ALBANY VINTAGE & CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE CLUB

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February 2013 Club News

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Bears, Bison & BMW

Part 3 - continued from last issue

By Antoinet Glazema

Ronnie looking back down Monument Valley.
We left very early the next morning after a good night's sleep near the canyon just outside Tooele, south west of Salt Lake City.

Looking like Mater from the movie “Cars”.
Great scenery and cute little villages, it was pretty hot by now. We rode through a small town called Gunnison and I made Ronnie stop and turn around. I had seen a truck painted like Mater from the movie Cars. (The photo is on display at my work, I work with children, they were very impressed I had seen Mater and asked me lots of questions: did Mater talk? Was it the real Mater? Mum: Antoinet has seen Mater!)

Capitol Reef National Park.
We found a beautiful campground in Torrey, not far from Capitol Reef national park. They asked $24 for a campsite but $28 for a very small cabin. Every afternoon there are clouds rolling in and it gets pretty hot and humid. Sometimes it can bucket down with rain so we decided to book one of the cute cabins. There is only a small table, a chair and a double bed in there. You have to use your own linen but it was a great little house for us for the next 2 nights.

We explored beautiful Torrey and went for a ride through the national park, absolutely stunning; amazing scenery and nature. There was a great Mexican restaurant not far from the campsite, we were going to have a meal there. I had a shower before we went and had to wait in the shower block for about 15 minutes, it was pouring down with rain and strong winds with a big thunderstorm. This is normal at this time of year in these States, every afternoon you can see the clouds coming in.

Bryce Canyon.
The following morning we rode to Bryce Canyon, not as famous as the Grand Canyon but some people think Bryce is much nicer. It was beautiful, strange rock formations in the most amazing colours. Lots of lookouts to go to and admire the views.

Antoinet
          gives a W for Wyoming.The rear tyre was pretty flat again and Ronnie decided to fit the inner tube we had been carrying around for the last week. We met a guy called John from New York city. We had a great laugh with him, he was pretty mechanical minded and thought it was great to see Ronnie fitting the new inner tube himself at a rest area.

John said you will never see a American Harley rider or any other motorbike rider do this. They don’t even know how to do it. Ronnie threw the old tube in the bin and John had another laugh, he said that the rangers would be very puzzled in the morning when emptying the bin. They probably take it to a laboratory to get checked out, they won’t have a clue what it is!

We definitely had a good laugh with John and were thankful for his help assisting us to get the rear wheel back in.

We took the road towards Arizona, it was 110 degrees Fahrenheit by now, about 44 degrees. We stopped in a town called Kanab and I really wanted to crash somewhere in a motel. I don’t cope very well in this kind of heat. We checked out the visitor centre and I put my shirt under the cold water tap and put it back on.

Ronnie said we really should try and get another 75 miles further into Page and crash there for the night, otherwise we had to do a huge amount of kilometres the next morning. With nothing to see and another hot day coming. He was right so off we went, those 75 miles were to longest ever. Nothing to see but dirt and highway, no shade anywhere.

So good to finally arrive in Page, Arizona, and turn the air conditioning on in the motel room we found. Cold shower and cold beers from the supermarket across the road. We left the air conditioning on all night, something we’ve never done before.

It was still very hot in the middle of the night. I woke up at 5.00 am, it was getting light already and I quickly went to the supermarket for some supplies, a lot of shops are open 24 hours a day but this one opened at 5.00 am. Ronnie had the bike packed up already and we left 45 minutes later.

We went to see Monument Valley, something on my wish list ever since we planned this trip. Everyone knows Monument Valley from the western movies but it’s breathtaking to see it with your own eyes. If you are ever going there, make sure you come in from the north though, even more spectacular.

Coal Bank Pass, Colorado - 10,640 feet.
Back into Utah and that same day we rode into Colorado. Got supplies in Durango and kept going north and found a great spot in San Juan national forest. It started to pour down with rain again, only for about 30 minutes though.

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