Snippets

[Steve9]

CongratulationS!

[Dusz]

Congrats
Wow! he's almost 1
day old that is.

Seeing them grow and develop is great and then you get to hand them back to the parents.

[Iron Mike]

Well there you go. I didn’t think anything could trump a ride report, even on a bad day!

Congratulations on the new edition. Looks like your route for your next ride just got planned out!

Congrats to the proud parents as well!

[Iron Mike]

Well there you go. I didn’t think anything could trump a ride report, even on a bad day!

Congratulations on the new edition. Looks like your route for your next ride just got planned out!

Congrats to the proud parents as well!

[BKB]

Congrats, Grandpa. Hope Burdock and his mom are doing well.

[Crusty]

Mixed Thoughts


I woke up yesterday at the Utah Lake State Park. It was a beautiful morning; cool, but with bright sunshine. I hit the road early and I rode through Salt Lake City, which was a real surprise. When I was there in 2015, it was one huge mess of a traffic jam. I just stayed in the HOV Lane (Motorcycles OK) and cruised; mostly way below the speed limit. No stop and go.

Once I got into Idaho, I decided to change my route. When I was working for Rocky Mountain Helicopters, I drove from Provo to either Salmon, Idaho, Hamilton, Montana or Priest Lake, Idaho many times. I took my preferred route to Salmon back in 2015. Yesterday, I was taken by a memory from 1978, so I decided to try a different route.

In 1978, I had taken US Rt. 20 west from Idaho Falls to Arco. Along the way, there was a sign that said, Do Not Stop For Next 68 Miles and it had the AEC logo.I remember seeing a building out in the desert that had High Tension power lines either going to it, or coming from it. I wanted to see if that was still there.

It's still there, but now it's called the EBR-I and it's a Nuclear Power Museum. I was tempted to stop and check it out, but there were ominous looking clouds with rain falling in the distance, so I gave it a miss. I wanted to get to Salmon and set up camp and Salmon was almost 150 miles away. I was traveling north on Rt.93 and The ominous clouds were definitely raining in places; one, in particular was raining so hard that I couldn't see through the falling rain.

I stopped beside some cattle pasture and put on my rain gear, to the undivided attention on a bull on the other side of the fence and continued into the deluge. It was a heavy, cold rain and that detracted from the beauty of the canyons I was riding through. Magnificent scenery isn't as magnificent when you have to give your undivided attention to riding the bike.
The heavy, cold rain made me change my mind about camping and I wound up getting a room at the Stupid 8 Motel. That cost me a fortune. It was literally double what I was hoping it would be, but they had me over a barrel. I knew that the next motel was over 100 miles north and I really wasn't going to camp in the downpour.
In all fairness, it's a nice room and the heater dried all my gear out, but my finances have been taking a beating. If campgrounds are charging $40.00/Night and motels are running well over $100, I'm going to run out of money pretty soon. The price of Gas jumped from $3.29 to $4.09 per gallon of regular at the Colorado/Utah border. This has me thinking that I don't think I can afford to make it to Tuk.

I'm going to continue north, for now; but unless things start looking brighter, I may just end this trip early. I'm planning to go to Maine to see my new grandson in July. If it looks like I can only do that if I don't go to Tuk, then Tuk will have to wait.

Plus; I'm feeling my age. I'm going to be 73 in September. It's getting harder to camp. My legs want to cramp when I'm getting dressed in my tent and other parts of my body hurt, just because they can. I'll be giving this some serious thought today as I proceed north.

[Crusty]

I'm Heading Home


This morning, when I went out to the bike, I was planning to head north. The weather was supposed to be cloudy but cool, with no rain for the day. As soon as I walked out the front door of the motel, it started raining. I could see blue sky to the south and that was all it took. Instead of going north, I went south.

There are a lot of things that I haven't written about. This trip hasn't felt right from the first day out. I've had a few migraines, I've been spending a lot more than I expected to, I haven't been having fun and I want to go see my new Grandson. It just feels like the wrong thing for me to be doing at the present time.

[Iron Mike]

When you know….you know..

Now go and spend some time with your new grandchild and relish the time telling them stories of the rides and adventures you have had already.

[ChinCactus]

No shame in knowing when to call it quits. If the trip isn’t enjoyable then something is wrong.

[BKB]

Sorry the trip isn't going to work out this time. Going to see your new grandson will go a long way to make up for it. Have a safe ride.