TOQEURVILLE TO MONUMENT VALLEY

May 26

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I am usually up before 6 but today I was still fast asleep when John knocked on the door.  He said I should make a run for it while the Zion curtain was open.  John is a great guy and I sure enjoyed visiting him in his new location.

I came this way because there were several places I wanted to see.  The north rim of the Grand Canyon  was one of the main events.  Unfortunately my timing is bad and there are no hotel rooms anywhere near it.  So, I bypassed it and headed for Monument Valley were I could get a room.


Today is Deja vu all over again.  I came to Kayenta in 2010 on Scoot from the south and the wind was blowing like crazy.  Today it was brutal.  Winds were gusting to 55 mph. It got really brutal when I left Page and turned south. With wide open throttle I saw speeds as slow as 35 mph and rarely over 55.  After 65 miles of getting beat to death I hit US160 and turned east in the canyon. The canyon gave protection from the southerly winds until about 15 miles from Kayenta when the canyon opened up.   There were no tourist stops today.


NWS WX ALERT
A Wind Advisory means that sustained winds of 30 to 39 mph... or
gusts from 40 to 57 mph... are expected. Winds this strong can
make driving difficult... especially for high profile vehicles.
Consider securing loose belongings on your property.


They were not lying.

The white is blowing sand

There are about 10 motorcycle riders in the lobby of the Hampton waiting for the wind to die down. Others came and went looking for a room.  The next possible room is 70 miles away in the wind.

Nice blown hair look

I hope it is not Deja Vu tomorrow.  Last time it SNOWED!!

Today's slide show

I REMINDER OF WHY I AM RIDING

Besides the adventure I am riding to raise money for two great charities.  Please give if you can. For those that have, we thank you for caring.


I would particularly like to thank Datacom of Australia for another generous gift of $3,000.  Your continued support is greatly appreciated.  Their gift is not part of the "miles" so there is still some money needed to reach our goal of $6,000.
Thank you.

Escuela Bilingue los Algarrobos

or send a check to:
James Dean Byrd Foundation
411 Walnut St.
#4267
Green Cove Springs, Fl 32043

And these guys:
Lemur Conservation Foundation

Or send a check to:
 Lemur Conservation Foundation
 Myakka City Lemur Reserve 
 PO Box 249 
 Myakka City, FL 34251 


 These are both small foundations started and run by a few people trying to do good in the world. I am personnally involved in both. These are not large organizations doing a little with a lot. These are small organizations doing a lot with a little. 


 Please help them accomplish their mission by buying a few miles if you can.

RACHEL TO TOQUERVILLE UT

May 24



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 The restaurant/bar at the Little A'L'Inn got a little interesting last night.The big draw is Area 51, a military/government extremely highly secret facility on millions of acres in the middle of nowhere in Nevada.

(http://www.lazygranch.com/fg.htm)

Tourists flock in from all over the world to see IT, when in reality you cannot see anything but a fence and the main gate. The actual activities and buildings are so far in that no one can see them. Employees are shuttled daily from Las Vegas on a private airline. All types of conspiracy theorists believe that the government is holding everything from aliens to leap frogs in secret in Area 51. So, they make the long trek into the desert to see nothing...except the A'L'Inn. An old run down building full of alien t-shirts, jewelry and other such stuff. Oh yea, and the Ritz style housing.


All afternoon people from around the world came in rather steadily.  At the bar/restaurant last night were

•  3 Aussie attorneys (more on them later)
•  a Miss Frump and true conspiracy believer
•  two cowboys straight out of central casting.  Cowboy hat, wind and sun wrinkled face, long sleeved shirt with shiny buttons, normal leather belt, weathered blue jeans, and cowboy boots. When they removed their hats, only to scratch their heads, it was as white as a baby's butt compared to the dark weathered face.
• 6 Japanese tourists, buying t-shirts and trinkets as fast as they could.  Their Japanese guide ordered hamburgers for all of them.

Talk was about everything from aliens to beer and even some politics.  We even discussed "coon cheese" a Australian product.

