The Mobius Trip

So, out of curiosity, how much does an ex-secret agent man make on govt pension?

Aww, man...you didn't read the base of the lamp?

Oh well.
Not to take away from MAG's fabulousness, but the lava lamp was from us.

It's so weird to see everyone in Q's kitchen, except Q and MAG
Even Bob Bob!

I'm swamped with my own report right now, but I'll be back...

Agggh... so sorry. It was dark, I was exhausted... beer was involved.

And a super fine addition it is.

Original post fixed.

Mmm. Moose Drool. We can get it in Texas now.

Probably on account of the luz de lava para la cava de aventura,
I got an especially good night's sleep, and was up extra early finishing up our bike prep.



The rest of the crew was busy installing their Anti-Hassle Tassels™.



The Drz's woke right up out of hibernation,



(Thanks, Q for the tender action. ) We packed up,



Fed the Mr. Purr,



(we did feed Mr. Purr... didn't we?) , locked down the AdventureCave™ good and tight,



and hit the road much earlier than I'd thought...

originally had us traversing some sage plains north of Idaho Falls. I was trying to avoid pavement and interstate on our way to the Graveley Range.

Tony provided some intel that my routing would take us on a long deep sandy stretch with no redeeming value, and NT-Scott confirmed that what looked like open land on GoogleEarth was in fact gated potato farms.



Between the two of them, they edited the morning's route -- Tony providing the objective, and Scott adding the connectors -- so that we'd minimize pavement, and reconnect to the route as we got to the Graveley's.

But first.... GAS!



We had some straight gravel, which was fine... stretch our legs, open up the bikes, clear out the cobwebs. No need to slog through deep sand on the first day (we'd save that for much later). Especially when the weather was so crappy. Wet and cold.

had been to replace the toe-caps on my & LDF's boots.



Between the gentle waving of the Anti-Hassle Tassels™ and the perfect shininess of the new toe caps... I could barely keep my eyes on the road.



So I almost missed the big excitement on this stretch...

(cue DW-Scott)

And the Big excitement on this stretch was....... a crop duster decided to land....... right at the same time Doc was

riding past the end of the runway!!!!

Thanks for the cue Doc!

we were on the road to Bannack Pass,



first into the foothills,



and then into the good stuff.

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the views (of the haze), really started to open up.

was easy gravel, and spread out like a ribbon before us,





and along the way we saw some neat stuff,

old homesteads:



old schools:



which I didn't see much of, as my rear valve stem was losing air --



turns out a tiny dynabead got caught in the valve:



while I troubleshot that, and got reinflated,



everyone else engaged in behavior that would get them into detention if school were in session.

(actually studying)





Soon enough, school's out, suit up, and keep on rolling:



I know others have some good photos of the school... post 'em up!

Bannack Pass,





It was a power line pass, (NJ riders like Docking Pilot would feel right at home ) but even so, we were crossing the continental divide... just like real ADV riders.





On the other side, it was more beautiful country. The guy at the gas station had said it was muddy up across Bannack Pass... see for yourself:

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good stuff!





I had to stop and pinch myself.



Next up... one of the only water crossings of the whole trip.

First thing me and Scott had to do was put a new fuel pump in Scotts WR250R.
He had one shipped to Questors----and it's a 30 minute job if you know what your doing.
It had a lot miles on it----and he didn't want his bike breaking down------and it didn't.



This tale hasn't been told yet.
Seems old Scott Caldwell (Connector) was cruising down some dusy trail and he stopped and smelled something burning.
Guess what this pile of molten plastic is ???? I mean was !!!!!!



It's a Kolpen gas can---and he goes into this long story about how it had fell off his pack and got right into the end of his muffler.
The whole time he was telling this story I was thinking -------holy crap---wonder he didn't burn alive.
And was imagining the trail of gasoline he was leaving behind just ready to ignite or explode and then the stinch of burning, smoking plastic !!!!!.

Turned out there was no gas in it-------dang it--that would have been a better story !!!!!!

Scotts got 2 gps's------------why you ask ?????
Cause there wasn't room for 3 that's why.




And then there's the plane------------I thought it was going to land on top of me.





This scared the Ba-Jeesus out of me.
Scott got the pic-----he was right on top of me and Dr. Rock.
Always wondered how I'd die--------never thought of a crop duster plane takin' me out.

I cropped (get it-----cropped ) the previous picture---so here it is up close and personal------pretty neat.

The board of education at Edie School.



Old Tony gave me a few swats-----said I'd been a "BadDog"

I love this picture Dingweeds took. Just before the great water crossing.



No Dogs Allowed
Woof

I introduce the .....................
"No Hassle Tassells"

Very powerful----increase horsepower and fuel mileage while also stablizing the handling of your machine.
The were mesmorizing---you had to be careful not to just stare at them while riding.
Like I said---very powerful-----only use for good---not evil.

Words of wisdom from Dr. Rock when we all were presented with our tassels.
Later on---one rider joins with no tassels----and he suffers the consequences.

Definitely in here for the Mobius 10 report!

Good to see Northern Traveler in on the ride. I rode with him earlier this year on the TetS loop around GA.

The meeting of the minds.
Tony (middle) was in charge------he knew this area well.
I thought I was just gonna lay back and tag along on this ride----that would change later on.

I got to say everybody was so well prepared for this ride. Everybody had Dr. Rocks routes loaded so we never had to wait at turns---this turned out
to work out very well and saved a lot of time -----and everyone could ride their own pace and not eat dust---did I say dust ???
Of course every 10-15 miles or sometime sooner it was a good idea to gather everybody up to make sure someone wasn't having a problem.



Me and Dingweeds were running our Dunlop 606's------I don't think you could ever talk us out of those tires.
Dr. Rock went with a trials tire which worked excellent---------but it never rained or got muddy which might have been a problem.
Me and Scott had ridden some before this ride together-----and had 3,000 miles on our 606's when we were done---they were still in good shape.




Hi Tony-------Tony needs more stickers.





Again----Francine patiently filed her nails, dangled her leg, listened to some tunes,
yawned, ate a snack and had a sip while she waited for us to get going.





BobBob had tassels-----we all had tassels.
BobBob also had a Go-Pro helmet cam.





I think Dr.Rock has some water crossing pics to come-------until then here's a couple.
I think this is crossing Dead Mans Creek ??????

Were still on our first day out and I was just getting to get to know everybody.
In the end------we all became very good friends.

crossing the stream was to get everyone else as wet as I could.

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It's the only way I know to get a bike clean.

:stoned
Hey, you NY'ers have been known to cross the river to NJ for cheap gas. at least we have that !



I'm in for this folks!! This is gonna be another great one loaded with special guest star appearances !!