Everything is going great. We stop in Walden for Gas and decide Steamboat will be a good place to stop for lunch. So 14 ends and we get on Hwy 40 West towards Steamboat. The raingear stays on until the lunch stop.
So Hwy 40 into Utah, and Past Vernal.
Somewhere on Hwy 40 in Utah. We are looking for Duchesne and Hwy 191 for our next turn. The map I have also shows camping in Duchesne
Well, my son has more experience riding the S. But I want him to see what the big K bike is like too. So in Vernal when we stop for gas I let him ride the K bike.
No big deal, just a detail.
Where was I? Oh yes, Hwy 191.
Hwy 191 south out of Duchesne is a beautiful road. Nice little canyon. not too technical. It's 7:30 by now, still plenty of light but the road is mostly in the shade so no sun glare. Perfect. But here is where we deviate from the plan.
Since I have moved to Colorado most of my riding is solo. The friends I meet at the races still live in southern California, so we meet most of the way to Austin, or like in this case at the hotel we are staying in at the races. I am used to big mile days. I know my son is not. But I ask him at every stop how he is doing. Talk about the plan, and make adjustments as needed. The last adjustment was to forgo our planned end of night stop and push on one more towns to camp or failing that since it would then be getting too late find a hotel for the night.
So here we are, enjoying this great road. That is open range.
We see a few cows, but not many. I'm not going fast, I'm on the lookout for a place maybe we can stealth camp.
On the right is a dead cow. Dead a while, big, bloated, legs sticking straight out. I point it out to my son.
Not 400 yards later there are two calves on the side of the road, JUST off the road. As soon as I pass I know what is about to happen. One of the calves spooked, he jumped up. I looked in my rear view mirror as the cow bolted onto the highway straight in front of my son. There was nothing he could do. He did get on the brakes he tells me. But there was really no time.
His bike was black, the cow was black, as they merged I lost detail of what happened. All I knew was I could see a black blob down in the middle of the road.
My son was already up and walking around. I told him to sit down and take assessment. Was he hurt?
I went back to the bike. It was on it's side still running. I turned the key off.
Public service announcement. If in the next few months someone needs a K bike motor and they see a 2002 one for sale with 25,000 miles on it, be very warry. This one ran at least a minute with no oil pressure.
My son decided he wanted to sit, so he took the sleeping bag off my bike and set it down to sit on. I said if you want to sit we have chairs. So I got him a chair to sit on.
I took more pictures.
By now the cow is off the road and not moving any more. I don't know if it just died, or the two who moved it dispatched it.
Someone helped me right the bike, it's easily totaled. Do I need to list all that's broken??
Our vacation is over on the first day.
I'm just glad he is up and walking around.
But this is where the story starts to get a little surreal.
I get my phone out and text a friend at home. Can he go to my house and get my trailer and rescue us? YES (Thanks Ron)
I get a call. It's from the tow truck driver. He has heard the cops have been called. He can't just come out, but can I ask the cops to call his company? Yes I will. ???
The cop shows up. License, registration and insurance. Done.
Cop reports an ambulance is on the way.
I ask him to call X company for tow (Don't remember now), the cop says "Oh no. I can't call them. We used them on another call. I need to call Y."
Then the cop asks me if anyone has identified themselves as the owner of the cow. No. ??
He then goes to the cow and removes the ear tag, goes back to his car, and calls the owner of the cow.
I'm a bit upset here, the cop thinks getting in touch with the owner of the cow is more important than trying to asses the sceene and how my son is doing,
After this cop comes back. wrecker on the way, he will give my son a ride back to town. They will take us to the "Nice" hotel in town.
Ambulance shows up. The team go to asses my son. I talk to one on the side so I don't answer the assessment question so they can actually
see how my son is and not hear from me.
While the ambulance crew is assessing my son another truck stops (Now there is a cop car and an ambulance on scene as well as us)
and he asks how we are doing. The cop recognizes this person and asks him to pull to the shoulder.
While the team finishes the assessment on my son the cop cuffs and stuffs the guy driving the truck. ???
Ambulance people happy with my son's answers, they have put a wrap on his road rash, say he is 18 and he can refuse a ride to the hospital if he wants, he refuses the ride. They then ask me "You are his dad, do you want him to ride to the hospital?" What? His answer wasn't enough?
