GST Day 16 - Comanche, TX to Tyler, TX - 238 miles

After an early start, we completed the last leg of the trip today. No muss. No fuss. No problems other than high temps (91*) in the last two hours.

What a trip. 16 days. 4,323 miles. Five states. Six National Parks and Monuments. And the most amazing roads and natural wonders I’ve ever seen. Dusty is a dirty girl, but that can wait a day or so.

GST Day 15 - Lubbock, TX to Comanche, TX - 258 miles

Energy is big business in Texas. While known for our oil and gas, another big energy play that’s been underway over the last 10-15 years is wind energy. Today, we rode through the two largest onshore wind farm projects in the world.

The Roscoe Wind Farm (RWF), the largest onshore wind farm in the world. It is situated 45 miles northwest of Abilene. RWF is owned and operated by Germany-based E.ON Climate and Renewables (EC&R). With an installed capacity of 781.5MW, RWF exceeds the capacity of the previously largest Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center (735.5MW) located in Taylor and Nolan counties southwest of Abilene. The RWF plant is situated on 100,000 acres of land, primarily used for cotton farming, stretching into the three counties of Mitchell, Nolan and Scurry. The site is leased from dryland cotton farmers. (Background information sourced from power-technology.com). I’ve seen these blades being trucked down I-20 for years. They are 116’ long!

Quite impressive, though the wind turbines do tend to ruin the skyline of the area. Another large wind farm is near Amarillo and I’ve seen signs there protesting the expansion of wind farms.

I’ve done pretty good on eating right while on the trip. But today, I fell for the locally raised and hand-prepared, chicken fried steak at Buck’s Steak and BBQ in Sweetwater. I opted for the petite portion and was thankful I did, as it was a little difficult to stay awake for the ride afterwards! The wife was not impressed that I selected steamed broccoli and a salad as the sides.

We had to ride a little of the slab today, approximately 40 miles between Sweetwater and Abilene. I think that brings the total slab miles to ~80 out of ~4,200 miles total. I think we took the right roads along the way...

Tomorrow, we make the last leg to our home, Camp Run-a-Muk. I’m already plotting the next adventure.

GST Day 14 - Santa Fe, NM to Lubbock, TX - 325 miles

Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by the sights seen along the way...a taste of the very best this great country has to offer. But this is all I saw today as we crossed New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle.

The. Entire. Way.

But it ended well...

GST Day 13 - Bluff, UT to Santa Fe, NM - 309 miles

The road out of Bluff followed the San Juan River, showcasing the desert terrain at it’s best. We made the obligatory stop at Four Corners, paying our final stipend to the Navajo Nation.

Just outside of Cuba, NM, we headed into the Jemez Mountains towards Los Alamos Labs, in hopes of touring the Bradbury Science Museum before it closed. Unfortunately, we ran late and weren’t able to make it before they closed. But we did ride through Los Alamos Labs...looks like something cool happens there, so it will be on the mulligan list next time I’m in the area.

We found a great (affordable) boutique hotel in Old Town Santa Fe and were able to walk the streets before dinner. Cool place. We had originally planned a day of respite in Santa Fe, but decided to point towards East Texas in the morning. Sadly, it was the splitting point for Scott and Karen, as they were flying home out of Albuquerque (shipping the bike back to Charlotte due to schedule conflicts). The official end to the F&%k It, Let’s Ride mancation.

 But Liz and I still have miles to go...

GST Day 12 - Torrey, UT to Bluff, UT - 249 miles

Torrey is a sleepy little town, but we were joined by several friendly BMW adventure bikers at Austin’s Chuckwagon Motel. They tour the area two times a year and were generous with advice about the roads and road conditions. I think I overheard one snicker when I politely declined to ride my fully loaded Road Glide Ultra over Burr Trail, supposedly a 30-mile dirt road through the canyons. Everyone in my party thought I was a little crazy booking the place, but it turned out to be a great little place to rest our heads.

We got an early start and headed out for Capitol Reef National Park. About 10 miles down the road, two idiot lights began to glow - check engine and coolant temperature. We stopped at a pull-over spot and I checked the coolant level. It was full. No leaks or crimps in the line. Hmmm. No indications of trouble on the previous day. Possible air lock?

I started it back up and the lights were off, so we headed down the road. Just as we reached the Capital Reef Visitors Center, the idiot lights came back on. We pulled-in and found a shady spot to begin further diagnosis. I noticed the fans were not running, so I began unloading and dismantling the left saddlebag to get access to the fuse box. Well, that generated some attention from several other Harley riders and the Brotherhood of Shade Tree Mechanics - Torrey Chapter was officially formed. The fuse looked fine. Relay looked fine and the horn still operated (shared relay). Checked the manual for recommended troubleshooting steps and the only ones left required more diagnosis than I could do on the road, e.g., thermostat or fan gone bad.

The good news is there were three H-D dealers an equal distance away. The bad news is that distance was ~150 miles. And we had no cell coverage. I decided to return to the motel where we would have access to food, shelter, cell coverage, and Internet.

Anything can be solved via the Internet, right?

