Utah - July 4, 2021 Day 3

The Fourth of July was the best of days, and the worst of days; and is best reported in vignettes as they unfolded. 

The day began with a fantastic morning ride through the high desert. We came upon an unexpected green mountain pass. We had the sheer joy of following the Colorado River. Then Arches National Park, and finally the near disaster of a lost key and poor Harley engineering.

This road sign along the way summed-up our day. 

The Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway

We left Rangely, Colorado on a cool desert morning. As we headed south along the Colorado/Utah border, the road followed a gentle contour. As we moved into the shade in the low sun, the air was cool. And when we moved into the sunshine, the air became warm. 

The motorcycle moved as it it were on auto-pilot, following the roadway in a way that allowed me to look at the terrain. The solitude was wonderful, and the drive was incredibly pleasant. 

The sign did not photograph well, but we saw two of these. The first said "Wildfires Extreme Danger" while the second said "Firefighters on Roadway." We could see where the firefighters used a controlled burn to prevent a fire-jump. But that was the extent of what we saw. 

The high desert roadway - - -

soon gave way to green mountains. 

We followed switchbacks to the top.

At the summit, we saw the green valley below on the far side - which soon gave way to the desert once again. 

The rock at the summit appeared to be shale. And when we parked at the summit, we could hear rock falling down the cliff face which sounded like the crinkling of paper and breaking glass. 

The area is open range, with cattle grazing along the roadway. This would come to be a common sight.

Buttercup thought the cattle were free for the taking, and considered the logistics of taking one home. 

We decided to follow the Colorado River to Moab, and WOW was that great!

Because of the route we took, we were eighty-seven miles between gas stations in an area that was very desolate. Utah Hwy 128 was very hot and dry desert. But we came over a rise to find the Colorado River. We did not expect that. 

The Colorado River

The interplay between the desert and water is fascinating. Here is a river, which flows through the middle of a desert. It is mind boggling too. The Colorado River is what flows through the Grand Canyon.

Along the river, we saw a lot of rafts. However, we were told that the river flow is way down. That makes sense, as the rapids did not look very intimidating. Below is a picture of a dory, what was described as a "MacKenzie Boat," moving down the river. 

As we pushed on to Moab, we entered what appeared to be a small-scale Grand Canyon. The visuals were stunning. 

Hwy 128 ends at Moab, and it was time to feed Magellan. 

The "Tile" Incident

Moab is a town built on the tourist trade: ATVs, bicycles, dirt bikes, mountain climbing, rafting, etc. It is the Fourth of July, it was hot (106 degrees) and parking was limited.

We struck-out trying to find a local place to eat and opted for Wendys. After lunch, Magellan could not find his motorcycle keys. He wears them around his neck on a lanyard like me. 

And like me, he has a "Tile" on his keys - a device that is tied into his mobile phone so that when he hits the button for the Tile on his keys, it plays a song. 

Magellan went back into the Wendys, and could not find his keys anywhere. So he pressed the button to activate his Tile, and the sound came from the pocket of a ~five year old boy. The father asked if the boy had something that belonged to Randal, and Randal explained the Tile. Randal recovered his keys, and left while the dad was imparting some fatherly advice to his son. Thank goodness for Tile. 

Arches National Park

Arches National Park cannot be described on media as the photographs simply do not do it justice. It is something that must be seen. What I found so remarkable is how the rock changed as the shadows cast by the cloud (yes, one cloud) moved across the face. 

In many of the outcroppings, it looked as if some giant had sheared the rock. In some areas, the rock was blue. In other areas, the rock had a reddish tint. 

Delicate Arch:

    The Courtroom

All I can say is that some people really like getting up close and personal to the rock. This truck had Missouri plates.

After we were done seeing Delicate Arch, I returned to my motorcycle. It was dead and would not start.

Harley Davidson motorcycles are horribly engineered. One of Harley's failures is that they cannot get battery technology right. For those of us with Harleys, it is a constant battle. But it is not about the motorcycles - it is about the people, as the next vignette describes. I have reported before on the Harley culture and how it is people helping people. Today could not have been a better example of that. 

Harley Engineering

Over the past year, I had the opportunity to help a stranger. What I thought would be a quick fix turned into a much larger issue. But once I committed to help, I couldn't quit before the job was done and had to see it through. When the matter concluded, the person I helped offered to pay me. I refused, explaining that sometimes you have to do the right thing for the right reasons. I asked them to pay-it-forward. That came back to me today. 

My motorcycle is a thousand pound paperweight at this point. It won't start, the temperature is now 108 degrees. There is no shade and I'm in the middle of a national park. 

I remembered from my dirt riding says that you can push-start a motorcycle. My belief was that the bike could not get enough power to the starter to turn-over the engine. My solution was to tie my bike to another, and by pulling my bike I could let out the clutch, it would turn the engine and the bike would start. While this was a good idea, the problem was that we did not have a rope. 

I saw a truck with a tool box, and asked the family if they had a rope I could borrow - explaining my problem and how I hoped to fix it. The father said he didn't have a rope, but had a thick nylon tie-down that might work. And with that, we set about the task of tethering one Harley to another. 

The family he was traveling with said that he had a rope, and volunteered to let us use his brand new 100' rope. With that, we started to hitch the Harleys together. It was at this point that a lady saw what we were doing. While she was very kind, I think she thought we were insane and summoned a park ranger to help. 

As we are tethering one bike to another, "John" volunteered to help. John was a bear of a man, and had a pickup truck which matched his size. He also has a Harley and seemed to know a lot more about the bike than Magellan, Buttercup or me. And he was a really nice guy. 

After tinkering with the bike for over an hour, John had the seat off, had exposed the battery, and it was about that time that the Park Ranger showed up with a battery pack. The bike started right up and we never had to tow it.

To give you a sense of America on this Fourth of July, we had the two Mexican American families which gave me the tie down and the rope. When I went to return it, they had left. The nice lady who questioned our sanity helped by calling the Park Ranger. Another guy who seemed to know a lot about Harleys helped as well. And Big John parked his family in his truck, was not able to do what he wanted to do so he could help me. And it wasn't just him. it was his whole family. When I handed him a bill to buy him dinner, he refused to take it. He said that he was a "good man" and he helped because it was the right thing to do. A good man would not take the bill. 

Sometimes you need to hit the re-set button to see what this country is all about. Today, I had a poignant reminder. It is about us being one people, pulling in the same direction and helping one another. 

Taps

Given that we had been in the sun for a long time, the temperature was 108 degrees, I was out of water, parched and had stopped sweating; I knew I had to make to our hotel for the night and get my body temperature down. I also wanted the magneto on my bike to put as much power into that battery as possible. I think we broke the world land speed record in the 100 miles to our hotel.

In Blanding, Utah there were two places open for dinner: subway and the A&W at the gas station. So Magellan, Buttercup and I settled in for our coney dog and root beer in the station lobby. 

Not being satisfied with his dinner, Buttercup found a cherry tree and was harvesting his dessert.

Magellan found a new circle of friends around the fire pit.

We rode 282 miles today. We're disappointed that we missed so much of Arches. But tomorrow, assuming that Harley engineering holds up, we will be seeing a lot of Capital Reef National Park.