The next excellent adventure in the record books!

[Motoman_AZ]

It's taken awhile for me to get this posted... but here's the stats.....

1950 miles in 6 days.....
Covered only 3 states...
Bugs, bugs and more bugs...oh and birds....
Four rains storms.....
Numerous canyons......
Julian, Palomar and the beach all in one day....

Roundtrip map!

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My life this year has been one of extremes..... extreme joy, extreme tickets, extreme stress, extreme mileage! Last November my Triumph was stolen and I didn't get another bike until January 28, 2008.... (Extreme joy) it was nice to get back on a street bike.... in the months to follow my perfect driving record on a motorcycle (28 years without a ticket) netted me Excessive Speed, Speed in Excess of 100 mph, Failure to Obey a lawful order, failure to appear, and again excessive speed, jail and bike impounded.... (Extreme tickets and result Extreme STRESS!) As I wrapped up this trip I am now over 13000 miles on this bike in six months! (Extreme Mileage).

I was overdue for some inner reflection, soul searching and some wide open roads to enjoy on the Triumph.... I had a race coming up in Monticello UT and wanted to attend.... the thought of fueling my SuperDuty solo was daunting... I found a friend (Bob) that was starting an excellent adventure of his own to take my dirtbike and gear to UT so I could ride the Triumph....here I am the night before the trip with my stuff staged for Bob to pick up!

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I know those legs are white!!!:welcome-0005a:

With my gear stowed in Bob's trailer I went in to stage everything I would need for the street portion of the trip. Looking at the weather I finally went down to Cycle Gear and bought some Frogg Toggs rain gear. I looked at my back tire and knew I only had one more trip on those tires.... I would have to get them changed out when I returned to Phoenix...because the second half of this trip was to be of equal length....San Diego.... I had the oil/filter/coolant changed, pressures checked, chain lubed and on my way at 6am on Friday.....

My route was I-17 to Camp Verde....

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I continued on to Clint's Well looking at the ominious storm in the distant. I wondered if I should put on my new rain gear or take a chance. I filled up in Clint's well and shortly there after heading towards Winslow the heavens opened up! I highly recommend the Frogg Toggs...easy on and took the highway speeds no problem... and I never got wet! WooT!

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I continued north on 87 towards Winslow. The rain had quit but I was making good time so just left the rain gear on all the way to Winslow. Looking in my rear view mirror the sky was incredible dark and knew I got out of the mountains just in time for some nasty stuff! I arrived in sunny Winslow trying to find the Denny's I knew they had.....wahlah! Breakfast of champions!

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After stowing my rain gear and a full belly I headed into Navajo country... the roads were good, my sky was great....storms all around me! This is looking south at the storm I just came through....

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I continued making my way through the reservation. The scenery was absolutey breathtaking and took my through the painted desert and hills of northeast AZ..... my next stop was Canyon De Chelly! I ran out every finger of a road around the canyon taking pictures, hiking and trying to avoid the storms lurking in the distance!

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Playing with HDR!

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[Motoman_AZ]

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It started getting late and I wanted to make Monticello UT before dark... I got back on the road, met up with Hwy 191 and made my way through huge expanses of no-mans land. 191 took me through the edge of Monument Valley.....

I made it within an hour of Monticello into a town called Blanding. I refueled and went a grabbed a beer and threw it in my backpack.... I went about 15 minutes north and pulled down a dirt road and found me a rock to lay on...drink my one beer, take some pictures and RELAX before I had to set up camp.

This was my view from my rock!!!!

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Once rested I pulled out the chain lube and did some PM on the bike....I don't think I have ever seen this bike this nasty......

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Little did I know I was about to enter the mud fest of a road into the race track. Both feet down and 1" of buggar snot.... down a 1 mile road to the staging area.....

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Bob, Carl and Ken had already arrived and started making camp. I pulled out my tent and just when I got the rain fly on the heavens opened up again! This storm was violent!!! Wasn't much fun on top of hill with this going on!!!

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It stormed for two hours hard... the ground was a mess!!!! Once the rain let up John and Terry showed up and popped up their pop up! We were constantly scrapping mud off our boots going in and out of the tents and trailers.....after a few cervesas around the campfire everyone retired to get rested for the practice in the morning.

Bob greeted us early in the morning to a fantastic eggs, bacon and hashbrown breakfast.

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[Motoman_AZ]

Our camp....what a view!

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After that everyone spent their time tweaking on their bikes to get ready for the 1pm practice.