The wrecker shows. loads the bike. Cop now comes again. He has a copy of the accident report
(Printed from the printer in his car) and says "the wrecker will give your son a ride into town. I have to deal with this, long story"
So we get all the stuff off the road and head back to town.
So many things are running through my brain.
I call my friend and tell him what has happened. We won't be joining them for the races.
By the time we are in town it is 9:00.
By the time we are in town it is 9:00
Tow truck takes us to the "Nice" hotel. A studio 6. Well it is new.
I go get checked in.
My son empties all the stuff out of the tow truck. We get it and what is on the S into the hotel room.
I go back out to the tow truck drivers. He asks me what is happening next, where is the bike going? Drop it here.
He is shocked. I know he had visions of charging my insurance company at least a day or two of storage. But I inform him that
I already have a friend on the way with a trailer to take the bike back home.
There is a line of Harleys in the parking lot. We put the injured beast in line with them.
Driver has to come back in the morning, he can't process my credit card now. Fine. I'll be here. Not going anywhere soon.
We talk to the hotel clerk. Only thing left open now for dinner is Burger King (It's 10:00 now)
We eat, go back to the room. I post a bitch thread about the accident on a motorcycle board I am on.
My son and I talk about it a little bit. I ask details he can remember. He braked, but delayed a second. Tried to swerve, but no time.
Says he's been hit harder playing football (I guess the bike took all the force of the hit to the cow, he just hit the ground)
hurt his ankle because he tried to stand up while still sliding, that's the only thing that really hurts.
What we are both bummed about is now we are going to miss the races.
I get some replies to my thread. It starts me thinking. There were several good ones, but this one particular one sums it up best, "find nearest motorcycle dealer, pull out credit card, keep going."
I didn't sleep very well. Finally laid down at midnight, was up at 5 or 6. Took my computer to the lobby and did some reading. BMW dealer in Salt Lake has 2004 K 1200 RS 6500 bucks. A few other nice used bikes too.
I eat breakfast (provided by hotel) and text my friend Ron. I need to know when he will get here. I have already talked to the hotel and asked for a
late check out due to the circumstances. They agree. I just want to tell them what time. Ron's answer, 10 minutes. he drove most of the night.
Slept about 2 hours in his truck . (We both work rotating shifts. Are used to gong on no sleep sometimes)
So about 8:00 Ron pulls up, I get my son out of bed. Ron sacks out in our room for a few hours while my son eats breakfast and we talk a bit
about the situation. It is decided, if Ron is willing we will head to Salt Lake City and see if I can get a bike for us to continue the vacation on.
Next is just waiting for the clock to tick. When my insurance agent opens I call and report the accident. I am transferred to three people who all want a little bit of the story of what happened (Did your son have permission? Where were you going, home, work school? "California" Was he wearing his seat belt? "On a motorcycle?"). While I am talking to the last, an adjuster, the tow truck driver shows up to be paid. $294.00 for a 23 mile tow. Adjuster says that is ridiculous. unless it was something rural. Oh yes, it was rural. Find Hwy 40 and 191 on a map of Utah and go 23 miles south.
10 minutes after they open I call the BMW dealer in Salt Lake. The K RS is already sold, damn. But he has a few bikes. Will take pity on me for my tale of whoa (That's not the right whoa) and give me the best deal he can.
I'm killing time, and the Harley riders start coming out to get going. It's a group from Austria. They rented the bikes in Salt Lake and are heading back there to return the bikes today. end of two weeks on the road for them. then a couple of days at the hotel in Salt Lake and back home. Only a couple of the speak English, but my son's tale gets relayed, well wishes are given. They are off and I'm wondering what's next.
It's now 10:30 and Ron emerges from the Hotel room. I am surprised he is up so early, we had the room until at least noon and I was going to give him another
hour. But I know too, if you can't sleep, you can't sleep.
So I propose the big question to him. I know you've already given up a day off to help me. But would you be willing to drive the 120 miles to Salt Lake so
I can see if I can get another bike and finish this vacation? "Sure, I'll add 240 miles to my round trip just for you."
Great. Now we just have to load up the dented (dented? That's not really strong enough) bike and all the luggage and hit the road.
After we buy Ron lunch that is.
I have to stop here and say, one of the guys on the motorcycle board offered to let me rent his bike, I thought about it. The downside would be returning it and still needing to get my son, and all his stuff, home after a rental. So while I thank the guy for the offer, I decided it would be a purchase, or the ride would end here.
