Birthday Ride to Moab 5-2012

For about the last five years Linda has put together a Birthday ride for me, normally it’s in Lava Hot Springs but this year she decided to move it to Moab because it’s a little warmer there.

Because of various issues  with family or motorcycles the only people who attended this year was Brent and Deanna.  Funny thing is we still had just as much fun as when we had Ten or Fifteen.

This picture is kind of dark so you might have to click on it to see the view from the Red Cliff’s lodge where we had my birthday dinner.  This picture really doesn’t do the view justice because it is so beautiful.  If you get the chance go have dinner and sit on the deck the view is amazing.

The ride started out at the South Valley Harley Davidson while we were waiting for Brent and Deanna we started talking to this couple from Oregon they were riding to Grand Junction and going through Moab on their way so we asked them if they wanted to ride with us.  We did warn them that we always take the longest route but they wanted to see a little of Utah and joined us.

Here we are with Deanna, Brent, Linda and David (don’t call me Dave) and Christy.

Here is the route we took (thanks Brent for road bossing)

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The route was great and weather was fantastic for the ride, David and Christy loved the route so they decided to stay in Moab with us.  We didn’t get to Moab until about 7:30 that night and hotel was sold out.  I told them that my brother just canceled his room and I’m sure they charged him for the room because they have a 48 hour cancelation policy.  So I fought with them for a while because they did not have Mike down at all for a room so David and Christy found one right across the street because they had one cancelation two minutes before they walked in and asked.  good thing Mike didn’t come down with us because he would not have had a room either.

Saturday morning we rode out to the News Paper rock because Brent and Deanna had never  been there and on to the Needles visitors center.

This is the view from the Needles Visitor Center.

Here’s Linda, Brent and Deanna from the Over look viewing area.  I will tell you the Canyon Lands are so beautiful and every viewing point is different.

The ride into the Needles Visitors Center is about 48 miles one way I think the better viewing area is from the the Needles over look area it’s about fifteen miles closer to Moab and only about 25 miles in and I would tell you the view is much better

If you click on this picture you will see what I’m talking about this area is amazing.

From there we rode over the La Sal mountain loop it’s about a 50 mile loop that is beautiful I didn’t take any pictures because they also had the Red Rock Race going on while we were riding.  Looking back I wish they would have just closed the road because with all of the runners and their SAG vehicles there was no room even for our bikes to get around.  So we didn’t stop to take pictures we were just glad we got through it without running anyone over or tipping our bikes over.

That evening we went over to the Castle Creek winery and took the tour.  If you’re interested in taking the tour I would call first because if they are not making the wine you only get to watch a five minute video but the wine tasting was good.

Linda made dinner reservations at the Red Cliffs Lodge for dinner and it was fantastic.  The evening was perfect the view was perfect and the food was perfect.  Like  I said if you get the chance I would book a dinner reservation.

Because it was Mother’s Day the ride home was just a straight shot home on HWY 6

It was a great ride thanks Linda for pulling it all together!!!

Cancun March 2012

Our Annual trip to Cancun this is the third year in a row we have gone to Temptations all inclusive resort.    We are thinking we will continue to make this a yearly event every year we find new things to do and meet so many fun people.

Here we are just getting a beverage.  Most of the time we had our butler get them for us.  I love this place they gave us our own Butler and wow this dude was on top of our drinks I think he asked us about five minutes if we needed another drink.  Funny thing about this trip to the bar is he  chastised us  for getting our own drinks.

This is the pool I love the resorts because the entertainment is fun the food was great and the drinks were even better.  We started every morning with breakfast and our coffee with Bailey’s.  Then we move on to our Bloody Mary’s and then to Vodka and Grapefruit and then in the evenings we pretty much stayed with wine.

We met some really great people on this trip that have become pretty good friends.  I guess we are all meeting back at Temptations next year we also have a few trips planned to get together in the summer.

These are the “50″ girls all three just turned 50.  This is Linda, Michelle and Julie.  Funny thing is we met Michelle and her husband last year, as soon as we saw her she ran over and said “we have to exchange information so we can book the same time next year”.

Here we are having dinner with Tim and Katie.  Great couple and they were a lot of fun to hang with.

Here we are with Randy and Tammy these guys were a blast.  They are from North Carolina and what a hoot, these guys could party and I don’t think they could have to much fun.  Linda and I could not last as long as they could.

This is Ian and Jessica they were also a lot of fun Ian is from Belize and he reminded me of my brother, the dude got along with everyone and he was so much fun to be around.  I think Jessica’s job was to keep Ian out of trouble.  It seemed like every time we saw Jessica she asked us if we had seen Ian…

Here we all are having dinner.

Here we all are at the “all white” party with some of the other friends we made while we were there.

On Saturday we decided to rent one of the yachts they have there.  We had a good time and for four hours they only charged us $300.00 and they took us any where we wanted to go.  We asked them to take us to where the money is on the island.

The first yacht with it’s side to us is the one we rented.  It comes with a Captain and a First Mate who can make a mean bloody mary and anything else you might want.

Here we all are on the back of the boat.  Most of the time we rode on the bow.

A few of the folks on the bow

Linda and I just hanging out.

We spent most of the boat ride right here on the front of the boat.

 

El Capitan Rick….

We found the “money” and one of the small run-a-bout boats.

This one has it’s own Helicopter and ski boat that fits in the back.

We stopped in a cool little cove and just swam in the warm water for a while.  This is Randy and Tammy.

