got to the post office (couple hundred yards) she was soaked and could barely see the edge of the road in front of her. Then a huge v-shaped bolt of lightening hit the ground a hundred feet in front of her. She made it home but she was cold, wet, and scared to death.

They also said the state highway patrol had closed the highway (24, that I had just ridden across on) for the high water over the road. Whew, I really dodged a big one!

BTW, that little place in Hanksville served one of the best breakfast platters I had on the entire trip. I'll have to go look up the name of the place later. Ok, it's later and I looked it up - it was the Red Rock Steak House. Highly recommended!

So then I turned south on highway 95. Here are a few pics along that highway. The terrain was constantly changing but was always beautiful but stark and bone dry. Sometimes I could see for many miles and look at the large mountains and sharp colorful cliffs that made up this country.

The drive south on 95 was nice but after an hour or so it was much the same and started getting warmer (90s). The flat open terrain began to turn into a valley and got deeper and more winding. I didn't realize where I was until I came to a scenic overlook. Then I had to stop and take a few more pictures. Wow! I hadn't paid attention to the map and of course the GPS doesn't show you terrain so I didn't expect this all of a sudden.

This was the beginning or the northernmost tip of Lake Powell. Here is a map view of my route through there.

Here is a closer view on the map of the scenic overlook.  The overlook was on a short drive off of the highway which you can see below (little white dot).  I want to point out that waaaay off in the distance is a bridge crossing the river, which you really can barely see. I drew a line with an arrow showing where I was looking when I took the picture so you can try to correlate the picture with the terrain map. Also, a little while later after winding around a few more miles, I took a picture as I crossed that bridge looking back up to the overlook. I don't know if that works for you but I thought it was neat....

I think if you click on the picture below to view it larger you may be able to just make out the faint lines of the bridge across the river. It's kind of lost in the reflection of the cliffs behind it. 

Anyway, here is a picture of the bridge as I approached it.

And now the picture from the bridge looking back up toward the overlook (shot to my right, or west). There is nothing I can see that indicates just where the overlook is, this is just the view of the cliffs and terrain around me when I took the pictures before.  You gotta admit - that is one scenic valley!

And here is a shot to my left, looking up the canyon from the bridge.

And finally, just for the heckuvit, here is a shot behind me after I crossed the bridge.

There, wasn't that fun??  Well, you should have been there!

So then I motored down the highway some more, along the ridge of cliffs for many miles. Here is a neat shot of the road and the bike I took holding the camera down low.

Then, just to experiment a little more, I held the camera up over my head and took this picture looking down. This was my little world view for 8 to 10 hours a day for 15 days!

This next little chapter is also very interesting. I knew I wanted to do this little side ride long before I left but I really didn't know if I would have the time, the weather (maybe too hot), or the gas to do it.  But when I got there everything seemed to line up ok so I decided to go for it.

The "it" was the decision to take a detour off of highway 95 and go south 60 miles or so to Mexican Hat on highway 261 going south.  

Here is what the highway looked like for 30 miles or so. Pretty flat, lot of scrub brush or scrub trees (whatever they are), fairly straight road - pretty boring and hot.

Until I came upon a sign that said "Warning: 10% grade - 5 mph - Pavement Ends"!  What the hell?!! 

Of course I knew what was coming up - that's why I came this way!

This was the Moki Dugway!

1100 feet straight down!  What a view! All dirt and no guardrail! Great!

See the cars down below?

THIS is what you drive down!  Very steep, hairpin corners, with very vertical drops and a VERY distracting view along the way.

Here is a view from the bottom looking back up the 1100 foot face of the cliffs. Amazing! So THIS is why I took that 30 mile detour that I had planned for months ago...

If you want to follow along here is a link to the area on Google Maps.  You can see the fairly straight highway to the south and then it goes over that cliff or ridge just a little north of the "B" symbol. Zoom in on that and you can see the zigs and zags of the switchbacks descending down the cliffs.

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Now, there was one other little stop I had to make. A place that a few people had told me about over the years. I had to find the little road off of this highway that went for a a few miles over to a funny name state park.

I didn't take any pictures on the way in there, but once I arrived all it was was a little parking lot with some restrooms and a covered pavilion. There were a few people there milling about and taking pictures - and by this time it was HOT!  It was in the upper 90's which, again, when I was moving wasn't too bad, but when I stopped the sun really beat down.

So anyway, here is what I came for - the view of the valley of the San Juan River.

Awesome view!

