A Roadie in Motion

[doogman4]

ChiTown,

Ride up to Auburn Hills, I'll buy lunch.

[rokklym]

WOW, just finished reading the report, great photos, awesome journey! If you ever come up to Wisconsin, give me a shout!

[AKTobias]

Let me be clear. What does your TAT say? There is no "i" in tat. What's the story behind it?

Really dig the pics.

[Lost Rider]

I was about to finish the RR and post the photo's of Utah.... but it will have to wait, I'm going South tomorrow!
I'm heading back to Arkansas, this time much lighter with only a bag on the seat, no panniers, 2 fishing poles, some TKC's mounted to better deal with the sloppy wet red clay, and a few other changes done to the bike.
I'll be solo for a few days, then meeting up with another ADV inmate on a NX 650... should be fun!
I said I wasn't done, so I'll finish this little story up when I get back next week!

Until next week!

[AngryScot]

[kanur]

I'm in SE MO if you need a beer or a bed on your way to or from AR. Lots of good ridin just across the river in S IL in the Shawnee National Forest.

[OU812]

Originally Posted by ChiTown

I was about to finish the RR and post the photo's of Utah.... but it will have to wait, I'm going South tomorrow!
I'm heading back to Arkansas, this time much lighter with only a bag on the seat, no panniers, 2 fishing poles, some TKC's mounted to better deal with the sloppy wet red clay, and a few other changes done to the bike.
I'll be solo for a few days, then meeting up with another ADV inmate on a NX 650... should be fun!
I said I wasn't done, so I'll finish this little story up when I get back next week!

Until next week!

I was invited but turned away since i ride an RT.

[duckdave]

The fishin' here is great. Shoudda been here yesterday!

OU812, u coming down with the Spring breakout group? I'll be camping at Tyler Bend (US-65) on the Buffalo that weekend; look for the Silver Bullet.

-duckdave
Little Rock, Ar

[HUNG]

some TKC's mounted to better deal with the sloppy wet red clay

looking to hear your commnet about this TKC tire as I want to put in my 650 !!

[OU812]

Originally Posted by duckdave

The fishin' here is great. Shoudda been here yesterday!

OU812, u coming down with the Spring breakout group? I'll be camping at Tyler Bend (US-65) on the Buffalo that weekend; look for the Silver Bullet.

-duckdave
Little Rock, Ar

Not this time Dave.

[MTNView]

Just finished reading your RR. A great way to spend sunday evening. Fantastic trip, great photos and story. It is nice to see someone just cut away all of the bullshit in life and just live in the moment. Thank-you for showing all of the rest of us how it is done.

[Lost Rider]

After leaving LA heading east towards Vegas, I planned to camp in Utah that night. I was kind of depressed to be heading east, knowing that the ride was almost over, and stressing about how I was going to pay my bills... Even though I was supposed to head straight back to Chicago I NEEDED to go ride around Moab so off I went.
I'll save the bandwidth and skip the slab and heavy traffic in Vegas photo's... boring...

Here's Valley of Fire












I close to Lake Mead, even though I was 65 miles from Vegas the lights still polluted the sky.











Good Morning!





I was happy to be in Utah finally even though the temps were dropping fast as I climbed into the mountains. Only days before I was sweating in 105º temps, now I was cold riding in the 20's and just fine with it.
























Avalanche area, no stopping!











It was cold, it was beautiful, and I was loving it!




































































After a full day of riding in the cold and with all these climate changes I was feeling like I had a fever, and slightly ill. When I rolled into Moab I got a hotel room, wanting to rest and feel better for the next few days of what should be the best DS ride of the trip...
BTW, Pasta Jay's restaurant in Moab pasta sucks and has terrible service...

The next day I did feel better and set out to ride in Canyon lands NP.

(lots of photo's of roads to follow..)

Once again showing my skill at climbing rock covered mountains




















I was to ride and camp on the White Rim, a 140 mile loop. Perfect.












Really?























It's hard to not make yourself look like a douchebag in self portraits...





















I stopped here for lunch, it was a perfect 55ºF. Life is good once again.






































More road photo's... really I'm just trying to entice the Sacramento Crew into going to Moab next year instead of DV, again....





















How about this for a campsite?





My tent was about 30 feet from this... what a view!

















Even though it was against the "rules" I gathered some firewood and made a fire ring, it was going to be around 30ºF tonight. Since I was about 70 miles from anything or anyone I wasn't too concerned...











The smell of this old desert wood was amazing, much different than anything else. Now this is camping/living!
It was so quiet, all I could hear was my own heart beat. No wind blowing through trees, no animals scurrying around, no cars or trucks in the distance, no planes flying over head. No nothing. Just the smell and sound of the fire, the taste of scotch, and my own thoughts.
The other noteable thing was there wasn't a single light in any direction. Even with all the places I had camped there was never a place where there wasn't a single light somewhere, be it a plane, or a ship on the horizon, or a ranch in the distance. Not one. I really felt like I was somewhere special, somewhere wild, like I was back in time.
I believe I had found something I had always been yearning for in Utah. Peace.



To top it all off I was reading a short story in the book Kevin had givin me; The Best American Travel Writing by Susan Orlean.
The story was called Lost in Space by Rick Bass.
It was a short story about The West, and I felt he had nailed the feeling I had at the moment on the head. I remember thinking I had to include this in my story since I'm not really any sort of good writer... Here's a exerpt from it.

