Colorado Cruiser: 2013 Summer Ride - Day 5 - Long hot day crossing Wyoming

Between Nan and I, we woke up 3 times through the night to finish the laundry. The last time was about 3:30, but we got it done. So no more Walmart grocery bags full of dirty clothes, at least for today.

I got up at 6:30, showered, and snuk out of the room to get some breakfast. It was just oatmeal and a waffle, but I sat out on the back porch enjoying the cool morning air for almost an hour.

I didn't want to wake up Kyle and Nan, so I went out to the car and started assembling the motorcycle trailer. Today's ride will be 450 miles across Northern Colorado, and allot of Wyoming, and all of it is going to be boring and hot. So we are letting Kyle have a day off of riding.

The trailer I have, breaks down into 8 pieces, and can fit in the trunk of a car, or in this case, the back of a Subaru forester. It took about 30 minutes to fully assemble the trailer. Then I started emptying the Subaru and throw away all the empty water and gatorade bottles. It felt like those water filter commercials where the people are walking through all the empty bottles they could have saved, but we didn't. We just chug the water and throw the empty into the car when we're done.

In addition to all of the bottles, most of the luggage off of the motorcycles has slowly wound up in the car, because that then leaves the trunk and paniards empty for jackets, snacks, and other important things. We planned on keeping all of the seats in the car free, so that Angela and Shauna could start out riding, but as the day got hot, they could switch to the car with Nan and Kyle.

I got most everything ready, then went back to wake up Kyle and Nan. It was nearly 8:30 by now and we really should be getting on the road to avoid the heat.

By 9:00 both Nan and Kyle were out helping pack the car, and we started to pull the bike up onto the trailer.

There was another group of Harley riders just across the parking lot, and one of the men walked over to us. He asked if the bike was broke down and if he could help fix it... after all, why else would anyone trailer a Harley? I told him no, we're just giving Kyle a break from riding the Sportster after riding 1200 miles already. He nodded and said that sounded fine.

Nan asked him where he was from, and he said "I'm from Gallup New Mexico". "I'm so sorry" Nan said. "I'm the mayor of Gallup" he said.

After blushing a bit, Nan told him we stop in Gallup often when traveling between Colorado Springs and Phoenix. She said she likes it ok, but it needs a bit of clean up. He then told us about the state laws he fights, where public drinking is illegal, but public intoxication is not. It doesn't matter how drunk someone is so long as no one sees them get that way. And a homeless drunk can't be arrested until he's bothered the same person 3 times. So as long has he doesn't bother anyone more than twice, they're safe and there's nothing the police can do about it.

So after we talked a while, he went back to his Harley trike and finished preparing to ride.

Likewise, we finished packing the car and the bikes and got ready. But by now it was almost 10:00. We gassed the vehicles and started North towards Cody Wyoming. The temperature was in the high 70s to start the day, and by the time we reached Wyoming 70 miles later, it was in the low 80s. We stopped in Baggs Wyoming to gas up and drink some water.

As we left Baggs, Eric was leading, with me following. Nan and Kyle behind me, and John way back but no worries about him catching us.

We were only 4 miles out of Baggs when Kyle came over CB saying "The back window shattered". I slowed down and tried to signal to Eric that we needed to stop but he kept going.

Kyle pulled over into a small driveway. I flipped around and stopped by him, and 30 seconds later, John and Angela pulled up as well.

Looking at the window, none of the luggage was anywhere near the window, and nothing was hanging or sitting where it could have hit. It looked like a rock had hit in the lower left hand corner because all the cracks radiated from there. I looked to see if anything else was damaged, but nothing was obviously wrong. Maybe it was just heat and stresses?

After a few minutes Eric came riding back up to see what had happened. At least we didn't have to worry about Eric riding off 50 miles again.

Eventually we decided the Kyle and Nan would drive back to Baggs and try to get cardboard and tape to temporarily block up the window. The rest of us would continue riding towards Cody.

Nan said that they found a store who gave them a cardboard box and they bought some duct tap and gloves to avoid cutting themselves. Kyle said the only cut he got was when he reached in to get the gloves. His only injury was while trying to avoid injury, how ironic.

They broke off all the glass they could into the box and threw it in a dumpster. Then they flattened the box and tried to duct tape it to the car. But it was so hot, the tape wouldn't stick. Eventually they gave up, and loaded the stuff back in. They took the large cargo area floor mat and propped it up in front of the back window to block the worst of the wind and noise, then drove off to catch up with us.

In the mean time, we were cruising along a few miles over the speed limit and passing slower vehicles with abandon. As we neared I-80, a group of cars was coming the other way, led by a black sedan. As it got near, it flashed it's lights several times, then the officer driving it signaled John to slow it down. We were very lucky that he must have been on his way somewhere because he didn't flip around and chase us down.

