10,000 Miles and Some Very Nice People

I hit a big milestone today. I went passed the 10,000 mile point on my tour!!!!

As usual, I stopped to take a picture of what the road was like at this thousand mile point, but I thought it was time I included myself in the picture....

Having reached this point, I suspect I am going to do more than the 15,000 miles I previously predicted. Maybe more like 16,000 or maybe 17,000? Anyway, it felt good reaching the 10,000 mile point and it doesn’t feel like I have ridden that far.

In a comment on yesterdays posting on my blog FLHX Dave mentioned a very good road he knew that was close to Heber in Utah that went up to Mirror Lake, near to where I would be riding today. I changed my route so that I could ride the road he suggested and Oh Boy, am I pleased I did – the road was superb! It climbs up to over 10,000 feet and has some gorgeous bends. The views are spectacular too!

Here is a short video I took from part way up the road....



Thanks Dave – it was a great suggestion!

I soon reached Mirror Lake and the scenery was beautiful....

There was a lady painting a picture of the lake and I stopped and chatted to her for a while. Her name is Susette Gertsch, a retired school teacher who now has a new career as a painter. Although we only talked for a short while, I could tell that Susette and an interesting and very nice lady. She has made a “contract” with herself to paint 300 paintings in one year. Today she was painting number 294 and she invited me to contribute a few strokes on the painting, which I was glad to do. Her one year finishes at the end of August, so she has just a few more to paint in the next few days. She has painted all year round and has a special suit that allows her to paint in the cold weather. The lowest temperature Susette has painted at during the last year is 17F / -8C. Wow, that is cold.

I showed Susette the Leading Ladies and she was appreciative of the skill the painter of my bike had with an airbrush. Susette has sold some of her paintings and I am tempted to buy the one she was painting today. Maybe I will ask if it would be for sale.

Susette’s website and blog can be found here

Here is Susette at her work....

I had no idea just how much you have to bring with you when you paint....

Here you can see the view that Susette was capturing....

I hope that she was pleased with her painting today. I was certainly very pleased to have met her.

I continued riding and at the next lake saw people fishing. Now, if you had a whole lake to use like this....

Would you all cram together like this?....

I saw a field with tree’s that was very reminiscent of a scene I know in England....

Now I need some help from my US readers. I passed many wooden structures at the side of the road today that looked like this....

Can anyone tell me what they are for and what they do? I think it may have something to do with snow, but I am not sure. If it is snow related, and in some way they help to stop snow from getting on the road, who builds and pays for them?

I wanted to see the Flaming Gorge National Recreation area as my map told me two things. I would have to ride 60+ miles on an interstate (groan) and I would have to return to Wyoming to get there. I got to Green River in Wyoming and had a decision to make. I had been playing “dodge the rain” (I am now an expert at this sport) for the past two hours but it seemed a might just get rained on for the 3rd time on my tour if I carried on riding. I check at the local information center and realised I would be short of time if I tried to see the Gorge today, but I having seen the delights that Green River had to offer, I decided to press on anyway, hoping to find somewhere to stay that was better than at Green River.

Soon, the chances of me staying dry looked very slim as I was riding into this....

I even took a video of this strange weather....the quality is rubbish as I took it while riding with my point-and-shoot camera.....



Remarkably, I found somewhere to stay before I got rained on – the almost brand new R Hideout (website) at a place called Manila, in Utah, very close to the Gorge.

I was able to park my bike right outside my room....

I got chatting to the owners of the motel, Brent and Elaine Stewart who have had the dream of running such a place for a long time and who have been building the place for the last three years. It opened just this summer and I have to say it is one of the best motel type places I have stayed at. They have done a great job. This is them.... very nice people....

As it looked like rain, I moved my bike under the shelter of the overhanging roof and this then became the centre for the other guests to meet and talk....

From left to right, here are Deter and Monica from Germany, Candy and Gary from the USA, Rose and Bill, originally from the UK. We were comparing road stories, sharing a drink, which then led to sharing a meal. More nice people.

