Home at last...
The ride over I-70 was pretty uneventful until we wound up riding through pretty bad rain from just past Grand Junction, CO all the way to Green River, UT. After fueling up in Green River we made our way to HWY-6 for our final leg into Provo/Orem, UT for our beloved In-N-Out. About 1-2miles down HWY-6 it started hailing on us, that turned into rain, and then into sleet. It was like this the entire way into Provo. The road literally had snow and slush on it, it was very scary and I tried my best to just stay in the tire tracks of the semi in front of us with hopes that his tracks would be the driest and most traction offering bit of pavement. We were completely soaked, freezing cold, and our nerves were wrecked from the weather. Finally however, we arrived.
Was it worth it? Yes, yes it was.
After the most delicious fast food burger in the world we stocked up on a bit of Utah's finest 3.2 beer and headed for a hotel.
While at the hotel we started to check on the weather and road conditions. We weren't planning on hitting snow that day and wanted to see what we were looking at facing the next day. Originally the plan was to go back on US-40 into Steamboat Springs and then across HWY-14 into Fort Collins. When we checked Friday there was only supposed to be rain and I-80 was supposed o be dry, so that was our alternate route. Well now there was snow on our primary route, and upon checking it seemed our alternate I-80 route was going to be snow covered as well.
With no other choice we got up a bit early and hit the road just before 7am in a southernly direction. The new plan was to ride hard all day and take advantage of warm southern weather to make it the almost 1000 miles to Albuquerque, NM.
The first stop was supposed to be in Beaver, UT :bunny: but I misjudged a bit and ran out of fuel about 20 miles away. My fuel light came on way earlier than normal and I figured it was being overly conservative. I thought I could make the 50 miles to Beaver :bunny: but sputtered out after only 30 miles. Luckily there was a fuel station a few miles back so the other two made their way back and snagged me 2 Mt Dew bottle worth of fuel, then I ran back to the same fuel stop and topped off the tank. After that delay, and freshly fueled up we just rode straight through to St George where we had In-N-Out for breakfast/lunch.
Out of fuel
Twice in 1 weekend? This trip was looking even better. :eyes:
After St George it was all business. We lost a lot of time when I ran myself out of fuel, and stopping at In-N-Out burned up even more. We hauled down to Vegas and filled up again in Henderson, CO. Then we stopped for fuel in Kingman, AZ after a short stint. That allowed us to ride all the way through to Flagstaff, AZ. From there we did 179 miles to Gallup, NM before the last stint into Albuquerque. We pulled into the hotel at 11:30pm, got a room, and then walked across the street to Denny's to eat. After our breakfast/lunch burger in St George we were running off of snicker's and granola bars so we were very hungry.
Took our time in the morning and rode the last 480 miles home today with horrible crosswinds the entire time.
Here is the basic route we wound up riding.
Google says 1952miles, but my trip odometer shows 2021.5 on it. Not bad for a 3 day stint with some pretty crappy weather.
So who wants to join us next year?