Here is are 3 photos stitched together to make a panarama.

This just doesn't do it justice!  If it seems a little confusing what you are looking at are 2 loops in the river, carved into a steep canyon. Here is a closeup map of the terrain if that helps.

What an awesome place that was!  But it was time to ride on, and I was hot and dry. I was drinking constantly from my camelback and now I had to worry about gas. I was sitting on about 175 miles on my tank and was expecting a low fuel light any time. I thought there would be a gas station at the intersection of the highways but Murphy's Law always prevails when you need something - there was nothing there but a stop sign.

I checked my GPS and searched for fuel places and it said there was a gas station in Bluff about 21 miles away. That would put me almost at 200 miles which was doable but a bit of a stretch.

So I motored on and took a few more pics.

This was an interesting view.

I remember thinking to myself "I have got to look at that in Google Maps and see what that looks like. What a strange long series of bumps or notches along a long ridge that disappears off into the distance looking north. So I did look it up in Google Maps. Here is what it looks like. I took the picture just about where the little white dot is, looking to the northeast at that ridge.

In case you were wondering, I did make it into Bluff. I had 206.6 miles on the tank and it took 4.6 gallons - I think that was the longest run on a tank on my trip. That means I had about .4 gallons left and at about 44 mpg I would have run out in another 17 miles or so. I sure don't want to do that very often.

As a quick aside, I thought I might have some maintenance problems or maybe run out of gas on my trip, so I read a lot in various riding forums about safety equipment and preparations. One tip I read said to pack one of those small pocket umbrellas - but not for rain. If you have to stop and call for assistance alongside the road and wait for hours in the blazing hot sun you use the umbrella to keep the sun off of you.  So I had one with me just in case...

From Bluff it was about 55 miles across the barren desert of southeastern Utah into Colorado. Here is a picture at the intersection of highways 160 and 491 in Colorado of Chimney Rock.

I was tempted to go down to Four Corners (the only place in the entire US where 4 states come together to a point) but some of the guys at the rally said it was under construction and also had so many Indian vendors there that is was just trashy and you really couldn't see anything.  So I didn't go.


I continued along highway 491 into Cortez and was relieved to get into some lush, green country. I had been traveling through arid desert country for 2 or 3 days and it was nice to see some farm fields and green trees.

From Cortez it was about 45 miles to Durango and time to get some gas and take a break. It was hot but not too bad (mid 90s then, about 2 pm). So I stopped in a gas station and got gas, a power bar, a Gatoraid, and checked my cell phone and found I had Sprint service so I caught up on a few emails.

I got done about 3 pm and decided I had enough time to ride some more. I had only gone about 315 miles at that point. One of the goals on my trip was to ride the "Million Dollar Highway" which was 550 north from Durango. It was supposed to be very scenic.

I looked at my map and checked my GPS for timing and saw I could be in Ouray, CO in about 70 miles or a little over an hour. So I took off northbound for some more adventure.

Well, I found some adventure alright. About 20 miles or so north of Durango I could see the sky getting dark in front of me.  A little further and climbing up in altitude I could begin to see the fingers of rain falling out of the dark clouds ahead. And it was getting cooler.

So I pulled off to the side and put on my rain gear. I put on my rain liner that goes under my mesh jacket, my overalls pants, and my Gerbing leather gloves that aren't waterproof but I had covered them with mink oil to help them repel water.

So after a few more miles I got up to 8 or 9000 feet and it started raining and then pouring down. The temperature fell into the 40s. The road started getting narrower and twisty and the traffic increased as everyone's speed dropped to 40 then 30 then 20.

Somewhere toward the top of the pass there was construction and we had to wait for one-way traffic. So I sat in the rain for 10 or 15 minutes and waited. Well, I don't think I had ever just sat in the rain before, but apparently the rain pooled in my lap and then ran through my zipper because I started feeling wet in my drawers. My gloves had also soaked through. Now I really started feeling the mid-40s temps! I got cold!

As we descended down the narrow highway the traffic was bumper-to-bumper in the pouring cold rain, and then I started seeing rocks in the road from the cliffs. I missed a few of them but one, about the size of a large softball with rough edges, I couldn't swerve enough in the rain and just caught it with my rear tire.

So for the next hour or so I had that to worry about - if my rear tire went flat there was no place to pull off the road, and while I had a tire repair kit with me I had never done a repair in the rain, and I was in no mood to deal with it anyhow.  It just plain sucked.