I settled into talking to the 3 Aussie attorneys.  Six of them had flown from Melbourne to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, all were in their 30's and 3 were single. Three of them spent three days and turned around and flew home. If you know Aussies, they are big partiers and coming to Vegas had to top anything before, so they worked real hard at  it.  Evidence on their faces 3 days later indicated they had been successful.  .......until facebook.  They, like all good healthy 30 year old Aussies, not only had a lot of whiskey in their rooms, but a lot of women in various stages of undress. One of these rocket scientists of lawyers thought that it would be cool to post these pictures on Facebook.  There was to be a wedding in 2 weeks and now there seems to be some question if that is going to happen.  The two married lawyers spent at least an hour that night on the phone with their respective spouses.  Seems a couple of them may need lawyers of their own when they get home. Don't you just love social networking

Despite the luxury accommodation, the people at the Inn were very friendly.  They topped Big Red with fuel, less than a gallon, out of a gas can just to be sure I would make it to my next fuel stop.  The Aussies had to make a 100 mile round trip back down to Alamo to get fuel to get them to their next destination.

I have seen deer, coyotes, rabbits, rodents and lots of other wildlife.

 This guy crossed in front of me and then just stood and watched me.

He too had just crossed the road 

In Caliente I stopped for gas and air.

How many mechanics does it take to add air to a vespa

Crossed into Utah and the first thing I noticed is that the Utah cows are not as smart as Nevada cows.  Utah just paints lines for cattle guards to keep the cows in.

 Nevada cattle guard

Utah guard

The interesting things you find out when you stop to smell the roses. First they took their guns and promised they would not harm them.

I still have not hit the right button on the video, so here is your slide show of Nevada and Utah.

I rolled into my friend John's compound, formerly of Ecuador, deep behind the Zion curtain in the afternoon and he had cold beer ready for me.  After another windy day, I needed it.

COLD WATER STATION TO RACHEL

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Though I love to ride early in the morning, I delayed my departure a little as I had sent my cold weather gear home after the Cannonball. The temperature was up to 49 by 7:30 so I layered up and headed out east on US 50. Temperature stayed around 50 until about 10, but it was not uncomfortable. We gassed up in Austin and continued east until NV 376  where we turned south.

To save you from the being bored with NV, I put togather this slide show. No two pictures are at the same spot. I did a video, but it failed.

I stopped to visit with Clyde, the manager of the R&O ranch. He is a cattle buyer and runs 1500 head of his own over in Utah, but the owner of the R&O asked him to come over and run his place for awhile. They were moving some of their 8,000 (that is right “thousand”) cattle to another pasture. He employees 5 year round cowboys and 7 farm workers for the pastures and the hay. He was glad to report that the cattle business is good.

In Tonapha I bought a gas can. With Big Red I can go almost anywhere with out extra fuel but this leg required some extra. I tried to take a picture of the refueling but the wind was 
blowing 25-35 mph and I was afraid to let go of Big Red.

 The nearest gas was 50 miles from this sign.

 That is a UPS truck in the middle of nowhere.

 We went off the highway for awhile, but the road was to much of a washboard and gave it up.

We headed down NV 375 to Area 51. We saw no aleins but lots and lots of airplanes. There was a group of about 20 C-17’s and then a dozen or so C-130’s flying slowly in odd patterns.

Most employees of Area 51 fly the 15 minute flight on charter 737’s everyday from Las Vegas to work.

I am staying in the big city of Rachel at the Little A' Le' Inn. Don’t let anyone ever try to convince you this is an Inn. It is a couple of old worn out 1960’s mobile homes. You get a key to one of the rooms and three rooms share a bath. Due to my mode of travel and where I wanted to be, this was it. At least it is not as bad as the Sun-n-Pines in Lufkin, TX, but the evening is early.

Rancho Cordova to Cold Springs Station NV

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The morning started at the Waffle Shop and breakfast with Dick Lemmon. I had seen some of Dick's postings on the Modern Vespa Forum and from his short and infrequent posts I figured he was an interesting person and I was right.