Every morning our maid would make a new design with our towels and put them on our bed, this is one of them

Great trip we met some great friends and had a fantastic time.

Death Valley Ride 2/2012

This ride was created for a number of reasons one it was Linda’s Birthday weekend two Deb had just got clearance from her Doctor to ride three Brent and Deanna wanted to get on their bike.  So the six of us decided this was the weekend to go put some miles on our bikes.  We really didn’t care where we went as long at it was warmer than SLC.  Death Valley is always warm so it was a pretty easy decision for us.

We started the ride with everyone meeting Linda and I in Mesquite for a sleep over at our condo.  What I love about our neighbors in Mesquite is there’s a rule about parking trailers in the complex “No over night parking”… But because they all like our bikes and think they are pretty cool they made an exception for us and they let us park both trailers in no parking areas for the weekend.  I love this place.

Like I said the night started with a sleep over we had all six of us in the condo, it did not seem to crowded at all but it was like a sleep over for kids because everyone was laughing so hard and we finally went to bed about midnight.  Funny thing was I woke up to Deb, John and Brent laughing so I wondered if they even went to bed.

This is the route we took

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What I liked about this route is we pretty much stayed off the freeways.

We started off the ride by finding a new place for breakfast The Muddy River Bar and Grill in Moapa Valley.  what a cool place the food was great and the poor server was all by herself but seem to do a great job  I think Linda and I will be back for a afternoon ride and grab a burger and a beer.

Here is John, Deb, Brent, Linda and Deanna infront of the Muddy Creek Bar and Grill.

Here we are at Breakfast

We had a little bet on how many miles it was until the next gas station.  Good thing was I won the bet… Bad new was Linda lost the bet, so I still had to pay for beers.  Something is not right here.

On our way to Beatty we stopped at Area 51 and the local Cat House.

Here’s Brent standing by the newest Cat house soon to come.

We ended up staying at the Stage Coach Hotel in Beatty the hotel is good for $49.00 but I would recommend eating at the KC’s Outpost just down the street.  They have great food and fantastic desserts.. Although like other rides we have been on, we were laughing so hard and making so much noise they gave us our own room to eat in.  They are so nice.

The ride to Death Valley was a little cold 40 degrees cold in the morning as we turned off to Scott’s Castle Brent decided it was time to see how fast we wanted to ride our bikes.  Deb had her’s going 105, Linda had her’s over a 100 as did Brent I took mine to 118 and the bike felt like it was lifting up and getting very light but I was only at 5,000 RPM’s but it still scared me enough to shut it down.

Here we are at Death Valley it was sooooooo nice to warm up.

This is me just enjoying the weather while gathering some much needed vitamin D.  February 80 degrees we did not want to leave anytime soon.

Great picture of Deanna, Deb and Linda

We made it to Boulder Nevada just in time before the sun went down.  We stayed at the Boulder Dam Inn.  This is a very cool hotel and I would recommend staying there.  The rooms are great, they have the best breakfast that is complementary that I have every had.

Here we are in the lobby of the hotel just getting ready to head out to dinner and to celebrate Linda’s “50th” Birthday.

Here we are at dinner. I would recommend The Milo’s Cellar This was great place because they have great wines and fantastic small plates.

Linda’s cake that Brent and Deanna picked up.

I knew after enough wine Brent would take it out on the local animals

It was neck and neck for a while but Brent finally won out.

It seems like every ride is as good or better than the last one but like I have said before its not where you go but who you go with that makes the ride.

2011 and the time we spent on our bikes

 

Linda and I spent a lot of time on our bike in 2011 mostly because we just needed to stay busy and to keep our minds always looking forward to something.

But in a nutshell we were in California, Nevada, Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah we hit most of those states multiple times we also took our bikes internationally to Mexico. 

So what did we get for riding all of those miles in 2011 besides mental health and some great times with friends and family.

Linda took first place in the Ladies of Harley with 17,466 miles Carol took second and Janell took third

I took third place out of the men with 17,685 miles I only missed first place by 10,000… dang you have to ride in this HOG group to get first place.  I guess I will have reset goals and work on first place when I can either win the lottery or retire. 

I took a little time and penciled out some of the expenses to riding just the basics to keep the bike running and in working order.

Now these numbers are for both bikes so I rounded the numbers a little but you will get the idea.

35,151 miles at 40 mile to the gallon at $4.00 a gallon $3,515.00

5 back tires installed $1,475.00

3 front tires installed $705.00

four 5K maintenances 1,400.00

four 10K maintenances 1,800.00

Total to keep the wheels turning $8,895.00

I didn’t not calculate food, hotels, Taxes, Insurance and all of the chrome and bling over the year.  So just to keep the wheels turning it cost us just under 9K… Now when I add in the entertainment factor, friendships and mental health it is all worth it.  Heck just for the theropy it gives me it’s worth the 9K.

Rocky Point Mexico 2011

Brent and Deanna and Linda and I at one of our favorite watering holes at Rocky Point.

We have had this trip planned for months it always comes down to let’s go to Sturgis and Linda and I always say if you want to go on a rally let’s go to Rocky Point.  I have to think that Brent and Deanna will now say the same thing.  It is just so hard to pass up a motorcycle rally with a beach and great hotels to stay in.

The trip started with Linda and I riding our bikes from Mesquite to Phoenix, Brent and Deanna had some time restrictions so they flew down and rented a car.  The car later proved to be the best idea.  It was so nice just parking our bikes at the resort and taking the car everywhere.

