my first long ride (2k), and suzi's last

[tkent02]

we actually used a steel 35 gallon trash can in the back seat between the two passengers, that we had punched a hole on the bottom of the can and ran a ice-packed beer keg, gravity style!

This would be considered wrong these days.
How times have changed.

[ironb12s]

Word to the wise: The first part of Colorado on US-160 has NOTHING.

end of day 2

A word from the enlightened, CO doesn't really start until you get to I-25 running north-south. Natives, and even transplanted natives like myself, refer to this as "West Kansas". In fact, had the mapmakers followed geology instead of policy, CO should've been shifted over directly beneath WY. It would've avoided all of the West Kansas stuff, and put the Canyonlands of UT where they really belonged. Get rid of that damned annoying notch into NE while we're at it, too.

Carry on, lad, carry on... :arrow:

[ironb12s]

This would be considered wrong these days.
How times have changed.

Why, I ponder, do you think that? Even the stubbornest LOE would have to agree, that keg is NOT an open container... :-D Sobriety tests might follow, but only of the driver, and the container should not be called into question. Probable cause it may be, but unless the consumption is actually witnessed...

[TheCafeKid]

and if you were in Texas, last i checked it wouldnt matter unless the driver had been drinking

[8trackmind]

Keep the story coming.

Finally! Someone that travels like I do. Fast, loose and poorly maintained. :-D

[marvinsc]

Finally! Someone that travels like I do. Fast, loose and poorly maintained. :-D

Hey! I resemble that remark! As I recall, it was You and Mark who rode Wing for Me between Cincy and Indy last month during My "Stator Incident".:-D

[8trackmind]

Hey! I resemble that remark! As I recall, it was You and Mark who rode Wing for Me between Cincy and Indy last month during My "Stator Incident".:-D

D@mn right! Maintenance shmaintenance. We had air in the tires. The oil light was off. We made it home. What else really matters? :-D

[edit] Beer in fridge? Check.

[marvinsc]

Beer in the Fridge?

[Ironriot]

thanks for the kind words. heres day 2 of 4

Day2

I awoke early, and called every shop in the phone book for Dodge City/Garden City/Liberal KS. There were 3. One only did 4 wheelers. The one in Dodge was a honda shop and refused to even look at a suzuki, regardless of the fact that i just needed a stud removed from a case. The third was a suzuki shop, and the guy said he normally didn't work on older bikes, but had some sympathy after i told him about the honda guys. only problem was, he was in Garden City. What I had later learned would be a $350+ tow. ouch. I had saved a nice wad of dough for the trip but that was a bit hard to swallow. me being a tightwad and all, i decided to trek back to my bike for one last try.

my god it was hot, even at 10:30 am. And apparently in Kansas, people don't give rides to long haired, goateed, mexican bikers who are carrying all of their belongings in a backpack.
Along the way, to anyone I see with a truck, I offer a nice sum of cash in exchange for a tow to garden city. no luck.
I get back to the Suz with a new found determination fueled by: an angrily hot hike, a growing hatred for Kansas, and ultimately, cheapness.
The night of rest cleared my head and I was able to see that there was still some thread on the end of one of the stripped studs. so i stacked a couple of washers underneath the nut, held the plate (and my breath) in place , and tightened it down. gently. not bad, it looked ok. Went into the megalomart, bought some oil, and filled er up. no drips! let it warm up. revved it a few times. NO DRIPS!!
there was an entire nuts width of thread so it seemed pretty secure. now, the logical thing would be to drive to the shop and get it fixed properly. Nuts to that. I was cocky and behind schedule. let's ride!

I stopped in Moscow for a nice dip in their public pool, then cruised down through the pan handle of Oklahoma to Boise City, through a crazy storm of grasshoppers, then back up to get on US-160 in Colorado.
Word to the wise: The first part of Colorado on US-160 has NOTHING. The first place I stopped to get gas was closed. The second, had no gas. I was closing in on Trinidad (sure to have food and gas) but by my calculations it would be on fumes. I started going real easy on the throttle, but to no avail. I coasted to a farm entrance 20mi. from Trinidad. I started on my hike, thumb out, this time without the pack. My luck held out and a nice couple from Halstead, KS gave me ride all the way there and back.
i rolled past Trinidad and camped out for the night in trinidad state park.

