The World According to Garmin

Rockport Reservoir. This reservoir was created exclusively for irrigation - no hydroelectric power. It seemed odd to me to build this big dam and get power for incremental more but not do it.

Once again, an amazing day. As a matter of policy, we have been avoiding the interstate highways because it is about the ride and not the destination. Motorcycle riding is busy in that the rider is watching the road for virtually every second; there is no time to sip coffee, send text messages, gawk at the scenery or quickly check a map.  Not that you would do any of those things while driving but you would be even LESS likely to do it on a motorbike.  Having a GPS allows the map reading to be done while the rider looks after the steering. 

Having the GPS monitor the route goes a long wayto facilitating the day's travels. We are looking for the out-of-the-way routes where there is little traffic, more twists in the road and the opportunity to slow down when we are inclined.We have had the good fortune to spend our time riding and not so much time looking for routes because we can tell the GPS thingy to pick the route that avoids the interstate highways. If we want, we can tell it to avoid gravel, traffic,ferries, toll roads, choose faster time, shorter distance or find ice cream.  But what we have found are the best, twisty, isolated, scenic routes that beg to be traveled but are  isolated and remote. We could not do this very easilywithout the GPS because we would have to spend countless hours pouring over maps, plotting each turn and measuring every distance and when you don't dare look down for a fraction of a second to check the map, it would mean a lot of stopping and checking. One thing that the GPS does poorly is identify WHERE to eat. Oh, it shows lots of places to eat, just not always what you might hope to find. So we have been riding for a few hours and we need food. NoNo and I happen to be in the lead (mainly because I have the GPS thingy) and we spot "home cooked food" on the sign. The GPS says 10 km more to food but here it is and calling to us and we
don't have to go 10 km.  We immediately pulled in. It is
a quaint diner, like something out of the 50s that was remodeled in the 90s. Still has a few counter stools, which look very inviting.  We have all had our fill of American Roadside Diner food but this is HOME COOKED food. NoNo and Les order chicken salad. It comes with a scone. The chicken on the salad is battered and deep fried and the scone is a DONUT but without the chocolate icing. It has just been deep fried, is hot and still dripping with grease. And get this: it is served with BUTTER. Nothing like choosing the healthy options.

Can you say "Mormon"?

After that lunch, we continued our ride down Hwy 89, a pretty good, narrow two lane highway. Despite that fact that we were getting tired, we deviated off 89 at Sigurd onto Hwy 24, then 62 which climbed to a high plateau through Sand Ledges Recreation Area, Koosharem and Otter Creek.  We saw hardly another vehicle through here and the scenery was fantastic - a huge, wide vista of high plains surrounded by low mountains. The road twists and is narrow with good, new pavement. Though it was difficult to understand the importance of this road because there wasn't much out there serviced by this road. There were a couple of tiny communities with mostly abandoned buildings but the scenery stunning. 

 

After riding 570 km today and 500 km yesterday, we are tired and anxious to arrive at Kanab. We ride into the final 100 km to a stunning welcome of sunset drenched, red moutains in just about all directions. Fantastic and amazing. It is a great way to end two hard days of riding.

We arrive at the Kanab Aiken Motel about 8:00 p.m. The Maiken Baiken Aiken. The Eastern Contingent have long since checked in and are out for dinner somewhere, at one of the three Kanab choices. We elect for dinner at the Rocking V, which is actually a little bit funky and dinner resembles nothing like what we have seen for the last several days. I have fish. Not in batter.

Les, in the diner at Marion. This is where we say donuts as "scones".

The soil near Kanab is very red, filled with iron oxide.