Here we are at the Best Western in Goodyear AZ.  While we were waiting for Brent and Deanna to arrive we met up with some people from Alberta who were a lot of fun to hang with.  These guys sold everything they had moved in with their son and are now looking for a place in AZ to retire.  I wish I had the stones to just sell everything start enjoying the good life of retirement.  Although I think Linda and I have done a pretty good job this year of staying busy and taking every advantage of every trip we could possibly go on this year, we have put a lot of miles on our motorcycles.

The ride down to Rocky Point is fun and scenic and believe it or not there is not a lot of traffic on the road even though it’s the only road that goes that way from Phoenix.

The organizers of the rally started the ride out with a “poker run” So the first stop was in Why Arizona that is where we picked up our cards and got our first stamp.  I guess they didn’t instruct the folks at the stops how a poker run works.  We stopped in and they gave us our cards and said “mark off the spot you want”…. Brent and looked at each other and said I guess we both want ace’s.  then we thought I guess everyone is going to show up with five ace’s and they will have ten thousand poker cards with five ace’s so we decided not to play.

Getting through the border was not problem they just waved us through so it was no big deal.  The 60 mile ride from there is not that great nothing to see but desert and cactus.

Linda booked us a master suite with an attached room for Brent and Deanna at the Mayan Palace Resort in Rocky Point it’s about 15 miles away from down town Rocky Point but it is beautiful  They have several swimming pools and it is right on the beach.

The Mayan Palace is beautiful and we will definitely stay here again although they did some real issues with the hot water and water pressure there.

Here we are just sitting on the beach having our morning coffee and watching the waves come in.  We felt like we were the only people at the resort it was fantastic.

The rally it’s self is fun and we found that the food was even better, we did not have one bad meal while we were there.  If you go down take full advantage of the fresh fish, shrimp, clams and oysters they are fantastic.

The rally takes place at the fish market and as you can see there are people everywhere even sitting on the roof tops to see all of the bikes as well as women whose tops just seem to come up.

This is one of my favorite gals right here

If you click on the picture you can see she might be a little saggy.

Now these are beer bongs, I have to think with the gravity behind the beers you can almost drink and pee at the same time.  I cannot even imagine how fast that beer is coming at you.

Here’s Brent and I with some of the local talent.

Saturday night it rained, no big deal right… but not here we got a call from the resort telling us it rained and we should stay there today we all looked at each other and said so what it rained last night let’s go.  Rock Point doesn’t get much rain but when they do the roads flood.

This is what the roads looked like as we drove out of our resort.  it had to be two feet deep.

So what happens when you have a car and deep water… what else you go play in it.  Here is Brent racing through the puddle.

This car was not so fortunate.  She stalled out in the middle of the pond in the street.

It took three days for the water to dry up and even when they did, the roads that were not paved were still very slippery.  Let me tell you Linda and I thought we were riding on ice on our way out because the mud has so much clay in it.

Brent was thinking about retiring and becoming a professional wrestler.  I think his stage name is the Horny Goat!!!

We were told there was a cool fishing port about 60 miles south of the resort so we decide to go see it on Monday.  It seemed like we drove forever and there was no fishing port.  But the real problem was Linda drank three cups of coffee before our little adventure and there was not a bathroom in sight.

Just before her bladder hit critical mass we found a little store that let us use their bathroom.

Here we are thinking about what to do now that we all have empty bladders and there is no fishing village so now what???

Back to the beach!!

If you like bloody mary’s the best place to get them in Rocky Point is the Wrecked right down town.  The bar tender there takes his time in making them and the result is fantastic.  We found ourselves here just about every night.

As you can tell if you click on this picture the sunsets here are amazing.

This is a picture of the fish market where the rally takes place as you see it’s not that big but it’s a lot of fun I’m pretty sure we will be coming back next year.

The ride back was a long one for Linda and I, we left Brent and Deanna at gas station just off of HWY 10 they went East and we went West.  The thought was to get Lake Havasu and spend the night but like other rides we thought lets just go the next town and see if feel like stopping… well 625 miles later we were back in Mesquite having dinner at our favorite Ribs  restaurant Players.

Loved the trip, loved the company we had with us and we love going to Rocky Point.  If anyone has any hesitation in driving down into Rocky Point all I can say we had a fantastic time we felt so comfortable all the time we were there.

San Diego Tucson ride 10/2011

I had to go to Tucson for work so Linda and I decided to make a trip out of it by taking the scenic route through San Diego. this is the last part of the California coast we have not rode on our bikes.

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This is the complete route, What I loved about this ride was all of the new roads we took some great routes that were just fantastic.

First day took us to Death Valley, Linda and I have already been though the park and seen Scotty’s Castle so we took the South exit to Olancha.  Well that was the thought.  Guess what it is 173 miles if you go that way without a gas stop to Olancha.  I know that because Linda’s bike could only go 172 miles.  If you talk to Linda she would say “I ran her out of gas” but I went another 50 to Pine and back to get gas and made it back.  So just using the logic of she has the same motor as I do, her bike is much lighter than my bike and she is much lighter than I am.  Then logic would say she ran herself out of gas.

Looking over Death Valley

Funny thing was at the fork in the road at Olancha my GPS told me the closest gas station was 24 miles North to Pine and 36 miles South the direction we needed to go.  So with myself low on gas I decided not to take chance and head North I picked up a gallon of gas and headed back to where I left Linda.  That is when she informed me that was preparing to start walking, she was only going to give me another ten minutes. So I asked her where you going to walk too???? So if you get the chance to talk to Linda tell her two things. 1) don’t ride your bike so hard that you run out of gas and 2) never leave your bike because no one will know where to find you.