We got on the freeway and drove East (back tracking a bit) to Rawlins where we ate lunch at a Taco John's. I'd never heard of the place, but got a burrito and a diet pepsi. I don't drink soda much anymore, but I figured I'd need the caffeine today.

I kept trying to contact Nan, but they were still out of cell phone range.

Finally as we were gassing up, I got a phone call through. They were 15 miles out of town. I told them we were done with lunch and ready to head North, so they should grab some lunch themselves, gas up, and follow us.

So off we went to the North on 287. The first 30 miles of the road was very heavily trafficked until we turned off more West, still following 287. After another 30 miles heading West, I see Angela suddenly pointing at something on the left side of the road. I turn to look just in time to see a sign arching over a driveway saying "Mormon Handcart Visitors Center". John quickly slows down and turns into a rest stop to turn around, but quickly decided that we should use the rest stop first.

We all use the facilities and drink some water, then go back a hundred yards or so to the visitors center. There were 5 big buses just pulling down the driveway as we pulled in. It looked like a group of youth starting a Pioneer Trek. If you're not LDS, that's where the youth, ages 14 to 18, dress in pioneer clothes and go for a 3 day hike pulling hand cards like the pioneers did when they crossed the plains. They eat similar foods, work as hard, and experience some of the things the pioneers have done. Several of my kids have done treks over the years.

We parked the bikes and went to look in the visitors center. The lady there gave us some of the history and pointed out some of the things they have. I asked her about the group starting the Trek, and she said they were from Littleton Colorado. She said that this visitors center would host nearly 25,000 kids this summer doing treks. There is at least 1 other visitors center that will do twice that number that I know of.

We finished looking around, then headed back to the bikes. Eric and Shauna wet down their cool vests in the freezing cold water of the Sweetwater, and we mounted up. I texted Nan about where we were and what we were doing, but I said we were in Sweetwater Junction, rather than Sweetwater Station. I also said we were leaving at 4:40 rather than 3:40, so my text was just confusing noise.

We turned North out of Sweetwater Station towards Riverton.

In Riverton, we stopped to gas up and drink more liquids. I called Nan and Kyle and found that they'd already arrived here. They must have passed us while we were in the Visitors Center. They finished what they were doing and came back to join us.

John's shifter was giving him trouble, so there in the parking lot, we stripped it down and tried to fix it. Lots of grunting and moaning later, we took the shifters off, re-positioned them, and tightened it all back up. John said it lasted an hour or so.

Riverton was about 2/3 of the way through the day. 300 miles down, and another 150 to go.

Off we went again with John leading, Eric, then me, and lastly Nan and Kyle in a car with the back window blown out.

20 miles out of Riverton, we left the main highway and turned North. We entered Boysen State Park, a huge reservoir that we drove past for what felt like 20 miles. Every time I'd think we were past it, we'd come around a corner and there was more reservoir. Eventually we reached the top of the reservoir and entered a canyon with a river running beside us. I was hoping the nearby water would cool the air a bit, but in fact, the temperature rose a few more degrees to finally break 100 for the first time all day.

The road through the canyon was wild. People were passing other cars on blind turns constantly. John and Eric quickly left me behind cause I just wasn't in that big of a hurry. I kept passing on clear stretches, but I'd be passed 2 or 3 times in between. It was wild.

Shortly after leaving the canyon we hit a long line of cars waiting to go through a construction zone. I quickly parked the bike and hopped off to drink some water. I downed 20 ounces quickly, then got back on the bike. I could have gone slower because we sat there nearly 10 minutes before traffic started moving.

The construction was a chip seal, meaning they were spraying tar on the road, then covering it with a layer of small rocks. We were diverted to the other side of the road which had already been chip sealed and had thousands of small loose rocks still on the road. I backed way off from the car ahead of me trying to avoid all of the rocks he was throwing up. The car behind me tapped his horn for me to speed up, but I really didn't want a face full of gravel so I ignored him.

Once through the construction zone I was able to catch up to John and Eric as we passed through a small town. Again, we turned off of the road onto another side road, and again we hit a line of cars waiting to go through a construction zone. But this time, they had torn the road up completely and we were on a dirt, gravel, mud mix. It continued for 4 miles and wasn't any fun at all on a motorcycle.

The next town we came to, we stopped. More water and gatorade. Nan and Kyle stopped for a minute, but kept moving down the road.

We finally arrived in Cody Wyoming and found our hotel just as we got into town.

Tonight there was no thought of going out for dinner. John, Angela, Eric, and Shauna went to Subway. Nan and I went to find Walmart because there is a glass shop nearby that has a new back window for us that they'll install tomorrow morning at 8:00am. Then we went to Wendy's for some salads and a sandwich.

Nan and I walked over to K-Mart for a few items, then we settled in to the nightly routine of Kyle reading, Nan relaxing, and me writing this report.

The road North out of Steamboat