It was a day for meeting nice people!

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I Feel Like I am Being Watched....

For about 18 months, I used to work in Moscow for the Russian Government. I flew there on a Monday and came back on a Friday, every other week. I was working on the Governments preparations for the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi 2014.

While I was there, every now and again, I felt I was being watched and my phone was almost certainly being bugged. But you just accept that these things happen there and you just get on with it.

But, I had the feeling a couple of times yesterday that I was being watched again, over here. In the US. I can tell you, it felt very strange.

Yesterday I left Bear Lake in Idaho and immediately crossed the border into Utah, the 22nd state I have been in on this tour....

When I stopped to take the photo above, I had that feeling I was being watch. I looked around and this is what I saw....

Someone was watching.

I stopped a little further on and again I had that same feeling. I looked around. I was being watched!....

I put my fears behind me and rode on.

I hadn’t expected to be riding through a forest in Utah but I found myself in the Cache National Forest. There were rolling hills, good views and at one point, I was 8998 feet above sea level....

There were not many people around. I went passed a few guys working on the utilities alongside the road and even they stopped what they were doing and waved as I rode by. I did see cows and even a horse on the road – clearly folk around here need to take classes in fence maintenance!

I did spot something I have never seen before and to most of my readers this will probably be boring, but I have never before seen electricity pylons where the structures are made of wood....

I am holed up in Salt Lake City today, while my bike is being serviced. I cannot believe I have ridden 5000 miles since it was last serviced in Chicago!

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Harley Davidsons in Advertising

We recently were called on to supply 1o of our bikes to be part of the production of a television commercial for Hyundai. Utilizing Harley Davidson bikes to compliment a marketing strategy is something that we get called upon to assist with quite often. On this occasion the ad was part of Hyundia's in involvement in the FIFA World Cup. The ad was call Hyundai Booming.

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Did The Egyptians Get Inspiration From The Tetons?

It was cold enough to freeze the nuts off a brass monkey when I left Yellowstone. I togged up in all the warm gear I have and looked like I was ready to rob a bank....

Soon I crossed the Continental Divide, which for those like me that had never heard of this, it is a hydrological divide that separates the US and Canada into two halves. It essentially runs down the Rockies and rain that falls on the west side of the Continental Divide drains into the Pacific, while rain falling on the east side drains into the Atlantic / Gulf of Mexico. Anyway, it seemed like a good place to take a photo of the Leading Ladies....

I stopped and took one last look at Yellowstone....

Then rode a few miles and zap..... there were the Tetons. Right in front of me. These are a most impressive mountain range and this was almost my first view of them....

The shape of some of the peaks immediately made me think of pyramids.

They are so big, I wanted to find something in the foreground to put the mountains in context. Happily, along came a marina....

The Leading Ladies soon let me know (with the slightest of subtle hints of course) that they were a little put out that they hadn’t been chosen to be put in the foreground, so I had to put this right.... they were happy then....

Usually something big and made of steel or concrete gets my attention, as did the Jackson Lake Dam, which I stopped and took some pictures of. Just like a waterfall, there is something mesmerising about water passing through a dam especially if it makes a big whoosh!....

I arrived in Jackson and decided that I liked it enough to stay there. The motel was basic, but I had had the bedroom over the rather large hot tub and the plant and equipment for this was located right next to my room. I decided at 1130pm it was time they turned the blasted thing off, which to be fair, they did as soon as I asked. I wouldn’t have normally minded the noise so much, but I had decided to get up really early and go back to the Tetons to re-photograph them. The earlier pictures I had taken were a bit milky due to looking into the sun and I thought the early morning sun’s rays coming from the east would look good on the mountain.

So, the alarm went off at 5am. I had seen the weather forecast the evening before and 29F was expected. Jeepers it was cold riding the 26 miles needed to get to Jenny Lake, where I thought a good view could be found. It was dark as I started riding and I passed a few signs warning of the potential for animals in the road. Not this morning, please!