Linda out of gas on the side of the road

Ok so I put the gallon of gas in Linda’s bike and we decide to head South because I’m sure she can go at least 36  miles on a gallon.  Well we turn South and right down the block was a gas station.  Never trust your GPS because we were only a mile and half from gas.

The gas station in Olancha had a sandwich shop right there so we decided to grab something to eat.  They made this great sandwich and it did look great… until Linda took one bite… the meat was rotten.  So we took it back bought a frozen sandwich and dude charged us for the rotten, and this guy was not going to budge so he finally just made us pay the difference between the fresh and the frozen sandwich.

We made it to Victorville and stayed at the Holiday Inn.

The next day we started off for San Diego by way of Dana Point.  I picked Dana point because we have ridden our bikes all the way North from Dana Point all the way up the Coast to Vancouver Island so I wanted to ride this little part South just to complete the West Coast.  We also found out that Dana Point is like Utah when you just order coffee… We stopped in at this nice outside cafe and ask for some coffee, we were told that we must order food if we want coffee.  Utah it’s beer Dana Point it’s coffee.

Over looking the Harbor at Dana Point

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We met up with Eileen and her family at the hotel Coronado and had a fantastic dinner with her and her family, then we met up with Bobby’s Wife Claressa and had dinner with her and a few drinks.

Eileen and Me

Coronado Island

The next morning we started the ride to Yuma.  I was hoping to get further than Yuma but it was so HOT we just had to stop.  I’m glad we did because we stayed at the Radisson Hotel.  Great hotel and the food was fantastic even better than the food was the service.  Plus they have a player piano that we had a little fun with.

In front of our Hotel in Yuma

Here is Linda just standing outside of our Hotel in Yuma.  It was so hot that we could not go out during the day.

Because it was so Hot we started off on Tuesday to Tucson at 7:00.  HWY 8 is the ASS.  250 miles of nothing but ASS.

Linda and I both dropped off out bikes at the Harley Davidson in Tucson because she needed a 10K and I needed two new tires

I had three days of meeting at the JW Marriott WOW what a great hotel to bad I didn’t get to see much of it because I was in meetings for sun up to sun down.  Linda on the other hand took full advantage… She went on nature hikes and sat at the three pools they have there and she said they made the best Bloody mary’s she has ever had.

JW Marriott inTucson

The funny thing was when we drove up on our bikes the staff didn’t believe we were staying there and asked me who we were visiting.  I guess Harley riders don’t stay at the JW Marriott very often.

Linda just having a beer at the Hotel.

On Friday we picked up our bikes and started off on our ride.

Saguaro national park is a must see.

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Hwy 77 is such a great ride up to Globe. If you have not done it I would recommend doing so.

We found another great ride is HWY 60 out of Globe.  I will tell you the High Desesert is amaging to see, there is not a lot of places to pull off and take pictures but again If you have the chance take it.

We rode from Globe and wanted to get to Blythe CA but as you can imagine, Linda riding fast and hard we were there by 1:00 so we decided to push on to Lake Havasu.  we have always love HWY 95 on the California side but another great road is the one from Parker to Lake Havasu

Linda standing at the Bar at the London Bridge Hotel bar.  You can see the London Bridge behind her.

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Love the roads and the view.

If you get a chance stay at the London Bridge Hotel they have three pools and a view of the river you will nerer forget.

From there we headed back to Mesquite by of Kingman and the Hoover Dam and one of my favorite roads Lake Mead HWY.  I just cannot get enough of this rode.

Colorado / Utah Ride 8/2011

This is our annual Colorado Utah ride. last year we did the ride through Southern Utah so this year we were back in Colorado for another fantastic ride.

This year we had a few different riders we had Deb, John, Scott, Jannell, Brent, Deanna, Ken and Sherry rode with us from Salt Lake.  It’s the first year we have not had Pat and Staci with us.  We really did miss them I hope they can go next year.

We all met at Britton’s for breakfast, we have found Britton’s to be a pretty good meeting place because the food is great, they have a lot of parking and it is very easy to get in and out of on our bikes.

We basically took the same route we always take because I love to ride Wolf Creek pass and I really like HWY 139 from Rangely to Grand Junction.

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We stopped in Vernal for lunch and so Brent could look at this bike one of the HOG members wanted him to buy.  I kind of wish Brent would have bought it because the next time we see the HOG group that is all we are going to hear about is the bike Brent should have bought.

If you are going to take the route from Rangely to Grand Junction stop in Rangely for a potty break because there is not a place to stop for about eighty miles.  As soon as we stopped Scott felt the need to get a little closer to Mother nature.

He only needed to go about fifty more feet.  But I know as well as anyone the closer I get to fifty, when you got to go you got to go.  Sorry Scott….

The rain gods were with us all of the way.  Every time it looked like we were going under a rain cloud our route took us another direction.  We never did get wet all of the way to Grand Junction.  We stopped at the Mother Ship (HD) for a while until I heard a little thunder.  I told Linda let’s go so we did.  We had no sooner parked the bikes when the sky opened up and the rain came down hard.

We all made it under the Hotel awning before the rain hit.  As you can see from this picture it was coming down hard.  This is where we met up with Ken and Lisa, Jim and Shauna and some new riders John and Grace.

We always stay at the Grand Mesa Hotel because the rooms are nice it’s easy and close to the free way it’s close to the mother ship and they have a great bar.

