Reverend Bill: On the final day home, we awoke to sunshine at the Condon Motel. I was up early to watch the MotoGP qualifying live in Mugello, and soon Reverend Chuck wandered over. He watched a few minutes of the penultimate motorcycle race class, then said, "Let's put a few cattle guards and a herd of deer on the track and see how these boys do." The wheat lands of North Central Oregon are now growing a new crop: wind energy generation towers. Complete with an underground transmission grid, these towers offer a remarkable co-existence between agriculture and clean energy production. [View Full Entry]

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Morning in Oxbow brought pink skies and a balmy 60F. Soon we were honoring our compatriot Rob by roasting bacon on a stick. Mmm good! The ride out of the canyon to Baker City was a great stretch of high speed sweepers and canyon curves. Soon we were ordering breakfast at the Oregon Trail Cafe. Nineteen year old Sandy, who had waited on us at the same table last year, brought us a big helping of humor and buckwheat cakes. Reverend Bill had traveled over 2,500 miles for the buckwheat. It was a primal motive to pass through this Eastern Oregon [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday evening’s fire left a hot bed of coals for a morning fire Thursday. We rolled down the miles of dirt road without incident, aired up our tires at the pavement, and rolled the last couple of miles to Crouch. Suddenly Reverend Chuck braked hard and turned into a barber shop parking lot. Could it be? Yes. Haircut time. Diane told an interesting life’s tale as she spent a long and careful time giving Chuck his buzz cut. 45 minutes, $8.00! Earlier in the trip Reverend Chuck offered to shave his head if Reverend Bill got a tattoo. There’s no telling [View Full Entry]

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We couldn't get out of Jackson Hole fast enough Wednesday morning. We gassed up and flew over Teton Pass into Idaho. Skirting yet another thundershower, we enjoyed a small mountain pass and were soon blasting across the flats of Idaho toward Idaho Falls. A stop at Fred Meyer satisfied our Starbucks jones, Reverend Chuck's sweatshirt purchase, and provisions for the evening meal. By the time we traversed a couple construction zones and approached the nuclear research facility in Arco, rush hour traffic opposite us into Idaho Falls was in full swing. While the lure of the Challis Hot Spring [View Full Entry]

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Thursday morning brought sun to the Sawtooth peaks well before reaching our camp. The ride to Challis (the best breakfast so far) was through some remarkable high country, vast grazing basins, cattle, antelope, and miles of sage and grass. Down the Salmon River to Stanley the twisties were fast and fun. We headed over the pass and south toward Lowman, where we turned west in search of hot springs. After a little local quizzing, we set our sites on Boiling Springs, about 22 miles of dirt from the road. The road surface was well graded as we followed the Middle Fork [View Full Entry]

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The ground was dry in Vernal as we prepared for departure Monday morning. An encroaching thunderstorm grazed us as we rode North, over the East Shoulder of the High Uinta mountains. Beautiful green meadows and aspens along the road set against some fine twisties and empty road riding. Passing Flaming Gorge to the East, we flew over a beautiful road toward Rock Springs. The headwind caused horse power envy for Reverend Bill as Reverend Chuck flew through the high-speed sweepers on his R1150GS. North out of Rock Springs you cross the high basin that the Oregon Trail traversed. It is the [View Full Entry]

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The campfire coals Friday morning were hot enough to easily start a morning fire. A nearby woodpecker continued with his calling from the night before, tap, tap, tapping, "Hey girls! Get a load of this!" Sullen grey skies did not welcome the day. The morning planning was led by the idea that Memorial Weekend crowds would descend on Zion and the other popular spots in the region. We thought it best to head into the back country and primitive camp out some isolated dirt road. We decided to head East to Escalante and Boulder, and travel out the Burr Trail to [View Full Entry]

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Rain all night, woke up to rain. Retreating to the pavillion, Dos Wet Padres poured over the weather maps and forecasts. A large low pressure system was lingering over Utah with no real hot mud drying weather on the horizon. There is a high pressure system sitting over Montana and the weather in northern Wyoming looked fairly dry. We decided to head North and find the sun, and with it, some dry dirt to ride. We packed up our wet gear (oh joy) donned our rain layers and headed out. Destination: Vernal, Utah. Shortly after leaving Torrey, our route turned north [View Full Entry]

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Waking to pouring rain again, another look at the weather maps encouraged us to settle in to Vernal for a day and rest. Sunday in Utah. Little is open. Northbound tomorrow early. Naps all around. [View Full Entry]

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Sunshine arrived by 0530 Thursday morning in our Great Basin National Park campsite. The sound of the rushing creek was punctuated by the buzz of hummingbirds looking for nectar in the colorful prayer flags. We were soon underway, crossing more of the Great Basin. The Great Basin is remarkable in it's series of North-South oriented mountain ranges, all pushed up by tectonic plate movement. Between these ranges lie flat basins. Crossing Nevada and Western Utah has a distinct pattern: long sections of straight flat basin, followed by a quick run over a mountain pass, then traversing another [View Full Entry]

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