Finally i arrived in Ouray which is a great looking town, very kitschy and touristy, and they have a KOA there, but it was still raining and quite cold there and there was no way I was setting up a tent in the cold rain. And I thought a hotel room would be way too expensive in a place like that, so I decided to keep going.

It was another 36 miles up to Montrose and I could see a break in the skies ahead. The road was also descending out of the high altitude pass so the rain quit and it warmed just a bit. It seemed like forever but I finally arrived in Montrose.

Looking at a map afterward I see that it is only 107 miles from Durango to Montrose, but it was the most harrowing and miserable 3 hours of my motorcycling life.

I pulled into a local motel and checked in and then unloaded the bike and proceeded to spread all my wet get all over the room. I took a long hot shower to warm up and then dry off. Then I walked across the street to a nice Mexican restaurant ("Il Jimador") and had a beer and a nice meal.

So the total for the day was about 420 miles.  Man, did I sleep good that night.

The Return Trip - The Utah National Parks

This was Tuesday, July 20th, day 12 of my trip. I also had been looking forward to this day and location since I left Redmond, and even long before as I planned my trip over the previous months. While I really didn't have a planned route, I knew there were some places I wanted to see - and today I would be seeing them - the Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon. 

Here is a map of my travels for the day. This is an actual GPS track log of my route. Don't forget you can click on it for a larger view.

I stayed overnight in Cedar City, Utah, at a nice RV park. I got up the next morning early, around 6 am, packed up and headed out. Interesting, most people who stay in RV parks must really be relaxing and not traveling much because there is no life at 6 am.

I headed down interstate about 35 miles and turned off at Toquerville onto route 17 and then rt 9 eastbound for the parks.

It was a beautiful morning drive down the interstate and I was excited to see the picturesque terrain after suffering through the entire state of Nevada the day before.

This is somewhere on Rt 9 getting close to Zion NP.

When I got to Zion I discovered that you can't drive up the valley that is the national park, you have to take a tour bus, and it takes about 90 minutes round trip. I debated skipping it to save time and keep going, but then I thought THIS is what a came here for, so take some time out of the saddle and just relax.

So I parked at the visitor center and waited for a bus. As I learned they started this bus system in about 2001 or -2 after the park got so crowded with RVs, cars, minivans, and tourists that it was almost gridlocked.  So they banned private vehicles and started this bus system, and I have to admit I think it works very well.  I did relax and listened to the very informative recording talking about the history of the park and each of the 7 stops. I got off a couple of times and walked around it was really quiet and peaceful. I tried to imagine what it would be like with hundreds of cars and RVs poking around and this was much better.

Here are some pics of the park:

Here is what the tour buses look like. Very clean, modern, quiet (powered by natural gas).

I finally got back to the visitor's center and headed up the highway. Then I discovered there was construction on the road for about 15 miles. It was hard-packed dirt, which is tricky on my heavy bike but manageable if I stay in the ruts. But it was heating up and there was a tunnel with one-way traffic, so I had to sit and wait for 15 to 20 minutes in the 95 degree sun with absolutely no air moving.

I finally got through all the construction and traffic and continued east on highway 9 about 25 miles to highway 89. Then headed north on 89 about 60 miles up to Bryce Canyon National Park. It was a beautiful ride through awesome country.

As I was approaching Bryce Canyon on highway 12 I saw large, dark veil of rain falling in front me. As I got closer I began to see quite a bit of lightening coming down around it. Now I can ride through rain but I really don't want to get into that much lightening. So I pulled off into a roadside hotel and gas station and watched the storm for a while. It got larger, darker, and with much heavier rain. So I went inside the little restaurant and got an iced tea and sat for an hour or so.

Finally the rain seemed to move off to the north but it was ever more dark and menacing. But the entrance to the park was only a few miles ahead and the park drive went to the south, so I motored up there and got some gas and drove on into the park.

I got some advice from a friend to drive all the way down the 17 miles into the park and then stop at all the pulloffs on the way back, since they are all on the right side and you won't be cutting across traffic.

I got down to the end and then started taking pictures of the viewpoints - just amazing!

Look at the black storms lurking in every direction around me.

day

day

 

After I left the canyon park I headed east and south on rt 12. It was about 110 miles to Torrey. As I traveled down from the higher ground I noticed the normally dry creek bed was swollen with raging muddy water, and in several places it had washed over the road and left mud and rocks. I had to slow down and crawl across and dodge the rocks.  As I went further down the highway I saw coming up a number of cars parked on either side of a long concrete bridge. I guessed what was going on and pulled over myself, then walked up to the edge with my camera. Here are a few pics I took.

