 Returning
to Arizona, California & Washington |
|
-- Click to enlarge --
(Paul & Grady's route
to Durango) |
Thursday, July 6 -
Friday, July 7
Riders:
- Paul & Grady: Tucson, AZ
via Durango, CO
- Eric: Los Angeles, CA
- Trev: Seattle, WA via
Las Vegas, NV
- Scott: Burley, ID to Seattle, WA
Highlights:
|
I awake to a lovely morning in
Burley, Idaho and after eating breakfast, I saddle up and head
Northwest for Oregon. I'm looking forward to resuming listening to
my audio book but after several hours of riding, the author has
reached the end of his motorcycle tour and my mind is now subjected
to a steady diet of his torturous journey of his mind and nothing
else. After awhile, it's too much and I feel myself tiring and
struggling to stay focused on the road I'm riding. So I bag it and
switch to music. I'll have to find out what happens at the end of
the book once I get home. I sail through the Blue Mountains in NE
Oregon, another fine stretch of interstate, and once I cross the
Columbia River into Washington, I know I'm going to make it home
today. I finally roll into Seattle after 668 miles and lots of
albums consisting of rock and roll, classical and New Age. Hey! I
still have three days off before returning to work on Monday. My
sweetheart, the dog and I head for our
boat to do a little cruising on Puget Sound, a very nice end to
this vacation.
 Back
in Colorado, the guys stop in at the historic Stanley Hotel and get
to see a genuine Stanley Steamer on display. Further down the road,
they start splitting up to head for home. Eric heads out for Los
Angeles and gets blasted by some very intense rain in Utah. Trev
rides South with Paul and Grady for a spell but upon seeing the evil
looking weather further South in their path, he departs and heads
West, too. He takes a back road, Highway 128, into Moab that is
recommended to us by the owner of the hotel we stay at in Moab a few
days earlier. He says it's a seriously twisty route with incredible
canyon scenery and little or no traffic. It follows the Colorado
River and is also known as the
Dinosaur Diamond
Prehistoric Highway. As you'll see from Trev's photos, we are
not misguided and it lives up to its cool name. After that, Trev
heads for Vegas where he attends a big poker event over the weekend.
From there, he travels through the wickedly hot Nevada desert on his
way back to the blissfully cooler Pacific Northwest. He says he's
not felt heat like that since he visited the Sahara in Egypt many
years ago. Whew!
Paul and Grady ride into the storm
that spooked Trev off and get pounded pretty good with
rain, wind and lightning, some genuine adventure touring to be sure.
They make it to Durango and find a nice, dry motel rather than a wet
campground. The next day, they have a superb ride through mountains
of New Mexico and Arizona before they get back to Tucson. Grady has
more than earned his ODMC patch and made some new friends. The rest
of us have another chapter of stories to add to our touring journals
and I have yet another week long ride to look forward to in August.
Oh yeah! My adventure gauge is now showing Full once again. |
|
Photos |
--
Click to enlarge --
A visit to the historic
Stanley Hotel
Imagine touring in a Stanley Steamer
Trev travels through the
canyons of Utah
Trev reaches Las Vegas for some
business & pleasure
Heading South through the Colorado
mountains
A well earned hotel stay in Durango
after some serious adventure touring |
