Motorcycle Touring

371.7 miles

At 2am some bonehead upstairs was tromping around and talking, listening to the TV. I was able to get back to sleep but he interrupted the routine. At 5:30 my alarm went off and I got my stuff packed on the bike. by 7ish, I was at Coleen’s. The garage went up when I got there telling me either someone saw me come up or that someone was getting ready to roll out the bikes.

Twist was there and another rider who bailed while we were getting ready to go. I assume he headed out to the meeting place so BluePoof, DantesDame, Twist and I headed out.

We came out to 169 and followed it to Enumclaw for the meet. I was glad when we stopped. I had to hit the bathroom pretty badly. Twist mentioned that my brake light was on the entire time. I checked it out and discovered that while I adjusted the brake pedal, I hadn’t adjusted the sensitivity of the brake lights so I quickly adjusted the brake pedal back so the light’d stay off unless pressed. I’ll deal with it later.

While waiting a guy on a BMW stopped for gas and we chatted with him for a few minutes talking about his adventures in Mexico and different places they’d visited.

There were nine bikes at the station when we saddled up and hit the road.

We headed down 410 around Mt Rainier, then 123 and 12 down to Randle and 131 south where we stopped again for a break. The views of Mt Rainier were clearer than Friday’s ride. Apparently there had been a large rain storm Friday morning so by the time I’d gone through Friday afternoon the roads were slightly damp and fog had settled on the area. Stopping at the gas station for fuel and to make a pit stop was right on time. Of course with a car wash going on, it made it a couple of person line to the bathroom. Not great when you need to go.

A smaller group took off and headed down 131 to Mt St Helens. I was following DD since I didn’t know the exact final destination and was keeping up pretty well. I hadn’t realized it was a filter trip rather than a general Seattle based group ride south so I’d hooked up with one of the groups. We’d passed a group of riders at an intersection and continued on up the road. At one point she turned around to get a pic and I followed. With the turn around, I figured that we’d simply made a quick side trip while waiting for the rest of the group to catch up. while we were snapping pics about 10 riders went by. We headed out again and as we were going by one of the turnouts, I spotted three other bikes and pulled in in order to get a couple of good pics. DD was ahead and stopped at the very end of the turnout and cruised back down to the group.

Nathan had explained that there was chip seal on the road ahead so we’d need to be careful. When we hit it, the bike was a little wobbly but I shifted off the seat in the corners and the bike seemed to handle much better. We stopped with a couple of other riders at a corner and I hit the head once again. Quite a foul stench in there. I saw someone else heading over and thought that having a smoke and going in the latrine might not be the best combination 🙂

After this stop, I followed Nathan. He was a bit faster which I was enjoying. On one of the 15mph turns I hit the corner a tad hot. A rider behind me later said he saw the rear tire step out a tiny bit. We followed 25 south around the park then over to 30 south. A bit later there was a bit more chip seal that I don’t think he expected.

When we got to canyon, we made a left on 14 and then right over the grated toll bridge. I was expecting some dancing but it was surprisingly stable. I looked down and could see the river below. We stopped at the toll booth, four of us with DD and BP a car back. Nathan paid for all 6 riders and we headed out to Hood River for lunch.

We parked the bikes and I locked my gear to the bike rather than carry it around with me. We wandered up the street then back to a coffee shop that one of the riders had found.

I had a half a salami sandwich. While we were sitting there chatting and eating, we spotted the GSXR1000 outside making a right. Nathan was discussing the next route south, heading down 35 to another twisty road but BP said she’d been riding twisties a little too much “seems like every group I meet wants to kill me :)” so we decided on a more direct route.