This is the group having dinner across the street from the hotel at Enzos Pizzaria and Italian Cafe they have great Italian food.  We also had a mystery person buy us dinner that night.  Go figure I wonder who that person could have been… We blamed it on the old guy sitting behind us.

It took the group about ten minutes to get comfortable with each other  we knew this group was going to get along great.  I think everyone at one point or another was giving someone they just met a little shit about something.  Hearing all of the conversations and laughter you would have thought this group had been riding together for years.

Case in point.  Here’s Deanna and Shauna having a “boob Off”

Even Jannell couldn’t watch these boob master’s square off.

The good news about a boob off is everyone wins!!!! Jannell wanted the next round.

The drinks kept on coming and what do you know they ran out of lamp shades so the beer bucket was the next best thing.  I think this is the first picture I have of Scott smiling. I guess he just needs a lot of beer and a bucket.

Everyone seemed to take a turn with the bucket,

This is the new way to pick up girls in Grand Junction first you put on the bucket and then you touch your nose with your tongue.  Brent says it works every time.  Heck he got Deanna so I have to think it works.

Here we all are in front of the Harley dealership in Grand Junction.  This is where the ride started and what a great ride it tuned out to be.  Along with the “Bug Card” Game Jim came up with a BINGO game on his IPad. It was a lot of fun Jim would call out five new numbers at every stop.  Scott won the BINGO game and Jannell and Linda won the Bug Cards. 

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We left here and headed to Lake City the route was so beautiful and the roads were so fun to ride as you can see from this picture.

With all of the water Colorado had this year everything was so green and you would not believe the flowers they were everywhere.  Funny thing is I never really looked at flowers too much on our rides until Brent pointed them out on a ride to Laughlin.  Now I look at them all of the time.

We stayed at the Matterhorn Motel.  Nice place and the people running it were great we did take up most of their rooms that night.  But they did make the stay enjoyable although if you stay here just know the bathrooms are very small.  The showers are so small that I bent over to grab my shaver and shut the water off with my butt.

Here we are just hanging out in front of the hotel telling jokes.  Ken has a great joke about a Mother he might tell you if you ask him nicely.  Romero also has some of the funniest “mexican word of the day” jokes that just crack me up.

This is Ken and Jim going out to get some beer.  There is a real funny story about this picture but I don’t have the time nor the writing talent to put it into words.  Lets just say that Jim is not a good passenger and leave it at that.

Evidently the Salt Lake crew didn’t think Ken and Jim picked up enough beverages.  Funny thing was we ended up packing a lot of this beer all around Colorado.  Scott had about five beers blow up in his tour pack.  You know it’s bad when you open a tour pack and your rain gear is floating in beer.

Here’s a good picture of Ken double fisting.

I still don’t understand this picture maybe some body who reads the blog can tell me the story about the red wagon hooked to the pole.

Here’s a great picture of Ken and Linda just outside of the Mocha Moose where we had breakfast before we started out to Durango and on to Ouray.

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As you can tell by all of the coats we climbed up to 12,000 feet.  You might have to click on the picutre to see everyone.

If you click on the picture you will be able to see some of the 14K peaks behind us.

Here we are with Jim and Shauna and Ken and Lisa.

Another good picture of us with Brent and Deanna.

We also met up with of folks from Australia.  These guys were a crack up they just love America.  I some times forget just how good we have it here.  When you break it down we have so much more to see in America than these other country’s do.

This is one of the places Ken stopped at so we could take some pictures.  The real view was of the mountains on the other side.  But this water fall made a great background.  The guard rail isn’t that cute but I like the picture.

See what I mean.   Absolutely  beautiful.

On our way to Ouray we stopped at this look out point.  The view of the mountains was so beautiful I took full advantage and took all of these pictures.

Brent and Deanna

Here we are with John and Deb

Scott and Jannell

Here we are with John and Grace

Jim and Shauna

And here is a picture of the Utah folks.  I know I had someone take a picture of us with Ken and Lisa and Ken and Sherry but it’s not here.  Now I know why we have Sherry in charge of taking pictures.

Here we are in Telluride just getting ready to leave for Grand Junction.  HWY 145 is the best road for motorcycles there is really not any traffic it follows the San Miguel river and the corners are so much fun to ride through.  Ken and I would let the group get about a mile or so up the road and then we would take off and go as fast as we could.  I have never had so much fun on a road before you have to experience the ride to understand what I’m talking about the  corners are so smooth.

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We ended up back at Enzos the same restaurant in Grand Junction for dinner. The service was fantastic and the food was good, so why not.

From there we went back the Grand Mesa for drinks and Karaoke.  This was our last night but everyone seemed to still have a lot of energy because everyone seemed to get into the Karaoke.

Here’s the girls putting their groove on.  They all took turns singing and dancing.  They found their talent was in dancing because just about everyone else who sang wanted the girls to be their backup singers and dancers, even total strangers.  That’s when Deanna got the idea to send the all girl group on the road to Vegas.

If you click on the picture it says Send the girls to Vegas.  Deanna took the cup around the bar collecting money from everyone.  Funny thing was everyone was giving her money for the road trip.  Not sure if they just wanted the girls to leave or if Deanna is that good raising donations.  Either way the server got a nice tip when we left.

Ken and Jim got into the action as well.  believe it or not they actually sounded pretty good.  I guess when you spend a little time on the back of another guys bike you become pretty close and the love songs just seem to flow a little better.

I’m pretty sure the girls had more fun dancing than the people did singing.  As you can tell from this picture of Jim and girls they are really getting into it.