[ The West ] It was, above all else, a deeply physical place. The heightened delight of the five senses engaged and nurtured a sixth sense, and rather than call it extrasensory perception or imagination, call it perhaps simply Spirit; and it was a spirit at times as robust and dramatic and at other times subdued or suspended as the amplitudes of the land itself. As if a new garden of Eden - or the first garden of Eden, as if that long-ago story had not been history but prophecy, and now, finally, we had arrived - we spilled out onto a landscape of geology of which was still so new that it was as if some gardener had just turned over the earth and stones with a spade and then stepped away for a moment, the new turned earth still so freshly made or dug that it had not yet begun to gray with aridity or oxidation, and was even still exuding that loamy scent of clarity, pungency, sharpness.
As human culture in the Deep South and East is stacked in vertical layers of time, like geological strata, perhaps the building blocks of the West, particularly today's West, the New West, are composed of chunks of physical space - basin and range, sunlight, boulder, forest, river, desert - possessing more of a horizontal breadth.



This night was the most enjoyable of my journey.
I slept well.

Sunrise






Trouble in paradise.
While packing up I noticed that my beloved month old BMW was leaking oil. I didn't feel like I should ignore it and stay in Utah for a much longer, even thought the levels were just fine.
I packed up, and set my GPS to take me to the nearest dealer in New Mexico. There was a dealer closer in Grand Junction, but a previous experience with what I believe to be the WORST BMW dealer in the counrty I wasn't going there.
I wasn't mad, or even sad, knowing I would be back here where things would be just as they had been for ages.
Maybe next time I would have someone to share it with too, I thought...




Even though I had a small oil leak, I still had many miles of this to ride on, and I didn't let the leak slow me down... only the challenging terrian would do that.


























What's a trip to Utah without one of these photo's?








Salt








I was slightly sad when I came to the end of the dirt...

































Taking some advice from Ara I rode through Valley of the Gods. It looked like the rest of Utah, beautiful but...
Honestly nothing struck me as it being special, and blasted throught it, not even stopping except to piss.... sorry Ara.





















I camped in Coranado SP outside of Alburquerque, it was cold and no fires allowed. Knowing I would get fucked with immediately I didn't push the rules....







I was at the dealer bright and early only to find out that they were closed! It was monday... I had called the dealer only to get a machine with no hours info, and their website was part of the BMW car dealer site and said they were open at 8 am. Hey Sandia BMW Motorcycles!

Being closed on Monday's is bullshit. Another dealer to add to my "No Business" list I will never go to again. Fuck em'. That makes 4 on the list.

Bummed out that I left Utah, rode 500 miles just to find a closed dealer I wasn't going to wait around for a day or give them my business so I just jumped on the slab and headed east. I guess I could have went to sana fe, but I was done going out of my way... Fixing the leak will have to wait, I'll just keep checking the level.






The tourance was wearing nicely even with my high speed slab runs and would get me home, hopefully...










This would be the tree right after the Texas welcome sign...







Oklahoma City was the goal for the day...






OK City wins the best sunset of the trip... though this crappy photo I took at 80 mph doesn't show it. The colors were stunning, with just the right amount of clouds.




It was cold and windy with not many choices to camp so I got another no tell motel... at least I felt my bike was safe in the lot...







A shot of tequila... cheers to Kevin!






What else would I eat while in OK? BBQ of course!





and a fried Twinkie!





AT the dealer the next day... hard to believe mine looked like this just a month ago...






OK BMW took great care of me and my bike, loaning me this awesome ride to go get lunch... I was openly laughed at by some construction workers when I pulled up at another BBQ joint with all my gear on...









They got me on my way in the late afternoon, I was going to get into Arkanasas today and rode well into the night to do so.








Finally I got the timing right! now if I can just get in it focus....







I camped somewhere, don't even remember really, must not have been too bad or to good...

The next day I set out, ready to ride some AR. fire roads and screw around for another day before I go home...





Stopping to air down... it was going to be sloppy...
















and here's where I finally broke the SHITTY, leaky, didn't ever close right, Vario cases...
















There had been a huge ice storm in AR. it looked like a giant had come through with a huge weed wacker and cut all the tops of tree's off.


























I think this guy took his Harley "american" thing pretty serious, what's not pictured is all the huge confederate flags...














































The last night....






It was windy...












I rode home the next day. I don't know what else to say but thank you to the people I met along the way, and to those who helped me, either by kind words here, or by email.

All I can think about is how to get enough money together to get back out there on my bike, enjoying FREEDOM!

Life is short, don't spend a day not doing what you dream to do!



































I went back to Arkansas last week, here's how I washed my bike...



Just Frikin' Ride It! from ChiTown on Vimeo.




HD Version

[DakotaKid]

Originally Posted by ChiTown

I camped on Lake Powell, even though I was 65 miles from Vegas the lights still polluted the sky.

Probably not Powell, maybe Lake Mead? Great RR

[Lost Rider]

Originally Posted by DakotaKid

Probably not Powell, maybe Lake Mead? Great RR

sure. some lake in the desert...

[IceCreamSoldier]

Absolutely fantastic stuff. Thanks for taking the time to put this out.