I hit the head once again and when I came out, DD and BP had bailed. I wasn’t sure what was going on so I headed back to the bikes and Chris was there on his yellow bike. While we were sitting there waiting to go, Nathan and the other rider headed out. ForceOne was shaking his helmet out into the bushes. Got a bug maybe. We headed out with me in the lead for some reason. I was hoping to catch up with the others at the stop sign but I spotted one at the intersection and he waved me to the left. I made the left and started back the way we came. I wasn’t sure exactly where to go and didn’t think we wanted to head back over the toll bridge so I looked back shrugging and got on 84 heading east with everyone else following 🙂 Shortly DD passed me with a thumbs up so I figured I was going the right way but we hit an overpass and headed back so then I figured I made a mistake.

Sure enough, Nathan had gone back to the gas station after the bridge for gas and was waiting for us. I filled up and looped around behind. After a few minutes we headed out back to 35 south. A few minutes down 35 and DD passed us to try and chat with Nathan. We pulled over to check it out and it seemed that one of the riders wasn’t with us. With people peeling off, I’m never sure just who’s with us and who’s not. I figure that as long as I follow DD, I’ll get to Bend.

So DD headed back to get ForceOne. Chris decided to continue on so he headed out. A few minutes later, DD and ForceOne zipped by so we got our helmets on and headed out as well. We caught up with them pretty quickly and headed out as a group once again.

I had waved BP and FO by. I’d wanted to stop for a pic and didn’t want other riders to stop for me. Not long after that, the other rider stopped so we stopped briefly to make sure he was ok. I snapped a couple of moving shots then a minute or so later, I stopped and got a pic of Mt. Hood.

I headed out, passing when able. I got over Bennet Pass and got to the 26 cutoff but initially went the wrong way. That didn’t last but a second and I quickly looped back and heading back to the east.

As I almost got to the bottom of the mountains, I caught up with ForceOne. Now earlier I’d found out he was riding a 250 Ninja and that 95 downhill with a tailwind was his fastest speed. I also recalled a story about his rev limiter causing the bike to go to idle when hit so I hung back figuring I was close enough to the pack. I watched as he slid left to check out the oncoming traffic so he could pass and finally get by all the slowpokes. We hit it to try and catch up. I snapped a couple of moving pics of Mt. Jefferson.

At one point, I saw FO lose a bit of momentum. I figured he’d hit the rev limiter and dropped to idle. We caught up with the group as we came into Madras. They were pulling into a gas station but a couple of bikes with boxes continued on. DD and someone else (Chris maybe) said they were going to try and catch the two other riders so they cut out. We got directions to the meet, finished gassing up and hitting the bathroom then headed out.

As we got to Bend, Nathan peeled off to find his room leaving us to find the party. The directions were interesting. Go east then west and west again then south and finally west to the house. Unfortunatly the third sign was missing but fortunatly ForceOne had his GPS set and with a slight detour, we finally made it to VFRFan’s house for the BBQ.

I pulled into the garage and parked. Introductions all around and then I hunted up some food. Peter (VFRFan) was running the BBQ so I chased down a burger and a couple of chips and mingled and looked over the different bikes. While mingling I realized all the hotels in Bend were taken and the campground (I was going to camp for most of the trip) was pretty far away. Peter was nice enough to offer his back yard and I took him up on it. Another rider also camped in the backyard along with Baxter the dog.

Peter’s Ural with Sidecar was the center of attention, especially since he parked it on the grass 🙂

Interestingly enough, there was another Ninja 250 at the BBQ. Sam and ForceOne got together and pretty much excluded the rest of us while they chatting about their bikes and the mods they’d made. I remember the advise about not using bondo on the plastic since it doesn’t flex 🙂 I always try to file away info like that for my own use, thanks 🙂 The Austrians were offerred a back room since they were also camping and with BP and DD hanging their hats in the living room, the house was full.

Dr. Gil and his wife arrived on their bikes. His new Moto Guzzi of course and the napkin of doom.

After a bit, Nathan arrived and said he’d found the Austrians, programmed their GPS for the address and sent them over. They arrived before he did and became the center of attention. Michael and his wife were riding a Transalp and an Africa Twin around North America. They’d been in the country for three months when they happened upon our group. I spoke to Michael and found they were from western Austria. I mentioned I had been stationed in Erlangen near Furth/Nurenburg but apparently mangled the accent because they didn’t know where I was walking about. When I gave it the rolling r they immediately knew where I had been.