I set up next to the lake edge right next to a sign saying “Bears – special precautions needed”. As I blew into my hands to try to warm them, I wondered how far that blowing noise would travel in the perfect quiet of the landscape at this early hour. Hmmmn. What do they mean by special precautions? The only three I could think that I could do was to use the tripod to fend off a bear, climb a tree, or give it the candy bar I had in my pocket when I found I could no longer climb trees. Over the next 45 minutes or so, as I watched the sun rise and light up the mountains, I kept looking sideways for bears....

Yogi didn’t show up.

I consider myself to be a reasonably accomplished photographer, but that is all. When I looked back on the photos I took this morning I kept wondering what I had to do to become better. I want to be good enough that I am happy with my pictures, but today I wasn’t. Here are just two that I was pleased with out of the many I took....

Personally I blame the cold. Plus I worried about any potential Yogi’s that might have showed up.

After taking the photos I headed back to the motel in the cold, except it was even colder. I was riding into the wind in this direction. Even with my winter gloves on, it hurt my hands. I was going to take a few more pictures of the mountains from different places, but I didn’t want to because it felt my thumbs were about to fall off. I have lost a few things, especially keys, on this trip and I didn’t want to go back home without my thumbs....

However, I did ride through a town called Moose and thought of my step-daughter, Mishy Moo, who adores anything to do with moose (mooses?). Today she will go by the amended nickname of Mishy Moose! I don’t know why I haven’t thought of that before. Anyway, for her benefit, I took this picture....

Just outside Jackson is the National Museum of Wildlife Art. It was closed, so I couldn’t go in, but I love the building it is located in. This is a great example of how a building can fit into the environment. I read the design was inspired by a ruined castle in Scotland and I really like the building....

Jackson is a fun town. It is full of shops that cater for the many visitors that come to the area, but it isn’t at all tacky. Even the t-shirt shops have a good feel to them. Here are a few views of around the town square area....

A stagecoach you can go for a ride in (I resisted)....

An arch made from Elk antlers....

The sign for the Million Dollar Cowboy bar. Don’t bother going in as the service is dreadful and the seats (which are saddles) are really uncomfortable....

Main Street....

I couldn’t work out what this sign in the back window of a car was trying to tell me. There is no ocean in Wyoming, so I am at a loss to understand how one would surf....

I have been playing a game with people who look at the pictures on my bike. I tell them that if they can name all 10 of the actresses, then they will win a prize. Normally people get 3 or 4. One guy got 9 and this couple, George and Jeanne from Carmel, came very close. They also got 9 but were stumped when it came to the last picture on the rear fender. They were having to look under my luggage to properly see the picture and they said they knew who the 10th actress was, but just couldn’t remember her name. They gave me their phone number and said to come and see them in Carmel, which I will do if I can. By then, they may remember who the 10th actress is.... they were very nice people....

How about this for a piece of great work. This is a trailer being pulled by a Honda Gold Wing and the roof opens to allow storage of clothes etc... This is excellent!.....

As I headed south today, I rode alongside the Snake River, I saw many people white water rafting and I became jealous – it looked like great fun.... click on the first photo and take a closer look....

You know the nets you see on steep slopes at the side of the road to try to prevent rocks from falling down. Have you ever wondered how they fix them? Well, here is the answer, by abseiling up and down the slopes....

I have been in Wyoming for a long while now. Today as I got near to its southern border, the landscape changed to gentle rolling hills.... I have decided I like Wyoming....

Soon I was to enter yet another state. This time Idaho, the 21st state I have ridden in....

This is for my brother, Tim..... Geneva has gone a bit downhill since you left there!.....

I have stopped for the night next to Bear Lake. I rode past this house just before I found a hotel and I will try to go back there tomorrow to just ask one question. Why did they do this?......

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