Cheese Weasels Get Dirty In Utah

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Tuesday Night - Mexican Hat, Utah

We pulled into Mexican Hat, well-satisfied with the first day's ride. I made reservations at the [url=http://www.mexicanhatlodge.com]Mexican Hat Lodge, which was co-located with the Swingin' Steaks restaurant. I think both have unfortunately seen better times. The Lodge was pretty run-down and the grounds were unkempt, and the woman working the front office seemed alone with no help. She told us the outdoor steak restaurant wasn't open due to lack of staff, which was a massive buzz kill.










We got checked in and discussed what to do. The only other restaurant in town was at the Olde Bridge Grille at the San Juan Inn, on the banks of the San Juan river. It was a short ride on a road with no traffic, so we didn't gear up except for helmets and just putt-putted down the road to the restaurant.


There, we all agreed, we had perhaps the worst dining experience any of us could recall. The waiter was a young Gen Z kid, very green and very wimpy. He was not really organized and seemed awkward and flustered the whole time. We put in our order and we waited. And waited. And waited. We drank a beer and maybe three glasses of water while we waited. I think about an hour and a half went by.

Finally one of the guys called the waiter back to the table and asked, "Are we going to get any food?" The kid said, "Sorry, there was such a rush, the cook couldn't handle it and had an emotional melt-down." We asked him to go check again on our orders. He came back and said, "Your orders aren't even started yet, but the cook seems to be better now and your orders should be out pretty soon." It took maybe another 30 minutes and out came two burritos that a couple of the guys ordered. Really bland, not made very well. Then my burger came out, then the last guy's burger came out. The burgers were sloppy but not too bad, making the burrito guys regret their choice. The two of us gobbled our burgers while the other two guys looked on hungrily.

We went back to the lodge and sat down to pour a bourbon in the messy back courtyard full of litter, garden hoses, children's toys, abandoned furniture, etc. and a noisy ice maker that was leaking water everywhere. At least the ice maker was welcome for our glasses of bourbon. My son-in-law eschewed the bourbon and got back on his bike to head out to Monument Valley for some photos in the sunset.


When he returned, we all said good-night and turned in fairly early, probably 10:00 pm.

Next Installment: Mexican Hat, Utah to Escalante, Utah

Riding Day 1 - Tuesday Afternoon - Naturita, CO toward Mexican Hat, UT

After the fuel and rest stop in Naturita, CO [url=https://goo.gl/maps/mVux7PE3NGyef8cHA]we headed west on CO 90, which turned into UT 46 at the Utah border. Our aim was to get ourselves further west and into Utah proper, and then work our way south toward Mexican Hat.



CO 90 started out straight but we did hit a nice curvy section closer to the border.






Finally! Utah!


We left our Cheese Weasels MC sticker on the welcome sign.




UT 46 terminates at UT 191, where we turned south for a few miles and then turned west on UT 211 toward the petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock. Unfortunately our progress was halted just short of the historic site by road work. We decided to take a stretch in the shade of a big old tree (cottonwood?) and continue on south.





We doubled back a few miles and turned south on UT 136, which turned out to be an awesome motorcycle road. Zero traffic, great curves, and nice views from the northeast base of Twin Peaks East mountain.






UT 136 became UT 101 and turned east toward Monticello, where we stopped for fuel and refreshment before heading south again on UT 191, destination Mexican Hat.


[url=https://goo.gl/maps/41AxYp8K1K4o9mTcA]South of Monticello, the Cheese Weasels finally started getting dirty. We turned off UT 191 onto UT 187 Montezuma Canyon Road. Shortly after taking it, the road descended steeply into the canyon.




The road was gravel, dirt, and just a bit of sand here and there. It really wasn't too difficult to ride on. It was kind of a ranch road, and we saw livestock and irrigation ditches, as well as some modern "cave dwellings" where people built structures or parked camper trailers inside recesses in the canyon walls. We weren't really sure if the "caves" were natural or man-made out of the sandstone.








We encountered a nice big puddle across the whole road. My son-in-law daringly rode across it on one side, and here is me following after him and one of the other guys.






At the south end of UT 186 Montezuma Canyon Road, we turned west on county road 5099 Hovenweep Road. The road was well-graded but was paved in fairly deep gravel. The front wheels of the bikes started ploughing and we had to slow down to avoid taking a nasty spill. We had been running maybe 30 mph on the canyon road but now we had to white-knuckle this deep gravel at no more than 20 mph. At the end of it, we had to stop and relax a minute. Everybody said they almost "ate it" at least once or twice, but thankfully nobody went down.

I love riding in the west. This is going to be so cool.

And what mfg would build a bike that required premium these days?

Me too! We have the curves back East, but we don't have the fascinating geology / geography and expansive views.

I love riding in the west. This is going to be so cool.

And what mfg would build a bike that required premium these days?

The Yamaha FJ-09 and the BMW R1200GS seemed to need it. The guy on the V-Strom 650 and me on the CBR250R were burning 85 octane (R+M/2) no problem.

Folks over at the Africa Twin forum would refer "ate it" as "napping".

" ... yeah, my FJ-09 decided to nap, in the mud ... " ¯\(°_o)/¯

Really nice following this travel log.

Ate "it" is a bit of a euphemism.

Motorcycles really don't like it when the front wheel won't roll as fast as the rear wheel is trying to push it.

Oh my.

These are fundamental experiences of the times. It makes some of us appreciate things during the better times.

What a unique share.