The drive/ride to Salt Lake is uneventful. I forget what time we got to the dealer. Harrison Eurosports, actually in Sandy Utah by the way.
I find Troy, the sales manager who I talked to on the phone. I had told him what I was looking for and what I was willing to pay.
So he took me around the dealership and showed me what he had.
The short list was really three, a Ducati Multistrada 1100 DS, a BMW R 1200 GS, and one of three Tiger 1050s they had.
For about 30 seconds I considered the brand new R 1200 RS they had. But it would need it's first service right as I got to California.
Could I get that done? how much more would it delay me? No. Used it has to be.
As Troy walked away to get keys I asked my son. Give me the answer you mean, not the one you think I want to hear.
How much do you want to continue this ride? Cause more than likely any bike I buy here I am just going to sell when we get home.
He really wants to go on. So on to test rides.
I still looked at each bike as if I was going to keep it. So the Ducati was out even before I rode it. The big K was my two up bike,
the Multi was too little for that. I rode the Tiger first, nice bike. I then rode the GS, well this one showed it's age.
It had 52,000 miles on it and it showed every one. By contrast my S is 4 years older, had 8,000 more miles and was in MUCH better shape.
OK, what's the real deal on the Tiger?
Internet said they were asking 6500 for it, Troy sold it to me for 5700.
I called my credit union, gave them the details, was told I would know in an hour or so. I told Troy,
"Look. My credit union won't say no. But even if they do I have enough open on my credit card to buy this bike.
Can we start transferring the stuff to the Tiger?" He agreed.
All this time Ron had been napping in his truck again. So I woke him up and we got all the bags and stuff and moved them into the
showroom with the empty bags off the Tiger and started making the transfer.
I wish I had thought to take a picture of that process. We had stuff strewn all over their lounge/showroom getting things organized.
It was a this time another decision was made. My son with his sore ankle, and now without a way to strap stuff on top of the new saddlebags
(Bungie buddies aren't going on Triumph side bags) and I lost the tank bag from the K. We are giving up on the camping aspect of the trip.
We get stuff organized and repacked. Then put what is going back home in the truck with Ron and finally send him on his way. BTW, the trip to Salt Lake only added 170 miles to his total because it was only 50 miles further to home from Salt Lake than Duchesne.
Finally we are on our way again, I -80 West to West Wendover Nevada.
When we hit the Salt Flats the wind kicked up something fierce. We had to reduce speed, it was pushing us sideways and kicking up a lot of salt reducing visibility. That didn't stop us from making a stop at the flats for a picture.
Not far from there to West Wendover, cheap hotels and cheap meals.
And the most expensive free drinks you will ever get. So that was our stop for the night.
Not many miles this day, but we are back on the road again..
who am I kidding? I have an 18 year old with me. We were lucky to get moving by 10:00.
Anyway, Hopefully all of the excitement behind us we are back to two lane running.
Hwy 93 crosses the old Pony Express trail.
Everything you see inside the station is painted on the windows, including the car up on the lift. I think it's kind of neat.
There were lower ones, but I wasn't going to stop at all of them just so I could keep the lowest one.
Hwy 93 crosses the old Pony Express trail, but 50 follows it.
This part of Nevada is not as flat as you may think. Not mountain passes,
but not straight as an arrow roads either. Nice little meandering roads. Keeping us interest. Seeing some nice views, the desert can be lovely. It just gets so dang hot sometimes.
As we continue West on 50, we wonder what the Navy is doing out here? There is a naval air station and bombing range out here. Not very close to water. Oh well.
We stop again in Fallon for gas and to discuss routing. We are still behind schedule so we decide to hop onto I-80 for the rest of the ride into Sacramento (Where we will spend the night). We also talk weather. While stopped it seems warm, but when moving temps are fine, weather on my phone says it is 91 degrees. Much cooler than I expect in Nevada in July.
West of Fallon on 50 starts to become a pain. Lots of small communities, traffic, lower speed limits. Not the best for trying top make time.
Guess I'll have to show my son that street in Carson city with three "Houses" on it some other time.
We stop at In N Out for the required Burger and Fries (I grew up in California. I don't know what my son's excuse is for the addiction)
Now, until this time my son has been riding in some tattered gear. But I know there is a big Cycle Gear in Sacramento, why we chose here for the stop.
