Mountains, prairie dogs, leaks and wind and wind. Did I mention wind?

 

Since we arrived after dark, we hadn’t seen the beautiful scenery all around us!  We also arrived too late to eat so, we were good and hungry at breakfast at the little diner across the street!  I honestly can’t remember what I ate but, I recall being quite unsatisfied with it despite my hunger.

Our little motel.

The diner.

Saw lots of similar, crumbling structures all along the way.

The view!

Another couple of rail pics!

The next 200 miles were absolutely glorious!  We rode up mountain passes at over 10,000ft and down into valleys and along twisty river roads that were an absolute blast!  Saw lots of rafters in the rivers.  Nice flow, not a crazy rapids but, rough enough to be fun!  Unfortunately, I don’t have any pics of this section as we were having too much fun to stop for pics!

Correction!  I have one pic!

We emerged into a valley and followed the road for many miles and all along the way to our left there were these mountains rising from the floor to above the treeline.  There were also long, straight roads that lead straight from us up the the edge of the treeline.  So, we decided to see where they went!  All along the road to the mountains, prairie dogs would run back and forth across the road!  Came close but, didn’t hit any!

Our brief sidetrip destination.

The road turned to gravel and headed up the mountain.  It eventually led to a trailhead which had the symbol for motorcycles on the sign!  I had to ride up it a ways!  Had I not had the luggage, I could have ridden to the top but, too much risk of damage to the luggage too far from home!  So, I headed back down to where Mark was waiting.

It was there we discovered my petcock was leaking!  It appeared it was only leaking when the engine was shut off so, I fired it up and we headed on down the road.  We came to an Ace Hardware Store that had absolutely everything you would need to maintain a working farm!  The drawers for the nuts and bolts and springs and things were 10 feet tall and had rolling ladders to access everything!  While there I took use of the facilities and encountered a most unusual flushing mechanism!  There was a galvanized pipe sticking straight-up through a hole drilled in the tank lid and you pushed it down and it jerked out of your hand and plunged downward and flushed violently!  Freaky!  I bought some RTV as I knew at some point I would be forced to mend the petcock.  We drank some Gatorade and ate some snacks and hit the road again!

 

At this point, the winds started picking-up worse and we could see a storm approaching.  We had dealt with wind the entire trip but, this was the worst of the journey!  At one point, we were heading down a mile or more long straight that had a 90 degree turn to the right at the bottom.  From the top I could see huge dust clouds ripping across the road and we braced for the impact once we passed the shelter of the cliffs to our left!  I have ridden through all forms of weather known to man!  Hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.  However, nothing came close to the force we encountered!! 

The rain began sprinkling lightly and I was truly worried the wind would slide us off the road!  The aforementioned turn to the right was a large even-radius turn that normally you could easily take at 80mph with no problem.  We went around that RIGHT-HAND turn LEANING TO THE LEFT!!  We were on the edge of having to drag our left knees but, we were going to the right!!  Absolutely insane!

We had to stop at one point and call our hosts for the evening and let them know where we were so they would know when to expect us.  We had to lean against the bikes to keep them from getting blown over!  Brutal!

Mark’s excitement level rose when we encountered the Eagle County sign since Red Cliff is in Eagle County!  We were moving forward into his past!

He hit a fever-pitch when we finally found the Red Cliff sign!

Along the way, we passed over the world famous Red Cliff Bridge!  You may not have ever heard of it but, you’ve seen it in countless car commercials!

We arrived at the home of our most gracious hosts around 9pm and had a lovely dinner prepared for us!  For dessert, Bob had made some homemade fudge!  No, that’s not correct!  Bob had scaled Mount Olympus and fought the Gods themselves and stole their sweet chocolate ambrosia and shared it with us!!  I have had much fudge in my life but, I have never had fudge like this!!  Both the regular and the Amaretto were divine!  I really need to have him send some to me!

We spent the night in a guest house Bob and JoAnn built themselves!  An absolutely lovely accomodation!

Laundry, small-world, trains and lonely roads.

Mark rose early the next morning.  This is an affliction I do not suffer from and have no problem lying-in for as long as necessary!  He took off to do our laundry and found a little laundromat perfect for the task!

For those of you old enough to remember, you will undoubtedly enjoy this little gem he found on the wall!

$5.25 later and the washing was finished!  Of course, it took an hour and 15 minutes to dry!

