Cross Country on a Busa

[Frenchy750]

I wanted to add a story that Dan told last night.

Dan left San Fransisco on Sunady, and stopped in Zion National Park for the night. AFter dinner and cocktails, he was walking back to his motel when he noticed a guy in a Joe Rocket jacket hurriedly walking up the road.

Dan asked him what was going on, and the guy told his story.

Evidently, the guy was popped for doing 120 in the Nevada desert. Those roads are so straight and flat you can see for hundreds of miles, but this unlucky guy had to pick the one time there was a slight rise in the road to crank up the speed. Of course, as anybody knows, that's exactly the time the cop will be coming over the rise in the oposite direction. The cop throws on his lights and does a U turn.

Now the guy freaks out, not only because he was speeding, but also because he has some weed in his tank bag. He notes the mile marker - 79 - and, since the bag is magnetic, he throws it off the bike.

He then pulls over and the police officer asks for identification. The guy suddenly realizes two things. First, his wallet and cell phone were in the tank bag, and the weed was actually in his backpack, which the officer was just then searching.

Long story short, the bike gets impounded, the guy goes to jail, and after geting released was walking back from mile marker 86 to retrieve his belongings.

There is a lesson in here somewhere.....

 

[abnormal]

that's hilarious!

 

[Frenchy750]

This day was the best day by far. Only 221 miles, but WHAT MILES THEY WERE!! Leaving Grand Junction the temperature was cool, but comfortable. We took the Cisco exit off Route 70 in Utah, and all I can say is the sides of the tires are FINALLY getting used! The roads were incredible, and the scenery, WOW!!

We rode along the Colorado river, surrounded by huge reddish cliffs. It was all I could do to keep the bike on the road with so much to see.

Arches National Park was more of the same. Amazing scenic vistas, it was.. it's hard to put into words. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to get pictures on here yet... but then again we're still in the middle of the ride. Until I do learn how to add pics, I'll shamelessly plug my blog one more time at http://frenchysrant.blogspot.com/ in the meantime, because I know how to post pics there.

Anyway, back to the story. We ended the day in the aptly named town of Blanding, UT. When we asked at the motel office where a good place to eat was, she replied, "We've got two restaurants here, and they're both about the same."

She was right. They were both awful.

Tomorrow - Bryce Canyon.

 

[Frenchy750]

Internet access is hard to come by in the midde of Utah. Incidently, so is alcohol...

As we were gearing up to get the hell out of Blanding, a rider on a BMW touring bike pulled into the parking lot to say hello. I wish I had my camera handy, this guy's bike was something to see. He had a CB radio, a GPS, a radar detector, a water bottle, XM radio and a heavily modified rear end. most of the rear frame had been cut and an extra six gallon gas tank was mounted where the passenger seat would have been. He said he has a five hundred mile range.

Good for him I guess.

After spending the night in Blanding, we headed for Natural Bridges National Park. Route 95 is a road that just begged for some speed, and my throttle hand was getting itchy anyway, so I left our little group behind.

I stopped to wait near the entrance to Natural Bridges... and waited... and waited.... then I started to get that sick feeling. I turned around to go find Dan and Abi, as they came around a corner. A buck had jumped out of the brush in front of Abi, fortunately he was able to avoid it.

It's worth mentioning that Abi is still a vegetarian in good standing. That was our closest encounter with wildlife.

The town of Hanksville receives and annual rainfall of about five inches. While we were slogging thorough the Rockies in our fancy U-Haul, Hanksville was flooding with four inches of rain in a single day. We were concerned about road closures, and everyone we asked had a different opinion on what may or may nit be closed. (one thing I've learned is local people WANT to be helpful, but more often than not, they aren't.)

We decided to try and get through Hanksville. There really weren't many other options, so we went for it. We passed Lake Powell, the second largest man made lake in the world, according to the sign. There were signs of recent flooding on huge red clay splotches crossing the road, but the roads were all passable, even on a Busa.

Pulling into Hanksville for lunch, we learned that Route 24 was open in one direction, and that two days earlier, the whole town was under water. Flood damage was extensive, a motel and some cars were still partially submerged.

We met two couples in Hankville that had trailered their dirtbikes all the way from Tennessee to ride in Hanksville. They weren't able to ride because of the spongy mud, and, disappointed, were turning around to make the long drive home. Fortunately for us we were able to press on.

Our day ended in Torrey at the fantastic Rim Rock Inn.

The beer in Utah might only be 3.2 percent alcohol, but the wine is full strength, as our experiments confirmed.

Four hundred fifty miles in two days on the back of a Hayabusa, and my girlfriend hadn't complained once.

Of course there were still five hundred miles to go...

 

[Projekt]

Can't wait to see the final installment.

 

[Frenchy750]

With two days to go, we started out on one of the best roads I have evere had the pleasure of riding on. Route 12 in Utah is almost reason enough to move there... if only the beer was full strength!!

Ah well.

Sweeping curve after sweeping curve... Route 12 would be perfect if it weren't for the threat of deer and - believe it or not - cows in the road. I don't really understand the concept of 'Open Range', except that it means that cows can end up sitting in the midle of the road... not exactly something you want to see at full lean.

Fortunately, the five cows that we passed were content grazing at the edge of the road, looking up at us as we passed. The last time I road Route 12, a deer and I eyeballed each other as I was decending from 9000 feet. I could almost read the dumb creature's mind as I closed in on it.

"Hmm... look at that... it's white... and moving kinda fast... uhh... Is it food? Hmm... food... I'm hungry... I bet the grass over there is greener..."

And then the damn thing jumped right out into the road. I missed it by about two feet.

