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entry 3: denver, colorado to coeur d'alene, idaho 09/25/05

We are finally on the road! After seven months of planning and anticipation we officially left Denver on Sept. 16 th. With all of our possessions now loaded the bikes have assumed the profiles of small motor-homes. We have learned the lesson of parking the bikes so you can ride out without one of us pushing the other backwards.

The coolest guy at the Palisades Wine Festival - Adam Web.

Our first stop was at Grand Junction, CO, to visit family and attend a wine festival, which was a great way to start out any trip. The route was all interstate (I-70) and the winds and big trucks convinced us to avoid big roads in the future. We spent three days with my niece and her family. Thanks Lisa and Ray! It was also good to see my sister Teresa and her family. We also had the joy of attending the christening of Adam Web - Ray and Lisa’s youngest child. Father Steve also did us the honor of blessing us as well as our bikes to help insure a safe trip.

We left Grand Junction on Monday and headed north along the Dinosaur Diamond Highway. Warm weather, sunshine and fantastic cliff views made the trip to Vernal, UT pass quickly. We spent the night in a small hotel and packed the bikes up the next morning for a ride that would take us through the Flaming Gorge area in southwestern Wyoming. The quick stop to get gas was also a quick reminder of just how heavy our bikes are. I went to put my bike up on the center-stand and after giving a tremendous jerk up I felt the bike slowly fall away from me…I now hold the dubious honor of the first one to “dump” their bike. No harm was done to the bike and the rest of the day went much better. Flaming Gorge offered an amazing array of colors and hillside diversity. Scrub Oak trees had turned a brilliant red with Aspen and pine trees adding gold and green. The reservoir was a turquoise blue and mirrored the surrounding hills perfectly. We spent Tuesday night in Evanston, WY, in another small motel.

The foliage colors through Logan Canyon in Utah were truly awe-inspiring.

The next day brought us through Logan Canyon in Utah. This was a great bike road with twists and turns and again the fall colors were outstanding! We arrived that night at my sister and brother-in-laws house in Nibley, UT. Thanks Cathy and DeVern for letting us stay! This stop allowed us to adjust our packing, do laundry and check the bikes over. The bikes have been running great. We are averaging 65 m.p.g. for both bikes and with the price of 87 octane running $3.06 to $3.15. We have covered 741 miles over the last six days. We seem to be on pace for our “stroll”.

Saturday, the 24th, put us on the road toward the Grand Tetons. The weather has turned slightly cooler…mid 50’s to 60 degrees, but the clouds are not threatening rain. The countryside was once again filled with rolling hills, now turned brown with autumn making its seasonal advance. We made what I consider our first traveling mistake. We had formed a pattern of spending nights with family, then motels and then more family. The motels just seemed to be in every town we happened to stop at for the night. Jackson, Wyoming broke that pattern. Our brother-in-law, DeVern, had warned us against going through Jackson, but because it is at the bottom of the Grand Teton National Park we thought it would be better to start the next day from there. We rolled in to town about 5 p.m. and quickly found out that everybody and their brother was attending the Festival Festival or some such thing. The town was packed! We were getting pretty frustrated and a little concerned that we wouldn’t be able to find a place to stay, but after a visit to the visitor bureau which resulted in a false lead, we turned a corner and spotted the only motel with a “vacancy” sign lit. Can you say RESERVATIONS?

The Tetons (which I believe means breasts in some language) were fantastic! Although the ride included rain and grapple (soft hail) the clouds just added to the majestic mountains appearance. Lush valleys, pine forests and slow winding roads made for a good ride. We continued northward taking the scenic route through Yellowstone National Park. With an obligatory stop at Old Faithful we exited west out of the park and spent the night in the town of West Yellowstone.

Awesome views in Teton National Park.

Monday, the 26th, we rode into Montana. This state proved to have more cows, mountains and sky than any other state I have ever been in. The weather was clear and in the sixties. We spent the night in Jackson Hot Springs, which although saw us sleeping in a four unit modular type building, it also had a lodge with the advertised hot springs pool, a full bar with a great bartender by the name of Gus, a superb chef who served us grilled quail and chicken Caesar salads in front of a big screen TV showing the Denver Broncos kicking butt on Monday Night Football. Definitely the best evening stay so far on the road!

We took a two day break from riding in Missoula, MT and did more laundry and generally slept and read books. We finished the week by riding in the rain all day on Friday, which filled our boots (yes, we do have boot covers, but…) and made us long for our weekend stop in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. We checked into the resort of the same name and immediately shed our riding gear and enjoyed a big steak and bottle of wine for dinner. We have put another 1004 miles on the bikes and all is well with them. More on city and resort of Coeur d’Alene in the next post.

Lynne’s thoughts –

Northwest USA – a bit gusty up here. I’ve determined how to tell the direction of the wind from the position of my eyeglasses. Direct head-wind – glasses become “one” with my face; cross-wind from either side – both eyes looking through one lens; up-slope wind – eyeglasses situated somewhere in the middle of my forehead.

Tetons - SO beautiful and worth the drive even in the cold weather

Yellowstone – still cold and full of great animal scenes – bison, elk, fox - and humans even crazier than us, fly-fishing in the middle of the streams.

Montana – more black cows than I’ve ever seen, rolls of hay scattered everywhere across the landscape (I thought they were wheat, but I stood corrected) and mountains on every side of you.