Next morning took a scenic detour on 12 "highway of legends". Now this was Colorado! Twisty roads, mountains, and tall pines that breifly parted to reveal an absolutely crystal clear lake. I was so taken by the sights that I let my speed creep up and got pulled over by the HP. The cop was super nice. i just explained that i was concentrating on the road and the view and wasn't paying as much attention to the speedo as i should have. I lied, I usually keep my speed at <10 over, this time was no exception. He let me know that he tickets at 10 over, and I barely passed.
thanks officer!

Back to US-160, beautiful still, but now it was time to make some miles. made it to Alamosa and took a detour to the Great Sand Dunes national monument. Got a wild hair and decided to climb the largest dune in the noon sun. The dune was 611' high. and a good mile hike from the visitors center. Sand is much harder to climb than one would think. Especially when the hot, sun-baked pebbles work their way into your shoes and begin to cook your feet. should have kept the cycle boots on. I rested at the top to laugh at all the ants down below, knowing almost none of them would make it this high. Then went down to enjoy the icy cold mountain stream at the base.

US-160 just got more and more amazing. higher, higher until i hit wolf creek pass. absolute bliss. Tall dark pines so thick that the misty pine vapor flooded my helmet. To my left a frothy and ever growing stream bounced and boiled along rocks and boulders as it made it's way down the mountain. Then a twisty down grade so steep I had to keep the engine in third almost the whole way. the heavy pack on back didn't help either. then i hit a scenic (as compared to the rest?) overlook that revealed a lush valley that stretched for miles ahead. I made my way down and camped out under an inky black sky cradled by mountains, framed by pines, and awash in celestial twinkling.

end of day 2

Well i'm glad to know that I'm not the only one on here. Although I don't got the full goatee goin on.

On another note sounds great. Colorado has some beautiful country as does Arizona. Hell that whole region is beautiful. I fell in love with it when we road tripped to the Grand Canyon

[Ironriot]

and if you were in Texas, last i checked it wouldnt matter unless the driver had been drinking

Actually thats wrong. Any alcohol easily accessable inside the car is against the law here. And a keg qualifies as an open container. Also the driver doesn't have to be drinking for the cop to start arresting people. Open containers and for that matter closed containers aren't allowed at all anywhere inside a vehicle. You have to put it in your trunk or bed

[mordantmonkey]

day 3

I awoke to a pale dawn and the chattering conversations of forest squirrels, which are apparently much more vocal than their city counterparts. I went for a short morning hike, and discovered that what i had thought was the sound of rustling trees lullabying me to sleep was actually a gurgling stream. no wonder i had slept so peacefully.

I was too lazy to cook breakfast and not particularly hungry so i began packing up camp. As i was packing i was pelted by what i thought was probably the biggest bug i had ever seen. I swatted it away and jumped back... it was in fact a humming bird. It was in fact, several hummingbirds, apparently attracted to my bright red helmet and gas can. I sat and watched them hover around restlessly until they realized there was no nectar to be had and disappeared back into the forest along with the chatty squirrels and timid chipmunks.

I carefully made my way through the mile or so of gravel, that the GS wasn't particularly suited for, until i had reached the highway once more. I made my way through a surprisingly camper/RV packed 2 lane highway, whomping on the poor little 550 engine every time a passing lane emerged. Its a great beginner bike, but is sadly lacking in mean acceleration at highway speeds. Or possibly I could blame it on the high altitude, or the fairly ragged state of the specific motorbike in question. Finely tuned and expertly maintained it was not. But hey, it got the job done.