With the exception of the Austrians, I’d had the longest ride so far at about 1800 miles.

At one point, someone asked if I was the guy in the Ronald McDonald photoshopped pic 🙂 Thanks again Rich, I’m a star 🙂

One of the folks I met was Brian (bdaleray). He’s a member of the dc-cycles mailing list I was on when I lived in the DC area. We chatted for a bit and talked about the characters on the list.

The small group chatted for a little while after the BBQ broke up. We looked over the Austrians map of the US and where they’d been. Lots of riding there. He said that there were only three Africa Twins in the US. One in Florida and two in Seattle. It’s been difficult to get spare parts when they’re needed.

There was a consensus to hit the Black Bear Diner for breakfast at 7am which we all felt was too early 🙂 Figuring there’d be folks there at 7:30 or even 8, we decided to head over when we got up instead of trying to get up early and with that we hit the sack. There was some music playing in the distance but I was able to get to sleep without much problem.

536.9 miles

The previous couple of nights, I’d been using the Mac and ripping the CDs that Rita’d brought along. Better than the droning music I’d accidentally had on my iPod. She had Bare Naked Ladies Greatest Hits, They Might Be Giants Flood, The Ramones Mania, Eve6, Randy Newman, and a mix CD with Cake and Rob Zombie on it. She also had a couple of chick CDs that I didn’t bother with. I dumped the 400 or so songs for the 200 or so from Rita’s selection and enjoyed the music on the trip.

I got up on time and Rita and I hit Dennys for breakfast. The hotel had some deal set up that we’d get 2 bucks off or one of a small selection of meals in place of a continental breakfast. We found these were more than sufficient for breakfast and enjoyed our meal. I got my gear all packed and left Nampa at 7:53 hopping on the freeway and heading northwest. It’s a straight run up 84 to 82 so I expect no problems other than a possibility of rain in the PNW.

At a rest area at mile marker 209ish, I’d pulled in for a break. The lady asked if I was air conditioned. Of course she waited until I had earplugs, my hood and helmet on before asking so I didn’t initially hear her. When I turned around and she asked again, I said that I was of course air conditioned, then laughed and pointed to the vents on the suit. As I was getting ready to go, I saw some drops of rain so I pulled out the tank bag cover and put it on. I hit a little bit of rain but not enough to be interesting.

When I got to 395, I decided to head up the side road and search for lunch. I went by Stanfield to Hermiston for lunch.

I made the right turn on 12 in Yakima and headed to Mt. Ranier. The last time I’d seen it was when I attended school in the area as a kid but there was a lot of fog in the park so I wasn’t able to see the mountain.

At the end of the park I spotted a deer on the side of the road that I snapped a pic of.

After the park I headed up 7 to 161 and up to Puyallup. Traffic was pretty heavy but not insane. I followed the road up to 405 then over to 5 and to Spokane Ave. I was following the lower road and curious about the discussed bridge when I got to a draw span. It spun clockwise to let some boat through. While I was idling, I realized that the upper bridge was probably where I should be so I checked the map and figured that I could still get to the right road. Once the bridge closed, I headed up and found Dantedame’s abode. In the driveway, a largish orange cat was patiently waiting for someone to let him in. He was very friendly and stood still for petting and a pic.

DD had offerred the hospitality of the house but it was late enough that I still needed to get to the motel and grab some snacks for the BBQ so I headed out, found the Travel Lodge and signed in. The room smelled of furniture oil which smelled somewhat like cat pee. The bathroom smelled of old towels but it wasn’t over powering so I unpacked then went to the local Safeway to pick up some chips, salsa, hotdogs, and buns then back to DD’s.