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After registration we all headed out onto the course.... It was a muddy, nasty, grueling, chaotic struggle to just get through one lap of the course! How the hell are we going to do multiple laps tomorrow! When we got back in our gear and bikes had an extra 150 lbs+ of mud on them! We were wore out! Here's Carl after the practice!

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and here's me (wore out) trying to get some weight off my bike before tomorrow's race!

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We took it easy all afternoon healing up for the next days race....Bob again fired up the kitchen and put together a fantastic dinner!

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Race morning we attended with Racers Meeting where they explained the track had dried tremendously over night and this was our day to ride like rock stars with the hardened berms and such! The start was dead engine with everyone in your class racing for that first turn! MotoStyle!!! My bike didn't start right away and was all alone as everyone raced off... finally got it started and put my head down and headed off.......

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Due to my boggled start I had to make up some ground...by turn three I had passed three bike, by the time I hit the single track I had passed 4 more....but missed the next corner and took the scenic route through some rough stuff.....back on the track I was after those four again, got past them and hit a tree in a corner and went down hard......got up in pain, shoulder, collarbone, and wrist....telling my self ride through the pain, ride through the pain, ride through the pain.. hey is that dust up there? Hehe and put my head down and got 6th place in my class and 25th overall.....not bad for starting in the back!!!!

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The course was epic! Had a great time.... we wrapped up camp and moved to the other side of the mountain to Foy Lake....went for a recreation ride to some vistas before dark!

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We spent Sunday afternoon and Monday morning enjoying the cool weather, cool canyons and awesome views!

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The moon was up early in the day.....

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So the story goes.... all good things must come to an end..... I said my goodbyes and started my trek back to Phoenix.... here's a shot leaving the campsite......

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Mexican Hat.....

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and a couple others as I made my way through Monument Valley!

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I drove straight back and finally had to stop for some dinner in Munds Park...gave me a needed break from the highway numbness.... I arrived home late evening to rest for the next leg of the journey to San Diego!

That'll be Part II of the excellent adventure!

p.s. All the pictures from the trip can be seen here Motoman's Madness (http://www.emotoman.com/bikes/monticello2) All 28 pages!

[Motoman_AZ]

Well, I slept in till 10:30 am on Tuesday.... washed all the mud off of the bike and went down to Kawasaki Superstore to see Steph.... She helped me out with putting the Dunlaps on the bike and cleaned and lubed the chain for the next half of the trip. I did a fantastic lunch with my fiance while the bike was getting worked on.... with the new tires on the bike I cruised home enjoying the new rubber.... I unpacked my backpack from the first half and reinventoried and added clean clothes....... I contacted Clint who was coming along for the ride to be sure he could make it......4:00am on Wednesday the 2nd half of the journey began!

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We took Bell road out to the Sun Valley Parkway and out to I-10. The weather was perfect in the morning on I-10 all the way to California... we stopped at McDonalds for some breakfast before the next leg of our journey.... Clint made a comment that my red bike looked white through his red screen.....Wow COOL!

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our next leg took us through the Imperial Sand Dunes.... on the way there you have to zigzag through all the farmer's fields.....white flies and yellow butterflies everywhere!!!

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we stopped at the Glamis store for a break and the skies were still overcast and the weather cool!

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We didn't make it very far before we pulled over and took some more pictures!

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The wind was blowing pretty hard... you can see the mini dunes starting around our tires in the short poser time! Here's a shot of Clint taking in the view!

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We continued on through Brawley and the Anza-Borrego state park and slowly made our way into the tree line.....enough was enough with the bugs!!!

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Once we made it into Julian we decided to head north up Hwy 79 to the famed Palomar Mountain. The road up the south side was a bit rough and uneven... but the views were spectacular. We stopped at Mother's Kitchen at the top and enjoyed some fresh apple pie and ice cream!

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We met a couple other guys that came up on their R1s... we swapped stories for awhile, realized we were all Marines...

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and then headed down the mountain (north side) with our new friends on point. This road is incredible!!!! 10 mph corkscrews! I have never been on a road that tight! Wow! Clint gave those guys a run for their money all the way down... I just took it easy and enjoyed the run!

[Motoman_AZ]

We made our way to I-15 and down into San Diego... still overcast and the smell of the ocean was a perfect ending to our 10 hour drive over! We got our flea back motel and went to put the beer in the frig and was met with this!!! :svengo:

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OMG we laughed so hard!! We decided to lighten our load and then head down to the beach. Lunch at the Pacific Beach bar ( Mahi Mahi and Lobster tacos! :uplaugh:) We took a stroll along Pacific Beach and checked out the break.