Although Ken did put on quite a show when he got up there.  He was so funny when he told everyone “I’m going to be here all week and to please remember to tip your servers because they work hard every day”.

John and Deb waited all night to sing their favorite song to each other Don’t go Break’in my heart.

Looks like Deb was the big winner.  Not sure what she had to do to get the dollar but look at her smile.

After all of the fun we had to say our goodbyes and head back to Utah. We just took I-70 to Scolfield over Fairview Canyon and home.

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like I said everyone had a fantastic time the ride was great the route was outstanding and the company was even better.  Like most of our rides the ride is fun the time spent with friends after the ride with where I get most of the enjoyment.

Thanks again Ken and Jim for a great trip!!

Next year the trip will be in Utah.  We thought we would head back to Moab in mid June and ride all of the parks down there.  We are also going to mix it up a bit by adding in some other activities like river rafting and stuff like that.

MS 150 June 2011

MS 150 2011 in Logan Utah.

We did the motorcycle SAG for the MS 150 again this year.  It’s always good to help out because it’s a good cause and we do have a lot of fun both on the ride and just hanging out with friends.

This is the group that rode with us this year.  Here we are at the Qwest / CenturyLink Building

Deb, John, Steve, Diane, Scott and Janell.  We also had a guy from Provo Mike.  He was a total waste of time.  All he wanted to do was follow his Son while he rode the 100 mile route.  So as a SAG guy… Not so good.

Like last year we just took 89 all the way up to Logan, we took the same route this year we had to be there by 6:00 because Mike was cooking everyone dinner on Friday night.  So we checked in and headed over to the Fairgrounds.  Because of some other events out of Mike’s control he told us to come back at 7:30 and dinner would be ready.  That gave us just enough time to buy some beer and hang out.

We sent Linda and Janell out for beer and guess who stole another shopping cart… This time not only were they pushing a shopping cart down Main Street but they were also drinking their beers as they walked.  As luck would have it Janell met up with one of her co-workers and had to explain “homeless girls” to them.  I’m sure they didn’t tell anyone at her work the next day.

This is us just hanging out waiting to head over to the fairgrounds.  It was also the place we sat every night just talking and laughing.

We did have one problem we drank too much beer to get on our bikes so Mike let me use his truck… It’s a well-known fact that Drunks always drives JEEPs better than motorcycles.

In College you would see how many people you could put in a VW.  We had a JEEP with bucket seats so we had put smash all eight of us in one JEEP.

As you can see we got everyone in we just needed a little help from Deb to get the back hatch to close.

Scott and John having a little fun with the mannequins I think Scott is more the “50% off” he looks like he just about 90% off.. just give him 30 more seconds.

We finally made it over to the spaghetti  dinner and it was worth the wait thanks Mike and Lisa for putting it all together.

The MS 150 went pretty well over all we only helped about 50 riders all together.  I think it was that they put time limits and markers out on the course; if a rider had not passed the mid-point of the 100 miles by 12:30 they had to ride the 75 mile course.  With that new rule most of the bikers were done by 3:30 Saturday.

Deb forgot her belt so she did the next best thing.

Yep… she used Linda’s bundgy cords as a belt.  She said it worked out fine and she saved the $60 Harley wanted for a new belt.

Saturday night we stopped at the White Owl, great place they have a roof top bar that makes it fun.  The food is OK and Beer is great but if you are going to go there bring cash they do not take credit cards or checks and they do not tell you that up front.

The beer only comes in two sizes small and large as you can see we all needed the large. This was one of those nights where no matter what anyone said it was funny… I’m sure the tables around us didn’t think everything was so funny but I laughed until my sides hurt.

On Sunday after the MS 150 was over we took the long route home over the mountain to Bear Lake and over Monte Cristo. It was a great ride.

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We stopped by the Logan river because it was running so high to take a few pictures.

As you can see from this picture the water was over the bridge.

Janell, Scott, Linda, myself, John and Deb standing by the Logan River.

Monte Cristo was just open this weekend so we took it. As you can see from this picture there is still a lot of snow to come down and it is the end of June.

Scott and John are not short people and the snow is a couple of feet over their heads.

We always have fun volunteering for the MS 150 but it really is the people you go with and the rides after that really make it fun.

I want to thank everyone who help us out again this year by either working with us in the motorcycle SAG, riding a bike or donating to the MS 150.  Thank you so much.

Kanab Ride 5.2011

This was one of our HOG rides we like to take every year,  normally it’s been in Torrey but this year they had it in Kanab Utah.  There were a few of us who decided to leave on Friday instead of Saturday so we met at Britton’s for breakfast and off we went.

It was one of my favorite HOG rides because they let me block for the other rides.  For those of you who do not know what “blocking” is, it’s where you stop traffic for the other riders in the group so you can keep the group together.  Most clubs do it but not HOG and I don’t know why.  I think they liked it but really no one said anything good or bad. I think it was so  foreign to them and I don’t think change goes over to well this this group.  I liked it because after I block for all of the riders I can race back up to the front to get ready for the next turn or stop light.

The ride there was great we really just took HWY 89 I love that road.  The best part was I was doing all of the blocking and Brent the “Road Captain” was getting a little antsy because he really likes to go fast.  Well we were about 60 miles away from Kanab and Brent had enough of just hanging with the group so he took off and being his “wing man” I had to go with him leaving Linda with the group (I later paid for that decision) but it was soooo worth it.  Brent was going ninety five through the turn and we left group so far behind we would have been to Kanab a half hour earlier then the group if it was not for Deanna beating on Brent’s helmet to stop and wait for everyone.  Now I know why Linda rides her own bike like I said, I didn’t get my punishment until Linda met us in Kanab.

