vacation2000
vacation2000
Ride to Phoenix

Grand Canyon or Bust!

Day 1... Monday May 8th:

Our Friends Gary and Sharon Winslow were planning to visit Gary's son in Phoenix. Their daughter Deena and her man Pete were also planning on going. We mentioned that we had always wanted to go to the grand canyon and they graciously said we could tag along! Next thing you know another friend Lenny decided to go too! Since everyone but Butch and I live in Spokane, we decided to meet up with them at the Coeur d' Alene Casino to head south towards Boise.

Deena had bike trouble right off the "batt". Her stator was going south just like we were...lol...and her battery went dead before she got out of Spokane. Pete had to go buy a new battery before they could leave town and it made them a little late getting to the casino, but we still managed to start rolling south together from the casino by about 11 a.m.

We stopped for gas in Lewiston and got hit by a shower between Lewiston and Grangeville. The ride over Whitebird was ok, but the rain continued to get heavier. Gary almost bought the farm nearing Riggins when a semi trying to pass someone hauling a mobile home nearly ran him...and us..into the salmon river. Fortunately we squeaked through.

by the time we got to New Meadows it was raining pretty good and in some areas it was snow! Deena's battery was dead again...sigh. it was nearing 5 pm so we haulled ass up the hill to McCall and made it to a napa auto parts store barely before closing and got her a new battery. We were all getting hungry, but we decided to hold off 'til Boise to eat so we kept going and rolled into the place I used to own in Boise about 7:30 p.m. We were all starving by then, so we hurried up to the all-you-can-eat buffet before they closed and left the setup of the tents til return. It was so late and getting dark by the time we got back so I forgot to take a pic of us all at my place :-( (but this is what it looked like)

Day 2...Tuesday May 9th:

The next day Pete was lucky enough to find a used stator for Deena's bike at the Motorcycle salvage yard in Garden city. While he was taking care of that Gary and Butch and Lenny and I ran some other errands. Lenny was looking for something at Radio Shack, and Gary needed to get some pillows (they had forgotten theirs). We all got back to my place about 11 a.m. and were definately ready for breakfast. We rode up to the Perkins pancake house near the freeway south out of Boise. After a tasty breakfast we headed south.

The rain had stopped and the day looked promising, but the wind got worse as we got further south. We took 184 south to Twin Falls then on down to Wells, Nevada. We almost made it to Wells but just a few miles short of town Deena ran out of gas. No problem because we always carry a little spare gas, and it gave me a chance for a great shot of the mountains at sunset.

Even though we all had tent trailers, the wind was pretty bad and it was quite cold, there was still a lot of snow on the mountain above Wells so we stayed the nite at the Super8 in Wells.

Day 3...Wednesday...May 10th:

We ate breakfast at a casino in Wells and headed on towards Ely. It was chilly and snowing on the mountain by Wells, but by the time we got to Ely it had warmed up and the weather problem became WIND! Also by now Pete had discovered something wrong with his bike (BIG RED) It was guzzling gas big time. He decided that since the next leg of the trip cut across 200 miles of desert with no gas stations in sight that it would be a real good idea to buy a bigger gas can and carry more gas! We strapped the new gas container to the top of our trailer and headed east over the mountains into Utah.

we passed thru the Wahwah mountains

and then on past the mineral mtns.

It was a darn good thing Pete bought that gas can because he did indeed run out of gas in the middle of the desert! In this shot you can see him begging the gas god for fuel... :-).

We continued on into Southwest Utah and the wind got worse and worse. You can see in this picture the dust storm we are about to ride into.

We rode leaning into the wind for several hours. The dust storm was so bad we could barely see the road in some places and my helmet visor was so pulverized you couldn't see through it any more. Since the wind was blowing at least 50 miles an hour we didnt think the tents would hold up so again we opted for the luxury of a motel. We spent the nite at the Stag Motel in Beaver, Utah...had a relaxing drink and a bath...

while Pete struggled to figure out what was ailing "Big Red"

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