Colorado Cruiser: 2013 Summer Ride - Day 8

I woke up at 5:00 and peeked out the door to see how cold it felt and whether John and Angela were already on the road. To my surprise, John's Harley was still sitting there. On many trips I've awaken to find John long gone down the road home. I thought for a few minutes about whether I wanted go for a ride back to Teton national park or not. I decided NOT to ride and went back to bed.

I woke again at 6:45 and once again peeked out the door. To my surprise, John's bike was still there, but Erics bike was gone. Yesterday Shauna had said that she wasn't budging until 9:00. I showered and grabbed the computer to upload photos. I carried one of our chairs outside and sat enjoying the cool air while I tried to write a ride report.

Just after 7:00 John came out and started loading the bike. We chatted a bit about Eric and Shauna leaving so early and about the weather. The clouds to the South looked like they were threatening rain, but the forecast said the rain wouldn't come until later.

We made more small talk as they finished getting the bike ready, then eventually after all other excuses and distractions were done, they got on the bike and with a final wave, they left. It was 8:15. I went back to my chair by our door and continued writing. But the sadness of the end of the ride was on me and I didn't get much written.

At 8:30 I heard a hotel door open and looked up to see Shauna coming out of her room. Oops, maybe they hadn't left already. Shauna said that Eric had left earlier without a sound and she awoke to a pretty empty room. Jokingly she said she hoped he hadn't just left her here. She noticed that John's bike was gone. She looked disappointed that she hadn't had a chance to say goodbye and I explained that we thought they'd already left.

A few minutes I heard a motorcycle coming up the road and looked around. It was Eric on his goldwing. He parked the bike and likewise looked sad that they hadn't had a chance to say goodbye. By this time, Nan was up and came out to talk. Kyle began to put the trailer together so we could load up the bike and Nan began packing all the clothes and loading the car.

Eric and Shauna were ready first and said their goodbyes, then climbed on the bike and rode off. More sadness as we all go our separate ways.

Kyle got the trailer ready so I hopped onto the sportster and idled it over and lined it up, ready to load it. I inched the bike up to the ramp, then gunned it a bit to ride up on, but I was a bit hesitant and the bike didn't mike it all the way up, then to compound it, I hit the brakes rather than add more throttle. The bike began to teeter and slowly tipped to the right and off the trailer taking me with it. THUD!!! Bike and I hit the pavement pretty hard.

Then I made my 2nd mistake. I quickly got up and started to pick the bike up rather than laying there and telling Kyle to take a picture. I'm so sorry about that.

The bike is pretty light so Kyle, Nan and I got it up pretty easily. I checked myself over and bit and found no signs of aches or pains from the fall, and Kyle likewise checked the bike and found no signs of damage. I know from previous experience with bicycles, horses, and swings, that I needed to get right back on and do the thing right so that it didn't leave a mental block.

This time I lined the bike up, ran up the ramp a bit, then applies solid and continuous power right up and onto the ram, and into the locking mechanism on the trailer. We finished strapping the bike on the trailer and got the lights rigged. We finished loading up the car, said a prayer together, then headed down the road.

Just 5 miles down the road the first drops of rain hit the windshield of the bike. Within another couple miles there was a steady sprinkle, then it got harder and harder. After 10 miles it was a very continuous heavy rain and I called on the CB to say I needed to stop and put on rain gear. We pulled over and Kyle got my winter jacket out of the cartop carrier. We hadn't used any cold weather gear so far so it took a while to find it. With a quick smile, Kyle also got my leather chaps out. I pulled everything on while cars continued to drive past. I was almost done when a big truck shot past at 60 miles an hour and drenched kyle with the wave of water caught in its slip stream.

We got going again and I felt allot better with the gear on.

By now the rain was coming down so hard that I could barely see through the Goldwing's windshield. I could wipe off my helmet shield with my glove just fine, but the windshield was nearly opaque with rain on both sides of the shield. I had to sit up a bit so I could see over the shield, but sometimes it was just point the bike at right side of the blurry black splotch visible through the shield, or at the red lights on cars ahead of me.

After 40 miles we arrived in a small town with a gas station and pulled in. I gassed the bike, then used a cloth to try to wipe the windshield a bit to encourage the rain to pool rather than stay as individual drops all the time. Back on the road it seemed to help allot. I could see through the windshield allot better. The rain settled down a bit but it remained a constant drizzle as the miles rolled by.

Kyle came over the CB every so often to direct me one way or the other. We came to a few gaps in the rain, and the road almost dried out once. But the rain always seemed to come back. A few times the rain came down so hard that I couldn't see through the windshield again and had to sit up to look over.

After 3 hours and 150 miles we finally seemed to clear the rain. We picked the speed up a bit headed into Evanston Wyoming for lunch. Nan spent some time with the GPS and picked out a chinese restaurant to eat at. The Hot Sour soup was great and added some welcome warmth. Nan and I liked our food, but Kyle said his was too greasy.

After lunch we gassed up and I put my warm weather gear back on. We got onto I-80 heading towards Salt Lake. Within 20 miles my jacket was all dried out and the heat set in. Pretty quick I needed to stop and get a drink of water. It's amazing that I spent so much time in rain and 50 degrees, then suddenly it was dry and 90+ degrees.

We finished the ride into Salt Lake then followed the road around to I-15 and South to Lehi Utah where our friend Mike lives. Mike was happy to see us, and we were happy to see is nice cold house. We unloaded our things and sat around talking for an hour.

Nan called around and found a Massage school where she could get a massage without 3 days notice. We dropped her off, then Mike, Kyle, and I went to a nice Indian restaurant that Mike likes. It was really good.

By the time we picked up Nan and got her some dinner then drove to Mike's we were all tired and ready to just watch TV and talk.

John and Angela leaving