Not up too early because they don't even open until 10:00
We find him some gear that will work. I take pictures of all the other gear for the insurance company and we leave it for
Cycle Gear to dispose of.
My son in his new duds.
I tell my son, this is not Colorado. We will see lots of people. If you stay to far behind me a car will jump in between us.
He does very well dealing with the traffic, and we some good stuff.
Lots of congestion down I-80 where they are doing some work.
680 is bad because San Jose.
101 is bas because, well 101.
At a gas stop I get a call from my insurance company, and I give them the details of the new bike. How do you want to get your proof of insurance card? They fax it to me to an agent in Salinas. I am now 100 miles away, it is 3 hours until they close. With traffic I am not sure I will make it.
We stop at the first exit in Salinas to get gas and look up the address for the insurance agent. It's only 1.3 miles from where we are. Good, cause the close in 15 minutes, and that's when they call me. I tell them where I am and that I'll be right over. I get my card, and we are off to the hotel.
We meet my friends for dinner. They get to hear all of the gory details. I admit I'm glad it was my son and not me, because if it had been me I would probably still be in the hospital. Being young does have it's advantages.
I am remembering something, while talking at dinner the subject came up of my son's gear. I don't remember exactly
what was said, but I do remember what I said about it. "Yea, I got him all the gear even though when I was young my dad never bought me my gear.
Then again my dad never went on a road ride with me either." I know what I was thinking when I said that.
I was wondering what would have happened to me, or my son, if the riding gear he was wearing at that time was the gear I wore at 18 years old.
I had a helmet and gloves, that was it. I didn't get a riding jacket until I was 21 years old. I didn't get boots until I was 30.
I waited until I was 48 to buy my first pair of riding pants.
It's not that I thought the stuff didn't work. I just thought I couldn't afford it. (So buy a cheaper bike and the right gear dumbass)
I was very lucky in my younger years. Yes at 17 a car turned left in front of me while I was riding a Honda XL 125. Sore muscles only,
helmet did save my noggin. When I was 31 I overbraked my skill level and went down, Jacket, boots and Helmet worked but I had a hell of a hole in my knee.
Besides dirt get offs this is all the damage I have suffered on the street. I am glad I saved my son from that part of the learning curve.
Next up is the races. I will have to go through those pictures and see what's good enough to post.
I am of course writing this long after it happened.
Friday I went to the dealer to pick up the K RS, I took it there for the repair estimate. They say the estimate they did doesn't even
really include everything and the total still comes to $12,838.35 and only 1050.00 of that is labor.
While I was at the dealer I test rode a new Tiger 800 XCX. They do a good job of hiding the fact that this bike has almost 20 less HP than the 1050.
And real enduro sized wheels. Oh yea, cruse control too. It would be a nice bike. A little on the spendy side especially after you add the bags.
I found another dealer that had a used Sprint 1050 for sale, a 2008. It was OK, bags are bigger than what's on the Tiger.
Not worth changing for that reason only.
Back to the ride report.
All I know is the hill above turn 2 was almost empty and there were not as many vendors who showed up for the lasr Moto GP race here.
Still more vendors than showed up for the Moto GP at Austin though. Wonder when that race will catch on with the vendors?
Also at Laguna, you are allowed to bring food and drink in. At Austin this year on Friday they gave my grief about the bag of almonds
I had in my back pack and warned me that Saturday and Sunday it would not be allowed in. Absolutely no outside food or drink allowed in.
I am surprised the didn't make me empty the bladder on my camelback.
We made our way to Fresno, then Hwy 41 to Yosemite National Park. I came in this way just so we could go through the tunnel and get this view
That was a mistake. It has been several years since I have been to Yosemite, and traffic is horrendous. It took us about an hour to get off the valley floor and start back up and out so we could get to Hwy 120 and the other side of the Sierras.
It is still a beautiful place to visit, I would just bypass visiting the valley floor itself unless you were going to camp there a day or two.
After going over the pass we hit Hwy 395 and headed South and spent the night in Mammoth Lakes.
Going sight seeing.
Yesterday was kind of sight seeing too. We could have gotten over the Sierras without going through Yosemite, but hey, the kid has never seen it.
Today will be reliving vacations from my youth.
Every year my dad would take the family (From Southern California) up Hwy 395 to Reno Nevada.
