quick and cheap bike repair and on to Moab, Utah and the land of LDSGrand Junction, Colorado, to Moab, Utah

209 Miles

3393 total miles

Our prayers were answered.

At 8:55 am we arrived at AllSport Honda/ BMW and sought out service manager Bill Davis. He looked Bo's bike over for a minute and asked that it be driven into the service area.

29 minutes and $29.33 later Bo's bike was repaired and we were once again on the road. It turned out that the highway pegs on Bo's bike, which are connected to the cylinder head covers, caused a washer connected to a bolt to come loose and allow oil to leak out, At least that's what Bill Davis said. What could have been either a very time consuming or expensive disaster turned out to be no big deal.

Jim Davis at All Sports Honda/BMW in Grand Junction

We took Highway 50 out of Grand Junction and then turned onto Highway 141 to Naturita, Colorado. This was our first experience driving through canyons. The roads were extremely twisty. The winds were also extremely fierce. These were by far the strongest winds we have faced on this trip. It was often hard to enjoy the ride because we were concentrating so much on dealing with the wind.

Stupendous Dolores Canyon

As usual in this part of the country, be went up and down several steep grades. The views were different, however, as we entered an area that was more red rock and craggy mountains than the heavily vegetated areas of previous days.

More of Dolores Canyon

A highlight of today's trip was a high altitude stop to view an old mining flume that was built in the 1800's. Stretching over 13 miles, the flume was built by workers who were literally suspended by ropes over a 500 foot drop-off. The flume, made of wood, was able to handle 2.4 million gallons of water a day. Parts of the flume remain on the mountainside.

While viewing the flume, we met Chuck, from California, who was on his way back home from an extended motorcycle tour. He offered helpful information about road conditions.

We drove through Bedrock, Utah, but only came within a mile of Paradox.
We reached Moab, Utah, mid-afternoon and decided to check out the Arches National Park. After Bill entered the park, Bo stopped at the gate to show his park pass. After doing so, he put his bike into gear and was immediately hit by a 30 mile per hour plus wind. The wind pushed the bike two feet toward the edge of the road and gave both riders reason to believe that the park would be best viewed on another day. We immediately returned to Moab, where shopping and dinner were our new agenda.

Utah Kitsch

The fatigue of two demanding driving days hit us hard once we returned to Moab and checked into the motel. After securing gifts for the families, we had a quick dinner and an early evening.

Bill outside Moab

The winds are expected to be just as strong tomorrow, so we might rent a jeep and tour both the Arches National Park and the Canyonlands National Park.