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Published: August 19th 2012
Day 132……11/08/2012 To everyone’s relief we are having a day off today, and after breakfast we will catch a taxi to the downtown area of Salt Lake City, where the ladies will get to explore a newly completed mega shopping mall, and Andy and I will get to go too. It is very difficult to convey excitement with the written word, so I won’t bother to try.
Well of course Salt Lake is not just famous for its shopping, but also as the Capitol city of the State of Utah, more importantly to some it is now the centre of the Mormon Church. We visited the Mormon Temple in the heart of the city, a very imposing structure which took 40 years to build, the grounds were immaculately kept and everything seemed super clean, there was a sense of regimented order in every building, and that’s what gave me the shivers, too many black suits and the feeling that you were being watched, of course this was just my opinion.
We got in out of the sun after a frenzied afternoons shopping, in a nice little sports bar, Andy and the two Lynne’s had a pitcher of
Coors light between them, and because I had been very good, I got a pitcher of local amber brew all to myself, in fact over the course of a couple of hours that we were all there, I had two, but I have to say in my defence that this is Utah and the ruling powers to be, have slapped a 3.2%!m(MISSING)aximum limit on the alcohol which is produced here, kill joys, still I am not complaining.
Day 133……12/08/2012 We will leave Salt Lake today and make our way up and over the Mountains to the East of the City, again it was a beautiful ride through some of Utah’s finest biking roads. We made a coffee stop in the small town of Herber, and then on to some more beautiful but isolated countryside, I mention this because I had made a bit of a mistake with a fuel up on Lynne’s trike, in that she went onto reserve pretty much in the middle of the most remote part of it, which meant around 20 more miles of fuel with 45 to the next petrol station, or 27 miles back to the last. Well as I was
the one that cock up, I had to ride back to get the fuel and bring it to where they all waited. As luck would have it I found some pumps at a small ski resort type place 7 miles back so she got gas there, not gas sorry petrol, she never gets gas. We made our way to Vernal still in Utah where we found a motel, and a nearby Golden Coral, a buffet type restaurant where you can help yourself to what you want.
Day 134……13/08/2012 The skies had been threatening a little rain last night, and this morning looked even more determined to get us a little wet. It seemed that as there was a Walmart nearby my Lynne decided it was time to rid herself of some of the curls, sur la tete that were troubling her, and so we waited the 15 mins or so while this was sorted. With a little light rain in the air we made our way to the Dinosaur National Park near Jensen. Once inside the park a shuttle bus took you to a quarry with and exhibition hall where hundreds of Dinosaur bones had been unearthed, that
had been deposited there by an ancient river. It was quite amazing to see so many, and so well preserved, it had been well worth the slight deviation from our route to see it. What was not so welcome was the steadily increasing rain that had us all jumping from the bikes to don the wet weather gear right near the Colorado state line (State number 28). We made a stop at the petrol station to fill up and to adjust the rip in the seat of my waterproof trousers so as to limit the ingress of water that was trickling down my leg. We were told by some locals that the rain would only get worse, and that as we were about to tackle a stretch of road that had nothing on it except a 10,000 foot pass that was liable to flash floods and rock slides, that we might want to reconsider our route, well that due to the distance it was out of the question, and besides Andy and I said that it would be fine. Well it would have been if only the women had not overheard the warning of impending doom. With the nerves slightly
Mormon Hotel
A little too opulent for a church owned concern maybemore settled we all set off into the rain, and we climbed, and we climbed still more. Although the rain was steady it was really not that bad, and had it been a little less misty the views would have been beautiful. After around an hour or so we got close to the summit and the rain actually stopped, but then for a few miles we were right in the clouds. As the four of us rode over the top of Roberts pass we were greeted by a very welcome ribbon of bright light across the mountains that saw us pass out of the bad weather and into the sunshine and the almost dry winding road out of the mountains and onto the flat plains to the north of the city of Grand Junction, which is where we would stop for the night. The trials of the day had had some overtones of a JR Tolkien storyline, with treacherous weather and misty mountains, but there were no Hobbits at all so let’s just be clear about that.
Day 135……14/08/2012 After second breakfast, sorry I am still in Lord of the rings mode, we packed up and set off
East again, this time on Interstate 70, we would not usually ride these roads due to how busy they normally are, but this was the only route really, and it was a very beautiful road through the Colorado Mountains. At times the climbs were a little taxing for the little trike but we took our time and had plenty of stops to look at the terrific scenery. Our night stop was left to the decision of the ladies and in the small mountain ski resort of Frisco, they found a lovely little hotel that could have come straight from the forests of Bavaria, there was even a really nice German couple who pulled in on two Harleys just after us to complete the atmosphere. The ladies took to the outside Jacuzzi, and Andy and I didn’t. But we did all take a walk out that evening to stretch our legs and see the quaint little town. Even at only 9.000 feet the air was thin enough to make us all a little tired, so an early night for us all.
Day 136……15/08/2012 At breakfast we could see that the two Germans were nursing two rather nasty hangovers that
had been the result of one to many Schnapps during the performance of the Tuesday night Oompah band in a beer Keller along the street, luckily the were staying an extra night so would recover before riding again. We packed the bikes for one last days ride into Denver with Andy and Lyn, and headed down out of the Rockies for the last time. The final tunnel saw us at a little over 11.000 feet and then we dropped to just over 5000 in a very short time. There was a definite smell of truck brakes in the air as we descended into Denver, and the temperature rose dramatically. We then made our way to the “Mile High Harley dealership for one last chance to get T shirts for Andy and Lyn. From there we located their pre booked hotel in the centre of town, and later took a stroll out into the downtown area of Denver where we got a meal. Lynne and I had a motel booked a few miles away so made our way back there for the night.
Day 137……16/08/2012 Today regrettably we will have to say our farewells to Lyn and Andy, we
rode back to their hotel and then dropped off their rental bike which had performed without a hitch. Within a short time we were back at the hotel waving goodbye, and back on the road heading out of Denver. Lynne said that it felt a little odd not having a bike behind her after so long. We rode north for the rest of the day, the busy streets of Denver giving way to the rural delights of our return back into Wyoming. Now don’t get me wrong Wyoming is a beautiful state, after all its where Yellowstone is, it’s just there is so much of the dry rolling hills that pretty much go on for 600 miles from here, well you get the picture. Our stop for the night was in Wyoming’s capitol Cheyenne, a city which while not large had more than its share of old charm, oh and railroad tracks. In fact we had a really nice meal in the converted main street station watching the massive Union Pacific stock roll passed.
Day 138……17/08/2012 More sunshine this morning and a little cooler than expected which was just about perfect riding conditions. We got fuel
in the main street gas station, and then headed out onto the plains, sounds impressive eh? well it was, an absolutely beautiful morning without a cloud in the sky. Today we will make for the small town of Lusk which is still in Wyoming, we will then be within another easy ride to the Black Hills in South Dakota, which we will make tomorrow.
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