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This is us just sitting outside of our rooms at the Parry hotel having a beverage or two this a great venue for large groups because they have a very large barn in the center of the complex they show movies at and it’s a great centralized meeting place for everyone.  They also have a free breakfast every morning that is really good.

We were going to the pool but we thought we should go buy some Wine and Beer, Note to self never send Janell and Linda to get beer.  Here we are waiting for them on the corner when they show up with a stollen shopping cart all they needed was a blanket they already had the wine it looked like they were heading for the homeless shelter.

We never did make it to the pool.

Ken, Lisa and Jim and Shawna were heading to the Black hills for the weekend until the weather moved in so they decided to head South and find hotels on the way.  Ken called and asked if we wanted to meet them in Cortez CO he had a hotel for us to stay in so I said sure we would meet up with them.  It was a win win for me.  I got to ride my bike a little more and I would be able to see Ken and Lisa for an evening.

So Saturday morning the HOG group was heading to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon Linda and I jumped in on the ride.  On the way up we stopped at Jacob’s lake to rest when we heard some one say Linda…

It was Jim Breeze he was out riding and saw a group of riders when he spotted a pink helmet. He said the only person he knows who rides with a pink helmet is Linda so he jumped in with us and followed us up the mountain.  It was good to see him.

We made it up to the North Rim and everyone was wondering why we had a BMW riding in the middle of Harley riders but he rode so well know one really cared.

Here we are at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon Jim took the picture, everyone of us had a camera so Jim ended up taking about twenty pictures.  I don’t think he cared that much.

Here we are at the North Rim with Scott and Janell.

We spent about 30 minutes or so with everyone and then we decided to leave and go meet Ken and his group.

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The ride to Cortez was so windy and the sand was blowing so hard that in some places you could not see the road and it felt like a thousand needles sticking you in the face as we road through it.

This is the last photo we have of Linda before the wind and the sand started to blow.

This is the gas Station we stopped at it was the only one for miles so we had to stop.  they had bars on all of the windows and doors and there was a dog or two at each pump.  The dogs were so lazy that I had to honk my horn just to get them to move so I could park and get gas.  It was an Indian Reservation so maybe the dogs were just sleeping off a hang over or something…. Bad joke sorry back to the wind WOW it blow so hard we had sand everywhere it got in the Linda’s saddle bag locks and gummed them up so bad we had to buy new locks when we got to the Harley Davidson in Las Vegas.

This is not a tan on Linda’s face it really is just the red sand you should have seen the sink when we washed our faces after the ride.

As we drove into the Hotel Ken met us with our room key he had checked us in and he already had the beer on ice.  You can always count on Ken and Lisa to do it right.

Here we are with Ken, Lisa Jim and Shawna at the restaurant  next to the hotel.  I’m so glad it was right next to the hotel because between the beer and Jim putting a hurt on me I needed to have Linda and Jim walk me back to my room where I did not move until the next morning.  Painful…..

We got up took our bikes over to the car wash said our goodbyes and hit the road again.  Oh yea and the wind and sand again.  We had to be in Page AZ by 1:00 to meet up with the HOG group.  On our way I stopped to get gas and had a message from Pat Dunn he was bringing his bikes back to SLC so I told him we were heading to Page so he met us there at the Dam Bar and Grill.  I cannot believe in one HOG ride I got to ride or visit with so many of my friends.  It was great to see everyone I guess with the weather being so bad for so long everyone wanted to get out on their bikes.  It was just funny how we all ended up in the same places at the same times.

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The ride from Page to Kanab was a blast we just rolled back on the gas headed out we hit speeds of a hundred and ten I love my bike it rides better at higher speeds.  We even saw a UHP going the other direction so I just waved at him and he just kept on going. He never did turn around he just let us go.

Monday was another long day on the bikes but it was a new ride for me. We went to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and on to Laughlin NV.

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This is not the exact route we took but it was close we rode mostly on route 66 all the way from the bottom of the canyon to Laughlin.

South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  I think this side of the Canyon is the most beautiful between the North Rim and the South Rim.  If you only have time to visit one side I would pick the South.

Here is the group that we rode with to the South Rim not everyone went with us but like last year they are really fun to be with and we all seem to ride pretty well together.

Here we are with Brent, Deanna, Scott and Janell.  Carol took the pictures just as a beautiful women walked by.  Notice how I kept my eyes focused on the camera.  If you click on the picture you can see just how focused Brent and Scott are with the view.  Shame Shame Shame!!!  Just kidding I don’t know what they were looking at.

I like this photo it might be on the Christmas cards we send out this year if we send any out we are not sure we will be in town this year for Christmas.

We made it to Laughlin and it was a good ride, like I said we spent a lot of time on route 66 they have the coolest towns on that road.  I wish I would have stopped and took some pictures.

We found this car parked out front of our hotel in Laughlin.  The next time anyone says they have a piece of shit car I will direct them to this blog.  You have to click on the picture to get the awesomeness of this car the door is wood with a rubber hinge, plastic for the window and a PVC door handle not to mention the rest of the car has a dent or some type of rust everywhere.

With that being said here is picture of Linda’s bike with the bungie cord holding her bag closed because the locks were full of sand.

I guess it really doesn’t compare to the car…..