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This was a tribute to all who have served in the military!! Thanks guys and gals! And that seagull was fearless! :D

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We took a cruise along the coast enjoying the sunset!

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We ended up on Harbor Island looking over San Diego!

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Here you can see Coronado Bridge with the moon overhead!

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We turned in early that night... I think I wore Clint out on the trip over! I was still stressing about the morning when I would have to go to court for my arraignment...... I was cited on my last trip to San Diego for Excessive Speed, Speed in Excess of 100 mph and Failure to Obey a lawful order....all criminal.....needless to say I was guilty of 65 in 45 but not the rest.... I had an officer with an overactive imagination and hates sportbikes....even got forced off my bike at gun point....so needless to say I was freaking out about going to court the next day.....

Clint and I got up about 9 am...... S.S. and Shaved and at breakfast by 10... a quick Denny's meal and off to court. I arrived and they rescheduled me for 1:30.... so Clint and I took a walk down to the wharf....

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We walked back up to court...... met my public defender that really wasn't there to help, but talk me into a plea....I wanted to plea not guilty and had a strong case, but I would have had to come back to San Diego at least three times to go to court. They offered to reduce to Exhibition of Speed, 3 years probation, 800.00 in fines..... I asked the judge to suspend the fines as part of the probation...so she settled at $307 with $25 of that going to my Public Defender.....and then she lectured me about how dangerous racing on public streets was...... I WAS NOT F*&KING RACING!!! I wanted to scream that so bad.......but it was not the time nor the place.....

We hopped on the bikes and I didn't even change out of my dress clothes....I just wanted out of San Diego! Our next stop was back in Julian after some stress relieving roads through some of the most beautiful countryside! We paused for the cause here and Clint made a friend!

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We continued on trying to find gas....no luck... thank god most of the next part of the trip was downhill.... we spent the next 30 miles tucked and on reserved trying to make it into Westminster..... I ran out about 1/2 from the Shell station... I managed to coast most of the way......I have a 4.5 gallon tank...look how much it took!!! Yup I was out of gas!

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I went inside and changed into jeans and tshirt for the next part of the trip... through Brawley and Dunes and bugs!!! We made it to AZ right at dusk. We had thunderstorms teasing us in the distance... providing us with an incredible light show to help tick the miles away as we heading home... we stopped in Quartzsite to gas up and let some of the numbness go away in our arses! Clint calling the little lady to give her status of our whereabouts!

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I think i wore out Clint again! The rest of the ride was with a BMW and Cavaliar who was making good time... once home is was nice to sleep in my own bed with my girl!!!!!

I am glad to have the San Diego issue behind me... Utah was fantastic and wish I could have spent more time up there! The Triumph ran fantastic the whole time! Thank you Clint for your support on that leg of the journey!

Well...that's a wrap! :seeya:

Be sure to check out Motoman's Madness (http://www.emotoman.com/bikes/bikes.html) for all the pictures from the trip!

[ÜberDoober]

Holy Crikey! :ack2:

Man, you really do get around. What an awesome post and awesomer adventure!

Really sucks about your recent problems with Johnny Law. I hope everything works out for you and the long talks you've had with yourself have done some good? Thank you so much for sharing your story with us. The pictures are fabulous too.

[ÜberDoober]

I forgot to mention, I've had apple pie and ice cream Julian. Had a blast riding over in that area.

[Gary]

Nice photos! I'd love to ride from Zion to Moab some day - one of my favorite parts of the world.

[gonickygo]

Motoman... did you post this on advrider by chance?

[rush_law]

Nice ride report Motoman...I am stopping at Canyon De Chelly next year on the way to Colorado for sure! It's been quite a few years since I have been there and now that I see these pics I have to see it again. The HDR is looking great....thanks for posting!

[xtxn]

Greg,

Great photos and report as usual... I wish that I would have known about the Cali. tip so that I could have gone with you:( I want to do Palomar. That is going to be my next adventure.

Sounds like a good outcome with the San Diego Courts. Could have been worse.

Hope to see you tomorrow at Fox and the Hound.

[Motoman_AZ]

Motoman... did you post this on advrider by chance?

I am not a member on advirder......I will have to check it out! Thanks for all the kind words.....

Todd I will keep you in mind next time I go to California...but i got to tell ya...don't think I am going there for 3 years!!! :ack2: