Cheese Weasels Get Dirty In Utah

[Stichill_imp]

Well, the Northern Kentucky Cheese Weasels "Got Rocky Mountain High" in 2020, but a severe and extended family illness pulled me away before I could finish the [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=15761]ride report (maybe I will get back to it at some point).

Thankfully, the illness situation has resolved / stabilized now, and I was able to join the crew for a 2021, 4-man ride in Utah. Here's our ride shirt:





Note that the rider silhouettes on the front were taken from this pic of our [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=12371]2018 ride through Big Bend National Park in Texas:


That's me on the far left in red. Still can't believe I rode that behemoth over 1300 miles without dropping it!

Ok, so here's the Utah load-out on a 12' x 6'5" Big Tex 35SA ramped trailer purchased specifically for this trip. $1400 used in great condition and equipped with a wheeled tongue jack and a spare tire. We checked the play in the bearings, installed Bearing Buddies, and added Pit Bull chocks to the trailer floor. Doors on the F-150 slammed at 6:00 am sharp on "D-Day", Sunday 06 June 2021. Most of our luggage and gear was stowed in the truck bed under a tonneau cover. We had loaded bikes and gear the day before, so all we had to do Sunday morning was hook the trailer to my buddy's truck and roll out.


Some of you may recall my posts in "What did you do with your other bike?" where I gave my CBR250R a [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=13663&pid=293914#pid293914]Mad Max makeover, complete with Shinko Trail Master 50/50 tires and belly fairing removal. This will be my Utah ride. It's my only bike now, so "ya ride what ya got".


We took I-71 to Louisville and crossed over into Indiana, picking up I-64 to St. Louis, where we took I-70 across Missouri to Kansas City and on to our overnight in Salina, Kansas.


We stopped at a diner in Wentzville, Missouri (far western outskirts of St. Louis) for a late brunch. That's me on the right in the ferret-inspired HONDA vintage cap, and my son-in-law on the left. I have definitely put on the Covid 15 (or 20)...jeesh! Oh well, that didn't stop me from ordering steak and eggs! The diner was hopping busy and the atmosphere, service, staff, and food were fantastic. We loved everything about it.




Eastern Kansas really surprised us. We were expecting flat cornfields, but what we found were beautiful rolling, grassy pastures for mile after mile. Incredibly attractive landscape with few man-made structures to mar the view. Rider magazine did an [url=https://ridermagazine.com/2019/03/28/bluestem-pastures-exploring-the-flint-hills-of-kansas/]article on riding in the Flint Hills of Kansas...now I'm intrigued.




Sunday night we stayed at an Airbnb house in Salina, which turned out to be located "on the wrong side of the tracks" but was really pleasant with two acres completely fenced in. These Airbnb's are a pretty low-cost way to travel and offer a nice break from the monotony of the chain motels. Word to the wise: bring mosquito repellent!


We ate in downtown Salina, which was very fresh-looking, clean, and vibrant although there were some homeless around. We had a little trouble with restaurants and bars being closed on Sunday night, but we did manage to find a trendy pizza place with a large selection of craft beers (sorry we all forgot to take pics...wiped out after the long day's ride in the truck).

Next installment: across the Kansas / Colorado plains and the Rockies to Palisade, Colorado.

[the Ferret]

Gotta love a good story about getting down and dirty. Cap looks good on ya

[GoldOxide_imp]

I was once told by a Kansas native that the tallest structure in state was an interstate-interchange.

[Stichill_imp]

Thanks, Soichiro Ferret-san!

I believe it, GO. We went through some insane spaghetti interchanges around [url=https://goo.gl/maps/ThVj1isTREDxsAR87]Kansas City.

[Stichill_imp]

Monday morning we left Salina, Kansas bright and early, bound for Palisade, Colorado where we would meet up with our buddy who was riding in from Colorado Springs.

We stopped for breakfast in Russell, Kansas, home of the late Senator Bob Dole.


Food and service were excellent. By the way, masks were being worn nowhere we went on this trip, which really made everything so much more enjoyable.


Colorado may be known for its wonderful Rockies, but the eastern plains also cover a vast part of the state and are pretty featureless and boring, at least looking out the window from the interstate. It seemed far more tedious than crossing Kansas. It didn't help that the road condition deteriorated markedly the moment we crossed the border from Kansas. This picture might be from the far western edge of Kansas just before Colorado, judging by the relatively good appearance of the road surface.


Once we hit Denver, we encountered a lot of traffic and construction, but we got through pretty well without any jam-ups. We had one close call with road debris coming into the city. The had been an accident somewhere ahead of us because we had to swerve to miss an entire front fascia and then we saw damaged vehicles along the left shoulder. Speaking of swerving, on the plains of Colorado we were passing a junky little car on a dead-flat, dead-straight section of road with no one around. Suddenly the car quickly drifted left until it was occupying 75% of our lane and was moving us onto the left shoulder. My buddy hit the horn and woke up the errant driver.

The rest of the way across Colorado on I-70 west of Denver was crowded with generally bumpy / potholed / uneven road conditions. Gas mileage of course suffered greatly, which was exacerbated by the ridiculously high fuel prices in Colorado, perhaps $0.50 to $0.80 higher per US gallon than Kansas. Thankfully road conditions improved once we got closer to Glenwood Springs.


Somewhere, maybe west of New Castle, Colorado it really started to take on that southwest character.


When we reached our motel at Palisade, Colorado the temperatures were fairly hot, about 97° F but tolerable in the low humidity.




We got the bikes unloaded, unpacked our gear, and headed off to a craft brewery for some dinner.








Palisade is a nice small town, somewhat trendy with wine / winery culture and known for peaches as well.


That evening we settled into the conversation area built where there once might have been a swimming pool. The motel was popular with groups of women, making us all wish we were 25 and single again!


Next installment: Riding to Mexican Hat, Utah

[GoldOxide_imp]

Keep 'em comin' Hank.

[Stichill_imp]

Keep 'em comin' Hank.

For sure. I'm going to do these day by day.

[GoldOxide_imp]

Keep 'em comin' Hank.

For sure. I'm going to do these day by day.

For sure. I'm going to do these day by day.
Keep the tease level up for sure. Go at the speed of Stichill. Nobody is going to complain. Enjoy!!

[the Ferret]

so he's a tease weasel huh?

[Stichill_imp]

I figure if we had to endure the grueling two-day drive to get out there, you guys will have to endure the drive "virtually"!
Riding Day 1 - Tuesday Morning - Palisade, CO to Naturita, CO

We set "kickstands up" at 7:00 am, which turned out to be later than it could have been based on the amount of daylight available after 6:00 am. We were lucky to have missed the intense heat that arrived the week after, but it's still a good idea to put down some miles before the sun gets too high in the sky.





Despite the advisability of getting on the road early, we decided to go eat a big breakfast since good meals might get harder to come by as we made our way southwest. We found [url=https://www.randyssouthsidediner.com/Home]Randy's Southside Diner in Clifton, CO which was not really out of our way at all.

(Google pic - failed to take any ourselves!):


For the [url=https://goo.gl/maps/RNxMckf5Hgou3seW9]first leg of the day's ride, we headed south on CO 141 toward Naturita, CO. It was a great warm-up with little traffic, a nice road, and comfortable temperatures.















We arrived in Naturita, Co around 10:30 am and it was starting to feel pretty warm. We sought shelter in the shade of a convenience store. It was a little hard to find gasoline in this town, especially premium.