Maddog62's Blog

It was my turn to plan our annual Utah / Colorado ride.  Last year we had the ride in Colorado and spent most of the time riding through some of the most beautiful country in the world and some of the highest mountains.  So this year I decided to take the group on a different ride.  We headed South and spent our time riding through Southern Utah, I thought it would be nice to show my Colorado friends the colorful rock formations.  Funny thing was most of the people from Utah who went with us had never seen it either. 

Here is the ride it took us five days to complete the route but it was a great ride.  What makes a great ride is not only the route but the people who go with you. We were very fortunate to have a fun group again this year.  Like I said the ride was great but the times we all spent together just talking and laughing made the ride a success. 

It looks a little messy but I will break it down into segments. 

Our next door neighbor John was interested in going with us so we asked him to join us. 

This was John’s first long ride over 250 miles and Linda and I took him on that ride as well.  John had never had his bike on the freeway or ridden over 40 miles before we met him.  John is a quick study and picked it up very quickly, he’s now a pretty good rider. 

 

John, myself, Linda, Pat, Staci, Tracy and Christa standing outside of Johanna’s just getting ready to jump on our bikes and get started.  The Romero’s and Lopez’s could not leave on Wednesday so they met us in Torrey on Thursday. 

Sandy to Moab route 

If you’re going to Moab I would suggest you eat at Ray’s Bar, they have the best hamburger in the United States according to the Sunset newspaper.  I don’t know if they are the best in the United States but they are pretty good. 

 

Also if your going to make the ride to Moab go through Cisco, it’s a little longer route from Salt lake but worth it, because of the scenery and the road follows the river so it’s just a better motorcycle road with all of the twists and turns. 

The weather to Moab was great but as soon as we made the turn from Cisco to Moab a very dark cloud moved in.  So I did what every other good road boss would do and pulled over and told the group “now is the time to put on rain gear if you have it”.  Linda was the only person who pulled out her rain coat but when she saw that no one else was putting it on she decided to go with out as well…. That proved to be a very big mistake because we had not ridden more than five miles and the sky opened up with one of the worst storms I have ever been in. 

 

The storm only lasted about thirty minutes but it rained so hard there was a massive flash flood that pretty much just ripped out everything in its way. 

The rest of the ride into Moab was great that is where we met up with the folks coming  from Colorado Ken, Lisa, Jim and Shawna.  Linda and I bought shirts for everyone so they would remember the ride. 

 

 

You will have to click on the picture to read the shirts.

Jim and Shawna’s had the only shirts with writing on the back.  The story about the shirts is just to long to tell but I think the shirts says it all. 

We had dinner at Zac’s and ended the night at McStiffy’s.  Linda would recommend the Jalapeno beer. 

 

This is where our ride began.  We left Moab and headed to Torrey but stopped at Newspaper rock just outside of Moab. 

The weather looked like we were going to get wet most of the day but we only ran into a little rain just outside of Hanksville. 

 

 

You will never guess what Linda and Shawna named this rock…. but they did like the size of it. 

We made our way to Lake Powell and Tracy could not resist on freaking his wife out by hanging off of a cliff.  It only about a thousand feet down. 

 

We made it to Torrey in pretty good time if fact we were only there about fifteen minutes before Ken & Sheri and Michael and Berkley rode in.  So we washed our bikes and had a few beers before dinner, Linda made reservations at The Rim rock restaurant. The food here is fantastic and the view from the restaurant is outstanding. 

 

Linda showing us where we were… To bad she was only about a hundred miles off.  Note to self never let Linda be the road captain. 

 

The night ended at the Rim Rock bar just across the street from the hotel.  As you can see Pat was in trouble again he just kept on pulling down his pants for no reason. 

 

I’m not going to say what Berkley was looking at but Michael looks pretty excited that he found it. 

 

We stayed at the Best Western Capital Reef again.  I like this place just because you can walk to dinner and to the bar after our ride. 

Now that we had the whole group together we had our group picture taken with us all in our shirts. 

 

Here is the route we took from Torrey to Springdale.  It has to be one of the best rides in Utah and the Western states for that matter.  I just love every part of it. 

We didn’t go through Kanab but I cannot get google maps to take the route through Zion’s park. 

While we were getting gas in Escalante the The Desert Doctor (local Harley mechanic) asked if we needed anything fixed while we were in town.  Linda had to have her picture taken with him because she loved his clean and pressed shirt.  After the picture and the looks of his bike we decided not to have him work on our bikes ever. 

 

 

 

The road through Zion’s was under construction most of the way.  It took us an hour and ten minutes to go thirteen miles.  That part sucked but every time we stopped and waited for the green light to go again we found something to laugh about. 

We got into Springdale around 5:30 we were tired and sweaty from the heat the hotel was a welcome sight and the shower even better. 

Linda made reservations at the Bit and Spur.  The food was fantastic and the service was wonderful but to make it even better Kimberly drove up and met us for dinner.  It was so good to see her because we have not seen her for a month. 

After dinner is where things really started getting fun.  Shawna wanted to find a place to do a little karaoke because that was on her “bucket list” of things to do.  We found a place called Wild Cat Willies and caught the local bus and rode it down there.  While on our way there Shawna decided to do a little pole dance on the bus. 

 

Shawna wanted to karaoke but she didn’t want to do it alone Lisa wanted no part of it and Linda had just enough beers in her to say yes.  Now I’m not going to say that they were the best singers in the bar but what they lacked in their singing skills they more than made it up with their dancing skills. 

 

The song they picked was Babe from Styx.  Ken has a video of the performance I hope when I hear it back it’s not as bad as I remember it. 

 

 What a fun night we all had a great time but I must say I think Linda and Shawna were in the zone. 

We left Springdale and made our trip to Price.  We decided to go through Cedar Breaks another great ride. 

We wanted to get to I-70 so Ken and Jim could at least make it to Green River so their ride was not so long on Sunday back to Denver. 

 

We were ready to have some lunch so we stopped in Loa.  Guess what there is not a place in Loa to have lunch.  So then we rode to Lyman, guess what no place for lunch.  So we pushed on to Bicknell and guess what we found the only place in town open for lunch it was the Sunglow Hotel and Cafe.  We were very lucky to get in because they closed right after we got there because Bicknell was having a demolition derby that night and they could not find anyone to work.  

The food was really good and the gal who served us was so cute and funny.  I would go back but we had better check and make sure nothing is going on in Bicknell or I’m sure they will be closed. 

This is where we said our goodbye’s to Ken & Lisa and Jim & Shawna.  it was so much fun riding with them and I cannot wait until next year when we can do it again.  I think the ride will be back in Colorado but who knows they might pick another State. Either way we are ready to go again no matter where it is. 

 

We just came out of the canyon on Hwy 10 and it got hot.  I mean real hot so I found the only shade I could find to cool down a little bit. 

We stayed at the Price Holiday Inn but because of the long hot ride that day we had dinner in the bar and pretty much went straight to bed. 

We decided to take Huntington canyon back to SLC. 

I love this ride to Fairview but this is where we had to say our goodbyes to everyone else.  We love the new house because we rode up parked our bikes and John met Linda and I at the pool for a beer and just to relax after a fantastic ride with some really good friends.  Life is Good!