The group had arrived while I was getting settled and the BBQ was in full swing when I returned. I parked the bike, took off the suit and delivered the food. One of the neighborhood kids (about 12) yelled over that he wanted a bike. I asked how much money he had. “$300”. “Sorry, not enough”. 🙂

Of the 20 folk who were there, I met BluePoof, Uncle Bob, Dwane, Nathan, Twist, and others whos names escape me.

Uncle bob has a Kawasaki rat bike with a troll on the front and the lights that didn’t work. He’d turboed it so the exhaust were straight. the coolant overflow was a water bottle cable tied to the frame. He had another bottle tied before but it started to leak.

I had a sausage, diet coke and a few chips. I also had two desserts. A cake crumble thing and strawberry pie.

There was a rep from Nikwax there and he gave out some glove proof and tent & gear proof. Bluepoof got the lion’s share 🙂 which she had trouble packing into her gear. Hopefully some went to others at the WCRM II BBQ tomorrow.

Jimmy, DD’s cat, was enjoying himself on the bikes and basking in the attention.

Finally I bailed at 9:30 or so since I was an hour ahead I was feeling the time. Others had already started out so I didn’t feel bad about bailing. Coleen said she’d PM’d me letting me know I could stay at her place but I didn’t get the message. I understand they didn’t get to bed until 2am anyway so I’m not sure I would have been much fun 🙂

Dexter had to go to work today so no boat ride. We hit the river instead. The river was like ice! When we finally got out, our fingers and toes were numb and a couple of minutes later we started getting needles and pins. With 102 degrees (per one of the bank signs), the contrast was intense.

At one of the falls the water was only a few inches deep and I slammed my tailbone into the concrete twice before I could raise up high enough. Rita hit too but not as bad. Good thing I’m on a sportbike. I wouldn’t be able to continue on a more standard bike. We did follow the other folks so didn’t get stuck. We had a big boat tube (tied behind a boat mainly) and two of the inner tubes were tied to it. Rita was on a tube as was Devin, Alanna’s older brother. Alanna was on the boat tube. I was on my own and tubing around them. They got stuck at one point at one of the branch dams and had to get around it (since they were tied together, it was harder for them to move easily).

While we were getting ready to go get the car, some 12 yo rammed into Rita and me knocking her on her butt. She’s got a nice pattern of scrapes from the chain and sprocket and I have a similar series of scratches from the same thing. She was knocked down by the rear wheel. He was apologizing big time and his mom, who was right behind him, was yelling at him too. Rita was bleeding and has several bruises now.

I did a squidly thing and rode the ‘busa in deck shoes and swim trunks 😮 It was a slow back road ride and I was extremely careful. The air blowing through the radiator and out the side panels was very hot along with the 102 temps and I was feeling scorched when I got to the car. I got more geared up for the ride back though. Highway traffic 🙂

Definitely not something we’ll be doing tomorrow though and no boat ride either so we’ll be catting around. I’m looking for a lightweight camp chair I can strap to the bike since I’m going to be camping for most of the trip.

558.2 miles

We woke up on time and gathered our gear together. I got the bike loaded up but left my tent, sleeping bag and pad in the back of Rita’s car. No sense carrying it now. After we got done packing, we went to get the cats but couldn’t find Arial (the black cat). He’d taken to hiding in the mornings since he doesn’t like riding in cars. Niki has no problem with it and enjoyed the outing. I hunted under the bed and glanced at the box springs. No feet indentations. We started checking outside and the halls to see where he might have gone. I’d swear he hadn’t slipped out while I was going through the door however one time he ran back away from the door so he was checking it out. Rita had their food dish and was outside shaking it trying to call him. After 30 minutes or so, I told Rita that she’ll need to get the room for another night since we’re not leaving without him, fool cat. I checked the room one more time and this time his feet were making an impression in the box springs covering. I poked at him and tried to get him to come out but he wasn’t budging. I tipped the mattress up then the box springs and then pulled out the covering along one side of the springs until I could grab him. He was fighting but I got him out. We put the bed back together, put the cats in the car and checked out.