 

Mark returned and we began loading the bikes up.  We had been told the night before we could check out later than the 10am usual time however, we were NOT informed our room card-keys would quit working at PRECISELY 10am!!  We came back in for another load and we were locked-out!!  Crap!  So, we went to reception and no one was there!  So, we began looking for the cleaning crew or anyone who could help us.  Mark found an Indian gentleman cleaning the rooms and he had a passkey to let us into our room!  Turns out he was from Leicester which is where Mark hails from!  They chatted a bit about home and the old days and then we returned to loading our bikes.

We left the motel and I introduced Mark to his very first Denny’s!  Now, I am a Waffle House man but, I do enjoy Denny’s!  Mark was a bit overwhelmed at the choices at first but, finally decided on Blueberry French Toast with fresh strawberries, bananas, vanilla icing and maple syrup plus eggs and bacon!  Hell of a start! 

 

The Tiger had a Throttlemeister throttle-lock installed and it had been mostly useless for most of the trip.  It would hold briefly but, then it would start drifting off and letting the throttle return to idle.  A nice break but, not ideal.  So, I bought some tools in the truck stop the Denny’s was located in and set to work adjusting it.  I’m going to go on record right now and say the Throttlemeister is a horrible design!  How the heck are you supposed to turn the piece at the end of the bar in the opposite direction of what you need while holding the throttle where you need it to be locked!  It’s ridiculous!  Sure, you can reach over and hold the throttle with your left hand while you lock it with your right but, that’s just unsafe and unstable!  If you are looking for a throttle-lock then let me go ahead and HIGHLY recommend either the Vista-cruise or Universal Vista-cruise or any of the copycat versions such as N.E.P.  They absolutely just plain work!  When you need a rest, simply use your thumb to press the locking-lever down and you’re good to go!  When you need to return to normal operation, just flick it back up and it’s off!  Simple, effective!

Where was I?  Ah!  I got the crapmeister adjusted so it held the throttle and made life easier on Mark  (not as easy as a Vista-cruise though!) and we gassed-up and hit the road!

 

Originally, we had intended on going all the way to California then working our way up through Utah and into Colorado but, all the delays at the beginning altered that plan!  We had also planned on camping a lot but, since we ended up motelling (I hereby proclaim it an official word!) the whole way, our finances weren’t up to making it all the way anyway.  So, we took a turn northward!  (Quite dissapointing for me actually as I really wanted to see where that left turn at Albuquerque would take us! (if you’re old enough, you’ll understand).

 

I know a lot of riders comment how much they hate the slab/interstate.  I understand this and concur to a degree.  Too much traffic and endless droning boredom.  However, the road we were on was something different. 

It was an arrow-straight two-lane road that went on for days!  This truly was Big-Sky Country!  There is just something about the endlessness and emptiness that brings about a peace and calm that is so tranquil and happy!  I love the curves and regularly rip it up with the sportbike crowd but, this was sublime…

HEY!  A curve! Mountains!

 

With apologies to R.E.K, it’s not just the road that goes on forever!

Something about this just makes me smile.

The Tiger contemplates the train.

At some point, we saw a sign for the Folsom Museum!  We’re both huge Johnny Cash fans so, we jumped at the chance to visit!  Uh…wrong Folsom…

It doesn’t show in the pic but, beyond the beautiful scenery was a huge storm that paced us for many, many miles!  Never caught us though!

We rode until about 10pm and found a small, very old motel right at the intersection we needed to turn at so, we bedded down for the night.

Update on Mark’s injury!

As of July 4th, 2016 it will be exactly 2 years since the wreck.  Obviously, it has been a long road to recovery!  Yes, there is “free” healthcare in the UK but, there are also many loooooong waits in-between Dr. visits.  Mark is still having issues with his subtalar joint.  Apparently, there is a broken piece that has never reattached and is causing much pain and inflammation.  He is still quite active and is mountain-biking a bit but, not at the level he was at before the wreck.  There will be a surgery at some point to hopefully correct the issue but, who knows when that will actually occur!  Overall though he is doing remarkably well and is now in the process of rebuilding the Tiger that tried to kill him so he can tame the beast finally!  I am including the X-rays of before and after his leg surgery so you can appreciate what he experienced!  Enjoy!

Before!

You can see the spiral fracture where his foot was spun around backwards and slightly to the left of the “R” is where the bone protruded from the skin!

After!