That was a fun day.

Anyway... we made our way to Bryce Canyon. Dan decided that we were stopping too much for his taste, and told us he was going to head home a different way.

After doing multiple five hundred mile days, and with my girlfriend - who'd until this trip hadn't ridden 100 miles - now into her third day... and feeling a little sore... we weren't into rushing the end of our trip. Our slower place allowed us to enjoy the remaining time, which suited the three of us perfectly.

Parting company, we rode up to Bryce Canyon, one of the most spectacular places I have ever seen. Gigantic orange, pink and beige 'hoodoos' jut out of the ground... it really is a magnificent place. I wish we had about three days to spend exploring, but we only had one day left to make it to Los Angeles... and... back to the the dreaded 'W' word.

Though we were starting to suffer from 'scenery overload' Zion National Park lay ahead. After a while the ol' brain just stopped comprehending what I was seeing. And the ol' liver started requesting some hi-test Guinness... so we did the obligatory cruise through Zion, then made a bee line for Nevada.

We made it to Mesquite, NV - the home of the buffet from hell - and managed to lose the rest of our gas money in a lousy casino.

The last day brings tears, damage, rain, a detour and more.

(I'd finish this tonight, but I am still at the dreaded 'W' word... work... and getting sleeeeeepy...)

 

[Cuffee]

WOW

 

[LadyHawk]

Dude... what a tease.. ya gotta finish the story!!

 

[Frenchy750]

The morning of the last day of our trip started out as expected. Which, of course means it was raining. Abi, Fiona and i decided that we'd try and endure a buffet breakfast at the hotel, in the hopes that the rain would pass.

It didn't. This would be Fiona's first (hopefully not last) day of riding in the rain. I asked her if she was ready for it, and she replied, "Yeah, it'll be fun."

Fun.

Exactly what the ride wasn't.

As we headed for Vegas, the skies darkened once more, and a HUGE crosswind tried to blow us off the highway.

"Having fun back there honey?"

"Err... sure. Can we get hit by lightning on this thing?"

"Yes... why?"

"Oh."

I have to stop for a second and say that I met Fiona five months ago. She'd never been on a motorcycle before, and certainly never done anything like this trip. I was a little nervous about how she'd handle the trip and how she'd deal with the stock back seat. For over 700 miles in four days of riding 'bitch', she never once bitched, at least to me.

And now it looked like we were heading into Armageddon. The temperature dropped, the winds swirled, and then... the rains came. Heavy, soaking rains that feel like someone is throwing golf balls at your helmet type of rain.

In the middle of the storm, I snuck a peek back at her, and she was... laughing. Having a great time. This girl is nuts.

After a half hour of dodging cats and dogs and lightning bolts and golf balls, the skies suddenly cleared.

Las Vegas was the last obstacle in our path.

We did the obligatory Strip cruise, made up for missing the 'Welcome to Nevada' sign at the border by posing at the "Fabulous Las Vegas' sign. I managed to leave Vegas without riding through the Wedding Chapel... this time at least.

We stopped again at the border to get the last 'Welcome to..." picture. Ahh, California... WE MADE IT! WE pulled off into the Stateline rest area to fill up, where I suffered the only motorcycle damage of the whole trip.

Getting ready to leave the gas station, I grabbed the clutch lever, pulled it in... and the tip of the lever simply fell off.

Yup, 3500 miles and that was the worst thing that happened to the bike. Annoying, but in the grand scheme of things... it could have been worse.

Then it was time to drop the hammer down I-15 (or, if you are a Californian... 'the 15') So drop the hammer we did, keeping the needle in triple digits to get to Los Angeles.

As the speedo needle stayed above 100, the gas gauge needle was periously close to 'E', and there's not much in the way of gas stations out that way. Fortunately for us, in a town that could easily double as the set for a horror film, we found an open station.

Full of fuel, we only had one more problem to overcome. For reasons that a guy from the East Coast will never understand, The California Department of Chaos decided to close 'the 15' - the exact highway we needed to get home - 25 miles from the end of our journey. This minor inconvenience added about 40 miles to the trip.

Of course there were about fifteen billion others that were also minorly inconvenienced, and they were stopped in a huge traffic jam. Again, for reasons that I don't fully understand, California allows motorcycled to 'lane split' or ride on the white lines between two lanes. Now, I've only lane split once before, and it's scary. But the other alternative was waiting forever to get through, so we went for it.

I glanced back again at Fiona, and she wasn't laughing anymore. "I'm sore and I want to get off this damn thing." Though she won't admit it now, she was crying.

3500 miles. From Niagara Falls to corn fields, through rain, cold, a U-Haul, Utah, more rain and a detour, we made it.

I can't wait to ride my Hayabusa back to Rhode Island in the spring. For now though, Fiona and I will be content exploring California... with a new Corbin rear seat of course!

 

[Mr Brown]

Awesome story, thanks for sharing.

 

[busa1300nut]

Great read and story, thank,s for shareing.

 

[Big Wall]

Great write up. Thank you!

 

[slimshady]

awesome write up. glad y'all had a safe trip.

 

[LadyHawk]

Woot!!

Thanks for finishing it.

I'm expecting a story in the spring.

 

[Projekt]

Outstanding.. You will grow to love the ability to lane split. Just remember that you can only do it about 20 mph over the speed of the automotive traffic. Otherwise a CHP may chase you down.. Oh hahaha forget it they'll be stuck in traffic too, but watch for those CHP BMW boxer twins.. They might be standing by on the Road side. Reach out to BUSAHAYA and Eynlai. They are both .org'rs and live in Greater LA. They'll take you to a decent Sushi joint in Little Tokyo..