I was going to take 191 north to the Tetons but decided to take 372 instead. It was a less travelled road which is always more interesting. I hopped on the bike and hit 80 for a couple of miles until I got to the 372 exit and headed north. Traffic was light however there were several semi’s.

At the turn onto 189, the road had been freshly oiled and chipsealed which was a lot of fun but just a few miles down the road, construction was happening. The road turned to dirt and I stopped for a few minutes letting the semi that was behind me go ahead. I wasn’t going to be moving very fast and didn’t want to be too close to a semi throwing up rocks and crap. After a few minutes I moved along but shortly came upon a line of traffic. One lane road ahead. I stopped for a few minutes and waited for the lead vehicle to show up.

When the lead vehicle arrived he motored back to where I was and told me I was to lead the pack. Reducing damage from rocks I’m sure, or at least keeping the pack at a reasonable speed since bikes like mine won’t be haring across the gravel. We traveled down to the Fontenelle Reservoir and was released until the next stop about half way around. We had to wait again for a few minutes then headed off again. At the other side, the road turned to asphalt again and I stopped in La Barge for gas and a break.

As I approached the Teton National Forest, I got behind a couple of RVs followed by several cars and a couple of cruisers. After several minutes, I wanted to pass them in order to have free rein in the forest so I passed at the first chance and boogied on down the road.

The roads up to 26 in Hoback Canyon were nice big sweepers. I was able to take them at a pretty good pace and enjoy the cooling down of the air as the altitude increased. When I reached 26, I had to decide. I wanted to see the Tetons, but the road following the Snake River looked grand as well. After a moments thought, I made the left and followed the Snake River. Again, some great sweepers and light traffic. Most folks appeared to head north to the Tetons leaving the nice bike roads to me.

I stopped at a boat ramp and rode down to the river. There was a beautiful red bridge but it was blocked since it went to a country club.

When I crossed into Idaho, I traveled next to the Palisades Reservoir where traffic was a little heavier. I followed 26 into Idaho Falls and hunted for 20 west. After a little running around, I found the exit and stopped briefly for lunch and a break.

This part of Idaho is the flattest most barren place I’ve been in in some time. Even Kansas was hillier 🙂 From looking at the map, there are lava beds all through the area with the Big Southern Butte (at 7,576 feet) visible for some miles.

As I passed through Arco (first city powered totally by atomic power) and headed south, I intended on stopping at the Craters of the Moon National Monument since seeing the reference in Dantesdame’s 2005 National ride report. It was one of the reasons I came this route.

It was pretty hot out and all the vents were open on the ‘stich. I went in to the park and decided to ride around the loop. When I got to the Inferno Cone, I decided to stop and get a pic.

When I realized you could hike to the top, I shed my gear, locked it to the bike and headed up to the top. It wasn’t much of a climb except for the heat. A bunch of kids were up on top playing hide and seek. Looking out over the lava fields was pretty cool. You could see for miles and the closer lava cones looked pretty interesting.

I took a couple of pics of the surrounding area then spotted a couple of good shots. I decided the second one came out the best. Again, that’s the Big Southern Butte off in the distance.

I headed back down, got into my ‘stich and continued on around the loop. When I got out of the park, I found some more lava outcroppings and stopped for another quick one.

After the park I made a right turn on 20 in Carey passing through Picabo, over Little Camas Pass and down Goodale’s Cutoff (a way to try and avoid the Shoshone indians). The ride down to Mountain Home was pretty cool. Nice little twisites coming down off the pass. The rest of the way to Nampa was pretty uneventful since it was on the slab. It was very hot though as temps in Boise were exceeding 100 degrees.

404.8 miles

I’d spent the evening getting the bike packed and ready to go. There was just the morning gear and I’m ready to head out. Rita had the car packed and she was heading up 25 to 80 and was going to meet me in Green River. After putting the cats in the car, I headed off to get gas and reset the starting mileage. As I got to the 136th street bridge, I spotted Rita behind me while waiting at the light. A wave and that’s the last I saw of her until we met at Green River.