 The river was roaring and people had stopped to look and take pictures. It was incredible to see the violence hear the thunder of the water rushing down the river. I see now why they talk about the danger of flash floods.

 I continued along highway 12 and saw a bunch of cows in a field, then noticed something else that was different. I slowed and then stopped to take a few pictures of the llamas that were playing and then stopped to look at me.  

 

 As I continued up hwy 12 the terrain changed colors from the reddish eroded look to a more gray and white sedimentary look, and as I climbed up on higher terrain I could see farther and farther till I got some incredible views. Here are some samples...

 

 

This is kind of interesting. The picture below is from a scenic overlook and it is looking over where the highway crosses the Escalante River below. The next picture below is a few miles later of me actually crossing at the point you see. See the light colored section of the road in the trees? That is the concrete bridge you see in the following picture. And then the next picture after that is making that right hand turn and going up that canyon valley you see below. 

 

 

After crossing the river this is the canyon going up the other side.  

After riding a while further I got up on top of the ridge and there was a scenic overlook. Here is a good view from there of the surrounding terrain.  

That is the Escalante River down in that valley. Here is another view (below) looking to the northwest. 

 

That is the same storm or storm system that I had to wait for several hours ago back at Bryce Canyon. Either I just saw a small part of it or it turned into the monster that you see here. I continued to worry that the route I was on would lead me into it, and I was in no mood to tangle with the heavy rains I saw before. 

I was traveling north now on highway 12 and got into the Dixie National Forest and some more beautiful views. I climbed up into the forested road and got up to 8 or 9000 feet and it turned cold. The roads were still wet from the recent rain. 

Another thing I noticed that made me keep my speed down was cattle loose in the surrounding fields and in a few instances right along the road. This was open range country!

 

I thought I would try a picture of my GPS to show where I was when I took many of these pictures. 

Those coordinates read: N38 10.042 W111 20.325 and you can view this in Google Maps using this link.

Here is a nice scene that I just had to stop for to get the shot. Note that the sprinkler is HUGE, but it is not spraying on the horses, they are just out of its range further back.  

Finally I reached Torrey and cruised through looking for a place to camp and have some dinner. The sky was still dark and menacing and I didn't like the idea of being in my tent when that monster storm system rolled over so I decided to look for a cabin. One of the local recommended an RV park just on the west end of town so I headed that direction. 

On the way I saw the sign to the restaurant I read about in a motorcycle forum that came highly recommended, so I pulled in there. It was a nice looking place, pretty rustic inside but very clean and upscale. The waitress seated me and I ordered a beer. It felt great to get off the bike and have something stable to look at with my eyeballs. I just wanted peace and quiet and this place had it. 

Then I looked at the menu - oops!  OMG! All the entrees were $25 to $30! I asked the waitress and she pointed me to a smaller fare page. I told her they all looked great but I want my wife there to share the experience if I am going to pay prices like that.  

So I ordered some kind of salad and a salmon plate. Well, OMG! The salad came and it was a delicious selection of various kinds of veggies and whole plants, marinated and cold. I munched on each one and really enjoyed them. 

Then my dinner came and again I was amazed. I wish I had taken a picture of it. Words just can't do it justice but it was an amazing piece of art and tasted better than anything I have had in a long time. 

I asked the waitress who the cook was and she said he had come to the restaurant from the east coast about 17 years ago and had graduated from the CIA - the Culinary Institute of America. That explains the presentation and the prices!  She also told me that the cafe was listed in the book "1000 Places to See Before You Die".  

Sure enough, I looked it up and that's what they say on their web site. What an experience! I had no idea what I was walking into but gradually I came to appreciate that this was a 5 star restaurant way out in the middle of nowhere in Utah. Just amazing!

So I found my way down to the RV park and checked in a got a cabin. There were some other guys there also on BMW motorcycles and they had also come from the rally in Redmond. We chatted for a while and then I went to bed, looking forward to my next day of riding.  

It had been an awesome day of sights and scenery. Now I understand when people talk about Utah and especially southwestern Utah. If you haven't been there you just can't appreciate the scale and grandeur of the mountains and sculpted terrain. 

It was a day of lots of stops and sightseeing so my total mileage for the day was only about 250 miles.  But it was a major goal accomplished that I had looked forward to for many months.