Once back at the motel, we went into action. The wife checked to see if rooms were available and Scott and I began to search the Internet for diagnostic codes and other related matters. I called my favorite Indie tech back home to see if he had any ideas. Nope, not that familiar with the Rushmore bikes. I checked for diagnostic codes...none stored. Hmmm. That should rule out the fan motors, coolant pump, and thermostat.

Must be the fuse.

So I went over to the general store that’s part of the Austin’s Chuckwagon Motel enterprise and bought a pack of fuses, should have had those in the tool kit anyway. I then called Bob, the service advisor at Grand Junction H-D, one of the three “nearby” dealers. Bob advised that if the fuse replacement didn’t solve the problem, just disconnect the coolant pump and ride it in for service. Since the coolant only cools the exhaust manifold, no further damage would occur as long as we kept moving.

Fortunately, the fuse replacement did the trick.

The ride into Bluff, UT included a fantastic view of the upper Glen Canyon @ Hite (recall the Glen Canyon Dam), where the Colorado River is but a stream. What a panoramic view!

So Bluff was a compromise. The motel in Mexican Hat was booked and Bluff was the next town on the map. But what a surprise!

We found a gem of a hotel in Desert Rose Inn and Resort, a little place on the Navajo Reservation. The rooms were comfortable and the restaurant, Dukes, was awesome. Scott and Karen treated us to dinner as a thanks for all the route planning. I had the best NY Filet that I’ve ever had and the breakfast was outstanding. And the view from the room were very nice.

Despite the rough start and three hour delay, we thoroughly enjoyed Capital Reef NP, the moonscape that followed, the Upper Glen Canyon views, and the final ride into Bluff. Unfortunately, the delay meant we had to forego the side trip to Monument Valley. Our Forrest Gump photo opportunity will have to wait until the next time.

GST Day 11 - Springdale, UT to Torrey, UT - 238 miles

We were joined by Jake and his lovely wife, Saint Megan. I call her a saint because: 1) she has birthed and raised five well-balanced children; 2) they live in motorcycle heaven; and 3) she seems to keep Jake in-line, which I suspect is a life-long, full time job. Seriously, they were a joy to meet and we had a great time hangin’ with them all day. Jake has a great sense of humor and isn’t shy about sharing it. They rode with us all the way to Torrey, then pointed back towards Apple Valley, making a very long day of riding for them...over 470 miles.

Touring Zion NP, Bryce Canyon NP, and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is like visiting three different planets in one day. Incredible ride. Amazing views. As we approached Torrey, we chased a thunderstorm and got into a few sprinkles, but nothing could ruin the day.

GST Day 10 - Page, AZ to Springdale, UT via Zion NP - 178 miles

DAYUM! As in the Glen Canyon Dam is huge!

Our first stop of the day was the engineering marvel that made Lake Powell possible. It is hard for me to fathom the amount of planning and building talent that went into constructing such an amazing structure. They truly are the Greatest Generation. The catchment area for the lake are mountains spread over four states upstream.

Yes, that is grass at the base of the dam!

We then went downstream to the Navajo Bridge Visitors Center to catch a few more pics of the river, including some of rafters headed towards the Cliff Dwellings. Beautiful sights.

Apparently, the foreign tourists have made a mess of things in the past.

Great little restaurant in the middle of nowhere.

With a view!

I had done a tremendous amount of research in planning the trip, but hadn’t shared many of the details of the specific sights to be seen with the other parties of the ride. I wanted to see and hear their expressions as the beauty that God (or Mother Nature, if you believe otherwise) made for them was unveiled.

As Karen (Scott’s wife) exclaimed, “Zion National Park ROCKS...literally.” I tend to agree...

Views from the hotel parking lot.

GST Day 9 - Flagstaff to Page via the Grand Canyon - 219 miles

Even stupid drivers take vacation...

We weren’t two miles out of Flagstaff when two oncoming cars entered the passing lane in front of us and nearly took out both bikes. Great way to start the day. Sadly, there would be similar occurrences several times throughout the day as we maneuvered the crowds in and around the Grand Canyon National Park.

We stopped for a rest stop at the Valle Travel Stop, which included Route 66 memorabilia and Indian crafts. I chose to focus on fuel and the memorabilia...

Knowing we would have no time to take tours into the canyon and not enough $$ to fly OVER the canyon (some of those tours are over $300/pp), my brother suggested we stop in at the Visitors Center in Tusayan to watch the National Geographic produced IMAX movie about the canyon. Glad we did, as it provided a good history lesson on the Indians who lived there and the explorers who finally tamed the waters of the Colorado River which carved the canyon. It was also a good excuse for a lunch break. Oh, and a tip for you lady readers, the bathroom lines are a lot shorter at the Wendy’s a couple of doors down.

Once inside the park gates, the parking lots were full at at the Grand Canyon Village and Visitors Center. Hoping most of the idiots had been called to gather in that one place, we looped back around and began the journey east along Desert View Drive, stopping at several of the viewing points. The Grand Canyon is....well, grand. I’ll let the pics do the talking.

The ride into Page delivered some beautiful scenery. The Infotainment GPS wanted me to take Route 89T, but I wasn’t sure it’s paved all the way through. Happy hour was calling, so we proceeded with the more direct routing, but a later review indicates it would have been a great road. We enjoyed a great dinner at El Tapatio Mexican Restaurant in Page.