The ride back we just pointed the bikes North on I-15 not a lot to see but 506 miles of freeway, we did get a chance to show the HOG group how the “sweep” could help the “road Captain” in riding with a large group.  Again not sure they will change their riding style but at least they know how easy and safe riding in a group can be if you keep the group together.

All in all Linda and I rode two thousand miles in five days.  Normally I would say that is to much riding but we had a great time doing it because we were with great new friends and we had the chance to meet up with some old friends.

My Birthday Ride to Lava Hot springs 5/13-15

For the last few years Linda has planned a Birthday ride up to Lava Hot Springs.  It started out with just Greg and Laura then the next year we went with Brent & Deanna and Mike & Lisa.  The group seems to be getting larger each year and like most things the more people the more fun.  This year we had Brent & Deanna, Greg & Laura, Mike & Lisa and then we added two additional couples Scott & Janell and John & Deb.  All I can say is what a great group of people man did we have fun I don’t think I have laughed that much for a long time.  The route was great but the times off our bikes just joking and messing around is where we had most of the fun these guys made my sides hurt.

Our first meeting point was at the South Valley Harley Davidson here we met up with Brent, Deanna, Scott, Janell, John and Deb.

Let the ride begin!!!!

We met up with Mike & Lisa and Greg & Laura in Kaysville so now we had the whole group together.  There is nothing like the first long ride of the season the energy is high and everyone is so excited to get on the bikes and ride.

We left SLC on Friday afternoon I have never been on some of these roads before so most of the time I thought I was lost because my GPS wanted me to go a different direction.  Good news we made it there and I don’t think anyone knew I was stressing.

Our first stop was at the Gas Station in Riverside just outside of Deweyville

Here’s  a picture of the girls see how happy they are after they had their treats and an empty bladder.

As you can see we also have the same satisfied look.  Although if you click on the picture Brent and Scott do look a little serious.  Maybe they didn’t get their treats yet.

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After the ride to Lava we sat on the patio at the Alpaca Inn.  I just love this place we just about took every room they had.  We did feel a little bad for the people in the other two rooms because we may have got a little loud with as many times everyone thought they needed to sing me the Happy Birthday song.  I think between Friday and Saturday I heard that song ten times.  I will be ok if I never hear it again.

As you can see we also had a painted toe competition…. Scott won.

I had to put this picture of the bikes in.

Saturday’s ride was great  because we went on some great roads that I have never been on.  The group wanted to meet “Bambi LaBeck” (you will have to read an earlier blog when we met Bambi to understand the interest in her) so we took a little detour over to Thayne Wy.  Sad news she was not there but we did get to meet her husband.  He was not so happy that we knew his wife by that name but that’s another story.

Here we are at Dad’s Bar in Thayne Wyoming the gentleman on the far right is Bambi’s husband.

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We seem to always end up at the Blue Moon for drinks and to party a little bit.  Well this time was no different we talked Greg into playing the drums with the band.  I think… No I know they were very surprised by how well Greg can play the drums.  He was in his element on stage.  Man he could play and the funny thing was everyone got up and danced when Greg had the drum sticks in his hands.  Laura was so excited that she could finally “shag” the drummer in a band.

This is when the night really started getting interesting, Linda and I were on the dance floor when I looked over to see John on the table pulling his shirt over his head and waving it in the air ( the dude has some moves) and the girls love it before you knew it they were sticking money down his pants I think he ended up making about $24 bucks that night.

Now this is the real crazy part so there was also a Bachelorette party going on and Deanna thought the new bride to be was a little to full of herself so she got Brent’s pocket knife and pulled out the scissors and was going to cut the gals Vail off…. Yes this is correct… you just can’t make this shit up… so Deanna is behind her with the scissors on her vail when she turns around and says WTF… Deanna looked like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar.  The sad news was Linda was so trashed I was watching over her and missed the whole scissor incident.  Note to self I need to keep a better eye out on Deanna and not be distracted by my drunk wife while we out in public places also I need to shake down everyone for any sharp object before we start drinking .  As you can imagine I was pretty tired after all of this “drunk watching” so I convinced Linda to go back to the hotel so I could get some much needed rest.  These Birthday’s can get exhausting

Deanna with the scissors in hand

Just when you think the night is over your wife lets everyone into your room while you are laying naked in bed just to sing Happy Birthday again… then to make it a little more exciting I had four large breasted women jump on me while I lay there.  Get this the best part my wife was watching the whole event. I think I should  write into Playboy as “I can’t believe this happened to me” it’s not every day I get four beautiful women in my bed.

WOW!!!! I will never forget this birthday for a long long time.

This was the route we took home

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WOW the wind was blowing like mad all the way home.  I think the winds were over 45 miles an hour most of the way.  I was so proud of Deb this was her first real ride with a large group and really had some technical riding and then you add the huge winds she did a fantastic job keeping up.  She a natural rider.

We ended the ride with everyone needing to visit the service department at South Valley Harley Davidson.  Deb crossed over the 1,000 mark so she needs to get her oil changed, John hit 7,000 and needs a new back tire.  Brent hit 30,000 and needed his 30K service and I hit 15,000 and need to get my service.  I love this bike because my back tire has 15K on it and I’m just now looking at replacing it.  I think the front tire can go another 5K. With my Heritage I only got 10K on the back and 15K on the front and that was pushing it.

This was a great trip because of the friends we went with and everyone has the same passion of just riding.  I think next year we will look at Moab instead of Lava but no matter where we go I am confident we will have a great time.