Grand Junction, CO

Home to Grand Junction, CO

Well, made it to Grand Junction, CO. I believe I found the absolute most boring way to get here, but time was important on the way out. I will take a more scenic route on the way back home. Total miles was 1164 over 2 days.

Friend Bill and I saw good weather all the way out here - perhaps a bit warm at times, maybe even hot once in a while. Mostly around low 90s with occasional trips north of 100. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to stay reasonably comfortable even when really hot. I wouldn't want to spend a lot of time at 100, but it didn't drain me, either. Stay hydrated - even more important when speed limits are 80mph! I have a Camelbak bladder that I put in a little cooler with a couple blocks of blue ice - it kept the water cool all day, at least until I had exhausted my 3 liter supply!

I had a couple route ideas in my head, and one of them was to the south where I would expect it to be hotter. It is the route I would rather ride, and my experience with the heat over the last few days convinced me it was the way to go. I may regret it Sunday, but that's the plan.

The trip wasn't all boring - the section from Provo, UT to interstate 70 on US-6 through Price, UT was very nice. I would ride that again.

Today's agenda is pretty limited. We have a rally tech inspection for our bikes this morning, a short ride to verify odometer readings and then a dinner and rider meeting this evening. The rally starts at 6am Saturday morning - follow along if you want to see the craziness!

A few have asked about the odometer check and why we do it. This rally has both a minimum number of miles required for finisher status (1150) and a tie-breaker based on miles ridden, and motorcycle odometers are historically inaccurate (in the generous direction), so the rally master has elected to compute the error and apply a correction factor to each rider's final odometer reading.

Sunset in Twin Falls, ID Tuesday evening. Smoke or dust? Not sure.

You have to be prepared for road construction when you travel during the summer. It wasn't too bad.

Road construction does remove our air conditioning, though :(

My first time riding in Colorado! Had to stop.

Our scenery for the last couple of hours of the ride. We rode between rain showers all afternoon without seeing a single drop fall on us :)

Same state line, selfie time.