We visited for several hours and talked about his past and scooters.  He just turned 90 and still rides his scooters.  His first 2 wheel he got at the age of 14 and has been on one ever since. He entered the Army Air Corp in 1942 in the flying Sargent program but when he finished flight training they made him an Officer anyway. He was one of the best trained pilots in WW2.  As the military tends to do, they sent him to one flight school after another.  Several times he was an instructor but after all was said and done though, he never left the U.S. After "they retired him" with 22 years he flew for several non-scheduled airlines. After the airline business he spent many years as a handy man until he decided to just play with his airplanes and 2 wheels.  He has sold his last airplane but still has his hanger so he can go out visit his friends that still fly.

We had a great visit, he paid for breakfast, we said our goodbyes. He had trouble getting up from the booth like many his age but he hopped on his scooter with no problem.  He says his fear is falling over as he would never get back up.  He is a great guy and well worth the stop.

Since Dick had the handicap sticker I parked in the blue place with him

I pointed Big Red east on Highway 50, "the lonelist highway"/ Lincoln Highway/Austin Highway and we roared into the hills.  It started as a freeway and changed to just four lanes and out of Fallon, NV to a two lane.

 Off at a snail's pace

 Springs brings lots of these.

 During our short visit he told me all the "dumbass" stories of the day and it was only 10.

The home of the evening is Cold Springs Station Motel.  It is not even on google maps.  I learned last time through here to prearrange a room.  There are not many to be had and though there are few tourist there are lots of maintenance people for highways to oil wells to power lines looking for the few rooms. Dedee and I exchanged phone calls all day until she found a driller that had his work days mixed up and I got one of the six rooms.

HEADING HOME

LET THE EAST BOUND TRIP BEGIN

only 3,000 + miles to go.

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Ok, back in Oakland.  I rolled Big Red out of his cave and he was glad to see the sun again. 

We are off to Rockridge Two Wheel to get Big Red serviced.  I had scheduled this at the end of the Cannonball and felt ok paying someone else to do work that I could easily do myself.  That is before I ran into the added expense of a new cellphone.  My @#$%@ Motorola Razor with super Gorrilla glass and kevlar case that are #$%%& indestructable shattered like the heart of 16 year old broken hearted lover when it fell from 2 feet on a wooden deck.  I have flung, kicked, dropped, dunked and stepped on lesser cellphones and none have ever shattered like a crystal wine glass.  The additional cost makes me feel guilty for spending money for an oil change and wheel change.


Rolled in to Rockridge Two Wheel about 9 and after Dillon got all the vital information, they rolled Big Red on the rack. Kent jumped right on it. He is an extremely knowledgeable Vespa mechanic.

While waiting I caught the BART and went down to Superior Court D24 to watch my friend Bundles be whatever it is she does in the court room.  Ever been to a real court?  There is nothing more boring.  After the attorney spent 30 minutes establishing that Dr. Bradshaw was an expert and was still going on, I feel asleep and left.  We had had dinner last night so I did not feel bad about not having lunch today with her today.

Bundles and Kioji

No this is not in the courthouse but out roaming last night. Bundles and I go way back to our youth in the U.S. Army. She was not in the Army, but she came to visit her brother in Germany and never went home.

Back at Rockridge they had finished Big Red and Kent took it for a test ride.  Everything was fine, so I handed over the credit card and then hit the road.

 Kent after the test ride

Mike, Pat, Kent, Dillon

Thanks for a quick and great job.

By noon we were on the road headed for Rancho Cordova for the end of the day.  We had to hit some freeways today but only for short distances to eliminate long slow traffic infested city roads. Eventually we joined CA-160 across the California Delta. The road mainly was on top of a levy making it a waterfront ride. I paid the $5 to cross the Senator Nejely bridge.  The collector said if I got blown off the bridge she would refund my money.  Winds were in the 25-30 mph range so there was some weaving down the road.

 California's idea of a covered bridge

Fresh cherries and strawberry's for dinner

Rolled into the Fairfield Inn in time to do laundry and make the free happy hour.