I was riding pretty comfortably on 25 north intending on making the left into Ft Collins to take Poudre Canyon. At one point, a BMW convertible and a pickup passed me at a high rate of speed. After making the turn into Ft Collins, I got up to the light before the railroad tracks and there were the two. Pickup in the left lane and BMW in the right. I got behind the truck. The BMW was slow at the light so I swooped in front of him and made the right turn after the tracks. He seemed a little put out by the move and tried to keep me from getting in front of him when the road went to one lane. He peeled off at the bypass and I continued on.

It was a nice day for a ride, a bit chill but beginning to get warm. I stopped at the Conoco at the corner of 287 and 14 (Poudre Canyon Road), filled up and took a break. I screwed around with the phone since it seems to have stopped working. I’d used it before but now I couldn’t hear Rita when she called. She could hear me though. I had the GPS set up as well and was keeping an eye on the info; particularly speed since my speedo appears to be off by a little.

The first part of Poudre Canyon around Stove Prairie Road is a great ride. Nice twisties and little traffic. As I reached the cliffs and got into the sweepers, it started warming up a bit but I was able to go a little faster. I was also able to start passing cars which was more difficult in the beginning.

It was early enough in the morning that my shadow stretched a few feet in front of the bike. It was cool seeing my shadow head into a turn just before I did and shifting left and right through the turn.

I passed Profile Rock and Elephant Mountain (which looks like the head of an elephant including the trunk). As I approached Cameron Pass, I could see some snow a hundred feet or so up the hillside and a nice profile view of Mt Richthofen.

One of the things I’ve been learning about sport-touring is that when you see a good picture, you should turn around and take it. You’re never in so much of a hurry to try and capture a piece of beauty. In addition, you should try to get your bike in the picture. After all, everyone gets pictures of Mt Richthofen. How many have a picture of a Hayabusa? (Does that taillight look a little bright? {foreshadowing; hinting of things to come} 🙂

There was a group of folks hanging out at Cameron Pass waiting on the restrooms. The guy (who had one arm) asked me if I was cold. While it was a little chilly since we’re at 10,276 feet, I said I was reasonably warm in my Aerostich.

After taking a break I hopped back on the bike and headed down the other side, Mt Richthofen off to the left looking very imposing in its grandeur.

The ride back down wasn’t at the speeds that I’ve gone down before due to several RVs backing up traffic and little opportunity to pass until we reached the valley floor. In Walden I parked next to a large group of cruiser riders that included a GSXR in red and black and an FJR in silver grey. I chatted with the guy next to me and found they were down from Cheyenne and heading by Steamboat Springs and Craig before heading back home.

I also intended on a similar path but continuing on past Craig so I bid them farewell and headed off. While I was at the station, I looked at the map and found a little non-highway road over Buffalo Pass that looked interesting. The pass is in Routt National Forest and appeared to be a dirt road. I figured, what the heck. I can ride a dirt road and the motel isn’t a long distance away so when I got to the turnoff at Hebron, I made the right and headed off on an adventure.

A couple of miles before Routt the road turned to a hard packed dirt road. Not horrible but still an interesting ride. I stopped at the entrance to Routt for a pic and then a few feet farther for the signpost to Buffalo Pass.

The coolness in the air, the smell of the pine trees and wildflowers were just outstanding. Especially the pine. It was heavy and made me want to stop right there and set up camp. The road itself wasn’t too bad until the last few miles. A sign warned of dips but they were actually humps. And on the other side of the humps were gullies where the water ran across the road. At the first one I spotted a deer on the right side of the road. I startled him so I slowly rolled backward for a better look and he bounded off into the forest. As I headed up I came over a hump and there was a pretty deep gash in the road that I hit pretty hard. From them on I took it easier but I still hit some pretty hard.

As I approached Buffalo Pass, I passed a snowfield on the right with mountains in the distance. The recent hot days at home made seeing snow somewhat of a novelty so I stopped to capture the memory.