There he would spend a week Trap shooting at a very large event Harrahs used to hold. We went out to their auto museum a few times too
(Anyone know what happened to the museum?)
Then back down 395 and camp at either Bridgeport or Mammoth Lakes.
I gave my son the option, sight seeing, or another day on the road. A chance to see some more different country. He chose the sight seeing.
First stop is Devils Post Pile. With the increase in summer visitors the sign says you must take the shuttle bus down. But after having done that there is still a day use parking area down there. So being on bikes I would ride up to the ranger shack and see if they would let us through with just getting a day use pass. Cause between parking and getting on the bus, then riding the bus back it is over 3 hours to take what amounts to a 1 mile hike total.
Lava cooled just right to form the columns. It's not the only formation like this, but they are very rare.
Well, reading the sign I find out it really isn't an earthquake fault. All my years grown up I thought this was the San Andreas fault.
Now I find out it's just a fissure that opened up. Oh well. At least this stop didn't take 3 hours (More like three minutes)
As we drop below 6000 feet the temperatures start to rise.
At least the next stop hasn't lost any luster with time. In fact it has become a real stop.
When I was a kid, this was the only Marker at Manzanar
In 1995 people started holding Rememberances at this site. I guess the government took a clue and they built a real visitors center. They have also started re creating some of the buildings, and a guard tower.
The visitors center has hours, but there is a driving tour you can take at any time.
We finished the sight seeing up here and headed back north to stay in Bishop for the evening.
So many stickers have been placed you can't even read the sign any more.
Now, out here on 375 it is open range. as a matter of fact after my son's accident I told him the only time I have actually seen cows where there were open range signs was out here. And again it is true, there are cows out here.
Oddly enough when my son sees cows grazing, he slows down now. I think it may be a while before he is fully over the incident.
Yes you need to be mindful, but a cow isn't going to sprint 50 yards to get in front of you. Or if he does at least you would be
able to see that coming.
After Caliente we turn East on Hwy 319, which becomes Hwy 56 at the Utah border.
From here it is just a straight run into Cedar City and our hotel for the night.
So we hit Hwy 14 out of Cedar City, nice canyon road. Then it's up to Hwy 89 and heading North.
Ah Hwy 12. The whole reason for today.
Starts out plain enough.
But if you've been on this road you know it only gets better.
We stop for a shot above Boulder anyway.
Remember back in the beggining where I said we went over some general mapping? I do. Anyway the upshot of the whole thing is I laid out the route going on Memory and in actually looking at the map I obviously remembered WRONG. Heading out of Cedar City you don't head through a Park on the way to Hwy 12. You do that when you start in St George! I was thinking about heading through Zion National Park, then up Hwy 89 to Hwy 12. What a bone head. All the way out here, showing my son some great country and I missed a BIG one. So much for my memory. Guess we will have to hit that some other time. Hey, an excuse for a ride!!
Anyway Hwy 12 continues to provide some epic views. So we continue to ride and enjoy.
There is one spot where you are on top of a ridge, I have tried to catch the perspective with a camera, it doesn't work. Anyway the rest of the
world just falls away from you. It is great.
Hwy 12 rides up into some forested land. As we are up there, my son in the led this time a deer crosses right in front of him. What is he? A wildlife magnet??
He missed that by a mile, comparatively, but he does slow his pace and keeps a look out.
Time constraints now bring us to the point of having to head for home. Hwy 24 takes us north to Interstate 70 (Blah) There are still some great views along Hwy 24, just not very interesting riding.
After I-70 it's East to Grand Junction and our last hotel stop of the trip.
Short ride to home today. No hurry getting started.
In fact we take the opportunity to go look at Colorado Mesa University. My son was invited to football camp here so the coaches can get a better look at him. Camp is the week after we get home.
Hwy, excuse me, Interstate 70 east is nothing to write about. It's an interstate.
But when we get close we take Hwy 6 toward Golden and catch the peak to peak Hwy. That's Hwy 6 to Hwy 119 to Hwy 72, then for us Hwy 7 all the way in to Estes Park. Then it is just down Hwy 34 to Loveland and home.
I didn't take any pictures today, the Peak to peak is a day ride for me. I've done it several times.
Anyway, all in all a great trip. According to the odometer of the one bike that made the whole trip we did 3281 miles. I think we doubled my son's total street miles, and we had a great time to boot.
Hope you all enjoyed coming along with us.
