Sometimes, you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, and sometimes, in the middle of nowhere, you find yourself.  – Unknown

 

On the morning of May 31 2017, Earl and I packed up the GSA and headed out on I-10 west. We had reservations to stay at The View in Monument Valley on the 2nd, so there was no time to stop and smell the roses.

It was foggy out, so I didn’t see the sunrise that morning. Just low hanging clouds almost kissing the river as we headed out-of-town. I-10 from Jacksonville to Tallahassee is nothing to write about; nothing but pine trees as far as the eye can see. The only thing keeping me from nodding off was my music blaring through my speakers inside my helmet. The day stayed overcast so at least we didn’t bake inside of our riding pants and jackets.

As soon as we got to Louisiana, we ran into a few showers and with that brings the inevitable traffic jam. Good thing the GS can go off-road! I don’t think a cruiser could make it across a muddied up median for an illegal u-turn!

From that point, we took backroads through Mississippi with hit and miss showers until we got to I-20. We kept on going, crossing the Mississippi River and back into Louisiana until we got to Marshall, Texas that day. That was a long day.

 

Brief sleep, then up and at em at 5am to get back on the road with a wet start to the day.

No sense in sitting in Dallas traffic, so we diverted north and went through Denton, stopping for lunch in Wichita Falls. To Amarillo from Wichita Falls is a giant wind farm.

After we crossed the border into New Mexico, a stop for gas and a quick check of the weather, we realized we were headed straight into a storm and decided to call it a day.  The storm passed over us in the night and cleared the next morning making for a beautiful sunrise.

The next morning was chilly. We stopped at a little tourist trap of a spot on Route 66 for breakfast, then off through more scenic landscape, crossing the continental divide.

By the time we made it to Albuquerque, it was starting to pour down rain again, but fortunately it didn’t last long. A few hours later we were in a world right out of a sci-fi western novel, complete with wild horses…

And otherworldly landscapes.

And before we knew it, we were right on the border of Arizona and Utah…and Monument Valley.

We only stayed one night in Monument Valley, but after 3 days of trucking it on the bike we felt we deserved a little sleep in time, so after waking to see the sunrise we went back to sleep and didn’t get up till 9am. Then we packed up and headed north.

 

Along 191 in Bluff, Utah we stopped for a late breakfast at a little place called Comb Ridge Bistro that deserves mention for their tasty blue corn pancakes.

We continued on 191 to 95 then into Fry Canyon and across the Colorado River.

We continued north on Utah Rt 95 to Hanksville, then took Rt 24 into Capital Reef National Park.

All the roads leading here are a sight to see, and no amount of photos will give you the true experience of seeing this wonder in person. So if you have the time and means, get out there and see it for yourself.

These are a few random photos from Scenic Drive in Capital Reef. We had intended on going back there while we were in Utah, but there was so much to see, we didn’t make it back that trip. I hope we’ll be able to get back out there someday to explore further.

After this, we made our way to our motel in Hatch, Utah that would be our home-base for the next 4 evenings.