Buffalo Pass wasn’t clearly marked but there was a campground at Summit Lake with quite a few cars. On the other side of the lake, the road continued on down to Steamboat Springs but the condition was significantly worse. I got a couple of shots but they don’t really portray just how bad the road was. It was pretty clear the traffic coming up from Steamboat Springs was causing all the rough roads. There were lots of rocks, ruts and potholes in the dirt road. I was able to keep it reasonably stable but there were a few bumps that were pretty hairy. Plus at one point, I drove between the narrow space between two rocks. I was sure I was going down there but managed to keep it upright.

Meanwhile, I had the iPod playing and was curious about the music selection. I kept hearing the same tunes over and over and they were pretty slow. The past couple of days I was setting up the tunes and cleaning up the lists on the Mac. I still had too many to fit on the iPod though. I plugged it in and the external drive would grind away then pop up an error; too many songs for the iPod. This happened a couple of times and I didn’t pay much attention to it figuring with all the noise, it was just copying as many as it could. I’d deleted a couple of hundred songs from the beginning of the original list that I didn’t want to listen to on the road. Quiet slow songs that just weren’t appropriate for riding. Turns out iTunes deleted all the songs off of the iPod in preparation to copy but didn’t delete the songs I didn’t want to hear. So I ended up with three hundred or so songs that I really didn’t want to hear on the road. Talk about annoying 🙂

So I got down to Steamboat Springs threading my way through the roads. I followed the GPS until I got to 40 and headed west. I was going to hit the gas station but gas was running at $2.64 so I continued on down to Craig. I rolled through town then back until I found the station with the best price and filled up.

I checked out the route. I was going to take 40 south of Dinosaur National Monument and then 191 up in Utah but I was hooked on the side roads. They didn’t seem so bad so I decided I would take 318 up to Dutch John and then catch 191 up to Green River. So I made the right at Maybell and headed off yet again. The road was pretty nice then I got to a fork where 318 to the left was still paved and 10N was packed dirt. It took a few minutes but I finally decided to take 10N. It was a nice hardpacked road and I was able to get to 70 in places 🙂

Up ahead there is Irish Canyon. A sign at the entrance says that Irish Canyon was named for three Irishmen who robbed a Rock Springs saloon and stopped to consume part of the take in the north end of the canyon. A long way to go before taking that drink. I hope it was worth it 🙂

The road through Irish Canyon was a bit gravelly but I was able to move along pretty well. The wind was blowing down the canyon pretty stiffly. I got to the other side without incident. On the other side the wind was blowing pretty hard. When I got to Wyoming the road immediately changed to pavement and I was able to pick up some speed.

I’d loosend my ‘stich to get more air but with the wind I was ballooning up even with the vents being open.

I stopped at a Phosphate processing plant and zipped up the stich. When I got to Rock Springs, I spotted a Harley behind me. When I got to the light, he pulled up next to me and we chatted until the light changed. I headed up to gas up and called Rita. She made it to Green River at 3ish and got our room.

After we got together, she said her ride up 25 and down 80 wasn’t a big deal except for one incident. See, we brought the cats along this time because they were getting a little odd when we went away on trips. So she’d been parking the car in the shade when she hit the rest stops until she got to one where there wasn’t any shade. She left the car running but took the remote so she could get back in the car. However, she found out that the remote doesn’t work when the car is running. Probably to prevent accidental unlocking of doors while the car is moving. So she couldn’t get back in the car and of course it was running. She tried to call me but I wasn’t in any service areas so she couldn’t reach me. She was going to contact a locksmith when a couple of guys from Colorado offered to help. The one guy unscrewed his car antenna and was able to slip it down and roll down the window enough to unlock the door. Good thinking there guys.

We had dinner at Don Pedro’s Family Restaurant; a Mexican food place. The food wasn’t too bad but a little blah. Not quite up to some of the places we’ve eaten at.