I made it as far as Durango before both I and the bike began getting dangerously close to empty. Stopped at a Denny's for a quick bite, then went to the grocery to buy some more food, and to use their bathroom to get rid of the thermal underwear that kept me warm in the early morning hours but were quickly becoming a hot and uncomfortable liability.
I then wound my way to Mesa Verde whereupon arriving at the entrance I realized that I had left my wallet in the grocery store restroom... 40 $%&! miles back. So i race back to Durango, with the ever growing realization that if I don't find my wallet I will be stranded there with no gas and no money, desperately calling relatives, and searching for a western union. I park my ride on the sidewalk, swiftly walk to the bathroom, and burst into the stall not really stopping to even worry whether it was occupied. fortunately no one was in it, but unfortunately neither was my wallet. it wasn't on the TP dispenser, it wasn't on the sink, it wasn't behind the toilet, it wasn't IN the toilet (yes i would have reached for it if it was). I went to the customer service desk asking about it. no luck.
I began frantically tracing my steps through the store, back to the parking lot. Almost reaching the parking spot i had last used, i hear a loud shout across the lot.
"Hey! DONATO!!" I spin around oddly as though i'm preparing for a gunfight, and there is a municipal bus driver with a big grin, waving out of the driver's side window. "I recognized you from your driver's license picture." "Found it in the bathroom; figured you'd be back for it sooner or later."
How much 'later' he planned on waiting I didn't ask, but just thanked him and my luck stars and headed back on my way.

With much relief I re-entered Mesa Verde and made my way through the twisty ass roads that led to the cliff dwellings. I only had time to see one, and i fortunately chose the one that kept me from getting rained on during the ensuing downpour. Though, forgetting to cover my bike before the tour, I couldn't say the same for it. The tourists were sparse, the ranger guide far too annoying, and the cliff dwellings magnificent. I only wish i could have camped out in them. The rain had stopped by the time the tour was over, and my pack was waterproof enough to keep my clothes fairly dry. I drove back through the miles of eerie, naked, burnt trees (apparently, lightning and fires are a common occurrence) stopping only once to admire a large 12 point buck. He simply stood at the road side staring back for what seemed like 2 whole minutes before slowly turning and striding away.

Back to the Highway I raced for Arizona. The desert spread farther and farther around me as did the sunset, until soon I was driving through nothing but a panorama of lavender, and pink, and orange, and crimson. In contrast to Colorado's close quarters of heavily stacked pines and rocks that bound my puny vessel with it's massive mountains, the expansive desert of Arizona set ablaze by the sinking sun released me into the west. I at once felt larger and smaller than I ever had during my waking hours.

Rain began to sprinkle as i resigned myself to find a hotel now that the sun had fully set. All full up in Kayenta. The shabby hotel 30 mi farther past town wanted to fleece me on a room. For $80 I'd sleep on the roadside instead. or at least i'd drive the extra 35 miles to the nearest camp site in monument valley. even if the rain was picking up, and it was pitch black out, and i was tired as hell. In retrospect i should have shelled out the dough, but it was really the principle of it (and my cheapness). The thought of being flung off my bike like a rag doll and not being found until sunrise, if at all, did a decent job of fighting off the sleep. But I was definitely not prepared for the moderate rain combined with moonless driving on an unfamiliar road populated with reckless speeding desert drivers. Several times i considered pitching camp in a pullout or side road, but thought better of it. Had I only known what true rain and maniacal driving was, I would never have complained at the time.
I pulled into Goulding's lodge and camped out in the dusty, gritty campsite, more tired than i ever thought possible from sitting on one's ass all day.

end of day 3.

sorry for the mild spoiler, but no, the oil plate is not what i needed to worry about.

[Craiger]

This has been a great read....and I'm looking forward to more.

[beby99]

This has been a great read....and I'm looking forward to more.

Ditto, here too.

[WesV]

Dude, keep it coming!! I did a similar trek almost 2 years go with a '68 pickup driving from ND to VA, this is very reminiscent of my haul so I am identifying with quite a lot. Keep it coming! (Your authorship is nothing to scoff at either!)

[TheCafeKid]

Actually thats wrong. Any alcohol easily accessable inside the car is against the law here. And a keg qualifies as an open container. Also the driver doesn't have to be drinking for the cop to start arresting people. Open containers and for that matter closed containers aren't allowed at all anywhere inside a vehicle. You have to put it in your trunk or bed

hrmm I was always told open container wasnt against the law in Texas as long as the driver hadnt been drinking...shows what secondhand info will do for ya...