First day on the road

This trip was conceived early this year as an alternative to another trip planned by my brother Rob and me, which was down the Baja peninsula: The Mid-Life Crisis Motorcycle Trip.  NoNo’s brother lives in Mazatlan and suggested to me that the Baja might have better weather later in the year or in the spring, so we decided to bail on that trip and postpone it till early next year. Whether that happens remans to be seen, though no doubt there will be something. (For those who do not know, the Mid-Life Crisis Motorcyle Trip is the culmination of 60 years of anticiapation on the part of my brother and his way to celebrate entering his “Golden Years”.  Somehow, I became a party to this, even though I am not entering my “Golden Years”.)

When that trip got postponed, we needed something to fill the void, ideally for September since we had already emotionally commited to taking the time off work at that time. I have always held a particular fascination for visiting Utah even though I didn`t really know anything about it other than my perceptions, which may yet prove to be all wrong. However, I did see Thelma and Louise, part of which was filmed in Utah and the scenery is stunning.

O.K., this is the True Confessions part of the blog: this past spring, I joked without end that I can`t wait for summer to be over so we could do this trip. To my friends, I offer my most sincere apologies because it may be my fault that the summer went so fast.

Now today, we are on the way. We got two of the bikes loaded last night and the other today.  In my usual fashion, I went to the office to finish up eight last minute things but only time for seven. I had planned to jet by noon and it was exactly one o`clock as I flew out the door.  Given that I have still one more thing to do, I will end up working at some point this weekend. Somehow, as much as computers have become critical in our lives, the convenience of a net book is not always a good thing.

We are on the road in anticipation of our first night, likely Fort MacLeod. We MUST be at the truck storage place in Idaho Falls not later than 10:00 p.m. Saturday night so I have warned everybody that we cannot party all night, drink to excess or carry on in an unfashionable manner. However, we ARE a bike gang after all and we do have an image to maintain, so we will just hold off on the bad attitude until we are actually on our steeds… and we will be able to strike terror into the hearts of townsfolk all over Utah.  (Mind you, in booking a motel room for Kanab, I indicated that we would be on bikes but that we were a BENEVOLENT bike gang and they didn`t need to worry too much.) The GPS unit is forecasting 13 hours travel time to Idaho Falls so we should be able to make it.

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So we made it to Lethbridge, though not without mishaps. But we have an early start tomorrow so that will be Saturday's story.